Admin, Author at GUJRAT INDIA

21 Secrets to Franchise Business Success

1) Evaluate your tolerance for risk

Opening a new business is a scary prospect. There’s a lot of personal, professional and financial risk to consider. It’s natural when contemplating such a profound step in your career to look at ways to manage your risk and increase your chance of success.

The Small Business Administration conducted a survey that found 62% of non-franchised businesses failed within 6 years. A separate study by the United States Chamber of Commerce found that 97% of franchises were still open after 5 years.

The research conducted by these independent third party organizations clearly demonstrates that choosing a franchise business carries significantly less risk than starting a business on your own.

2) Work with what you’ve got

Making a list of your strengths is easy. But when launching a business, it’s also important to make an honest assessment of your weaknesses.

Before you get to work selecting a franchise, take the time to develop a list that honestly depicts your strengths and weaknesses as a potential business owner. Then use this profile as a tool to help with the decision making process.

Ask franchise owners questions about the duties they perform, and compare the job requirements to your profile. If the business has the potential to be a good fit, the skill sets required to run the business will either be skills you already have or skills you can learn quickly. If this is not the case, it’s best to keep looking.

If a certain aspect of a franchise has a steep learning curve but the business is otherwise a great fit, you may want to consider hiring someone experienced with that position. If this is the choice you make, be sure to include their salary and benefits in the financial business plan.

3) Remember to run the business

Many potential franchisees make the mistake of thinking they’re limited to buying a franchise in their current field. In fact, this might be the worst way to go.

Some franchises will not allow someone skilled in a particular industry to buy a franchise in that industry. For example, a mechanic may not be allowed to purchase an auto repair franchise. Skilled technicians sometimes find the transition from hands-on work to management work difficult to make, and are tempted back onto the floor to do the job they’re familiar with.

The problem with this is that you grow the business by running the business, and what a franchisor wants to see on the bottom line is growth. A business owner needs to be out networking, marketing and interacting with customers. If there’s too much work on the floor of an auto repair franchise, then the owner – even if he’s a highly skilled mechanic – needs to hire more mechanics.

Basic business skills are transferable to any franchise. If your current position involves universal roles like sales, marketing or accounting then your franchise options are practically unlimited.

4) No business is recession-proof

There’s no such thing as a business that can’t be impacted by a faltering economy.

There are, however, certain industries that are considered recession “resistant.” These are generally products and services people can’t do without no matter how much they’re cutting the budget.

The good news is there are hundreds of great franchise opportunities in recession resistant industries. The following are just a few examples:

Top recession resistant industries: Food · Automotive · Healthcare · Medical·Clothing · Education

Recession resistant franchise industries: Fast food restaurants· Automotive maintenance, parts and repair · Weight loss and fitness · Resale shops and discount (dollar) stores · Education (tutoring) and child care

5) Objectively evaluate professional advice from personal sources

Friends and family have your best interests at heart, and their advice comes from a place of love and concern for your well-being. No one would suggest making the personal, professional and financial commitment to launching a business without consulting your loved ones.

But friends and family are not subject matter experts and their advice can – intentionally or not – discourage a new business venture. The people who love you worry about what could happen if you fail, and their instinct will be to protect you from the risk.

When it comes to the final decision whether or not to proceed with purchasing a franchise, of course you will carefully weigh all the advice you’ve received. The key is to rely most heavily on the advice offered by industry professionals.

6) There’s no such thing as a free lunch

There are countless “free” franchise brokers and consultants out there claiming to offer unbiased information on franchise opportunities. They will work with you to assess your needs, and use your professional profile to help make recommendations on franchise opportunities that may suit you.

The problem with these services is that they get paid by the franchises for selling franchises. That means they are naturally only going to show you options they’ll get paid for. And in the case of high profile franchises that may offer them 2 to 4 times the average commission, there’s a real risk they may steer clients to those businesses whether they’re a good match or not.

These broker services may have access to detailed data on several hundred franchises and they can be a great source of information. Just be cautious about their recommendations, and get a second opinion before investing your money.

7) Tune out the hype

Never before was the adage “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” more applicable. You’re going to hear a lot of hype – good and bad – while assessing potential franchise opportunities.

Between marketing blitzes and human nature, it’s easy for success stories to spread like wildfire. Think about the guy who lost weight eating Subway – that story is so pervasive it’s become almost impossible to separate the allegory from the restaurant in the public’s perception. The hype surrounding that marketing campaign will have an impact on potential Subway franchisees for the foreseeable future.

It’s also natural for people to look for something to blame when things go wrong. Because of this there are also going to be negative, emotionally charged franchise stories in circulation. However, keep in mind the nuanced details that created such situations are never discussed; only the attention-grabbing outcomes.

No one is suggesting you completely ignore these stories, because hidden beneath the hype there are likely valuable lessons to learn. Learn from them what you can while keeping in mind what they are: unique situations with complex back stories that probably have no bearing on your success whether or not you choose the same franchise.

