Small Town Business Franchises

It’s amazing (and sad) that in the richest country in the world, many of us are still struggling to pay bills and stay out of bankruptcy—and often unable to pay for unexpected expenses. However, we bet you just might have some entrepreneurial ideas to overcome these problems.

Starting a business seems easier when you live somewhere like Silicon Valley. Certain places just have all the technology and talent. But what can you do in a small town? And are there any reliable small business opportunities to do from home?

You are reading an article from the Franchise section of our Ultimate Vacation Rental Business Guide. See the other articles in this section below:      • Vacation Rental Market Trend & Analysis      • Vacation Rental Management Franchise      ➜ Small Town Business Franchise Ideas

What Business Ideas Work in a Small Town?

The answer for you could be in small-town franchises. They offer proven systems and technology, which can be yours by joining a group from outside your area. Your business can grow much faster by connecting with a company that is already established.

All your efforts can be multiplied through a franchise. Imagine not having to figure out all the little details on your own—and great businesses run on details.

So, what are the best small town businesses or franchises to get involved in? There are so many options! How can you sort them out?

If you’ve ever had any interest in real estate, think about getting a vacation rental management franchise. Why? Well, what do all successful small town businesses have in common? They offer:

• Low startup costs
• Little or no need for high technology
• A way to capitalize on the charms of small towns
• A way to employ local labor when necessary
• No need for specialized, advanced training

A vacation rental management business checks off all of these because:

• It doesn’t require an office, real estate, or employees
• You can start with just a computer, telephone, and printer—or borrow them
• You’ll help manage rental properties people chose to buy in your beautiful location
• Local cleaning and maintenance vendors do much of the work
• You don’t need an MBA or other higher education or training

Why the Vacation Rental Industry is Your Opportunity

Rich people in the US have more money than they need and are always looking for new investments. There’s a way you can use that fact. It can help you cash in on one of the best small business ideas for small towns.

Rich people often buy vacation homes and rent them out for much of the year. They don’t have time to manage guests and cleaning staff themselves, but you can make a lot of money doing it for them!

As America continues to prosper, rich people and investors will continue renting out vacation homes to create passive income. We think the vacation rental segment of real estate will grow by about $20 billion in the next five years. About 34 million people will be renting out these homes.

There’s a great chance that you live near or in a market for vacation rentals, even if it’s a small one. You can get started managing just a handful of properties. But, starting small doesn’t mean you’re thinking small! With the support of an experienced franchise, you can grow quickly.

What You Would Do as a Vacation Rental Manager

Your role as a franchisee would involve:

• Giving guests an outstanding experience
• Helping owners/investors get worry-free income
• Increasing the number of properties you manage

How can you succeed, though, when you don’t have any experience? With Grand Welcome’s franchisee training program, you’ll get:

• One week of training at Grand Welcome’s training center
• One week of job shadowing a manager
• Several days of training at your franchise location
• Ongoing training, informational updates, and online training
• A dedicated contact for you at our headquarters

Then, your actual duties would involve:

1. Attracting investors to list their properties with Grand Welcome
2. Managing local vendors that provide property maintenance and housekeeping
3. Personally meeting with guests as needed

We will teach you our best, tested techniques in each of these areas.

1. Attracting Investors

The more investors who sign up with us in your area, the more properties you can manage . . . and the more money you can make. Don’t worry, we have an easy system for collecting and handling that money, along with taking care of tasks such as tax reporting.

Our training will help you:

• Recognize potentially great vacation rental properties
• Understand what renters really want
• Use the leads we provide to bring in new investors

We’ll take care of a lot of tasks for you electronically. Our online platform and marketing emails will bring in guests and will help you keep track of leads, as examples.

You know your region better than anyone else, so you know what’s important about it and can turn that information into a good story for investors. What is unique about your culture? What can you offer that no other place can? You may get good at telling investors why they should add your town to their portfolio.

At the same time, anyone can do this. We do aggressive marketing for our franchisees. We’ll give you a business model that is easy to grow. You wouldn’t have to spend much to build your business.

2. Managing Vendor Relationships

A key role of our franchisees is making sure that our guests always get a high level of cleanliness and convenience in their rental. You would use housekeeping and maintenance vendors to accomplish this. We don’t want our managers to do this work themselves. You would just coordinate it.

We would give you an easy-to-use system for managing vendors and train you on how to use it. We even have guidelines and procedures that tell vendors exactly what we expect of them.

This is very important: you would be responsible for keeping cordial relationships with vendors. Being courteous to them is key to making money. If you show them they’re working with a professional business, they’ll keep your business running smoothly.

Remember, we would get you ready for all of this. We carefully analyze any new area we’re entering with a franchisee. We make sure there’s enough income from properties to be able to pay for maintenance and housekeeping. That keeps guests happy, investors happy, and YOU happy—because you can make money without unclogging toilets or changing sheets!

3. Meeting Guests

Grand Welcome franchisees do the high-level work of owning a business. This means you might need to meet with guests when they first arrive and communicate with them during their stay, giving them the unique experience that only you can offer them.

You could treat guests like you’re a high-end concierge or even a hotel owner. You could be there for them if they call with a special need. You could be a trusted friend in an unfamiliar location.

You might personally work with guests at the beginning but develop your staff over time and train them to do this for you. As your business grows, you might get too many properties to handle yourself and need to bring in new team members to work within the successful system that you build.

What is the Future of Your Business?

Remember, you would work to keep guests happy, but property owners would also be your customers. You would make more money if investors wanted to rent out properties in your region for you to manage.

You would want to make the investor’s experience as easy as possible. They should be able to just list their properties and watch the money roll in. If you could give them that, they would want to keep listing with us, add properties to their portfolios, and even mention us to their friends.

If you can do an outstanding job with guest and vendor relationships, you show investors that they should rent out more properties with us more often. That would earn you even more fees.

You can’t know right now if your business will expand, but it’s possible. Always hold on to that growth mindset. You might have to hire an assistant and other employees someday, so make sure to always work through our efficient systems so you can easily hand over any tasks to someone else eventually.

Succeed with Grand Welcome Franchises

We want to send you guests and train you on how to make them happy with Grand Welcome vacation rentals. Over the last 10 years, we’ve set up systems that can make it easy for you to be a vacation rental property manager, and we’ve built a reputation for offering quality vacation properties.

Do you want to use one of the best small town business ideas out there? Do you want to perform much of your work at home on a computer and phone? Do you want more time to do what you love and be with people you love?

Check out Grand Welcome’s vacation rental management franchise. You don’t need any experience in this industry or a physical office. Contact us now to get a free franchise information kit and find out if you qualify. Get out of the rat race, and achieve financial freedom!