Basic Rules Of Starting Your Franchise

Starting a franchise can be a really profitable venture and a decision you will be glad you made. However, starting a franchise can be disastrous as well if you do not know exactly what you are getting into beforehand. So, if you want to start a franchise then do some research to find out all of the plus and minuses of franchises as well as the specific one you are interested in. It will be worth the time and effort to find out all of the information before you invest your many thousands of dollars. There are, however, several things you will want to now upfront. These include the different franchise opportunities currently available, market saturation, and the like. Once a particular franchise is determined on, or several are, then you will need to compare more specific information.

First, do some research to find out what companies franchise. Once you know all of the franchise options, you will be able to pick out the ones you like best and are most interested in. After that, you can narrow those down based on your investment ability and the demand for this particular franchise in your proposed market. The best thing to do is find a market that had a high demand for a particular franchise and then buy that one. All franchises will be more successful in a market with a high demand for the product.

Also, when considering a franchise you need to consider the market significantly. What franchises currently exist, what demand is there for your proposed franchise, are there plans for other similar franchise in the works by competitors, and the like. Evaluate the market as best as possible. By doing this you educate yourself on the market which means you will be able to match a franchise to the needs of the market. That is really important.

Finally, when you have narrowed down the franchises available that meet the demands of a particular market, then you can compare the statistics of the various franchises to find the one that best fits your management style, investment ability, projected profits and loss, advertising, and market. You will also need to ensure that the franchiser supports the franchise significantly, especially at first in order to ensure a successful start and continued business. If the franchiser is not interested in helping the franchise get started, then you probably want to look for one that does.

Once you have decided on a particular franchise, then it will be after considerable research. Because of this, you will pick the best franchise for you and the market, which means you have a better chance at being successful and enjoying your business.

Attracting (And Keeping) Top Performers

Good people are hard to find, the saying goes. For example, by the year 2000 over 190,000 computer programmer and other information technology jobs will be vacant, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. (This is now a bit out of date, and although the dot-com bustups and the 2000-2001 recession has eased things a bit, it is still difficult to lure top talent.) It may be easy to fill these empty positions if you are a software giant like Microsoft, but there is a tremendous challenge attracting (and keeping) top performers if you are smaller and less well known.

According to chief executives and industry recruiters who were interviewed for this article, there are three main areas on which to focus: the quality and market position of your product or service, environment, and compensation.

Leading edge technology and a high perception of quality will lure top technical and design people, salespeople and support people, all for different reasons. Technology people relish the challenge of developing something new, plus they need ongoing opportunities for skill enhancement to remain fresh.

As for top sales people, a strong product means they can earn bigger commissions, and their egos are fulfilled by being on the leading edge. And top support people are smart enough to know that a quality product makes everyone's job easier, and it enables them to earn their incentives. For everyone, superior products will earn your company better returns, enabling more reinvestment in R&D, providing challenges and adventure for your technical people, and more and better product for your sales and marketing team.

What if your product is not cutting-edge, or your quality not up to snuff? Appealing to top performers is not going to be your only problem. Unless you control a mature market niche, your company will need to update and upgrade to remain viable - this requires high caliber people. If you want to survive in the marketplace you must concentrate harder on the next two factors.

Environmental factors - the corporate culture, the caliber of co-workers, the attitude of your management team, and your physical environment can be pivotal in finding and retaining talented people.

Corporate culture is one area smaller companies have an edge - that "hell-bent-for-leather" attitude makes it exciting and challenging to come to work, and there are fewer layers of bureaucracy people find so stifling. Real teamwork, where success is shared and the team affirms a common commitment, will draw other top professionals.

Having a smart, talented staff will captivate more smart, talented people. So will a collegial atmosphere which values the opinions of the rank-and-file along with open-management policies keeping the troops informed on the state-of-the-company.

A training plan, designed career paths and professional conference attendance are more ways to attract and keep people. Other small but significant options include dress code, flextime, telecommuting, offices with walls - these all help.

Last is the issue of compensation. The big salary problem is no matter how much you pay, a competitor can pay a little bit more. So in terms of salary level itself, you simply have to be at or near your market rate.

Pay-for-performance however, can take compensation much higher while avoiding salary inflation. A system of carefully designed bonuses and incentives will enable you to pay people for exceptional production.

Equity - stock grants, options and equity-like phantom stock - is a powerful way for smaller companies to entice people at all levels. Plus, smaller companies can grant equity without the usual waiting period required by public and larger companies. (Just remember to include a forfeiture clause in case of early termination.)