8) Look beyond the big brands

Sometimes it’s easy to forget there are thousands of franchise opportunities out there, because the big name brands get all the attention. When you’re in the early stages of your search, it’s a good idea to bypass the overblown marketing of the huge franchises and make an effort to learn about the “no-name” franchises in your industry of interest.

There are quite a few advantages to lesser known franchise brands. For instance, they are often cutting edge concepts that can get a lot of marketing attention. Lesser known franchises haven’t yet saturated your local market. And they’re usually less expensive to start up, which means less financial risk.

Of course, you may be looking for the security and benefits that come with a big name franchise. Criteria such as national marketing campaigns, standardized employee training, management support and strong purchasing power may be at the top of the checklist for what you’re looking for in a franchise, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re not interested in being another instantly recognizable box in another strip mall, then a ‘no-name’ franchise might be for you.

9) Look beyond the price tag

Just because a franchise is more expensive does not mean it will be more successful.

It’s important to evaluate every aspect of a franchise – financial projections, monthly franchise fees, franchiser support levels, issue response time, customer base and marketing, to name a few. The price tag is a factor to consider, but should not be the sole criterion for evaluating the quality of the business opportunity.

Once you narrow down your preference to a particular industry, conduct due diligence on 2 to 3 franchises in that industry. Gathering adequate information on several comparable franchises will allow you to make an informed decision.

10) Comparison shop

Once you decide a franchise is right for you, keep looking.

If you decide to purchase a franchise of Coffee House A, then it’s time to start looking for reasons not to buy it. Build a list of questions, and then go talk to owners of Coffee House B and Coffee House C.

Be blunt – ask the competing franchise owners why they feel their business is better than Coffee House A. Ask them what made them choose B over A and C. Ask them if they would recommend you buy the same franchise, and don’t stop digging until you’re clear on the why (or why not) of their response.

Build a spreadsheet comparing the details of the franchises. Include data such as the benefits offered, financial commitment required, estimated monthly expenses, commercial lease requirements and franchise fees.

If your franchise preference stands up to the scrutiny, then you’re on the right track.

11) Contact current and former franchisees

The best way to find out if a franchise is right for you is to go behind the scenes and ask a lot of questions.

Before making a buying decision, prepare a list of questions. Contact at least five current franchisees and make an appointment to discuss your interest in the business. Whatever else you discuss, be sure to ask the questions you prepared.

Try to arrange an all day job shadow session with at least two current franchisees. This will allow you to observe the daily operations of your potential future business without committing to personal financial risk.

Contact several separated franchisees to learn about their experience. Understanding their reasons for getting into – and out of – the franchise can impact your decision.

12) Do your due diligence

All franchises are not created equal, and it’s your job to sort them out. The information is out there – all you have to do is go get it.

Conducting due diligence on a franchise opportunity should include:

· Check with the Better Business Bureau for complaints

· Check with the State Attorney General for complaints

· Speak with the franchisor

· Request a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD)

· Attend a discovery day with the franchisor

· Make at least 10 calls to current and separated franchisees

· Make appointments to meet franchisees and visit the operation

· Job shadow a franchise owner (or owners) for at least a day (longer, if you can)

· Repeat as necessary

The purpose of due diligence is to reduce your risk. All the steps are necessary, but the most important step is interviewing and job shadowing a current franchise owner.

Some franchise owners will allow potential franchisees to spend weeks at their business learning the ropes. They may be willing to share detailed financial data, and can confirm or refute claims made by the parent company. A franchise owner can answer questions the franchisor may be legally bound from discussing. You may be able to make assessments about your own management style or potential business location by observing theirs. Visiting operating franchises in the course of due diligence may be the single best method for evaluating your potential success with a franchise opportunity.

13) When the time is right, hire a legal and financial team

Getting expert advice on the legal and financial aspects of a potential franchise purchase is essential. Some buyers skip this step to save money, but this is not the place to cut corners. The relatively small fees a lawyer and accountant charge pale in comparison to the enormous financial loss you’ll incur if the business fails.

Bringing in the legal and financial experts too soon in the purchase process can also be a mistake. Their professional opinions are necessary and valuable, but their advice can be expensive and potentially counterproductive in the early stages of your search. It’s crucial to remember when seeking their input that they should not choose the franchise for you.

Bringing in an accountant too soon can mean paying for them to run Profit & Loss data on every franchise that catches your eye. This onslaught of numbers can cloud your judgment, particularly if they’re taken outside the context of in-depth, due diligence research on each business.

Bring in an attorney too soon can mean paying them to review the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) for every franchise that strikes your fancy. Studying detailed franchise information at such an early stage with a legal advisor who doesn’t understand your personality, lifestyle and professional preferences can be detrimental to your search. You could end up inadvertently being talked out of the perfect business.

Waiting to bring in legal and financial advisors until your franchise choices have been narrowed down dramatically is not just cost effective. It’s the logical way to use the team’s expert advice to your best advantage.

