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February 15, 2012 

As an entrepreneur you have choices to make when going into business.  You can start a business from scratch or you can acquire an existing viable business.  Also on the list of opportunities is buying into a franchised opportunity.

Investing in a franchised venture is a little different from acquiring a business or hanging your own sign out.  In this business scenario, you, the franchisee, agree to conduct business under the franchisor for a specified duration.  Franchised opportunities involve sophisticated agreements between you and the franchisor.

Buying a franchise brings a wealth of benefits, but you also need to be aware of the conditions around buying a franchise.  Here are some tips and information on franchised opportunities:

•  Franchises are plentiful; ensure you research each for the right fit against your operational, management and financial capabilities
• Franchises come with strict operating standards, and you must be aware that you will need to adhere to these standards such as pricing, marketing, design, customer service, employment, etc
• You will need to pay royalties or monthly payments for ongoing franchise costs
• Most established strong franchises have rigorous training programs and schedules, both at your location and possibly to a head office location
• In franchised opportunities, the master franchise holder or company will conduct frequent inspections to ensure consistency of standards
• Franchised opportunities will not provide the flexibility that you may see in your own start up scenario
• Most of the time with established bigger franchises, volume of business will be significant and margins may be lower than experienced in your own start up scenario

Benefits of franchises:

• The leg work has been done, and if you buy a franchise, you buy a brand, loyal customer base, standardized practices and operating procedures
• Through the power of a large franchisor, economies of scale are achieved, which results in greater negotiating power, buying power, marketing power, etc
• You could piggy back on to some of the largest national marketing and advertising budgets; normally you don’t have to worry about marketing and advertising
• With the franchise comes a support team of corporate managers and executives; the franchisor does not want you to fail and will assist
• Larger franchises with brand recognition and existing loyal global customers will possibly result in immediate revenue streams
• Franchised opportunities open the door for additional funding sources, and in some cases, franchisors offer in-house financing
• Franchisors undertake extensive product and service development to open new doors and revenue streams for franchisees
• If you do well, franchises may offer expansion opportunities (i.e.: the offer to run another location or two);  fast food franchises are good examples
• If you do extremely well with multiple locations, you may be eligible to invest and run master franchised opportunities, such as managing the franchisees within a whole district, state, or province or territory.

Disadvantages to be aware of:

• Franchised opportunities can be capital intensive
• Be prepared for heavy investment and the need to acquire funding sources
• Franchised agreements can be complex, with strict terms and conditions
• Franchised opportunities come with mandatory fees and monthly royalties
• In owing a franchise, you give up some control over the business

Similar to other opportunities, you need to investigate whether or not buying a franchise is your way into entrepreneurship.  With heavy due diligence on your part, franchised opportunities could provide you with a stable business opportunity with ample rewards.

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Business Mentor information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

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February 14, 2012 

Eager entrepreneurs are always seeking business opportunities around special calendar events.  Valentine’s Day poses another one of those short-term opportunities if you can get in on it early and big.

The National Retail Federation has posted some favorable survey statistics for this year’s love-filled seasonal event:

- average spending per person (dressed like cupid)… $126.03

- an 8.5% increase in spending over last year

- $17.6 billion estimated spending on chocolates, little red heart and cupid arrows

- on average, people will spend $4.52 on their pets

- men will spend an average $168, while women will spend an average of $86

- rounding off the stats – $4.1 billion on jewelry, $3.5 billion on a night out, $1.8 billion will be spent on followers, $1.5 billion on candy, $1.4 billion on clothing and $1.1 billion on gift cards (including those tacky pop up heart cards)

Stats for the technical shoppers, 54% of tablet owners will research and buy products for Valentine’s Day, while 41% of smart phone users will do the same.

So, don’t overlook great short-term opportunities around big commercial events such as Valentine’s Day.