What does all this mean in real terms? Some of the ideas in this article are harder to implement than others, and some describe conditions you simply can't achieve. Must you arrange for every item mentioned above? Of course not, but systematically providing your people with the challenge to be their best, the opportunity to learn, the freedom to be creative, the incentives to perform and produce, a feeling of ownership, and the respect as professionals - these are the things that will make top technical and sales people want to join your company, and have them stay.

Branding Your Ebiz - Creating A Name Your Customers Trust

If you want customers to spend money with you online, you have to make them feel confident they’re dealing with a legitimate business. They’re giving you their personal information, as well as their credit card number. If your website sends a clear message you run your business from home, they may not feel comfortable entrusting you with that kind of info. That’s why it’s important to create a brand your customers recognize and trust. What’s a Brand? A brand is what differentiates you from every other eBiz out there: • A brand is a set of expectations you create in your customers’ minds in regards to your business. It comprises everything from the quality of your website to your customer service to your actual merchandise. More than just a name and logo, it’s your buyer’s entire experience with your company. • A brand is a reputation. A good brand adds value to your product—buyers expect a certain quality based on the brand name. If they recognize your brand and have a good association with it, they’re likely to choose it over other similar products, even if it costs a little more. Your Branding Should Be Consistent Explains Eileen Parzek, of http://SohoItGoes.com, “Consistently use a brand design throughout all your different marketing material… It gives a sense you’re bigger than you really are.” You need to figure out what your marketing message is and carry that message through all your promotional materials. If you have business cards, press kits, and print materials, they should reflect the design of your website from the fonts and color palette to the logo and tagline. Your format should also persist through all of your web pages—the layout, the tone of your copy, even your navigation. Having a unified, professional-looking web store can go a long way towards building a customer’s confidence in you. A well-designed site gives your business credibility—customers associate the quality of your site with the quality of service and merchandise they expect from you. Your Branding Should Be Continuous Your brand should evolve to reflect the changing needs of your target market—branding’s an ongoing process. It begins, ideally, in your business’ startup phase and continues through the life cycle of your business. Says Parzek, “[Branding] is not something you ever stop doing. You have to be conscious of it at all times.”

Business Owner's Essentials - The 5 Biggest Challenges for Today's Business Owner

