As a sole proprietor of my own business, I am naturally interested in self-employment and small business opportunities.  Lately I’ve been hearing the term turnkey business.  I wasn’t familiar with what it was, so I looked it up.

Basically, a turnkey business is a business that is ready to go from the time the owner buys it.  Many turnkey businesses are franchises.  For example, if you buy a ShipOnSite or a Quiznos, the whole business model, menu or list of services, etc. are already laid out for you.  All you have to do is open the doors and start accepting customers.

The polar opposite is a startup business, where the sole proprietor is responsible for doing everything from scratch — writing a business plan, coming up with a business model, deciding what to sell and how much to sell it for, etc.  It can be pretty difficult to start your own business from scratch, which is why turnkey businesses and franchises are pretty popular.

Of course, ultimately whatever you would rather do is up to your personal preferences.  Some people prefer franchises and turnkey business opportunities because they have a higher success rate, whereas others enjoy the freedom of starting and running a business that is 100 percent their creation.

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