Many people looking to buy a business consider buying a franchise. After all, they think the franchisor has a cookie-cutter approach that can’t miss and they can just walk into the new business, which will be flush with cash. In the numbers I have read, four out of five new franchise businesses will not be around in five years. The numbers of franchises that fail are staggering.
Why is this the case? One reason may be that the franchisee does not have business experience and they do not know how to manage the business. Many people who buy franchises are “wowed” into only seeing the upside and not examining the downside. What things should a potential buyer be mindful of?
One thing that the buyer needs to see is a projected income statement for the year of purchase, preferably for each month of the first year and for the next several years thereafter. This is not something the franchisor normally provides, as the franchisor does not want to assume liability if the potential buyer does not make his or her numbers.
Since the potential buyer cannot receive these numbers from the franchisor, the potential buyer will have to assemble these numbers, perhaps with the assistance of their attorney or accountant, or both. Some of the numbers are available in the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular the franchisor must give you to inform you about the potential risks in purchasing the franchise.
It is important to know how much of the product or service you will have to sell to break even and how much you could potentially make. Most every franchise company charges a franchise fee as a percentage of sales. They also charge an advertising fee for regional or national advertising.
In addition, your franchise agreement may require that you buy all of the items necessary to make the product, or offer the service, from a vendor controlled by the franchisor. In this case, the potential buyer may not always receive the best prices, although the quality may be uniform. In many cases, the franchisor may have the right to approve where the franchise is located.
The franchisor may have located the site, negotiated and signed the lease with the owner of the property at a higher lease rate than the owner and the potential buyer would have done by themselves. The potential buyer then takes over the lease as a subtenant, not having any rights to the terms of the lease. All of these items are important as they have a direct bearing on the bottom line number you can potentially earn or lose once you own the franchise.
Many franchise agreements may require that the franchisee buy his or her equipment from the franchisor and is responsible to make substantial improvements to the facility to match the newer franchises as they come out. This may require additional investments in the future that you may not be prepared for at the outset.
Another thing to look at is the …
For new entrepreneurs, sometimes it can be difficult to decide what you want to charge for your services, and understand how to bring together your dreams and desires while still making the math work; you have the dream, but where does that break down into cold, hard cash? Here are 5 pitfalls that I see happen time and again with new entrepreneurs:
They don’t begin with the end in mind. New entrepreneurs are often so worried about making a living that they don’t consider being selective with their hours or clients. The set an hourly rate that forces them to reach their income goal through volumes of meetings and work! This is a perfect way to wear yourself out and begin to feel like you’re just punching a clock again.
They only use their gut to decide what they should be charging. Checking in with your internal body compass is a great way to assess if you’re on the right track, however, so many people tell themselves “stories” about their money that sometimes this isn’t the most effective method-most new entrepreneurs get a knot in their stomach just from thinking about charging someone, so you have to get past that story before you can objectively look at pricing.
They are starting part-time and defer the decision. Some new entrepreneurs tell themselves, “I’m transitioning from my existing job and doing this on the side, so I don’t need to start charging what I WANT to charge immediately.” This just defers the inevitable AND causes you to work at the job you want to leave for that much longer!
They don’t use the right math to figure out how to maintain their existing lifestyle. Most new entrepreneurs use their salary from their last job to determine what they need to maintain their life, but being an employee and being a self-employed business owner are so different financially that new entrepreneurs lose time and money because of miscalculated assumptions.
They under value the experience they have. Many new entrepreneurs are paralyzed by the thought that part of their rate is a reflection of experience and mistakenly think “small” when setting their rate. What new entrepreneurs need to realize is experience is subjective, and the actual game changer is the level of confidence they have in their direction! Each one of us was put here to offer something unique to others.
One of the reasons a person decides to become self employed is improving their bottom line, yet sometimes the thinking that caused them to originally be frustrated with their finances will also bring those same issues into their new business.
When new entrepreneurs only look at what they are comfortable charging, and they don’t figure out what they should be charging, there’s bound to be setbacks. Avoiding these pitfalls will ensure that the new entrepreneur does not waste time or money when launching their new venture!…
It has always been the American dream to start a business and have it become extremely profitable with little work. The fact is, it’s not only an American dream, but actually a world wide dream. Nearly everyone wants to find some way of making money without having to deal with bosses, schedules, or having to commute to work. People want to stay in the comfort of their own home and work as little as possible to be able to live life to the fullest.
In this article, I will let you know 3 simple facts to starting a business. If you play your cards right, it is very simple to start making a lot of money with minimal work and minimal costs.
