Ryan Galiotto

Posts Tagged ‘small business’

Youre in the market to buy a franchise, and youve found a concept that you like. Youve read the website, reviewed the marketing materials and examined the Franchise Disclosure Document. In addition, youve talked to the franchisor a number of times. While your spouse may not be completely on board, youve kept him or her in the loop. Its looking pretty good so far.

Advice that Helps If you are serious about being a franchise owner, the next step would be to seek advice from business professionals who have practical experience in franchising, in the industry that you are considering and better yet, in the franchise you are considering. The franchisees are a wonderful resource and in most franchise systems they are open and willing to help. An accountant that has experience in this industry and knows the norms regarding profit would be very helpful. A franchise consultant that has years of experience in franchising can provide you with a balanced point of view regarding the opportunity. Finally, a lawyer that specializes in franchising can be helpful in reviewing the structure of the relationship.

Advice that Disorients Far too often, potential franchisees get so excited about the idea of being a business owner that before they fully see the risks and rewards, they start reciting their loosely defined dreams to anyone who will listen. They talk about their business idea with their drinking buddies and even with Great Aunt Edna. Now lets be realistic, Great Aunt Edna loves you but shes been out of the working world for 25 years – she does not have an email address and still enjoys watching reruns of Bonanza. There is very little she can do to help you as you seek out more franchise information. There is a lot, however, that she can do to disorient you. Be careful.

How about your buddy who works for the U. S. Postal Service? His lifetime has been spent avoiding risk, maximizing salary, establishing his pension and surviving until retirement. Theres nothing wrong with that, but is he able to provide you much guidance? Probably not.

Many people have your best interests in mind. But well-meaning advice from people who simply dont know business ownership, the industry you are looking at or have practical franchise information can be incredibly disorienting.

Advice that Matters Spouses commonly balance each other in temperament. If you are a go-getter, theres a high probability that your spouse is more cautious. She will remind you that the paycheck is good, and will worry about what will happen if you fail. These are critical conversations to have. But you want to be prepared.

First, gather all the facts and be sure you have a clear idea of what it requires to be successful in the business. How long does it generally take to break even and what level of income would a successful business create. Learn everything you can and involve your spouse every step of the way. If you spouse has a concern, listen to the concern and get as much information on the topic as you can to share with your spouse. These decisions are normally made as a partnership. If you and your spouse decide not to move forward with a business opportunity that you love, wont you feel better knowing youve given him or her all the facts? At least then you know you gave it your best shot.

Here are a few of the most frequent objections you are likely to hear, as well as some facts to combat those perceptions.

1. Dont most small businesses fail? Several long-term surveys have shown that, contrary to independent start-ups, franchises have a strong success rate. Owning a franchise (vs. starting an independent business) gives you a tremendous head start, including: A proven operating system that can predictably create success. National marketing programs Group buying power Training and on-going support Manuals, procedures, job descriptions, accounting help, and so much more.

2. Why dont you just change jobs? Any book you read on wealth creation will tell you that very few people get wealthy by working for other people. Wealth is normally created in three ways ” the Stock Market (less than 10% of millionaires created their wealth by investing in the stock market), Real Estate Investment ( 10 ” 20% of millionaires created their wealth by investing in real estate), and Business Ownership (70 ” 80 % of millionaires created their wealth by building businesses).

Getting another job will not move you to the next level. If you are looking to create wealth and a better future for you and your family, business ownership is the best path.

3. Perhaps you should think about it some more. You should not make a decision of this magnitude rushing but you do not want to postpone either. Do your homework, ask all the questions and take notes – then make a yes or no decision in a timely and businesslike fashion. One characteristic of successful business people is their ability to make good business decisions with incomplete information. If you find yourself paralyzed, be careful, business ownership may not be for you. Yes or no, the most important thing is your ability and willingness to make a decisive decision and move forward.

4. What if you fail? You want to enter business ownership with the knowledge that you may fail. Naturally you could also lose your job. There are no guarantees with anything that we do in life. Nobody can assure success. All you are able to do is stack the deck in your favor.

If you know that most franchisees in your chosen system are pleased with their success; that you have similar skill set to successful franchisees; that you are adequately capitalized; that you trust and can follow the franchisors system; and that you are willing to work hard, you are on your way to being confident that you can succeed.

Before you begin to share franchise information with your friends and family make sure you have the facts straight. Educate them. Help them join your team. And if they cant be on your team, maybe thats OK. Everyone likes to give advice, and naturally, everyone gives advice from their point of view ” their reference base. As long as you know that, you can appreciate their concern, and not let it overly influence you.

Free is very good for a small business. As the economy continues a downward spiral, these companies are looking to save money any way that they can. A lot of times, advertising is what takes the first hit, but that defeats the purpose. You can’t do business if people don’t know about you. This is where free business classified ads come in. You can advertise all you want on the internet and it won’t cost you a penny!

When you go looking on the web and type in ‘free business classified’ you are going to get a response in the tens of millions. This probably equates to tens of thousands of sites that will allow you to place a free business classified ad. How do you not take advantage of that? You get to reach a national audience at no cost.

Some people will not take advantage of this because they don’t believe that they need to reach this large of an audience. So you are saying that you can’t use the extra business? Are you kidding me? This opens you up to a whole new facet and could be the difference in you staying afloat in a horrible economy or going out of business with the rest of the ignorant owners. You can’t afford to not take advantage of this!

You can also do much more with a free business classified then just a quick post. You are going to want to get as much information as you can in this listing, but most sites will put a line or character maximum on you. You are going to have to get your point across and do so with keywords. How much selling can you do? The idea in this case is to get them aimed somewhere so they can get the rest of the information.

You will do this by highlighting your service or business as much as possible and then you will use your last line to direct them to your website, blog or social page. Now you can talk about your business as much as you want. You just created hits for your site by taking advantage of a free business classified. How much better does it get?

The trick to the whole process is to get your ad noticed. You get it noticed by being at the top of the search engines. You do this by having appropriate keywords that are directly related to your product. Your phrases need to duplicate exactly what people are going to type in when they go to an engine looking for something. There are plenty of ways to figure this out. You can do it on your own or pay a company to put the list together for you to use that will guarantee that you shop up at the top.

Now it is time to get creative with free business classified ads and you are going to do that by exploring sites and areas in the classifieds that are common to what you are selling but are completely different at the same time. Confused? The idea here is a type of cross contamination. You are selling fishing poles. You have posted everywhere you can think of, but now you are going to use keywords for rifles in your ad but when they click, low and behold, they are lead to your fishing pole site. You are going after rifle buyers here that probably also fish. If they don’t who cares, they close out your site and go back to the search engine. If they do fish, you may have caught them in an impulse moment and they start exploring your site. Tell me you haven’t had this happen to you. Doing this effectively just may make you the next Bill Gaites!