Copyright 2006 Andy Warren Some of these challenges have been around since business began and others are new ones that are being faced as technology and the marketplace evolves. As a business owner, you need to be sure that you are handling each of these effectively and looking out for where they might destroy your business. 1. Cashflow Management This is the number one essential for all businesses, no matter what stage they are at. Even the most successful businesses can fail if they take their eye off the ball on cash. Your cashflow is the difference between how fast money comes into your business from your customers and how fast you pay it out to your staff, your suppliers and the tax man. Many business owners don’t realise that their cashflow can be at most risk when they are growing fast or taking on big orders. This happens because, in most businesses, products and raw materials have to be bought and paid for before they can be provided to customers and billed. This is also similar for services, where your employees and contractors have to be paid at the end of the month but the client may not be billed until the following month or when a job is completed. And they may not pay you until some time after that. In periods of high growth your costs can go up and out of the door long before the cash from the increased sales comes in. And suddenly you find you have a cash crisis on your hands. 2. Your staff Your employees can make or break your business. When you choose the right ones they can massively add to the value of your business. When you get the wrong ones they can be a drain on your time, your money and they can hold back your business. The usual mistakes made include recruiting people who are not as smart as you so that they make you look good; Hiring too fast and firing too slowly; Not investing in training and development for your staff; Not listening to what they’re telling you; Not taking up proper references when recruiting; Not adopting good, consistent and fair HR policies within the company. Many business owners find that employee issues are the number one drain on their time and attention. And often the issues don't get resolved and lead to litigation and expensive legal bills. The first key is to recruit high quality people, who are smarter than you, who are motivated to build and grow your business and who come with a good track record. Also, always take up references and carefully check CVs or Resumés for any gaps or inconsistencies. The next key is to treat your staff fairly and reward them for good work. Whatever you measure and reward will get done more, so consider this carefully. Create clear and consistent policies for employee development and training and make sure you allow good time for one-to-one reviews where the discussion is allowed to be open and frank. And above all, keep the lines of communication open and clear and trust them. 3. Getting Noticed in a Crowded Market You may have a great product or service but unless your potential customers know what you provide you’ll never have a great business. You need to get out into the market and deliver your message to the people you want as customers. The challenge comes with the fact that today people receive an average of 3,000 marketing messages a day. And they’ve become immune to many of them. Your job is to be able to cut through all those messages and stand out enough to get noticed by your customer. The best way to achieve this is by focussing on a niche. This way you can target your marketing with a laser focus to match your desired customers directly. And when you specifically target your prospects with a message that is tailored to them and their needs, they’re far more likely to take notice and listen. The standard reaction to this is to worry that by focussing on one niche you could miss out on other customers. The reality is that the scatter gun approach that throws your message out to anyone and everyone is extremely hit and miss in its results. And it rarely works now because the message becomes so generic that no-one believes it applies to them. Remember, you can always select another niche once you’ve worked the first one. So you can eventually get to all of your potential market in a far more effective and targeted way. 4. Poor planning It’s said that when you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. This means that without a clear plan and objective you can get distracted and diverted all over the place and never achieve what you really want for your business. When businesses fail to plan they find themselves losing money, losing staff, losing momentum, losing customers and losing business. Without a plan, you won’t know whether you’re on the right track and you’ll have no guide as to whether you need to go faster or approach the business in a different way. Stumbling through simply doesn’t cut it for a good business. Making plans allows you to prepare for more eventualities. It allows you to foresee potential problems and avoid crises. It actually gives you more flexibility because you can flex around your plan and revise it as you go. It also makes it easier to make decisions because you have something to judge the outcome against. You’re able to assess whether taking a specific decision takes you further along your plan or moves you away from it. 5. Neglecting customers The final challenge that is faced by every business in this supposedly service oriented world is neglecting customers. After all the uphill struggle of finding a prospect, telling them about your product or service and closing a sale, are you just going to let them go? Many businesses do. They are so focussed on making new sales that they forget that the best source of additional sales and new business referrals comes from their existing customer base. They also forget that when you neglect a customer and lose them, they will tell others. And as a customer with experience they will be believed and that can knock a significant hole in all your marketing efforts. It costs significantly more to find and sell to a new customer than it does to keep and sell more to an existing customer. Make sure you get your customers' contact details, look after them and keep building and strengthening the relationship. The first sale should be just the beginning. And a happy, satisfied customer can do more to market your business than almost anything else.

5 Benefits Of Using Feeds - How Feeds Can Help Your Ebiz

What’s a Feed?

Feeds are a way of sharing content. When you make material from your website available for publishing on other sites, you provide them with a feed. Basically, it’s a code that lets them post your articles and blogs. There are different kinds of code—XML, RSS, Atom, etc.—but essentially they’re all just different ways of accessing a feed.

According to internet expert Sydney Johnston, “The great thing about a feed is everybody wins.” The article writer gains exposure, the reader learns about something of interest to them, and the online seller gets an endless source of pertinent content.

What Can a Feed Do for My Online Business?

Feeds are useful in a number of different ways:

• They Eliminate Spam-filters. They’re 100% opt-in, so readers can subscribe and unsubscribe at will. Feeds are delivered directly to your subscribers, so you don’t contend with filters knocking you out of their inboxes.

• They Provide Free Content. One of the best ways to differentiate your site is to supply readers with interesting material—educate them on topics relating to the product you’re selling. If you sell preschool toys, chances are you don’t want to study child development and write numerous articles on the subject—so find someone else who’s already done that and make their feed available to your customers. The constantly updating, applicable subject matter gives your visitors a reason to keep coming back.

• They Can Improve Your Search Engine Rankings. In the past, search engines were unable to read feeds, but software is now available to translate them into live links the engines can see (check out http://CyberWS.com). Search engines love fresh, dynamic content, so feeds are ideal. They provide relevant information that updates automatically. Not only do your customers get the facts they’re looking for, but the search engines like your site and give it better position.

• For Affiliate Marketers, They’re an Alternative to Banners. You not only give your customer valuable knowledge, but if they click through and purchase something, you get credit. And unlike with banners, you don’t look like you’re putting up junk ads or spam.

• They Can Increase Your Traffic. Anything you write, you should make available as a feed. When other sites pick it up, it’s free advertising for you—all their traffic is able to click through the feed to your site. So you gain new potential customers you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Feeds on any subject are easy to find. There’s a whole collection of search engines just for feeds, like http://Plazoo.com and http://Feedster.com. Says Johnston, “The future of the internet for entrepreneurs is feeds. If people don’t master them, they’re going to get left behind, period.”