14) Feel the fear and do it anyway

The best way to manage your fear of buying a new business is to manage your risk. The best way to manage your risk is to learn everything you can, then proceed according to what you’ve learned.

Start the process with no intent to purchase. That removes the chance of getting so excited about business ownership that you take an irrevocable leap with the first prospect you research.

Above all, ask yourself “can I picture myself doing this all day?” If the answer is “no,” then be grateful for what you’ve learned and move on to researching a different industry.

The research and due diligence processes get easier with practice. It may take a few attempts to find the perfect franchise, but your efforts are not wasted. By actively engaging in the search, you’ve made yourself familiar with the process. And there’s no fear in the familiar.

15) Go it alone

Business partnerships are appealing on the surface because the idea of splitting costs, liability and workload is tempting. But it’s nearly impossible for any two individuals to work together as much as necessary to launch a new business without problems developing.

If it is a financial necessity to form a partnership in order to purchase your franchise, it’s crucial to define the roles each partner will play well in advance. If at all possible, try to structure the partnership so you own 51% and have the power to make binding decisions for the business.

Entering a partnership is not to be taken lightly, and should not be done without consulting your attorney.

16) Lease, lease, lease

Most franchises provide detailed specifications on the type of commercial real estate required to launch the business, and many will assist with the search for an appropriate property.

Leasing a commercial property is nearly always preferable to purchasing one. The capital required to purchase a property is better reserved to fund operating costs for the first few years. It’s also preferable to sign short lease terms with options to extend rather than committing to a long lease term.

Because many commercial leases include taxes and assessment fees buried in the fine print that can cause financial problems for your business, it is very important to have your attorney review any commercial lease before you sign it.

17) Don’t forget you’ve got to eat

One of the most common mistakes people make when working up a financial business plan is forgetting to pay themselves. This simple oversight is at the root of a lot of failed businesses.

In a perfect world we would all have enough in savings to go a year without a paycheck, and everything a new business makes could go right back into making it stronger.

The reality is we’ve all got bills to pay. It’s important to be honest and thorough when estimating the salary the business will need to pay you. Cutting yourself short will create enormous problems, especially if your fledgling business can’t afford to give you a raise yet.

This is one area where decisions you make for the business directly impact your personal life. The franchise isn’t going to do you much good if your heat’s turned off and the bank is foreclosing. Taking extra care with this critical detail could someday save more than just your business.

18) Consider alternate financing options

In the current economic climate, strict lending standards are making it harder than ever to get a commercial loan issued. When loan approval is a problem, it is worth considering your 401(k) or IRA as a resource for purchasing your business.

These self-directed retirement structures do permit individuals to actively invest their retirement funds into a business without taking a taxable distribution or incurring early withdrawal penalties. A successful use of this financing method offers the chance for a greater potential return on your money than the original investments.

Using your retirement funds to purchase a business is not to be taken lightly. But if done right, having your own business could be the best retirement plan of all.

19) Lead by example

If you’re not working hard for your business, neither will your employees.

At the end of the day, the only one who cares if your business succeeds is you. This is not the time to kick back and count the money. In fact, that attitude is the quickest way to ensure that soon there won’t be any left to count.

Even the most diligent business owners may forget that employees can’t see through the office door. They have no idea you’re calling customers, ordering supplies, writing a marketing plan, reviewing applications and trying to find a way to cover next week’s payroll. For all they know, you’re taking a nap.

When an employee sees a manager coming in late, leaving early and taking long lunch breaks they think the worst. They don’t understand that you came in late because you attended a 7 am referral group meeting. They have no idea that your lunch ran long because you were signing a deal with a big new client. It doesn’t occur to them that you left early so you could attend a Chamber of Commerce networking function.

Communication with your employees can help them see you’re working as hard as they are. Share your growth projections and help individuals set goals to meet them. Bring key employees to client meetings. Send high performing employees to networking functions in your place. By giving your employees a role in growing the business, they’ll take pride in supporting your success.

20) If you don’t love it, don’t buy it

Confucius said “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

If you wake up in the morning and dread going to work, your franchise will not be successful. It’s as simple as that.

The beauty of franchising is the endless variety of options – there’s literally something for everyone. You just need to devote the time and effort to figuring out which one will make you hop out of bed every morning, happy to be doing what you love.

21) Use every resource at your disposal

Investing your personal, professional and financial future in a franchise opportunity is a big decision. Use every source of information you can find, and compare the data to make sure you’re getting the whole story.

9 Tips to Change Business Direction

In my last article we looked at the 8 Signs Your Company Can’t Change Direction. Now that you know what they are, let’s look at the opposite view on how to change direction.

Changes of business direction can happen as a reaction to economic conditions or a decision to change your business goals. Change is difficult and we all react to change with varying degrees of resistance. So, if change is something you want to do, or have to do, here’s how you can make the process easier.

