Maximizing Your Franchise's Profit Potential

7. Working with a good accountant. One of the hard lessons of life is that there can be a big difference between the money you make and the money you have. The difference is taxes, and they take many forms. One of the most important steps to making money that stays in your pocket is to use a good accountant to help you structure your business entity and ongoing activities in a manner that reduces the tax bite whenever possible.

The entity selection can help you avoid double taxation of earnings- and/or business-specific taxes like B & O tariffs. In terms of your business activities, some techniques can be as simple as the timing of investments and major purchases or the type of capital structure you use. It's typically well worth paying some accounting fees to ensure you're minimizing the tax bite if your goal is to make a lot of money in your franchise.

Finally, keep in mind that in any successful franchise system, many people have traveled the path before you. Whether they are other franchisees or the franchisor, take advantage of their experience by asking for advice whenever you have doubts or your results aren't what you expected, especially when you're first starting out. They'll be happy to help you, and you can return the favor to other new franchisees in the future.