The Path to Franchise Success

There are many ways to start a business, and each entrepreneur will take his or her own individual path. Variations may exist in terms of planning, development, funding, and management, and of course, there are countless different types of businesses offering countless different products and services. But no matter the paths taken or strategies implemented, the goal is always to create a profitable venture which you can call your own.

To the average person, the traditional method of starting a business involves developing an original idea, product or technique. While there is obviously nothing wrong with this entrepreneurial path, it can be much more challenging and risky than a common alternative. That alternative is the franchise, and it allows entrepreneurs to create and build their own business with less strain and creative development than its traditional counterpart.

The Fundamentals of Franchising

By its simplest, most legally correct definition, a franchise is essentially nothing more than a license. But in a much more practical and meaningful sense, a franchise is an agreement and a relationship between a company (franchisor) that allows its name and operating methods to be used by an entrepreneur (franchisee). In exchange, the entrepreneur agrees to operate their business according to the terms of the lease.

Business Format Franchising

The most commonly known and recognized type of franchises are known as business format franchises. These are based on an earlier model called the trade name franchise, and the main difference came in the rights of the franchise. Whereas in a trade name franchise, a franchise only owned marketing rights for his or her company, modern business format franchises allow entrepreneurs to have more ownership rights over the entire business, even including operating methods.

Product Distribution Franchising

Also known as traditional franchising, product distribution franchising may be less recognized and identified with franchising by the general public, but it is actually larger in terms of total sales than its business format counterpart. While business format franchising puts the focus on the system of doing business, traditional franchising has more emphasis on the products manufactured by the franchisor and supplied to the franchise. This is commonly found in gasoline, bottling, automotive and other industries.

Franchising Standards

The changes that came about in the rights of franchisees allowed for much greater control and customization for entrepreneurs who were looking to own a business. These shifts put a much greater emphasis on the success and development of small business owners, instead of simply churning out the same old thing from major corporations. It also allows for a more significant local impact, as franchisees can tailor their service and marketing to the needs of their communities.

But in order to obtain a franchising license and successfully operate this type of business, one must still adhere to franchise standards. If you feel this might be the right path for you to create your business, the first steps include:

• Developing an effective business model, including prospective customers and suppliers, as well as funding strategies.
• Developing a model that will provide consistent positive results without obvious issues.
• Creating a system for employing, training and maintaining a staff that will provide a high level of quality production.
• Maintaining a model with the same standards, branding, and values as the franchisor.

The Life Cycle of a Healthy Business

There are many ways of looking at a business. To the outside world, it is a source of value and commercial interaction, but relatively meaningless in any major or impactful way. However, to the owner of a business, it is something much more important and meaningful. Some entrepreneurs think of their businesses as pets or children, and almost all of them view it as some sort of living organism.

While this metaphor can obviously not be completely accurate, a successful business does have a life cycle that can define its existence. Additionally, a small business requires much of the same care and attention that other living things need, especially in the early stages. But whether you view your business as something that is alive or just the tangible manifestation of your abstract idea, the analogy has its merits.

With that being said, a successful business must go through several stages of development, similar to those experienced by a human being. The following are some of the key stages in the life cycle of a business, and while each comes with its own rewards and challenges, they are all important for your company.

Embryonic

The embryonic stage of a business is the point at which your idea has been developed, but the business itself has not been created. A business can exist in this stage for many years, up until the time in which its brave owner decides to take the necessary steps to create an effective business plan, gather funding and bring it to life.

Infancy

Now that your business idea has come to life through your efforts and ideas, it begins its existence in a state of infancy. This is usually the period in which entrepreneurs feel closest to the company and when they generally have the most involvement. You may even be the only person involved in the business at this point, and while it is still fumbling to find its way to maturity, it is most certainly alive.

Childhood

This is the period in which your business begins to grow into a truly profitable enterprise. You may have already experienced some level of success in the infancy stage, but now comes success which requires you to bring in a more involved support staff. This can also be known as the manager’s stage, as it is the period in which the company grows from being your baby to a thriving business that requires more experienced management and a larger staff.

Adolescence

There comes a point in the life of every business in which it begins to grow up and spread its own wings. This usually happens through an explosion of growth that is usually unmanageable according to your original model, and adaptations must be made. Either you scale back and keep your business small forever, or you develop a responsible plan for manageable growth and let the company thrive.