Stop selling products and services. That’s what most of your competitors are doing. Start selling desired results or solutions to problems. No one pays a fee to a copy writer to write copy–they pay a fee for the results of the copy he/she writes.
Stop thinking your customers, clients or patients are different. Dan Kennedy says, “there are no Yogi’s in the forest. There’s no such thing as being smarter than the average bear.” Unless you sell to aliens or different life forms, you sell to people.
Listen to your clients, customers and patients. If you don’t have the time, survey the top 30 to 35% of your customers. Find out what they think and why they do business with you. You might end up being very surprised.
Get out more. As a minimum join your local association and one group of multiple business owners. Maybe it’s the local Chamber or Service Club, a venture forum or some networking group.
Start an idea and swipe file. Great ideas are all around us. The best ones are impossible to hide and someone else as already paid to test they work! Great marketing arrives in you mailbox and in the publications you read every day. Start becoming a collector of the ideas and ads. Write them down but don’t file them away-start using those ideas.
Fire up Google. Find other great companies in your field outside of your market and see what they’re doing. Pick up the phone call the owner, introduce yourself and start a dialog. Try it with a non-competing company in your own town!
Read. Read the trades in your own field or industry, read the trades in any target market and read to expand your overall knowledge. Hint–throw a novel of two into the mix, there are ideas in them too. Caution–don’t start reading all day and think you’re getting something done. Just one hour a day. One dose, 2 thirty min. sessions, or 3 twenty min. sessions. It goes directly to investing in yourself.
Get Accountability. Family, friends and associates are not good advisers. They have their own agendas and opinions on what’s right for you–and how what you do may affect them. Get a business coach, not to advise but to hold you accountable to your plans to do things differently and set new goals.
Keep–or get–the habit of taking action. Without action, deliberate action, nothing happens. Of course you know this so keep up the good work.

The ability to change directions comes directly from your determination to remain flexible. When something’s not working you have to make changes to get the results you want. When you find yourself resisting change remember:

Anything else has a higher probability of success than what’s not working right now.

Learning To Pack Your 4×4

There are many different types of vehicles out there that could take advantage of extra storage space. When looking at your vehicle you can see that you have a lot of space that you should be able to use, however, once you start packing, everything seems to change. Where did all that extra space go?

This is why learning to pack your 4×4, ute or other vehicle is very important. Of course having 4wd storage drawers installed in your ute or SUV makes a big difference in the amount of stuff you can store. But even without drawers, by using these tricks you’ll be able to fit more in your vehicle.

The least used items

You want to start with your least used items. These are the items that you won’t use that much or will be used at the end of your trip. Placing these items at the back will give you more room to play with and keep the items you need first more accessible.

Heavy items

The heavy items should go more towards the bottom of your vehicle floor. These heavy items will shift and move if placed off the ground level. Also, if you place them higher up they may break items below them.

Match shapes

Lots of items that we take with us on trips may have odd shapes. You may have square or rectangular suitcases and you may have round or odd shaped bags. If you can, try to coordinate all of these shapes into piles outside of the vehicle. When you do this, you can start to grab and stack them as you see spaces form in your vehicle.

Numbering your items

A great trick that some people don’t even realise is possible is to number your items that you put into your vehicle. Taking a sticker or placing a tag on the item will help you keep items straight. Starting from one side of your vehicle you just put in bag one then two then three. This way you can find the perfect combination for your vehicle which can then be repeated over and over again.

Preload your items

Packing your vehicle can take a long time or can be a real chore. A great way to relieve the stress of packing is to preload your items. What this generally means is that you want to take the always used items and keep them in your vehicle. These are items that you use on a daily basis, have no need to keep in your home and just take up space. When you keep these items in your vehicle you don’t have to worry about them, and you will always have them as needed.

Create a system

So far you have been given some details, ideas and tips to load your 4×4 and other vehicles. From here you can start to experiment and see what works for you. In your experimentation, don’t discount the idea of adding 4wd storage drawers to your vehicle. They’re a great way to expand capacity.

What Is the Definition of a Lifestyle Entrepreneur?

A lifestyle entrepreneur is someone who is tired of living the template lifestyle that most people have accepted and has decided to create a lifestyle by design. This person has a passion to do something and wants to make a living at it even if that means they are not going to make a fortune doing it. You can live the lifestyle of a millionaire without actually being a millionaire. To accomplish this you will have to make a paradigm shift in how you think about money, career, lifestyle, and what is really important to you in life.

Deciding to pursue your passion in life and make money from doing it gives a person the freedom and feeling of being alive that rarely comes from working a job just to earn money to pay for things that you hardly ever use anyway. Take some time to reflect on what is really important in your life, this will give you the motivation to start your new journey toward a new beginning. A lifestyle entrepreneur might want to travel the world or just be able to spend more time with their family instead of spending 8 – 12 hours a day at work and a couple of hours in traffic everyday.

Anyone can become a lifestyle entrepreneur all they have to do is have a passion for something that they are willing to put some work into to develop and share with others. You can still keep your job while working on your ideas and make the transition to full-time “whatever” when the time is right.

