? Expanding your business by opening more outlets yourself. This option has the advantage of letting you keep all the profits generated by these additional outlets and also allows you to retain complete control of the business. The disadvantages to this strategy are that you'd have to invest all the capital required to grow the additional outlets yourself and you'd have to find employees who would run the other units for you while you run the original business. These are difficult challenges for many business owners, and this approach often results in slow growth because of these factors.

? Expanding your business by franchising the concept. This alternative has the advantage of potentially creating more rapid growth for your brand and also allows you a fair amount of control over the operating system used by the additional outlets that are opened. The disadvantages of franchising your business are the costs and risks associated with getting this type of venture set up properly. There are numerous legal and regulatory hurdles to franchising, and you have to set up a support structure (including staff) before you ever begin seeing any revenue from these activities. There's also the risk of not being able to recruit new franchisees for your system after you go through the expense of setting up a franchise company.

? Expanding your business by offering a business opportunity so others can set up an operation comparable to yours. This is often an intriguing choice for an entrepreneur because it has the potential advantage of rapid and profitable expansion without most of the risks and costs associated with franchising.

For this article, we'll focus on the option of offering a business opportunity. And in this context, we're not talking about a multilevel marketing business but rather a more traditional approach to the business opportunity option.

First off, it's important to understand the legal differences between a franchise and a business opportunity--there are laws and regulations that govern the activities of someone using either strategy to grow a business. It's important to know--at least in general terms--what these laws are so you don't inadvertently cross a line and become subject to costs and regulations you don't want to have to pay or adhere to. As a general rule, a franchise structure is more highly regulated than a business opportunity, but most states have business opportunity statutes as well.

A franchise requires that a new franchisee pay an initial cost or fee to get involved; it has some form of obligated ongoing payment required (usually in exchange for a commitment to provide ongoing services), and has a common brand or brands used in the operation of the business. If you eliminate one or more of these characteristics, you're generally considered to be operating a traditional business opportunity rather than a franchise.