The first step is finding or making a plan. You will have a very small chance of success if you jump into starting a business without a plan. One needs to know where they are going and how to get there. The best thing to have when starting a business plan is a coach. Someone who has been down that road before and that has become successful doing it.
It may be hard to find a coach or mentor that is willing to put their time and energy into helping you. If you follow the link below you will find that I have found someone that was willing to put his time and effort into helping you out. He has spent years upon years perfecting his plan. All you need to do is carbon copy what he is doing and you are sure to succeed.
The second step is to make sure you follow through with the plan. Do not make a plan and decide to quit. A lot of people get bummed out after the initial planning and give up. A lot of those people probably could have made a lot of money, but instead they quit. It can be a variety of different reasons. Maybe a friend or family member telling you that you will not succeed or maybe you think it will cost too much money. Whatever the case may be, you need to stick to the plan and execute it.
Step three is simply keeping the ball rolling. Lot’s of people start out with a great plan, continue to follow through with it, but somewhere down the line decide that they don’t wish to continue. A large percentage of these people are either impatient or they want the money to fall into their lap without any work whatsoever. I’m sorry to break it to you folks, but there is no “get rich quick” scheme. There is no way of making money without any work whatsoever. BUT there is a way to make a very decent living with minimal work so that you can enjoy life instead of working through it.…
There are a number of ways that you can substantially reduce or eliminate a number of the risks of starting a new business. Foremost, the best way to ensure that your new company will be profitable is to develop a highly focused demographic analysis that showcases the need for your products and services within your respective market. If you are thinking of starting a small business then it may be in your best interest to talk to local residents to see whether or not they need the products or services that you intend to sell. Prior to starting any business, you should complete an extensive competitive analysis that will allow you to understand how many other businesses are offering products or services that are identical or substantially similar to what you intend to provide.
One of the best ways to reduce business start up risk is to initially develop a website that showcases the services that you offer. You can then advertise this website by using popular pay per click programs to drive traffic to this website. If you receive a significant amount of inquiries regarding your services then you may be able to effectively start your company as a home based business before you move into a formal location. Many highly successful companies initially started as home based businesses. As such, if you are able to provide your services from your home then you will be in an excellent position to determine whether or not you should continue to grow and expand this business in a formal capacity. However, it should be noted that using this type of technique is only appropriate for new businesses that offer services.
Additionally, you can always hire a market research firm or business development company to complete an economic viability analysis on your behalf. These companies will essentially use a number of methodologies regarding whether or not a business will be viable from the onset of operations. It should be noted that the expense of using these types of services is extremely high. A formal opinion as to the potential profitability of a business can cost upwards of $5,000. However, this cost is small compared to the typical start up costs associated with launching a new business venture. Of course, it is important to note that very few businesses become profitable within the first six months of operation. These companies will provide you with expert advice as to whether or not there is a significant demand for the products and services that you will sell through your company.
If you are primarily engaged in the sale of products then it may be in your best interest to use a popular third party website that will allow you to sell your products without having to go through the expense of launching a traditional retail location. If you intend to sell products online then you can expect a highly competitive market. One of the ways that companies that sell products online have become successful is …
I am contacted all the time by people who want to start a business and need my services, but who don’t realize that they actually aren’t ready. So then what does it take to BE ready to start a business?
The majority of clients who contact me about starting a business only have an idea in their heads. They don’t have a business plan, they haven’t saved up the cash they need for capital expenditures, and they haven’t thought through the costs of actually running and marketing the business. All of these entities are requirements for setting yourself up for success; skipping any or all of them can cause you to stumble later on down the line.
It’s important to note that creating a solid brand takes time and varying amounts of cash. Have you calculated how much money you need to create a website, create your image and brand identity, and create your marketing materials? Have you saved up the money to cover those costs? And if not, are you trying to get started on the cheap by hiring the most inexpensive (and often least professional) help possible, thereby setting yourself up for failure before you even begin?
Lately my advice to new clients has been this: take some time, research your market and competition, write down your expenses, and save some capital to fund your endeavor. When you have done that, I can do my job and help you grow. And you will be ready for success.
So, think you are ready to start a business? Use this list as a reference:
Have you written a business plan?
Have you researched your market and competition?
Do you really know what you need to get started?
Do you have enough money saved to cover your capital expenditures?
Are you capable of funding marketing activities for your business once it’s off the ground, and do you know what those will be?
Have you set goals and targets for your business so that you can gauge whether or not you are being successful?
Starting a business is not an easy endeavor, nor is it a fast one. Because everything in our society is so fast, people want to get their businesses going quickly without having to put in the time and effort.