To get started on your passion do some research on what you love by coming up with keywords and start “Googling”. Read as many blogs and articles about your subject as you can then figure out where you can fit yourself in to offer value to people. There is plenty of information on the web about how to set up a blog and market your product or service.

The definition of a lifestyle entrepreneur is whatever you create it to be as long as you are following your passion and living life on your own terms to the degree that you feel comfortable with. Just take the first step towards your dreams, the path will open as you go along. I will be offering tips and strategies on setting up a lifestyle business on my blog in the near future

How to Make Big Money With Your Start-Up Business

Starting a small business should involve marketing strategies that are proven to make money. You are taking a calculated risk to make money, so there is a high risk of failure but not if you have the right focus and the right type of business. Making money will come naturally if you remain passionate about your business.

It is difficult to think this way initially about your new start-up up business because most entrepreneurs generally think of making the extra money they need or making fast money to pay off bills first. After all, that is the reasoning for being in business in the first place. If you have been laid off in this tough economy and need to pay bills it is easy to fall into this trap. To avoid these pitfalls, focus on helping your customer and solving a problem for them.

For a small business to be successful there is usually some upfront expense. Especially in retail and getting your money back is not as fast as most retail shops only net 5-10% profits yearly. You pay for space, fixtures inventory and personnel. There are generally large out of pocket expenses associated with retail. I don’t recommend this method.

Service businesses can be the easiest to start and the least cost to you out of pocket and you help solve problems. You generally can incorporate easily, get business cards and be out on the road speaking to potential customers the same day. For example, an office cleaning service. Just go to a local business park and introduce yourself, shake hands and give them your business card and a quick “elevator pitch” about your business service. You can easily pick up 3-5 customers a day and bill $35-$70 per month per customer using this simple method. Add employees as you need to and do the work yourself, initially.

The internet also offers some low cost approaches similar to the example above. You can develop an information product to solve a problem and make you money quickly. There are effective ways to sell services and information products online while focusing on solving a problem and make money more quickly with a click of the mouse. It has never been easier to start a small business and make a substantial income stream that will continue to make you money, than now.

Who Can Become the Rich?

I have a habit of not loving to read the book that is highly recommended and appreciated with comments such as “this book has a good content” or “many people have liked it”, especially the book of teaching life skills or getting rich. I simply think that millions of people have read it. However, among those who have read the book and become wealthy, no one acknowledges that this book itself has just taught him how to be a billionaire.

When I was 16-years-old, I wondered “Do the rich also come from the same circumstances as mine?”. Therefore, I often paid much attention to the biographies of famous names such as Andrew Carnegie – The King of Steel, Henry Ford – The King of Cars, John Davison Rockefeller – King of Standard Oil or President Theodore Roosevelt,… to compare the similarities between me and them.

My family has been living in a peaceful countryside. My parents did not have any reserve assets. At the age of 22, after graduating from a university, I applied for a job in a private company. Although I had much spare time, I had difficulty in money at that time. I used to wander and buy the books that made me feel curious. By chance, I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Amazingly, this book itself created the most admirable turning point in my life.

Firstly, I was so amazed to know that my previous concept of “riches” was wrong. If I continued to keep this concept, it could decrease my motivation and spirit of striving. Certainly, I would never get close to success and toward “riches” because “Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought” and “Success requires no explanations, failure permits no alibis”.

The second value is that I found out a true answer to the question “Is it possible or impossible to get rich from a low starting point?”. I realized that the difference between me and the rich was in thought.

Obviously, family condition is not a factor to make you wealthy. Anyone can become rich whoever you are, and wherever you are starting from. The only difference is, if there is a better family condition in combination with your own effort, you will be rich quicker.

Thanks to its motivation and detailed instructions, I began to change myself. Up to now, I have reached the goal to get a monthly income of 30 million dong before I’m 30; meanwhile, my friends have just earned 5 – 10 million dong per month.

That is also the reasons why I do not like to read the books that other people recommend, but I have decided to share with you about Think and Grow Rich. Instead of searching keywords “How to get rich quick”, let’s perform steps toward riches by formula of self-confidence and success: Think and Grow Rich

Why 90 Percent of Entrepreneurs’ Businesses Fail

Entrepreneurship has become the general dream work for both the employed and unemployable. Business opportunities are springing up everywhere, enticing and calling you to make the leap of destiny into the wealth and affluence you’ve often dreamt about. It is also notable that 9 out of every 10 businesses collapse within 2 years of starting. Even the best of well-read gurus collapse in the face of numerous tests that would have heralded the enthronement of a celebrated business idea.

Despite the numerous complaints about the challenges of building businesses in Nigeria, some are still transforming themselves into formidable forces of repute. It is therefore important to know the necessary factors that affect the entrepreneur, his idea, and his growing business.

Not considering pests!

