Don’t just hope for the best – managing expectations to achieve the desired outcome is essential.

Research by the Franchise Advisory Centre, writes Jason Gehrke, indicates there are several key motivating factors for the decision to buy a franchise. While most of these factors will be present for different people’s decisions, the relative importance given to each of these will vary according to the individual, resulting in unique combinations which might arrive at the same destination but take different paths to get there.

These key decision making factors are lifestyle, brand security, self direction, income, skills development.

Lifestyle: By far the greatest factor in the decision to buy a franchise – weighted at 33 percent – is the perception that franchising will provide an improved lifestyle. Rarely will two people agree on what lifestyle actually is, yet it seems to be something that the overwhelming majority of new franchisees and small business owners value and want.

What lifestyle is or should be will vary according to individual circumstances, such as age, gender, likes, dislikes, hobbies, sporting interests, family, friends and so on. Lifestyle for some people might involve playing lots of golf, while for others it may mean spending more time with their children. For others, it might mean less stress in their working life so that they are able to enjoy their home life more, even though their working hours may not change.

Lifestyle is often considered to be synonymous with leisure. In other words, a good quality lifestyle may be one that involves lots of leisure time or activities. Many franchises are even promoted on the basis that operators will enjoy a good lifestyle, with the inference being that they will have more time, income or both to pursue their leisure activities.

Lifestyle for most people is not seen as work, but rather the outcome from work. Even though the nature of the work itself may provide lifestyle benefits (eg. travel, social interaction, outdoor activity, etc) these may not be the same leisure benefits sought by a buyer (eg. greater time for family, hobbies, etc).

Despite its role as the greatest factor in the decision to buy a franchise, the concept of lifestyle is also dependent on many non-business factors. It does not automatically follow that buying a franchise (or any other type of business) will result in an improved lifestyle.

Additionally, lifestyle needs change over time. For example, people who choose a certain type of business in the hope of being able to spend more time with their children may find the business no longer suits this need if the children have grown up.