The Best Answer...

The question of keeping a job versus going into business is a decision that really depends on your personal ability to sucessfully own a small business. Not everyone is cut out for small business ownership. It has its pros and cons. You have to decide what is a pro or con.

The best answer to the question of franchise versus non-franchise business that I've ever read is by Richard Soloman on his web site www.franchiseremedies.com.

One of the articles have this paragraph:

"The first and best way to prevent yourself from being scammed is for you to keep your investment money in your pocket and get a job with a franchisee of the franchise system you like for a year and learn it from the inside. Even if you spend a year with a small salary, you do not lose your life savings and you are not bound to very one sided contracts. After that year, you will know every problem in that franchise system. In almost every instance, you will be really happy you did that, and in almost every instance you will decide that you do not want to be a franchisee of that franchisor. The reason for that is that franchises are simply not as good as the franchise sales brochures and sales pitches represent them to be. The secondary reason for that is that you will, at the end of that year, know enough about the business that you can do it as an independent and save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of what would have been the length of a franchise contract you might have signed. The universal representation that franchised start-up businesses have a better chance to succeed than independent start-ups is and always was false. The odds on success or failure are exactly the same whether one is franchised or not."

This is great advice. I wish would have found this advise sooner...