THE RIGHT BUSINESS OPTIONS

Low investment businesses are a boon for aspirants with limited capitals but big entrepreneurial dreams. Investing in a low-cost business does not necessarily mean low earnings. On the other hand, low-cost service centric businesses can promise a quick break-even and high return on investment. Five low-cost, service-centric franchise options for the beginners:

LAUNDRY BUSINESS

According to Euromonitor International, the laundry industry would achieve a whopping market size of $76 billion by 2018. The laundry industry has largely remained unorganized in India with close to a million operators scattered across the country. However, the past 10 years have been exciting for the segment, where multiple new entrants and existing players have tried to create ‘brands’ and introduce consolidation in the industry. Arunabh Sinha, Founder & CEO, UClean, shares: “The low investment has helped several passionate aspiring entrepreneurs under the UClean umbrella.” On adopting the franchise model for expansion he adds, “India has a potential of 1,000 stores over the next five years. The only way to scale the model rapidly without it being capital intensive would be to take the franchise route and co-build the brand alongside some passionate entrepreneurs as franchises.” Brands like The Laundry House, PressTo, UClean, Dhobiwala, etc. have already made their marks.

Shoe laundry services are a fresh concept and are much in demand. Sandeep Gajakas, Founder, Shoe Laundry, shares: “We want the opportunity to be available to people, who wish to start a unique service.” He adds, “I have been approached for franchise since I started this. Moreover, being a service that requires maintaining a high level of customer service and quality, no matter which city or country it is offered in, a franchise model is the only option for expansion and making it available across different locations.”

The pet industry has been multiplying at a fast pace in the past five-six years. The rising trend of pet humanization, backed by the higher disposable incomes of the Indian consumers, will further boost growth in petcare. Preeti and Sanjeev Kumar, Founders, Pet Bytes, Scoopy Scrub & Licious, say, “Pet Bytes and Scoopy Scrub came across with a full range of services that for the first time took the franchise route in India, becoming the leading pet brand in India and Asia with 31 branches in three countries.” On franchising, Sanjeev says, “Personal supervision or one-to-one interaction being the essence, we limited our self-owned outlets to a handful and took the franchise route through our trained, certified groomers and franchisee owners, who are pet lovers.” He adds, “Talks for franchise are on in 220-230 locations across India, Bahrain, Riyadh, Bhutan, Nepal and Dubai.” Just Dogs, Scoopy Scrub, Its Pets are few of the petcare brands.

Seeing the rise in the demand for cars, upwardly moving lifestyle and time crunch, car washing and detailing brands are catching up fast in India. Players like Express Car Wash, Speed Car Wash, etc. are gaining popularity.

Comment

5 4 3 2 1