Right now, entrepreneurs in Australia find themselves in a state of limbo. With the economy in its first recession in 30 years and a pandemic that’s still ongoing, uncertainty is the order of the day. But that doesn’t mean that opportunities to start new businesses don’t exist – it’s just that it takes a little more work to identify them.
And it’s easy to argue that franchises offer the most certain means for entrepreneurs to identify business ideas that will work. As a group, franchises tend to be market-tested, stable businesses with ultra-refined business models. That makes them excellent candidates to start up in any economic condition.
But the present circumstances do make certain types of franchises a better bet than others. To help entrepreneurs begin their franchise journey on the right foot, here are three franchise sectors that will boom in the post-COVID-19 economy.
Healthcare and Healthcare Adjacent Services
The first franchise sector set to boom in the post-pandemic economy is an obvious one. With the effects (and aftereffects) of the coronavirus still very much present in the lives of many, the demand for healthcare and healthcare-adjacent services should rise. This means anyone willing to buy into home care or therapeutic business stands a good chance of making their investment back in no time.
That includes a wealth of opportunities for anyone with an interest or qualifications in the areas of professional counselling or occupational therapy. Both are healthcare fields that were already seeing growth before the one-two punch of the recession and pandemic and are now showing signs of a significant rebound. That translates into franchise opportunities with ready-made growth curves.
Cleaning and Maintenance
The next franchise sector that’s already booming and will continue to grow in the aftermath of the pandemic is the facilities maintenance and cleaning sector. Throughout the pandemic, demand for office cleaning spiked, more than offsetting declines in the residential cleaning space. But as businesses returned to offices full-time, their demand for cleaning and maintenance hasn’t waned.
That means franchises in the sector have an unusually smooth path to profitability right now. And because the trends created during the pandemic are morphing into a new normal, there’s every reason to expect that favourable conditions will continue for some time. Plus, because this is a sector for which training to operate a franchise is often short and simple, interested franchisees can be up and running in no time.
Healthy Food Vending
Before the pandemic, the Australian market was having a healthy foods moment. The environment was such that almost any well-run business related to health foods pulled in significant crowds and steady profits. But the pandemic changed people’s perceptions about eating outside of the home, and restaurants and other foodservice businesses suffered. So far, those trends haven’t abated even after lockdowns started to get lifted.
That has opened up a new niche in the healthy food market for enterprising vending franchises to fill. By separating the food preparation and service from the customer, vending operators can tap that latent demand without running into the same troubles that in-person food businesses now face. And because it’s the kind of operation that a single individual can run – at least at the outset – health food vending franchises make for one of the most lucrative opportunities in the whole market right now.
Moving Forward with Confidence
Any way you look at it, the Australian economy faces a tough road ahead. It was already facing significant headwinds before the pandemic and now faces deteriorating market conditions both at home and abroad. That makes for poor conditions in which to start most kinds of businesses. But not all of them.
The kinds of franchises identified here have better-than-average chances of success right now, and that’s likely an understatement. When you add that to the fact that franchises, in general, have a lower failure rate than other startup businesses regardless of broader economic conditions, you end up with irresistible opportunities.
But it will still take a fair amount of guts and hard work for entrepreneurs to succeed right now. Finding willing financiers isn’t a simple matter in a recession, but it isn’t impossible. For those that have the skills and the drive to do it, though, there might never be a better time to act. And by focusing on these three franchise sectors, they can make the most of their chance and build a path to lasting success and profits.