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How to Franchise Your Business
Considering franchising your business? There are many factors to handle beyond what you know about running your business. Joe McCord, VP of The Franchise Doctor Inc., offers 14 guidelines to determine if your company may be franchisable:
- Feasibility. Can franchisees make a minimum of $50,000 a year and get their expected ROI?
- Pride in the concept. What attitudes, outlook, vision, and mission differentiate you from similar businesses?
- Who is the customer? How big is the market?
- Who are the competitors?
- What makes the business different?
- What type of business is this? Retail, B2B, or another model?
- WWYDDKWYNK? What would you do differently now knowing what you now know?
- What’s required for success? Are these teachable to the average owner?
- Learnable process. Can the average person learn the business in two or three weeks?
- Training programs. Do you have the training programs and support a franchise requires?
- KAIZAN. Do you have a way to measure training effectiveness?
- Are you prepared to invest the money and time, and change your role in the business?
- Are your growth expectations realistic?
- How to market and sell a franchise. Marketing a franchise takes new skills and knowledge.
What Are Growth Hackers and Why Should You Be Using One?
Business is constantly changing, especially for startups and small businesses trying to find their own paths to success in an online world. This is where growth hackers, professionals whose job it is to help a business grow quickly and efficiently, come in.
A growth hacker is a business expert specializing in building businesses rapidly through a system of process improvements mixed with innovation, experimentation, and measurement. It starts with taking a step back and making sure you have the foundation for growth.
Breakout growth isn’t simple. It’s multi-faceted and a result of interactions, factors, and actions which, without outside help, are rare and nearly impossible for any of us to find, assess, consider, and optimize.
Growth hackers work with you to achieve clarity on your markets, products, customers, and what makes you different from your competitors. If there are deficiencies, a pro has the skills and tools to help you find the focus and differentiation needed so you are the standout best solution for your clients.
Discover how growth hacking by a professional business coach can accelerate your sales and improve your bottom line, give us a call. There is never any obligation.
Make One Big Change in Your Thinking That Will Change Your Life
I am always looking for ways to live up to my potential and over the years I have been introduced to many ways to examine and apply the power of our thoughts.
I enrolled in the “Investment in Excellence for the ’90s” program by Lou Tice. He showed me a way to understand and leverage seemingly complex psychological principles that enabled me to begin realizing my potential.
I learned that paying attention to our thoughts and controlling them is simple to understand but not always easy or quick to do. It takes a conscious effort over three weeks to three months to change.
I was also taught to be clear about “WHAT” you want and “WHY” you want it. Napoleon Hill, self-help pioneer, talks about having a Burning Desire. This is a critical point: In the early stages, don’t get stuck on “HOW” you are going to achieve your goals. The “How” will appear once you know with crystal clarity exactly what you want and why you want it.
Lastly, two books that will make a huge difference in your success:
- “Smart Talk,” by Lou Tice
- “Slight Edge,” by Jeff Olson
- by Coach Phil Gilkes
How The Law of Desire Can Work for or Against You in a Negotiation
The Law of Desire says: The person who most wants the negotiation to succeed has the least bargaining power.
The more you or he wants to make the purchase or sale, the less power either of you has. Skilled negotiators develop the art of appearing both polite but uninterested, as if they have many other options, all of which are as attractive as the situation under discussion.
The first corollary of the Law of Desire says: “No matter how badly you want it, you should appear neutral and detached.”
The more important it is to you, the more important it is for you to appear unemotional, unaffected and unreadable. Don’t smile or appear interested in any way. An attitude of mild boredom is best.
The second corollary of the Law of Desire says: “The more you can make the other party want it, the better deal you can get.”
Chinese jade dealers were famous for showing one item at a time to a prospective customer. When the dealer revealed a piece of jade that the customer really liked, the customer’s pupils would dilate. The dealer knew which item the customer wanted the most and which one he could negotiate on the most effectively.
- from "THE 100 ABSOLUTELY UNBREAKABLE LAWS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS" – Brian Tracy
5 Compelling Reasons Why Video SEO Will Change and Grow Your Business
Video SEO is now a powerful tool to push traffic to your site, build lasting relationships, and increase conversions. There are five business reasons that explain why video SEO must be a crucial part of your online marketing strategy for growth in 2017.
- Video SEO makes your content stand out from competition. Videos easily stand out on search results, and are more noticeable than plain text.
- Videos effectively seal the deal. Videos have increased sales more consistently than plain text advertisements in B2B and B2C markets. Up to 90 percent of consumers report that video helps them make purchase decisions.
- Video is more shareable. 92 percent of mobile users share videos. Video boosts a website’s number of monthly visitors by up to three times and doubles the time users spend browsing.
- Video SEO cements your reputation. Video helps retain site visitors and allows you to demonstrate professionalism, quality, and credibility.
- Video SEO helps your content rank higher. A web page is 50 times more likely to pop up on the first page of search engine results if it features video.