Pests are crazy little creatures that cause immense damage to food and materials in a house, shop or office. Ok, I am not talking about local pests, but in business parlance means Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment; factors which are not necessarily within your control. Some other standard business books give their own academic variations.

PESTLE/PESTEL: Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.

PESTLIED: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, International, Environmental and Demographic.

STEEPLE: Social/Demographic, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical; and

SLEPT: Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological.

This considers external factors, which if not well considered, can suck life out of any aspiring business. I remember Sokoa Chair Center (Nigeria)’s story for which they explained how the National Government’s ban on importation almost ran them out of business. Her ability to navigate her business out of the murky waters of challenges became the foundation for the world class enterprise she manages today.

Political: political stability, security, freedom of press, regulation and Tax policy, and trade and tariff controls

Economic: Stage of business cycle, economic growth, inflation and interest rates, unemployment and employee turn-over, impact of globalization (Global Financial Crises)

Socio-Cultural: education and social mobility, market demand, public opinion, social attitudes trends,

Technological Environment: Impact of emerging technologies, (automation, internet, e-commerce e.t.c.). Compaq recently launched a 24hr laptop battery, while DELL was busy putting finishing touches to launch their 16hr laptop battery, if DELL were a run off the mill company, they are grounded!

Eating your investment, and not profit

No sooner than a small business begins to level up in terms of income, our wonderful entrepreneur begins to think of changing levels and status. He buys a new car, wardrobe, changes office space, all from the proceeds of the business which is actually the capital and not profits. When spending, it pays to separate personal funds from the business. The business pays you your money, and you must learn to live within that means. Problems occur when initial deposit is given for business only for our aspiring business man goes to celebrate the huge success of his business.

An entrepreneur seeking to build a business must understand the separation and marriage between business and personal life.

Mismanaging reality

When entrepreneurs venture out, they are usually motivated by a deep passion-either for themselves, their idea, getting rich, an opportunity or some other object of enthusiasm. Armed with such passion, they take risks and set sail against unexpected signs of reality.

Yet passion tends to distort reality. The ability to succeed in business depends on the skill of adjusting the plans and dreams to the prevailing conditions. The idea that the challenges will bow to your plans and dreams will burn the drain the entrepreneur’s time, energy, and money pursuing an ill-defined endgame without a realistic path. And when the issues start pouring in… expenses not turning into expected results , potential customers are not that crazy about the product, missed deadlines, shortfalls in sales,- objectivity and reason become even further blurred by the mind-bending distractions of doubt, fear and disappointing replies to investors. Entrepreneurs are found to cave in under these kinds of pressures not knowing it is a bend towards the shining light of achievement.

When personal failures affect business

The personal faults, habits and failures of an entrepreneur are usually obvious especially when he has a lot of people under him. Inability to manage funds, not being detailed and bad people management skills are some indirect factors responsible for the high rate of business failures. Entrepreneurs, like any pioneer, have their own lapses, but must be able to manage them extensively. I know an entrepreneur who does not negotiate price but leaves it to his financial manager because he never succeeds in negotiating a beneficial deal. Many entrepreneurs are successful in spite of themselves. The key is in working well, and enjoying, full understanding of their weaknesses and mitigating the likely risks.

Good at starting business, bad at running them.

This is very true of many entrepreneurs, since most of them are powerful initiators, but terrible managers. Most are more interested in making money than it is to build a business. Most technicians think because they understand their product or skill, they will automatically transform those ideas into business. Most of them have this great obligation to run their businesses and become a great manager. Working on a business and working in a business are two different worlds. While the entrepreneur works on his business, the technician works in the business. He feels if he gave in more, worked harder, profit will come. How untrue!

These are some of the factors I have considered and will love if you ponder on them while thinking, planning, starting and managing your business. Don’t forget also, out of the first 20 richest men in America, only 4 are employees.

MLM Home Based Business Work From Home Opportunity

There are various work at home business options; one of which is the mlm model or network marketing. In spite of the industry being a $31 billion dollar industry, mlm is dogged by an image problem. Let’s look at a mlm home based business work from home opportunity to see it is a viable option for you to make money from home, which I’m guessing is the main reason you are reading this article.

About MLM

Direct selling or MLM or network marketing (you pick the name you prefer) is a business model that offers entrepreneurial opportunities to individuals as independent contractors to market and/or sell products and services, typically outside of a fixed retail establishment, through one-to-one selling, in-home product demonstrations or online. Compensation is ultimately based on sales and may be earned based on personal sales and/or the sales of others in their sales organizations.

Direct sellers may be called distributors, representatives, consultants or various other titles. They may participate in various ways, including selling the products themselves or through their sales organizations, providing training and leadership to their sales organizations, referring customers to the company, and purchasing products and services for personal use.

MLM Companies

There a thousands of companies operating under this model. Some are country specific (eg Malaysia only) whereas others undertake global expansion and stretch into many countries (eg Herbalife is in 80+ countries).

