After 15 years in the corporate world, you’re ready to strike out on your own. Rather than building a business from the ground up, however, you think that buying a franchise is a better idea. Unfortunately, some of the most lucrative franchise opportunities, such as the major fast-food chains, require significant start-up costs—some more than a half-million dollars. Fortunately, you’ve met several potential investors who seem willing to help you get started in exchange for a share of ownership. Between your own savings and money from these investors, you estimate that you can raise from $350,000 to $600,000, depending on how much ownership share you want to concede to the investors.

You’ve worked in several functional areas already, including sales and manufacturing, so you have a fairly well-rounded business résumé. You’re open to just about any type of business, too, as long as it provides the opportunity to grow; you don’t want to be so tied down to the first operation that you can’t turn it over to a hired manager and expand into another market.

Your task: To convene a formal meeting with the investor group, you first need to draft a report that outlines the types of franchise opportunities you’d like to pursue. Write a brief report identifying five franchises you would like to explore further.

(Choose five based on your own personal interests and the criteria already identified.) For each possibility, identify the nature of the business, the financial requirements, and the level of support the company provides, and write a brief statement of why you could run such a business successfully (make up any details you need). Be sure to carefully review the information you find about each franchise company to make sure you can qualify for it. For instance, McDonald’s doesn’t allow investment partnerships to buy franchises, so you won’t be able to start up a McDonald’s outlet until you have enough money to do it on your own.