成为一个特许经营百万富翁

Jeff Elgin: Buying a Franchise

杰夫·埃尔金：购买特许经营权

Be a Millionaire Franchisee

How to build your franchise into a big business
如何将你的特许经营业务变成一家大公司

By Jeff Elgin   |   February 20, 2008
杰夫·埃尔金|2008年2月20日

http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/buyingafranchise/franchisecolumnistjeffelgin/article190578.html

You want a franchise business, but not just any old thing--you want something big time. We're talking about a multimillion-dollar enterprise. So how do you go about accomplishing that goal?
假如你想拥有一家特许经营公司，当然不是那些老一套的东西，而是第一流的特许经营公司。我们说的是百万元级别的公司。那么你怎么着手实现这个目标呢？

The easiest way to do this is to simply start at that level. Buy yourself a multimillion-dollar operation from the get-go, and you've already arrived. Of course, the challenge with this approach is that most people don't have the capital available to purchase such an operation or the experience to run it effectively once they buy it.
最简单的办法就是刚起步时就拥有一家百万美元的公司。刚起步就买一个百万级别的公司，你就可以达到目标了。当然，这么做的挑战在于大多数人没有那么多的资金购买这样的公司，或者即便买得起也缺乏公司运营经验。

For most of us, if we want to "hit the big time," we're going to need to grow to that point rather than start there. It may take a little longer that way, but the advantage is that you'll have learned everything you need to know to run the big operation along the way. You'll also have built a huge equity stake that belongs to you, because you created it with your own sweat and perseverance.
对大多数人来说，如果我们想“做到一流”，我们需要逐步实现这个目标，而不是刚开始就可以做到。或许这么做的话需要的时间要长一些，但是好处是你可以在这个工程中学到经营大公司的一切知识。你还将获得大把的股份，因为这是用你的汗水和不懈努力换来的。

You can use a number of different strategies in this building process. First you have to decide what type of franchise business model you want to be involved with. Most franchises fall into either the "owner-operator" or the "executive" model of business. In the former, the assumption is that the owner will work full time in the business, managing an individual unit and/or delivering the product or service to the customer. In the executive model, the assumption is that the owner will hire a manager to fulfill these tasks at the individual unit level.
在这个过程中你可以采取不同的办法。首先你要确定你想从事什么类型的特许经营。大多数特许经营可以分为两类：业主经营模式和经理模式。前一种模式假定业主全天工作，负责独立分店业务，亲自提供产品和服务。在经理模式中，假定业主雇佣一名经理人员负责独立分店业务。

To build a really big owner-operator business, you'll need to make sure the concept you're starting with has the potential to grow a single operation to this level. If it's a territory-based service business, for example, you need to know that the territory has sufficient population to support a multimillion-dollar volume of sales. Even though, in this circumstance, you're focused on an owner-operated business, you should be aware that most owners who grow such an operation to this size end up adding more layers of management into their business over time to help deal with all the volume.
要想建立大型业主经营式公司，你需要保证你的计划可以将单一业务发展到百万元级别的公司。比如，如果你打算开一家区域性服务公司，你要了解这个区域是不是有足够的人口来支撑百万元级别的销售额。在这种情况下，即便是你在集中精力运营一家业主经营式公司，你也应该清楚，大多数百万元级别公司的业主最后都不得不增加管理人员层数，来帮助处理业务量。

The more common form of business model for franchisees wanting to build a huge business is the executive version. In this situation, you'll probably build a number of units that operate independently of one another to deliver product or services to the customers, each managed by different people who report to an executive up the organizational chart (probably you, at least in the early stages of growth).
大多数大型特许经营公司通常采用经理模式。这种情况下，你可能需要建立不同的独立分店来提供产品和服务，每个独立分店由不同的人管理，并向上级汇报业务（可能你就是上级，最起码刚起步时是这样的）。

The advantage of the owner-operator model is that it's usually easier for you to exert greater personal control over the operation of the business while it's growing, and it almost always requires significantly less capital to grow the business big, though the process may be slow. The advantage of the executive model is that it's specifically designed to grow big, and it usually does so much more rapidly than an owner-operator model, though it may require more capital.
业主经营模式的优点在于在业务增长过程中你可以施加更多的个人影响，而且扩大业务需要增加的投入也非常少，其缺点是周期有些长。经理模式的优点在于该模式通常是为了大型公司而设计，并且比业主经营模式发展更快，其缺点是可能需要更多的资金。

Either of these models can provide you with the opportunity to potentially build your business over time into a very large operation, but the path will be different depending on which one you select. The tradeoff between these two strategies often comes down to a simple question of time versus money--which is the critical path for you in terms of reaching "big" status.
这两种模式都能让你把公司做大，但是选择模式不同操作方法也不同。两种模式的权衡通常可以归结为一个简单的资金和时间的问题，也就是说为了实现目标，哪种模式更适合你。