But remember: you have to do the work first in order to be successful later. Take the time to plan, save, and research so you set yourself up for success. Consult with a professional so that you know what you are doing. That way you have a better chance of achieving the ideas and dreams you are so passionate about.…
There are several businesses you can start on the internet for little to no investment. You can do a lot of different things on the internet, selling advertising, selling products and other services. Whatever route you decide to use for making money online will depend a lot on your personality and the things you love to do.
Firstly, I am going to go through a few things you can do to make money on the internet and then at the end you can choose what direction you would like to take your business in.
Making Money by Advertising
A lot of the big corporations on the internet make money from advertising. These are companies you have heard of if you have ever been online; you probably use their services every day. Companies like Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, YouTube, Google all make the bulk of their sales from selling advertising. Now you don’t have to be a big company to make sales from advertising. You can simply perform advertising by doing something called blogging and attracting a lot of visitors to your personal blog.
The reason advertisers pay these corporations a lot of money for advertising is because these companies know how to get lots of visitors to their websites on a daily basis. Now you don’t have to be able to be able to drive millions of visitors to your site on a daily basis, if you can drive a few thousand visitors, that would be great. You want to do the same thing the big corporations are doing but you want to do it on a smaller scale.
The good news is that these companies will let you tap into their resources and profit with them. For example, Google has a program called ”the AdSense program” where they connect you with advertisers who want to advertise on your blog and split the revenues with you. Google also owns YouTube, a video sharing site where you can post videos for free under any topic under the sun. You can use this site to make a video on your subject matter and direct the visitors on there back to your blog. you can also use article directories like EzineArticles to write compelling content and direct the people from there to your blog. So this is how easy it is for you to make money from selling advertising on a blog. If you don’t want to partner with Google, you can contact website owners with information related to yours and offer to sell them advertising.…
Starting a business on a low budget and succeeding sounds quite unrealistic but it holds true when you are talking about an online business. Online businesses have numerous advantages compared to a traditional one. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get started; even if your idea flops you do not loose a lot of money, and you can promote and sell a variety of products from expensive items to perishables.
Selling your product online also does not require you invent new wheels; all you need to do is to choose the proven ways and get started. This approach will also be helpful in avoiding any scams and fake programs.
When staring a business online with a low budget your first investment would be to buy a domain name and hosting for your online store. Next step is the choice of product. Choose a product that has no inventory. The product should have its worth is today’s debt ridden world and it should help people make there life better.
Now comes the most important thing that is how you market your website to get targeted visitors keeping in view you low budgets. Advertising you business is not a piece of cake it requires hard work and commitment. It’s advisable to keep advertisement budget next to zero. The reason for not spending big sums in the beginning is that you are still in the learning phase and by this tactic you are forced to learn. Once you gather enough knowledge about internet marketing than you can spend bigger amounts on advertisement and it would be called secured investment.
There are number of ways by which you can market your online business. SEO, search engine optimization technique can be used to submit your website to different search engines; you can place a link of your website on other similar websites. Some websites take money just for placing your ads while others charge you when these ads are being clicked. Business with very low budgets can also send emails to targeted customers.
Direct marketing is also an effective and cheap way to market a newly started low budget business. You can reach your audience by posting on different online forums and social networks, inserting fliers in newspaper is also a good direct marketing tool.
Starting a business with a shoestring budget and attaining success is a possibility in today’s world. All you need is a little hard work and motivation.…
The word seems to be out that network marketing or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) isn’t what it used to be. Some people are saying “yeah!” and others are saying “oh no!”
Network marketing is just that; it’s marketing. Marketing is an ever-changing commodity. It’s influenced by media, advertising, transportation costs, customer demand, supply, climate, etc. Marketing is ever changing. Our world is ever changing. So, why should MLM be any different?
One thing that will always remain constant, however, is that it is based on developing relationships, and that is what makes it different from conventional marketing (manufacturer to wholesaler to customer).
This type of business is very appealing to anyone who enjoys interacting with people and wants to create another income stream. And, you certainly can’t argue that it’s a pretty sensible system – manufacturer directly to the customer.
The internet has had a major influence on MLM. Some have grabbed the explosive opportunity and run with it, and others are still wondering “what happened?” The internet is a tool that allows communication at levels that have never been seen before. There is an endless supply of systems, sales pitches, opinions, etc. Take them all with a grain of salt.
MLM compensation plans can sometimes be less appealing for those looking for a quick buck without much work because it usually takes time to build a downline that is really profitable and sustainable. Because of this, the attrition rate today can be cruel! We, unfortunately, are living in the age of “I want it now,” so people jump in and out at record rates – they’re looking for the “Big Thing” and will keep on looking, and looking and looking forever. They keep believing the “get rich quick” promises.
