Franchise vs Do-It-Yourself

I'm new to the forum but was just courious. How many cleaners in the forum are franchisees and how many aren't?

I own a few companies now and one is a chem dry franchise and I do not have any regrets in going into business with them. I have other companies that are privately owned and I love them also and have a overall feeling of accomplishment that it is something that I built from the ground up.

Starting the Chem Dry  business was a easy avenue into the carpet cleaning field when I had little to no experience in the industry but had a waiting client base. I do find that I use techniques that I have learned at Chem Dry in my other service business's that I may not have ever known about. Learning from a corporate company is much different than learning from hands on experience. Starting a franchise can be slightly pricey compared with starting your own but I would also hazard a guess that more businesses that start with a franchise make it through the first few crucial years of business well building a client list and reputation.