In choosing a MLM home based business work from home opportunity, size might be one criteria that you would want to look at. The DSA (Direct Selling Association) recently release the Top 20 Companies in the US (alphabetic order)

AdvoCare International, LP
Ambit Energy
Amway
Arbonne International, LLC
Avon Products, Inc.
CUTCO/Vector Marketing Corp.
Herbalife
Isagenix
LifeVantage Corporation
Mary Kay Inc.
Melaleuca, Inc.
Nu Skin Enterprises
The Pampered Chef
Scentsy, Inc.
Stampin’ Up!
Stream Energy
Take Shape for Life – Medifast
Team Beachbody
Thirty-One Gifts
USANA Health Sciences, Inc.

As well as size these companies have longevity especially Amway starting back in 1959.

MLM Products

MLM companies offer an array of products from health, technology, beauty, legal services, energy and much more. There is a product here for everybody to market. While I believe it’s preferable to market a product that is consumable, there are success stories in every company. You choose what product you prefer to market.

MLM Compensation Plans

There are numerous ways a distributor is compensated in a network marketing company. These plans include unilever, breakaway, matrix, binary and a hybrid of some of these plans. To get a better understanding of these plans, have a look at this post http://mlminsider.com/main.php?/compensation_plans

Can You Make Money?

Most people will not. That’s not the fault of the company or the products because with inside every company there are thousands of success stories; both income and product testimonials. To improve your chances of mlm home based business work from home success, here’s 3 simple rules to improve your chances:

Pick A Company And Stay. Choose a company based on your own preferences of product, size, locality etc and decide to stay with that company until you become a success. Too many people are lured by a new option and leave only to find that their new business isn’t firing and perhaps they are the reason for their failure and not the company or it’s products. If you look at the top industry earners you’ll find a majority have been with their company for a long time. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare. MLM success is the same.

Talk To People. While there are many ways to connect with people ( email, social media, advertising etc) those who are the most successful in the industry speak to their prospects. There’s no getting away from it. The rest is just avoidance behaviour.

Be A Company Advocate; Use The Products. You need to believe 110% in your company and the industry. You will be bombarded with words like ‘scam’, ‘pyramid scheme’ and ‘is this Amway’. If you don’t have 100% conviction, you’ll falter and you won’t be a success. A personal way to get conviction or belief is to use your company’s products and get a result. Nobody can take that success away from you. If your belief in the network marketing industry needs boosting watch the Evolution of Network Marketing on YouTube.

A MLM home based business work from home opportunity can be a viable option to have you quit your job and to make money from home. The success of which relies 100% on you.

How to Research an Ecommerce Business Idea

Ecommerce is well known as being a low overhead route to market but that doesn’t mean that you can be complacent about your business model.

I’m going to give you some ways in which you can test out your ecommerce business idea before you get in too deep.

A common way to set up an ecommerce site is to start with your business idea, talk to a design or web agency who will provide you with a project proposal to design and build your website. Once built and paid for you then begin to wrestle with ways to generate traffic to your new website, given that the site is new and has few (if any) inbound links you’ll soon be setting up your Google AdWords account and paying for visitors on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis.

Given that you’ve just paid to design and build the site and are now paying for your traffic, this isn’t a good time to find out that there simply isn’t the demand you thought there would be for your products, or that given the cost of traffic and overheads you can’t make a profit on what you sell.

Let’s look at some ways of avoiding a situation like this. By taking a range of steps using existing online tools and services you can get some real world research to find out a bit more about your potential market, and then with a minimal investment test how receptive that market is to your proposed products and price point.

Step 1. Where is the search?

Your first step should be to write down a list of the phrases you believe potential customers would use to find your products, once you have these phrases use some online keyword research tools to find out how much traffic there is for each term, as well as the level of competition each phrase has.

You need to bear in mind that the figures for search volume will vary dependent upon where you go for the figures and the marketplace you are looking at. Google’s keyword research tool is geared towards AdWords and by default will give you figures based upon their ‘Broadmatch’ setting which includes similar searches, and as such by default gives unusually high traffic figures.

I prefer to use Yahoo! or Wordtracker for this kind of information as the figures are more realistic, if you do use Google’s keyword tool then make sure you enclose the search term in speech marks as this will match the phrase directly.

Step 2. How many competitors are there?

You might find that you have a healthy search volume, but then if this is an already well mined niche with many existing competitors you will be at an immediate disadvantage as your competitors will be trading with an established website and you will be starting from scratch.

There are 2 pieces of information we will need for each phrase to give us a complete picture of the situation. One is the number of direct competitors who are already in Google’s index for the phrases we are interested in and the next is a keywords effectiveness index (KEI) which combines search volume with competitors volume to derive an index figure which highlights the potential of each phrase in our list.

Step 3. Get to grips with the competition

Not all search phrases are created equal as some will have more sites competing for them than others.

Imagine you have a search phrase in your list with 100 searches per month, are you competing with 10 other sites for that traffic or 10,000,000 other sites? By using an effectiveness index you will see at a glance where there are gaps in the competition and if you decide to go ahead with your new ecommerce site you can use this information to help optimise your website for these phrases.