Strategy Plan One

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© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

Stats courtesy - NRF’s 2012 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGinsight

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February 11, 2012  

As an entrepreneur you cannot overlook the importance of business mentors.  Engaging with successful business professionals can only strengthen your business and management skill set.  Many examples exist of business mentors who train and transfer their skill sets over to willing and open participants.  Ensure you find a mentor that is willing and that the relationship is two-way, with both participants gaining from the valued relationship.

Here are some benefits of a business mentoring relationship:

Mentoring from Experience

A mentor can show you the pathway to success, and warn you in advance of the hurdles and barriers you may encounter as an entrepreneur.  This could be the difference between thriving and surviving.  Mentors can describe some of the pitfalls and mistakes in business, so that you don’t make them.  Make sure you are open to listening and learning everything you can from the mentor.

Developing a Partnership

Depending on who you align with in your mentoring relationship, this could blossom into a real business partnership or alliance.  Not only does the mentoring help you now, but this could result in added benefits for you beyond the mentoring relationship time frame.  Strategically choose you mentors for partnership building.

Access to Markets

Experienced mentors may show you the way to new markets that you may have not planned for.  Mentors have learned from experience in markets, so tune into this.  You are opening many doors with access to a mentor.  Ensure you learn everything you can from your mentor on market and marketing opportunities.

Networking – Access to Further Resources

Mentors know other professionals and have network linkages potentially farther than your own.  Tap into your mentor’s network of professionals.  This may link you in to a professional in a more specialized area, such as a marketing - branding specialist, or a consultant that specialized in strategic global markets, etc.

Learning from a Leader

It is very important for you to follow in the footsteps of a great, successful business person.  Your mentor is demonstrating great leadership by training, mentoring, encouraging and empowering you to be more successful.  You are not only learning about best business practices in the mentoring relationship, but you are also learning leadership skills and strategies.  Observe key leadership competencies of your mentor, and be prepared to insert those leadership traits into your own skill set as a leader.

You as a Mentor

Down the business road, one day you will be called upon to be a mentor and share what you have learned.  Remember this is part of the mentoring cycle, and your commitment to assist someone else, as your mentor had done the same for you.  New entrepreneurs are eager to learn and to be successful; do what you can to support this in the future.  This also provides the opportunity for you as a leader and mentor, to sharpen your leadership skill set.

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Business Mentor information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

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Many of us encounter massive piles of work to do and very little time to do it.  We are always looking for strategic ways to get organized, to clear the clutter, and to set priorities.

 

You will notice that in the majority of articles and blogs that paragraphs and points are itemized, numbered, and bulleted.  It is a natural and effective way of gathering and organizing volumes of information for the audience.

 

Whenever you are overwhelmed with volume and your inbox is stacked a mile high, take a step back and make a list or make a plan.  Review this list, organize it and prioritize items.  Each action items can be then checked off when they are completed, as you can keep track of the “to-do” items.

 

You could memorize your items, but with limited memory capacity, you can’t rely on it for complex lists.  In business, modern management tools, such as utilizing spreadsheets and Gantt charts, etc, can be useful project management methods.  These methods can work effectively and efficiently, but only if you continuously use them and follow through with action items.

 

Prioritizing action items can be done differently, such as prioritizing by:

-          time frames and deadlines

-          client action item vs. internal operational item

-          revenue generating vs. non-revenue generating activity

-          impacts with or without actions

-          short-term vs. long-term objectives

-          adhering to legal requirements and regulations vs. generate operating procedure

 

You need to decide which method works effectively for you, and what is of value to you and your organization when you set priorities.

 

To end this article, here is an action item list for you:

-          review this article again

-          consider using lists, spreadsheets and Gantt charts as organizational and management tools

-          have a goal and purpose to using the list

-          use your method consistently

-          measure the effectiveness of your organizing tool

-          reward yourself with listing your completed or achievements on your list

-          share this with the unorganized as an organized method

 

What’s on your list?

