There is no doubt that life is full of choices and one of the toughest choices of all is deciding which career path to take. There are no guarantees and sometimes success in the workforce depends a lot upon luck and due diligence. Taking a job in corporate America makes a lot of sense because you get a regular paycheck and you know exactly how much it will be.

Often you also find yourself with benefits such as health insurance for yourself and your family. Most corporate jobs also offer retirement benefits and a pension. Lately in corporate America we have seen these benefits cut and layoffs and so there is no guarantee on any of that either and yet most people seek stability in their career.

Owning or starting a small business is not necessarily a stable and ever and the failure rate of small businesses is quite high. Then there is the franchise offering, which often looks enticing because you buy a business model already prepackaged and they will train you on how to do the business. Even so there is no guarantee that this will work either. The failure rate for franchising companies or Franchisors is 80% in the first five years.

If you buy a franchise from a company, which is new and it goes out of business then you will not have the support, which you had anticipated. A more established franchisor due to supply and demand may not offer you as good of terms in a way of royalty payments and franchise fees. Please consider all this in 2006.