4 Important Keys to Building Customer Relationships
Poor customer relations can adversely affect both your brand and how your product is viewed, which can cost you a lot in lost customers and sales.
As a small business you can be more personal with customers. Here are four things you can do to build a strong and healthy connection with your customers.
- Ask them what they think. Invite feedback. Send out surveys and hand out comment cards. You’ll discover what you're doing right and where you're making mistakes and be able to spot trends and growth opportunities.
- Show customers that you appreciate their business. Give them free items whenever possible. The cost will come back to you tenfold in the form of loyalty, return business, and positive word-of-mouth.
- Connect with them. Talk to customers online and give them the opportunity to talk to your company. Let them participate in the conversation by allowing comments.
- Do more than they expect. When people get more than they expect, they feel like they got a good deal. The trick is offering enough to win their business and still have enough up your sleeve to make them smile.
Business Loans: Keys for the Successful Application
Thanks to a robust real estate market and rising interest rates, banks are more eager to lend than at any time in recent memory. But to take advantage of the opportunity, business borrowers need to lay the groundwork for a successful application.
Denise Beeson, a small business consultant based in Santa Rosa, California offers five tips:
- Know how much you need and what the money will be used for.
- Check your credit score.
- Have good software in place that automatically shows the health of your business.
- Be sure your team is experienced and respected.
- Shop around to find the best bank for a business loan.
Banks protect themselves in several ways. For real estate loans, they must be confident in local appraisals. This can be a problem if your real estate market is overheating.
Cash flow, personal ability to repay, and debt load are also critical. Analyzing cash flow to debt load, banks expect business borrowers to generate 120 to 130 percent of their total loan payments in net cash flow.
Finally, establishing a good personal relationship with your banker can be the difference; don’t let building this relationship wait until you need funds.
Tackling Leadership Development in the Canadian Business Environment
Corporate Canada is facing a leadership crisis. While this is partly due to the gap left by retiring baby boomers, it also involves the Canadian psyche. The iconic Canadian politeness has its drawbacks; many younger Canadians confuse politeness with meekness, and a lack of assertiveness can equate to a lack of leadership.
There are four key factors preventing companies from developing the leaders they need:
- A gap between HR programs and the skills needed for successful management,
- Lack of suitable data to identify potential leaders,
- Difficulties in implementing skills learned during workplace training, and
- Leadership programs that don’t integrate well with other HR initiatives.
When you’re busy with day-to-day management duties, it can be challenging focus on leadership development. Follow these steps, or bring in an expert to help you to:
- Identify employees with leadership qualities.
- Develop strategies for uncovering hidden leadership potential in your team.
- Create career development opportunities for growing leaders.
Developing the business leaders needed to take your company and the Canadian economy forward is a process that needs a scientific approach, not a haphazard one. Start with your long-term strategy, followed by a professional analysis of the groundwork needed to make it happen.
How I Learned Sales Success Depends on Knowing the Players on the Field
I was recently waiting for the approval of a grant to finance a sales training when I received a call followed up with an emailed spreadsheet that dissected and scrutinized our proposal.
The company’s leadership team approved the training two months earlier and now someone in the HR department wanted to renegotiate, comparing the previous year’s training proposal to the current one.
This person asked questions about the figures in virtually every cell of the spreadsheet. Finally, I stopped him and pointed out that it seemed we were getting bogged down in the cost minutia rather than the long-term gains that were achieved in the previous year’s training.
I pointed out that there was an increase in sales revenue and that one individual grew so much that it was noticed by one of the partners of the company. Once I pointed these out, he said he would complete the grant application.
I had a KWINK moment...
Knowing What I Now Know, what would I do differently? I would make sure that I knew who the key people were, who was responsible for what, and who would make the financial decisions – good advice for many situations.
When you read the full article online, you'll discover exactly how I totally changed the direction of the call from cost saving to profit improvement and watched the contract get approved quickly.
The Law of Reciprocity – Your Key to Negotiating Better Deals for Yourself
The Law of Reciprocity says: People have a deep subconscious need to reciprocate for anything that is done to or for them.
This Law of Reciprocity is very powerful because nobody likes to feel that he is obligated to someone else. This Law of Reciprocity is useful when negotiating concessions.
The first corollary of the law of reciprocity is: “The first party to make a concession is the party who wants the deal the most.” Avoid being the first one to make a concession, even a small concession. Instead, be friendly and interested, but remain silent.
The second corollary of the Law of Reciprocity says: “Every concession you make in a negotiation should be matched by an equal or greater concession by the other party.” If you don’t request a reciprocal concession, the concession that you give will be considered to have no value and will not help you as the negotiation proceeds.
The third corollary of the Law of Reciprocity says: “Small concessions on small issues enable you to ask for large concessions on large issues.” One of the very best negotiating strategies is to be willing to give in order to get.
What must you do when the other party asks for a concession? Learn the things you must do before any negotiation even starts if you expect to get the best deal, read the full article online.
- from "THE 100 ABSOLUTELY UNBREAKABLE LAWS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS" – Brian Tracy