First Time Visitor Guide

The Biz.for.Sale Franchise Opportunities database offers you, the prospective franchisor, an opportunity to view a listing of franchises that meet the criteria you specify in terms of price, industry, location and activity.

There are no hidden costs for browsing and you simply scan the listings, view all relevant details for franchises which interest you, send messages to selected franchisors, and wait for the franchisor to contact you directly.

Searching Tips

So you decide to search the listings for a franchise that deals with your prime passion in life, Computers. Maybe it's training, sales or something internet related - what you eventually decide to go for will depend on opportunities available; but let's say you just know that you'd like to be working with computers.

You call up the Search Page and it looks a bit confusing. But you plough ahead; choosing two keywords and a category - but the search turns up nothing! Huh! You would have imagined there would be several.

And there are! But you've narrowed your search to a null result, which is the most common mistake we see. Please remember that the more criteria you specify, the fewer results will be returned. So start your search as broadly as possible, and then narrow down only if you get too many results. Most searches, if kept to one keyword or one category, (and not a mix of each) will generate a satisfactory list to work with.

Remember that all searches are CASE INSENSITIVE.

 

The Quick & Dirty Search Method

All you need do is decide on one word (or part of a word) which will probably appear in the titles, descriptions, category and/or keyword lists of the franchises of your interest. In this case it would most probably be the word COMPUTER, although COMPUT might be better as it is a sub-set of both "computer" and "computing".

Enter the word COMPUT into the "First Keyword" block, make sure that the "Minimum Investment" amount is set to a high value (R10million is the default) and then whack the "Search NOW" button.

You have effectively asked to see a summary listing of all franchises which contain the text string COMPUT, from any category, and with an Upfront Capital cost of under R 10 million. And it's that easy.

 

Searching for a Specific Brandname

Are you looking for a particular franchise, such as Caltex or MacDonalds, and it just doesn't seem to be there ?

This topic deserves a page of it's own. And it has one. Click the hyperlink below for a full explanation of why you cannot find the franchise, and where you can get further help for contact details.

Need Help to Find a Brandname ?

 

The Category Listings

Each listing belongs to one specific category.

If your interest is broad, such as related to the Automobile Industry, then perhaps you would want to see all franchises available in the category. No problem! Just click on the arrow alongside the Category ListBox and a meny listing will pop up. Select the category "Automotive Products and Services" and then the "Search NOW" button.

Potential Problem: You have the wrong category

As each franchise belongs to only one category, you may be looking in a category which is not primary for your target franchise.

To explain............

The COMPUT search that we ran earlier results in about eight or so listings which span several different categories.

• Computers and the Internet   (1)
• Education and Training   (5)
• Business and Speed Printing Services   (2)

So if you had checked only "Computers and the Internet" you would have missed the majority of the listings under the other categories.

Potential Problem: Don't mix categories and keywords

This is probably the most common error that results in a "No records found" listing. You need to understand that if:

• One keyword is entered. Then results will be returned for all records that contain the keyword.
• A category is selected. Results will be returned for all records that are marked for that category.
• One keyword and a category are selected. Results will be returned for records that contain the keyword and are in the selected category. But certain franchises containing the keyword may be in a different category. They will not be included in the results listing.

Solution:
Search on the keyword alone first. Only if the list is inordinately long would you need to restrict it by adding a category filter or a second keyword requirement.

 

Advanced Search Techniques

Multiple Keyword Searches

Adding a second keyword to the search means that both words must be found somewhere inside the record fields for that record to be returned. It does not means that either word can be found to return a record.

This is a method used to narrow the search and not a method to broaden the search. In other word, the boolean AND operator, not the OR operator, applies.

If you place two keywords in the first (or second) keyword box, then you are requesting that those characters, with the space between them, will be found as a phrase. For example COMPUT TRAIN, placed in the first keyword box, requires that the phrase "comput train" is found which is highly unlikely. But the word COMPUT in the first box and TRAIN in the second box will return all records where "computer" or "computing" appears as well as the word "training" anywhere else within the record.

Searching for a Phrase

By now you should understand that if you place two keywords in the first (or second) keyword box, then you are requesting that those characters, with the space between them, will be found as a phrase.

It is important to note that the exact string must be found. COMPUTER  TRAIN will not be found in COMPUTER TRAINING if the search string contains two spaces between the words and the record has only one space between the words.

You also need to be aware that HTML code is sometimes embedded between two words to create a non-breaking (or hard) space which is used to prevent words containing spaces being line wrapped in the middle. For example, one wouldn't want "Mr" at the end of one line and "Smith" at the beginning of the next. So although you might see "Mr Smith" when the record details are viewed, the actual text in the database might be "Mr*nbsp;Smith" where "*nbsp;" creates the hard space. Typically, these non-breaking spaces are used inside of currency and telephone strings.

Combining a Keyword and Category Search

We've said it before, and now we say it again - keep your initial search simple. Search on the keyword first and only if that search returns too many records should you be adding a category as well. But, even before that, you should search on the category only. Only if that also returns too many records should you consider further filtering by combining a keyword and category search together.

One possible variation is to use a sub-set of the category name to broaden the search. For example, you want a listing of restaurant and fast food franchises that offer Italian cuisine. The sensible thing is to search on the kewords "italian" and "food" instead of restricting yourself to just one category. That will throw the net wide enough to pick up "food" in all the category names dealing with these franchises but will still exclude Italian fashion franchises. The keyword "ital" might seem even better as it is contained within both "Italian" and "Italy" but you'll find it turning up in words such as "hospital" and "vital" which could defeat the purpose of the narrowed filtering.