This particular industry is the same as any other business – it’s a business, and it has to be treated like a business and not a hobby. Unfortunately, many people who go into it don’t think about this, and many are not business savvy in any way. There’s plenty of information available on how to operate a successful business, but, hey, that’s work, too! Which then would mean it’s not instant riches.
Yes, network marketing has changed. There are opportunities that never existed before. Because of the internet, there are thousands of MLMs that are launched every year. How many of them survive or are legitimate? Not all, by any means. There’s a vicious fight going on among these marketers all the time for the dwindling supply of warm bodies looking for an MLM business. Because of that, there are some pretty ridiculous promises and sales hype being broadcast constantly across the internet.
For anyone looking with interest at creating another income stream or full-time business, this could be for you. It can be very profitable if you know what you’re doing. Make sure you check out any opportunity you are looking at VERY carefully, do your due diligence, get the business information you need and treat it like a business. …
It takes a lot of courage to quit your job and run up your credit cards just to start a business. Some people would even say it’s downright risky. This is all before you even know if the business will be successful or not.
It’s normal to be risk averse. It usually means venturing out of your comfort zone. Most people like staying their comfort zone. Entrepreneurs can’t stay there. They have to take some risks.
A person’s risk-taking potential is influenced by several factors, including their environment, genetics, and their past experiences. What gives one person a thrill might make another run for cover. Some adrenaline junkies out there are hard-wired to take risks. You see them climbing up the sides of tall buildings or jumping out of airplanes. Most people will take small risks if they know there is going to be a good payoff on their investment at the end.
We all have an enzyme in our brains called monoamine oxidase (MAO). This is what keeps our impulses in check. People who have a shortage of it are more likely to be risk takers.
So, to answer the question about whether entrepreneurs are risk takers… it depends. Are you someone who always chases after the “get rich quick” schemes? Are you the kind of person who takes calculated risks to make your business better? If you don’t take some risks, you’ll never know your true potential. In that sense, all entrepreneurs are risk-takers. It just depends on the degree.
You can’t be stuck in neutral for fear of making the wrong decision. You might miss the best opportunity out there.
Entrepreneurs have to make decisions every day. Make the right decision and you could become very wealthy. Make the wrong one and you could become bankrupt. It’s enough to stress out the calmest of us. It’s always going to have some uncertainty associated with it. If we could predict the future we would all be rich.
A good entrepreneur will learn from the bad decisions and correct them quickly. They will also be less likely to repeat the bad decisions. And they will learn to trust their gut to figure out the right path.
Copyright (c) 2010 Julie Austin…
If you wanted to ask someone you know to recommend a locksmith they know, they probably would just stare blankly ahead. This is because many people are ill prepared for an emergency involving keys or locks. Make sure that you take the necessary precautions. Continue reading to find out how to hire a great locksmith.
Do not choose a locksmith who automatically recommends replacing the lock as the only way to get into your locked home. Skilled locksmith professionals should be able to unlock just about any door without having to replace the lock. Lock replacement costs additional money and should be avoided if possible.
A locksmith who quotes one price and tries to charge another may be scamming you. Unfortunately, there are some locksmiths that are scan artists. If you’re being told the job is going to cost more than the price you were quoted, tell them to leave and find someone else.
Even if a locksmith is something you will never have need for, it is good to be prepared. Spend some time researching in advance and locate a skilled professional you can trust in emergency situations. Keep their number on hand for when an emergency strikes.
Avoid additional fees by using a locksmith during regular hours. If they come outside business hours, you’ll pay extra. For example, if you get locked out of your car, the standard cost for the service is about $50; however, after hours this fee can double.
Research with the BBB to ensure your locksmith is reliable. This can help you avoid scammers. Also, check the ALOA site, which determines the validity of U.S. locksmiths.
Choose a tradesman who is an active participant of his professional community. Although it is not absolutely necessary, it is always good to know that the locksmith you select is well-versed on current technology and trends. In addition, it lets you know that he is more likely to be a legitimate locksmith who will not abscond with your money.
Find out how long a locksmith has been in business. Also, check to see if they’ve always used the same location. Try to find a locksmith who has been in business for at least 5 years.
Check the reviews of locksmiths on the web. You can find many reputable websites that provide reviews online. Make sure the site you check for reviews is not however tied to any locksmith service or sponsor. Check with the BBB before you hire a locksmith.
Check a locksmith’s credentials before you let him inside your home. Double check the address listed is real and connects with the phone number you were given. Make sure that you go online to read reviews and anything else you can to check a locksmith’s reputation because it’s well worth it!
Few folks know which locksmith to call unless they had troubles in the past. The trouble with that approach is that you could get overcharged or receive shabby service. Avoid situations like this by being prepared. Use …