 

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© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

                                                        

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February 8, 2012 

Leadership has changed with time and with varying economic and environmental circumstances.   Early to mid 20^th century, leaders often invoked a militaristic or autocratic leadership approach, and to most the extent, this worked for many successful companies and big corporations.

In the current age, the workforce is better educated with more rights.  Values and ethics are important, and company and personal values and ethics need to align to achieve common goals.  In order to compete on a global scale, leaders need to motivate and influence teams of valuable employees to thrive and survive.

Collaboration with team members

Leadership today is obviously quite different, with globalization, competition, values and ethics and people’s rights making big impacts on how leaders lead.  The global economic climate is challenging and is multi-faceted.  New leaders today need the ability to navigate through challenging environments, with multiple layers of complexity.  A new leader must be able to collaborate with professionals adequately, and to be able to adapt quickly to changing environments.

Engaging others

Twenty to thirty years ago, businesses relied on manual analysis of localized information.  Today, teams and leaders must competently analysis massive amounts of global information quickly.  Where leaders lack capacity, leaders must be able to source and acquire capacity to assist in meeting organizational goals and objectives.  Leaders need to have the skill to interact with, motivate and empower team members.  Effective interaction with employees leads to better buy-in of goals and objectives.  Frequent engagement tends to make the employees and teams feel valued.

Activating Efficiency

Today leaders must accomplish more with fewer resources.   In order to stay competitive in global markets, leaders must stay on top with efficient operations.  Leaders must have the ability to maximize results and benefits with decreasing levels of resources.  Leaders must seek ideas for efficient operations from their teams, as these valued employees are the subject matter experts.  There are several mechanisms to implement to achieve efficiencies, from empowering employees to take the lead, to compensatory mechanisms.

Ability to Vision

Experienced leaders thoroughly observe and analyze the past and present.  A great leader can envisage a successful way forward.  They are able to see an end goal and objective, and pathway to achieve the objective.  Only a few have this innate ability; most develop the skill through experience in operations and management.  This valuable trait may be the result of many years of experience leading to the ability to look forward, and some of it through trial and error.  Leaders with vision understand why they are in the business and why the company’s products or services are valuable or needed by the consumer.

Effective Communication

Effective leadership involves a high level of rich communication.  A great leader engages with others and can communicate the vision to the team.  With powerful, transparent communications, leaders will need to be influential on others, with the ability to convince and encourage the team to follow and buy-in.  The level of acceptance is a good indicator of the leader’s communication and influential effectiveness.

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The value of advertising during Super Bowl is quite divided by the corporate world and consumers / viewers.  Most viewers that do like Super Bowl ads are appreciating the entertainment value of these ads.  On the other side, a consumer may see little value in some of these ads, as those ads may do very little to tell a story or promote a product or service.  Big advertising budgets obviously have pros and cons, with Super Bowl advertising at the top of the charts.

In this age of protests and occupy this and that, did any corporations get that message?  At $3.5 Million per crack, did anyone think it may be worthwhile promoting or supporting their side causes, instead of entertaining viewers?  I know that sounds boring and maybe not fits, but I can’t help to think of how many watching (the 99 %?) would focus on whether the corporate world was trying to do the right thing.  Of the “other 99%” that did watch, I am not sure they would agree with corporations spending this money on entertainment, when $3.5 Million could employ 70-100 mid-level, full-time positions.  The corporations may come back at us with the fact that $3.5 Million in advertising resulted in an additional $7.0 Million in revenue and 140-200 jobs created.  As you can see, positions are solidified on both sides.

At the end of the half time show, the crowd cheered to the “World Peace” message lit up on the field; I am sure the emotional response from most of the rest of the world viewers was the same.  And that’s the point – emotional connection with the viewers.  I am not sure that a vampire bush party did it, although with reference to the above, was entertaining (different type of connection with viewers).

A lot of things could be done on a $3.5 Million budget.  Most entrepreneurs and small businesses are not in this same league the corporate world is in.  I am sure that there will be some brand awareness or increased sales from these ads, but this only forms part of the multi-million budgets these corporations have.