Adulthood

While this is the final stage on our list, it is only the beginning for your company. It has developed into an important establishment that will continue to grow, serve customers and produce dividends for years to come.

The Three Types of Essential Staff Members

Throughout your experience as an entrepreneur, you are likely to encounter thousands of personalities and types of people in the business world. Within a successful company, there will be several different personalities and individuals who each contribute something important, and without whom the business could not function in the same manner. This is true in any efficient company, but it can be difficult to try and emulate a formula that is so varied and complex.

Because of this, you will need to try and group people differently. You need contributions from several different perspectives and personality types, but it would be impossible to specify the exact person you need and then go out and find that person. Until effective human cloning techniques are distributed, or you develop a way to create the exact type of human you need, there are some other strategies you can use to get the right type of person.

While you may have dozens or hundreds of employees and staff members, your essential executives, managers, and support can generally be broken down into three categories. Each contributes his or her own talents, perspective, and individual personality, and all three will help make a healthy company.

The Fixer

This person is essentially the “do-er” of the group, and he or she will be responsible for much of the tangible, tactical and technical action that goes on within the company. The Fixer is generally an active, outgoing individual who loves a challenge and is ready to get to work from Day One. Because of The Fixer’s constant activity and action within the business, he or she will also be one of the most visible individuals and may be seen as “the face” of your company.

The Manager

Your manager will be the “thinker” of the group who solves difficult problems through specific processes and tried-and-true methods. He or she will usually be a more traditional type of person who likes to apply these time-tested methods that have worked in the past to new situations and find ways to adapt processes to new problems. The Manager is a pragmatic individual who is serious but fair with employees, clients, and colleagues.

The Innovator

The Innovator is the creative force within your company, and this is likely the role that you will fill, as the entrepreneur. Your innovative ideas and vision for the business will drive the company and every aspect of it for the entire time that you are involved. As Innovator, you must constantly be seeking new ways to improve products/services and finding better ways to fill the needs of your customer.

Avoiding Scams, Scammers and Misleading Information in Business

Starting a small business is one of the most exciting and meaningful events in a person’s life. You will likely go through a rollercoaster of emotion throughout the process, but this is all part of the journey and worth it when done correctly.

But unfortunately, many people fail in business simply because they believe in certain myths which have mislead them. Some seminars, speakers, blogs, and marketers will lead you to believe that all you need for success in business is a bit of capital, a targeted profit projection and a strong desire. While these things are necessary when beginning the journey, they are far from all that you will need in the marathon ahead.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to know what information is misleading and what is truly valuable in the world of entrepreneurial beginnings. However, there are a few keys to spotting the myths and those who are selling them. These include:

• Any information that comes with a price tag
• Unrealistic testimonials from “real people”
• Newsletters or subscriptions that charge money for “business advice”
• Anything that guarantees success in business
• Any information that sounds too good to be true

These are just a few factors that may signify bad info, but none of these are sure-fire signs of a scam or misleading information. You have to judge for yourself whether the advice you take is legitimate or is only for the profit of the person giving it. Generally, those with legitimately helpful information and good intentions do not need to (or even want to) charge to give advice and help.

The Marathon Ahead

The fact is, there are no sure-fire strategies or guaranteed techniques for quick success in business. Business is not a sprint; it is a marathon that will be full of ups, downs, trials, and challenges. But luckily, it will also include excitement, education, fun, and friends. Eventually, with a little bit of luck– and a lot of perseverance– it may also include great success.

25 Professional Marketing Tips, Techniques and Hacks

If anyone has ever told you that marketing is not a creative field, that person is dead wrong. In fact, successful marketers are some of the most creative, ingenious and pragmatic people on the planet. They must develop effective, persuasive strategies to convince people to buy a product, and then develop creative, efficient means of getting the message out.

Throughout a career in marketing, I have developed several notebooks full of little strategies and techniques that have been effective. Some of these were developed independently, but the majority are based upon strategies of industry legends. This little article is meant to share a few of the best tips, techniques and marketing hacks in my notebooks that could help take your business to the next level.

