When you consider buying into a franchise the main ingredient that will insure your success is identifying and understanding your customer base. Most franchise businesses will offer realistic projections of potential customers, but there are some that present misleading information that may make the opportunity appear more destined for success than it can possibly achieve.

To better relate to the business and the potential for customers, relate it to many of the online dating services. Seriously, not that this is the suggested business, but it can give a better understanding about how to calculate the available customer base for nearly any type of business venture.

First, consider some of the largest services that claim they boast a membership base of 20 million, just for the sake of round numbers. The site has a policy that while these 20 million are registered members, unless they pay for their membership they cannot contact other members nor can they be contacted. Currently, most dating services boast about a 30 percent paid membership so that 20 million member list is cut down to six million paid members that you can contact or who can contact you.

Lets presume that half of these members are of the same sex as you are, dropping the potential members that would want to meet you to three million. Still, that seems like a large number of possibilities, provided you are willing to travel around the globe for a date. Since only about 40 percent of dating service members reside in the United States, that eliminates another 1.8 million members, leaving you with only 1.2 million members of the opposite sex spread out around the country.

If these 1.2 million members are evenly divided among the 50 states, that means there are 24,000 possible dates in your home state, provided if age means nothing to you. Their personal profiles will eliminate many more and how they perceive your profile will put many more out of the picture, and when considering how far you and them are willing to travel for a date, it is a very real possibility that out of that 20 million membership base there are only a dozen or less potential dates living within 50 miles of your home town, makes the prospect of finding true romance more in perspective.

Before buying into the hype of a franchise business you will want to completely analyze the size and potential of your potential customer base to determine if it has the potential to create enough business to sustain your lifestyle. Consider the age and gender of the potential customers and compare it to the demographics of your town. You may find there is plenty of business to go around, or you may find you will be the only interested customer on the block.

Before you mortgage the homestead and sign the franchise lease is the time to conduct your research. Do not let buying a franchise be controlled by your desire to get into business for yourself. Make the decision based on the business that is the best for you to get into.