Though it might sound obvious, another very significant consideration if your goal is to build a huge business is the typical amount of profit produced by the business. The fact is that most people who decide to grow a huge business rather than just buying one immediately make that decision because they don't have enough money to buy it now. That means they must depend on the business to generate profits, in excess of what they need to live on, in order to fund their expansion.
如果你的目标是发展成大公司，另外一个显而易见但非常重要的问题就是公司的利润。实际情况是，大部分决定亲自创建而不是立刻购买一个大型特许经营公司的原因就是他们现在买不起。也就是说他们依靠公司产生利润用于业务扩张，而不是仅能糊口。

Many franchises are designed to provide a very nice income to the franchisee, commensurate with the level of capital and time commitment the franchisee invests in the business. Nothing wrong with that--a trillion-dollar industry has been built mostly on that premise!
大多数特许经营公司都会根据特许经营商的资金和时间投入向特许经销商提供非常丰厚的收入。这没什么问题，在这个前提之下大约已经形成了一个万亿级的行业。

The challenge is, if you want to build something really big, you'll probably need a business that both supports you and provides additional capital to grow. Those types of businesses exist, but they aren't common, and you need to conduct a careful analysis to make sure any business you contemplate has the ability to get you where you need to go within the time frame you're willing to allow.
挑战在于如果你想建立大型特许经营公司，你的公司必须能提供满足你的生活以及业务增长的资金。这样的公司虽然存在但并不普遍，并且你需要进行仔细的分析，确保你的公司有能力帮你在你希望的时间内完成目标。

Start by figuring out how much capital you have to work with, how much you need to support your lifestyle while you're building your business and how long of a time frame you're willing to allow for the business to be built. Now you have the parameters to determine whether a concept can meet your goals.
从一开始你就要弄清你学要投入多少资金，在建立公司的同时你需要多少资金维持自己的生活，你愿意花多少时间建成公司。现在你就可以根据这些参数来确定一个计划能否实现你的目标了。

For example, let's assume you're evaluating an executive model business. Each unit costs $100,000 to open, has average revenue of $300,000 and makes $50,000 per year in profit. Your research shows that aggressive franchisees can open one new unit every six months, assuming they have the necessary capital. Your goal is to build a business that generates $1 million per year in profits, which will require opening 20 total units. Is this business the right one for you to meet your goals? The answer depends on your resources, needs and goals.
比如，我们假设你打算采用经理模式。每家分店需要10万美元启动，平均收入30万美元，每年利润为5万美元。你的调查显示，在有足够资金的情况下勇敢的经销商每六个月会开一家新店。你的目标是建立一家年利润100万美元的公司，总共需要20家分店。这样的公司可以实现你的目标么？答案取决于你的资源，需要，和目标。

If you have a total of $500,000 in capital to invest, need to take no more than $50,000 per year out of the business for lifestyle support during the first three years and want to build a business to the point of making $1 million a year within 10 years … you're all set with this business! If, on the other hand, you only have $200,000 to invest and need to take out $100,000 per year to support your lifestyle, you're never going to grow this business beyond two units.
如果你有50万美元用来投资，前三年每年的生活费用不超过5万美元，并且打算在十年之内做到年利润100万美元···这个公司完全适合你！另一方面，如果你只有20万美元的资金，每年需要10万美元的生活费，你的公司分店数量永远也不可能超过两家。

There are lots of great franchise businesses that can be used as a platform for building a very large and successful multimillion-dollar business. If this is your goal, the secret to finding the right one for you is to take the time to understand what you have to work with in terms of your resources, what you want to accomplish in terms of your goals and what you need the business to contribute to meet your goals. Then you can determine whether a specific franchise is the vehicle you can use to reach the destination you seek. Good luck on the journey!
还有很多其他的特许经营业务可以作为建立大型的、成功的百万元级公司。如果你打算建立大型特许经营公司，找到适合自己的业务的秘密就是了解你的资源，你想要达到的目标，以及为了完成目标你的公司需要做出的贡献。然后你就可以确定你是否可以利用这种特许经营实现你的目标。祝你一路好运！

Jeff Elgin is the "Buying a Franchise" coach at Entrepreneur.com and has 25 years of experience in franchising, both as a franchisee and a senior franchise company executive. He's currently the CEO of FranChoice Inc., a company that provides free consulting to consumers looking for a franchise that best matches their needs.
杰夫·埃尔金是Entrepreneur.com的“购买特许经营“教练，拥有25年特许经营从业经验，做过特许经营商和特许经营公司经理。他现在是FranChoice公司总裁，该公司向寻找最佳特许经营的顾客提供免费咨询服务。