1. Create a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter for your business. These should be both in print and email formats.
2. Utilize direct mail and direct response campaigns to reach a wider audience.
3. Always stay involved in your community by contributing to local charities and events. Take advantage of any local events as an opportunity to grow your business.
4. Keep a list of your previous customers and stay in contact with them. Those who have bought your products/services before are the most likely to buy it in the future.
5. Develop a short, concise report that summarizes your services and your values. This should be sent to any new prospects, usually as your second touch, or the second time you interact with them.
6. Maintain ads in the Yellow Pages. These provide great value and are not yet obsolete.
7. Offer free eBooks, webinars, product demos and other digital items that can entice potential customers.
8. Contribute to local newspapers and publications. These articles should not be blatantly promotional but should relate to your industry.
9. Contribute to blogs and websites that are relevant to your industry.
10. Offer free seminars or lectures that can help build awareness of your business.
11. Create a podcast that is relevant to your industry. Bring in guest speakers and industry experts who can lend credibility and helpful information to your podcast.
12. Tweak, test and adjust your current ads to find the most effective message, format, and medium.
13. Offer incentives to new customers, such as one free month, introductory prices, purchasing benefits and other rewards/bonuses.
14. Create regular incentive programs for new and current customers. This may include drawings and referral bonuses.
15. Always be on the lookout for effective marketing strategies including those of competitors, industry leaders or anyone with good ideas. Tailor these strategies to your audience and make them your own.
16. Barter for your marketing services. Offer free products or services (as opposed to money) in exchange for marketing.
17. Do a free giveaway for anyone who brings in one of your print ads.
18. Be willing to bring in new clients, even if it means taking an initial loss.
19. Create and manage affiliate programs that reward referrals and marketing.
20. Cultivate relationships with your vendors. These relationships may prove to be crucial, especially if your business hits a rough patch.
21. Offer free public clinics to teach your community about industry-relevant information.
22. Offer to pay for leads and market data. This may seem difficult at first, but this information will pay off. Just make sure not to pay too much; the key here is value.
23. Conduct polls, studies, and customer satisfaction surveys. Some of your most useful information will come directly from your customer base, and it will come for free through these techniques.
24. Network and cultivate relationships with others in your industry. You can develop a plan to trade leads with whom you were unsuccessful.
25. Approach large companies, organizations and corporations, offering to be their exclusive provider at a significantly discounted rate.

It is unlikely that all of these techniques will apply to your business, but you should be able to identify several which can be tailored to your needs and help your business grow.

Using Public Relations as Free Marketing

In today’s fast-paced world of instant information, on-demand entertainment and personalized marketing, every business must take advantage of every opportunity for marketing and publicity. There are countless possibilities for this, from television commercials and radio ads to social media campaigns and viral marketing, but small businesses and startups are generally at a disadvantage. For one thing, they are small and have small marketing budgets; and secondly, they likely have a small audience and little brand recognition.

This means that small businesses must be even more eager to take advantage of marketing opportunities– particularly those that come with a small price tag. Enter, public relations, the medium which allows startups and small businesses to reach a large audience and significantly increase branding, for free.

To be specific, public relations is the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company, organization or person. Of course, there are a number of ways in which this favorable image can be cultivated, and you must identify the best ways to use this practice for your own business. Speaking generally, there are three key areas to public relations on which a small business can capitalize for marketing purposes:

• Publicity
• Merchandising
• Promotions

Developing and implementing a strategy that includes all of these areas will greatly increase the efficiency of your public relations efforts.

Getting Noticed

This may seem obvious, but the first step to successful public relations for small business is getting noticed. In fact, the entire goal of your public relations policy should revolve around continuously getting noticed in a good way, and for good reasons. This means that your strategies (in both public relations and marketing) should always be based on providing value to your target audience.

The best way to begin is through a press release. For PR rookies, here is a step-by-step guide for successfully creating and distributing an effective press release:

1. Create a press release announcing something special or significant about your company. Remember that it must be an attention-grabber that is relevant to the needs of your market.
2. Summarize and compress the release into a single hook or angle that is most likely to be noticed by the media and your customers. This will be your headline.
3. Develop your press release in a professional format, on your letterhead. It should include:
   • Dateline
   • Headline
   • Important information
   • Supporting facts and figures
   • Your contact details
4. Send your release to each media outlet you choose with an opening letter that will be interesting and specific to each media person who receives it.

