Buying a Franchise is a good way to start your first small business, although it all depends on the franchise. Some can be work from home ideas and ideal for people that have been the victims of the current worldwide economic situation. If you have recently been made redundant, and have had a reasonable redundancy settlement, then you might be well advised to invest that in a decent franchise.

The reason is that a well-chosen franchise can provide you with a good income for the rest of your life. Here are some other benefits:

1. You will no longer be relying upon unemployment benefit or social security for an income as your redundancy payment slowly gets frittered away.

2. You will have a purpose in life - there is nothing worse than a healthy person having no work and lounging around the house all day. You could do charity work, but that is no substitute for somebody who has earned and paid for their own living expenses throughout their working life.

3. If you are reaching retirement age, you need not retire if you don't want to. Many people are still young and healthy at retirement age, male or female, and regret having nothing to do when they do eventually retire!

4. You will have a business to pass on to your family if you have one. A franchise can be passed from father to son; mother to daughter. Sometimes your partner can carry the business on after you have gone. It's not something people like to discuss, but it is important that your nearest and dearest are able to maintain an income should the worst happen.

These are all compelling reasons for making the effort to start your own small business. However, why a franchise as opposed to any other kind of business? There are a number of reasons for that, including:

A. You do not have the problem of finding a product to sell or a service to provide.

B. Most franchises have a ready-made product that is already branded and known to the public. There should be no need for you to bust a gut to get your business name known.

C. Many franchises offer local or even national advertising; you will generally have to pay a share of the cost, but the thing is you don't bear the whole advertising cost yourself as you would have to do if you started your own independent business. The cost is shared by everyone in the same franchise network.

D. Training is provided. You are not just left to get on with it, as you would have to if you started up a regular business. Even after training ends, you still have people to advice you as you start running your business.

There are some aspects of franchising, however, that you must be aware of before committing yourself. Among these is the contract and the details of who pays for what, and what your own expenses will be. What exactly is your share of advertising costs, for example? What protection do you have over price increases in your raw materials in the future, and what independence do you have in sourcing raw materials?

Are the product prices set in stone? Can you reduce your prices if you are trading in a poorer area and what special offers are you enabled to apply? These and many other questions have to be answered before you sign the dotted line.

However, once you have an agreement, a franchise can be a gold mine if you are permitted to use your own business skills and acumen, and advertise locally in your own way, both online and offline. Are you permitted to have your own website, and what marketing freedom do you have?

Make sure before you sign any agreement that the terms and conditions are fair and acceptable to you. Most will be fair but be careful of new franchises that have appeared in the current recession in an attempt to fleece you of your hard-earned redundancy money.

There are many established franchises that will treat you fairly and offer you a great opportunity to run your own successful business.