Would you pay $100,000 for a franchise involved in junk removal. Me neither, but I might be wrong because 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is the world’s largest junk removal franchise with over 200 franchise partners. For the past 11 years the company’s franchise partners have been hugely successful across North America. The company have professionalised what was previously a disorganised industry characterised by dodgy vehicles, no receipts and cash in hand payments.

Junk removal is pretty disorganised in the UK too. Might there be a gap in the market for a professional service run in a businesslike manner. I believe that there is. If it works so well in the US, why not here?

City Moms Blog is a U.S based franchise operation that provides local blogs which  connect young mothers with information, resources and other mum’s in the same position in their neighbourhood. The minimum investment is $1,495 which gives franchisees the opportunity to set up what they call a ‘sister site’,  in their own area.

Could this work in the UK? I think it could. Young mothers are a group with very specific needs which are common to all of them. Many feel isolated. There are opportunities to set up local blogs throughout the UK, and a larger opportunity to set up a nationwide network like that provided by City Moms Blog.

FIT4MOM is one of the fastest growing home-based businesses in the United States. The fitness programme, aimed at young mothers wanting to get back in shape, is run and organised by local operators who pay a minimum of $1,750 to tap into the companies system and then run their own programmes.

It seems to me that the ‘young mum’s’ demographic could be a very lucrative niche in the fitness market, and something like this could work equally well in the UK.   There are opportunities here for people to run similar businesses to those operating in the US,  throughout the UK and a large opportunity to create a UK based franchise like  FIT4MOM.

Franchises are a good place to look for money making opportunities – but not necessarily in the way you might think. You see, it may be possible to ‘steal’ the idea without paying the franchise fee and ongoing costs. There are many interesting franchise ideas that fall into that category, and over the next few days, we’ll be looking at some of the best.

To start us off, Just Between Friends is a seasonal sales event where communities come together to buy and sell used children’s and maternity items at big savings on new. These events are locally owned and operated and held two to three times a year. This is an American franchise with a minimum investment of $14,950. You could surely offer something  like this in your area without the franchise company backing, making money by taking a percentage of all sales made.