Remember that your public relations strategy should include all media, especially those that are most relevant to your industry, market or business. A diversified strategy should include:

• Television
• Radio
• Magazines
• Blogs
• Social media
• Any other media outlets that your audience may view, read or listen to

Strengthening Vendor Relationships Through Incentives

It may seem cliché to say that “business is all about relationships,” but there is a reason clichés like this exist. Business is, in fact, all about the relationships you build from your partners and investors to your staff and employees to customers and vendors. Every business interaction is also a personal interaction, and you should capitalize on every opportunity to strengthen relationships in every area of business.

One of the key relationships– and one that is often overlooked– is that with your vendors and suppliers. Entrepreneurs rightly focus largely on relationships with customers and clients, but your vendors provide the fundamental materials that make your business possible. For many small businesses, relationships with vendors consist of a monthly transaction– a routine in which there is little to no improvement in the relationship.

While your company may be able to survive with this type of mentality, you would be missing a key opportunity for growth and branding. The vendors and suppliers with whom you work provide the chance for cooperative growth, as they have a vested interest in the success of your business. As your company expands, the business you give them grows as well, and you should use this to your advantage.

The best way to strengthen vendor relationships and capitalize on the opportunities therein is through affiliate and incentive programs. These programs not only reward vendors for their business, they also encourage competition and increased business with performance-based incentives.

In case you are inexperienced in building affiliate programs, here is a step-by-step guide:

1. Begin building your program from the perspective of the vendor. What would they want to gain? What rewards would encourage business?
2. Create a program that is generous towards vendors, specifically encouraging new business and increased performance.
3. Develop an email campaign to let all current and potential vendors know about the benefits of your new program.
4. Develop a clear and concise tracking system that the vendors can view. Allowing vendors to see their own– and others’– contributions and progress will encourage competition.
5. Create monthly bonuses, programs and additional incentives to encourage further performance, enrollment, and participation.

Try to think of vendor relationships similarly to your customer relationships. Keep things exciting; encourage further business, and take advantage of every opportunity to strengthen the relationship.

A Guide to Successful Direct Mail and Telemarketing

The internet has changed the business world unlike few other innovations since the invention of paper money, and the marketing industry may have felt this impact more than any other. For many small businesses, the digital world has opened up boundless possibilities for reaching audiences that were not possible before. Because of this, the size and scale of many entrepreneurs’ marketing efforts often completely outweigh their capabilities of converting prospects actual paying customers.

This is one of the many reasons why direct response marketing can provide some of the most beneficial and tangible results for small businesses. In addition to the measurable success of direct response campaigns, many modern customers respond better to marketing that opens a dialogue with them and asks for their immediate input. While there are many kinds of digital direct response strategies that can be effective, most small business owners find two tried-and-true marketing techniques to be the most efficient.

Direct mail marketing and telemarketing have both been around for decades, and even with the prevalence of digital marketing, both strategies can be highly effective when used properly. For many specialized or higher-priced items, these techniques provide higher conversion rates than any digital strategies, and the direct response element adds measurable data for future campaigns. Here are a few tips to get the most out of each:

Direct Mail

1. Build and/or purchase a mailing list that fits your target market.
2. After accounting for the cost of mailing lists, determine your budget by comparing the cost of mailing vs. cost of the order.
3. List the benefits customers would receive from your product/service and determine which is the most meaningful.
4. Develop an engaging, informative sales letter centered around that specific benefit. Add appropriate graphics and headlines.
5. Include supplementary items that would aid in the purchase, such as an order form, reply envelope, brochure, etc.

Telemarketing

1. Develop a call plan that lays out exactly what you hope to accomplish during your calls. Add topics to discuss and potential questions that may arise.
2. Create a sales script based on this initial call plan that includes appropriate verbiage, product features, product benefits, selling terms, etc. This will provide a structured guide for the call, but you should not expect calls to follow it exactly.
3. Ask questions that demonstrate that you understand the potential customer’s needs and offer feedback to show that your product/service can address his/her needs.
4. Be relaxed and conversational, always focusing on the needs of the customer but always guiding the call towards an eventual purchase.
5. Remember to be grateful for the prospect’s time and allow your demeanor to reflect that.

