The franchise industry is famous for its fast food, printing & coffee franchise opportunities. These businesses are well known for the quality of their output and reasonable prices. Some of the earliest entrants to the franchise market include well know companies like McDonalds & Wimpy.

Now, some new businesses have entered the market place. You have house hold repair franchises, fence building & maintenance, off licences and stores that help you facilitate your online sales. You can even buy a franchise opportunity which involves killing bed bugs!

Some of the new entrants in the market place cater for busy couples and single people, who do not have the time to take care of normal household duties.

You have domestic cleaning franchises which are ideal if both partners are working. You dictate how many hours' help you need and based on this and the size of your house you get a quote. In many cases you end up paying slightly more than if you had advertised for the cleaner your self, but then you have no fall back if things go wrong. If your regular cleaner is not well, then the domestic franchise will send out a replacement!

You also have franchises which find you the right tradesman for any urgent repairs. You call one central number and they will provide you with the right tradesman for the job. They are exceptionally good when it comes to the jobs that require more then 1 tradesman. Not only do they organise all the tradesman required, they also make sure that they come in the right order!

What are the future trends in Franchising? Almost any business that you can think of can be run as a franchise opportunity. If the business process is easy to duplicate, easily taught and profitable, then it can be franchised out. The kinds of businesses that are hard to franchise out are where specialised knowledge is required.

With the recent explosion in technology, faster internet speeds and much cheaper computers, I believe that this is the field where we sill see new franchises coming to the marketplace. You are already seeing businesses that provide a local search portal on the internet, offering franchises.

Another growth area will be in education. You now have advanced software that can help you to educate your children and even adults. Franchise businesses that can cater for providing quality education whether it is via the web or by preloaded software; the market is huge!

According to a recent NatWest/BFA survey over 90% of franchise businesses are trading profitably. Over 80% of franchisees are happy with their current franchisor.

If you are interested in buying a franchise business, make sure you have professional advice. It is very important to check that the franchise agreement protects your rights and clearly sets out the obligations of the franchisor.