On positive notes, many positions were created in the production of commercials, and with an estimated $11 Billion spent on food and retail around Super Bowl, many more.  I am sure the good people of 

When advertising and dedicating resources, perception and optics should be key factors in your marketing budgets and should shape your own business’ or corporation’s messages to the consumer.  In tough economic times it is difficult to do anything else but to message around helping people, helping the consumer, and maybe not just to entertain. 

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February 5, 2012 

NRF Infographic 2012 Super Bowl

                                   

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You may have noticed the traffic around the internet on how much business is generated around Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

Not only does the event itself make massive amounts of money from TV and advertising, but bars, pubs, restaurants and retail outlets see their sales soar, in some cases up 200%.

The National Retail Federation (www.nrf.com) is estimating that around the US, Super Bowl Sunday will generate  $11 Billion spent in food services and retail.  NRF further estimates a whopping $1.02 Billion will be spent on snacks alone .  Host city Indianapolis, will benefit by around $150 Million is spending directly in their community.

If you are an entrepreneur, hopefully you will take notes on opportunities around sporting events such as this one.

Businesses and industries are built around these events.  Be careful to draw the line between ancillary businesses and ones that use the Super Bowl brand; the latter requires permission and agreements on use of trademarks.

Enjoy the stats and data in this infographic, courtesy of NFR.com

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February 3, 2012 

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we all face the occasional customer that is not happy about a product, service, staff or the business itself.  Here are some helpful tips to alleviate pressures and turn a consumer from angst to repeat customer.

Take the time to listen to the full concerns of the customer    

Spend time with the customer to try and resolve.  You are in the game of building customers and your business survival depends on the customer, so invest time to resolve.  When a complaint comes forward, the customer wants to be heard.  Don’t be confrontational, but listen and be patient and you will notice a natural decline in the tone and behaviour of the customer.  After the customer’s initial rant, he will be looking for a response from you.  Take this as the opportunity to resolve and build a relationship.

Right or wrong, build a solid relationship with the disgruntled customer

Engage in conversation with the customer; this discussion is a two-way conversation.  Be empathetic towards the customer (not to be phoney, but be genuine in your actions).  Value the feedback and let the customer know that.  These simple methods of tactful communications will get the consumer on your side.

Right or wrong, use strong negotiation skills to find common ground 

The customer may never be happy and may want you to do everything under the sun to make the situation right, including providing the goods or service for free.  Depending on the severity of the scenario, you may have to provide something for free or an alternate product or service at cost.  With the relationship of trust you have built with your customer, you have an opportunity to mitigate the damage and find a mutually acceptable position.  Find what would make you and the customer happy.  If you have moved miles to that mutual ground, don’t be afraid to back down if the customer is still unreasonable.  As a minimum, depending on your jurisdiction, you will have to adhere to consumer regulations around refunds and honouring warranties…no sense in arguing that point.  Leave the scenario knowing you did your best to resolve and that you put effort in to building a relationship and a repeat customer.

Where the customer is clearly wrong, tactfully & transparently state your company’s position

A small fraction of the disgruntled will be completely unreasonable.  Be open and transparent, and inform the customer of your policies and inform of impacts of collective scenarios (such as honouring every complaint in a similar manner).  The customer may leave unhappy but you need to be consistent in your business practices.

Learning experience to build a better Customer Relationship Management Plan

Every scenario you encounter in your business is a learning opportunity. The customer complaint process forms part of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Plan.  Be prepared – part of your business planning exercise would be to build theCRMinto the operational plan.  Be prepared in advance with policies and procedures to handle challenging customers.  Ensure staff is trained to handle customers in an appropriate manner.

Whatever customer challenges arise, be prepared in your business and handle tactfully and professionally.  Your end goal should be to always find mutual resolution and to turn those angry customers into happy return customers.

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