As with all marketing techniques, the key to success in both areas will be continual evaluation and adjustment. You should not expect overwhelming success on your first direct mail campaign or in your first series of calls, but paying attention the data of direct responses and adjusting accordingly will ensure increasing levels of success as your business grows.

The Benefits of Direct Response Marketing

No small business can be truly successful without an effective marketing strategy. But for those entrepreneurs who are not exactly marketing wizards, it can seem like a complex world of strange acronyms and unfamiliar complexities with results that can be difficult to gauge. From print advertisements and TV commercials to SEO and social media, marketing is an entire industry unto itself– and one that many small business owners have little time for.

However, direct response marketing is one area of the field that offers several advantages for small business owners and can be truly effective for nearly any type of business. In addition to opening up a direct line of communication with your clientele, direct response marketing:

• Provides a great return on investment (ROI), no matter your marketing budget
• Produces easily measurable results
• Helps increase the overall efficiency of a sales force
• Allows businesses to reach outside of local areas or traditional markets
• Builds real relationships with customers and clients

What is Direct Response Marketing?

Whereas all effective forms of marketing should be targeted towards a certain group of people and seek to engage with that target market, direct response marketing takes that engagement a step further. It is designed to elicit a specific, measured response resulting from a potential customer’s direct response to the marketer.

This type of marketing can be used to ask for customer emails on your website, solicit comments on an article, produce social media responses and similar forms of direct engagement and feedback. Before the digital era, most direct response marketing was done through telemarketing and direct mail. While these can still be effective in many industries, the internet has opened up a universe of new possibilities for this efficient form of marketing, and small businesses have benefited greatly.

In addition to the time-honored traditions of direct mail and telephone calls, modern direct response marketing can take the form of:

• Calls to action (CTAs) on your website
• Emails that are designed to elicit a certain response
• Digital surveys
• Comment requests on blogs and social media

Direct responses can be one of the simplest forms of marketing for those who are not experts in the field, as the results are easy to measure and quantify. However, even the best direct response campaigns should be used in conjunction with other marketing techniques as part of an overall strategy. Bringing each element together can help ensure real results and a productive business.

Tips to Turn Prospects into Customers

No matter how complex and sophisticated marketing strategies and trends may become, the overall goal will always be to draw in more business. Any effective marketing strategy will be geared towards the right target audience and focused on turning that audience into prospective customers. But once you have reached the right people and gained their attention, it can take some special skills to turn those prospects into actual paying customers.

There are many steps between a consumer who is unaware of your product and a current customer, but none of those steps are more difficult to overcome than the one from prospect to the first-time buyer. Your marketing and sales efforts have already converted the lead into a prospect, but any salesman will tell you that there is still a chasm of space left to travel. As a small business owner, you must fill that chasm with your own knowledge, enthusiasm, and personality.

While there are countless techniques for turning your prospects into buyers for the first time, it can be difficult to know which methods will be most effective. This can depend on your product, industry, audience and the specific client, but there are some time-tested methods that can help bridge the chasm for any business. Each of them deals with offering the prospect something additional in order to solidify their decision to buy.

Price Offerings

The most common– and generally the most effective– offering to get a prospect to buy for the first time is a special price. This could mean that you offer a special price for first-time customers, an introductory price for a limited time, a lower price for packaging additional products or any other kind of low-price offering.

Informational Offerings

In addition to– or instead of– a special price offering, you may offer your potential customer special information that will help them decide to purchase. This is especially helpful with online services that can offer free e-books, product demos, newsletters and other such items that allow the customer to feel as though they are privy to inside information to which they would not have access without engaging your business.

Additional Incentives

If you are unable (or unwilling) to give a lower price, and the customer does not respond to informational offerings, you may need to get more creative. There may be countless possibilities for additional incentives that you may be able to offer to prospective customers depending on your business and other factors. A few common examples include:

• Free bonuses or gifts
• Free shipping
• Referral bonus
• Product upgrades

You will need to find the right balance of price, informational and additional incentives that work for your business, your sales style, and each individual client. Once you find that sweet spot, you will be able to turn even more prospects into paying customers!