In order to find the number of competing sites for a search phrase, do a search in Google with the search phrase in speech marks and take a look at the “Results 1 to 10 of about xxx” the xxx figure is the amount of websites that are in Google’s index for that exact phrase.

The KEI equation is searches x searches / competition = effectiveness for example 100 x 100 / 10 = 1000 KEI which is a great opportunity as ultimately you have 100 searches with only 10 direct competitors for that phrase. Whereas 100 x 100 / 10,000,000 = 0.001 KEI which is dreadful!

If you know a bit about search engine optimisation you will recognise these techniques as they are often used in the keyphrase selection process when optimising an existing site, but given that this research can easily be completed before any website has been built it makes sense to employ these techniques to get a feel for the nature of the opportunity presented online for your particular business idea at the outset.

Step 4. Test your business idea with PPC

This technique requires more of an investment but rewards you with some more tangible results.

You will need to set up a few web pages for your key products with a click to purchase button that sends you an email. Tell your prospective customers that you are out of stock and ask if they would like to be informed when the product is back in.

Now set up a PPC account with Google and spend a couple of hundred pounds/dollars on getting traffic to the page, you’ll soon get a feel for the cost of traffic and the kind of conversion rate you’d be starting with.

Step 5. Prototype your ecommerce website with SaaS

These days there are many low overhead software as a service (SaaS) web applications for ecommerce that are ready to use with nothing more than an online sign-up.

This kind of service utilises existing functionality that runs on a webserver and has no design/build overhead so you can simply start trading and pay as you go for the service.

Pick an ecommerce service provider that you like the look of, upload your products and set it up with a low cost payment system such as PayPal and off you go.

If you did the phrase research you’ll also have a good starting point to set up an AdWords account and a strong lead on the phrases you should include in you site content to attract search traffic.

Essentially in this last step we are setting up a fully functioning ecommerce website, however as we are only paying for the service monthly and there is no design/build overhead we can quickly get to grips with the nature of the business and see if it has legs or not without sacrificing all of our capital, which if things go well we are then in a position to spend on improving an ecommerce site we know works rather than simply gambling on a hunch.

Ways to Finance Your Dream Business: Different Capital Mix to Start Your Business

If you have a business idea, or you think your true calling is to walk an entrepreneurial path, but you are more than broke to start your own business, the only way to make that dream come true is to loan a capital to finance your dream business. Yes, you may have different sources to ask for a business loan. But all are different. Some may not even allow you to loan.

Here, we list down some sources you may ask a loan from and their qualifications so you can trim down your prospect.

Equity Investment

Equity means ownership. Hence, those who have built their businesses are the ones only allowed in this form of loan. If you opt for equity investment, you should be ready to let part of your start up go. Because, once you sell 51 percent of your shares, you lose control of the company. This kind of loan is the same putting a ‘business for sale’ sign on your business.

However, if you’re the kind of owner who likes full command on your business, you may just take a loan from other companies in your business-if you happen to have one. Or loan from your friends, business partners, stockholders or other people you trust and create an agreement with them instead. That would be legal as long as you have mutual agreement with these people. Also, before you indulge in this kind of loan, be sure to know the law to protect yourself.

Personal Savings

Personal Savings is the most common form of equity investment. This means that the fund that you’ll likely get to start your business is through personal savings, inheritance, friends and family. This kind of investment is what most of the people resort to when starting their own business. And it is actually a good thing for investors and money lenders as it signifies that you’re highly committed to the business because you’re willing to risk your personal savings.

In the course of your business, it is advisable to keep your personal investment to at least 25% to increase an equity position and leverage. Remember, the more equity your business has, the more attractive your business is to banks that can loan you as much as three times your business’ equity.

Commercial Loans

This accounts for the second most used form of business owners to finance their companies. According to Business Week, small business loans are declined by 18 percent due to financial crisis. Although this doesn’t mean that your loan would be disapproved because commercial loans are case to case basis. And the only way for your loan to be approved is to abide to the 4 C’s of Lending. Here they are:

Cash Flow: It is the amount of money going around your business or your liquid assets. When applying for a loan, you need to strengthen your cash flow as this signals that you’re able to repay the cash you’re borrowing.

Collateral: It is the value of asset you’re willing to pledge as security for repayment of your loan. This is to assure the lender of your commitment to pay because if nay, the collateral will be forfeited in the event of a default.

Commitment: This is the amount of money that you’re committing to your business. However, this is not as important as the other two aforementioned as your loan can still be approved without disclosing your share.

Character: This covers your personal credit score and history with the financial institution as a whole. This is the very thing that you need to look at if you’re planning to loan. All your debts no matter how small it is should be cleared and you should maintain a good credit rating to increase your chances significantly.

Indeed, there are different institutions to which you can apply for a loan. It all depends on how creative you are on designing your capital mix to get started with your dream business.