Any individual that has started up a business on his or her own can attest to the difficulties of getting one's name out in public and attracting customers. This is true regardless of whether the new business is a restaurant, a shoe store, or any other form of commercial endeavor. Because of this difficulty and the competition with known entities in whatever field, many small businesses don't make. Fortunately for franchise owners, the difficulty of beating out the chains is mitigated by virtue of owning a franchise.

Quite possibly the most important advantage of owning a franchise is the name recognition. The established name recognition of a franchise provides a lot of instant business to any chain. Franchise names are trusted and are known entities, thereby increasing the number of people who will give the restaurant or new location a shot because they recognize the name and feel it is "safe."

Another benefit of franchises is that they have the support of an entire huge business behind them. When a small business is linked to a big business, there is a high probability that the small business will do well because of the support of the established big business. The same thing applies here. The small business is the individual franchise owner and the big business tie is to the large corporation.

In addition, franchises have the advantage of not having to handle marketing of their restaurant or location on their own. The majority of franchises have national ad and marketing campaigns or at least regional campaigns to support their franchises. An advantage here is that the franchisee doesn't have to go through the direct expense of buying the ad time on TV, printing up the individual flyers for newspapers and mailboxes, or any of the hassles of marketing his or her own business. The corporate office will most likely do all of that for the individual as part of the franchise fee.

Purchasing power is a huge additional benefit. The main corporation will generally make all of the contracts for production and then sell the items or supplies to the individual franchises. This again reduces the efforts of the franchisee while still ensuring that a supply will make it to the franchise. Supplies, equipment, toys, food, or anything that the franchise needs can generally be purchased through the franchise corporation as opposed to the franchise negotiating on an individual level with each supplier.