They say that there is no better option than buying a business that is already up and running, and to a degree that is true. When thinking about buying a car wash business there are several benefits and several drawbacks as well.  The decision of buying a car wash business is a very important decision, for both you and your family. Even though this is considered to be a small enterprise, you are still talking about a relatively large investment.  This decision may seriously affect not only your life, but also the lives of your family. Most business consultants suggest that before making a major decision such as that of buying an existing car wash you should find out everything you can about the business. Think about the time and the type of commitment you will have to make to such an endeavor.

Check out all Aspects of the Car Wash First
Look at the location where the car wash is. Is it a high profile location? Is there a lot of traffic? Does it have a lot of visibility? High visibility is a very important element to the success of a car wash business. Check to see that the car wash for sale has all the necessary permits, and this can be verified at the city or county offices. Go to the office that gives out business licenses, and make sure that everything is in order.

What kind of equipment does the car wash have and in what condition is it in? A fully automated car wash will have more equipment than a self service car wash, and the condition of that equipment is a deciding factor on the agreed upon price for the business. Ask to see employees’ records. Find out what they are like, and what kind of service they give the customer.

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Ron Joyce is undoubtedly one of Canada’s favourite sons. He is honoured throughout the country as a result of his business and philanthropic efforts, as well as being one of the best known entrepreneurs. Ron Joyce founded Tim Hortons with the now legendary Mr. Horton. However, the success of the brand was undoubtedly down to Joyce.

The Young Ron Joyce

Ron Joyce was born in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia in 1930. This was also where he spent the majority of his childhood. In fact, Joyce had never been out of the area until enlisting in the Royal Canadian Navy when he reached the age of 21. Rather than fighting, Joyce preferred to use his talents in his chosen field of communications, which took him to Korea and Japan in 1954. Although he enjoyed his service, after getting out in 1956 the entrepreneur chose to pursue a completely different challenge.

Ron Joyce invested in a Dairy Queen franchise in Hamilton, Ontario, which was a little down the street from Tim Horton’s donut store. The Dairy Queen prospered and Joyce displayed a flair for business, thus showing his entrepreneurial skills. Of course, Horton, who was a close friend by then, saw this for himself and asked Joyce if he would like to go into business. With that, the donut king was born and Joyce was the first franchisee.

The Donut King

Joyce and Horton were relatively successful in their new business venture but the partnership was cut incredibly short owing to the untimely death of Horton in a car accident. As his widow was not business minded, she agreed to sell her share of the venture to the entrepreneur. Joyce was determined to make a success of it and retained the name of the store as a tribute to Horton. Little did he know then that his determination to make Tim Hortons a success would make him a multi-millionaire.

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The jury is still out about our current economy.  Some say we will be experiencing a mild recession and others say we are on the brink of a depression.  It doesn’t matter where you fall in the debate, one thing is certain, business growth is not as easy as it once was.

If you have been reading the news headlines, many CEO’s are focused on cutting costs and laying off employees.  This does help short term profitability, however these actions are precisely the wrong strategy to take if you want to grow your company in a bad economy.

CEO’s who want to increase sales, profit margins and drive new business growth in 2009 should consider the following top 5 business growth success secrets.

1. Focus Marketing Dollars on Value Not Brand

Focusing your time and money on “Brand” marketing may increase name recognition however it doesn’t generate revenue. Showing customers what value your product or service provides will generate top line sales revenue.  Spend more on marketing campaigns where the customer can experience your products value.

2. Stop Scaring Your New Prospects Away

Most corporate marketing campaigns, websites, sales collateral and sales processes scare customers away.  From a customer’s point of view, your company looks and sounds just like your competitors.  To be perceived differently and attract new customers you must stop focusing on your product features, functions, quality, customer service and company awards.  You should focus more on how you solve your customers business problems.

3. Catch Amnesia

Forget how great you and your business performed last year. The past is the past. This year it’s a new game. The rules have changed and the players are different.

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You may have been selected by your executive to initiate and see through some change program in your organization. Or you may have decided that the time has come to make your mark by dusting off the cobwebs in your workplace. However your change role came about, you have a challenging task ahead of you.

Consider this sobering thought. In spite of the importance of successfully implementing workplace change for maintaining your business’s competitiveness, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organizational benefits. This failure occurs for a number of reasons:

• absence of a change champion or one who is too junior in the organization
• poor executive sponsorship or senior management support
• poor project management skills
• hope rested on a one-dimensional solution
• political infighting and turf wars
• poorly defined organizational objectives
• change team diverted to other projects

Do you recognize one or more of these in your organization from previous initiatives? You have probably experienced already one major cost of such failure. The cynical and burned out employees left behind only make the next change objective even more difficult to accomplish. It should come as no surprise that the fear of managing change and its impacts is a leading cause of anxiety in managers.

Your first step in becoming a successful change leader is fully understanding your organization and matching the initiative to your organization’s real needs. This means not just adopting the latest management fad. Recognize that bringing about useful and meaningful change is fundamentally about changing people’s behavior in certain desired ways. It is not primarily about installing a new system or rearranging the organizational structure. If people in the end do not behave and work differently, then the money and time spent in “doing stuff” is wasted.

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Cal Ripken has been inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame - not so much for his baseball numbers as for the fantastic brand he created. Cal’s career batting average is not even close to .300, and he did not average more than 25 home runs or 100 RBIs a season.  Yet he is one of the most popular, memorable, and most marketable players of recent history.  Why? 

Throughout his 21-year career, Cal Ripken has been a living example of what marketers need to do to build a successful brand.  For Cal, building his brand came naturally.  It flowed from his love for the game.  Let’s look at the incredible, almost textbook branding lessons to be learned from Cal.

Stand for One Thing
You can’t be all things to all consumers.  It never works.  You have to carefully determine what you are selling, and I’m not talking about whether you are selling software or accounting services.  What is the soul or the vision behind what you are selling – what are you asking your consumers to identify with emotionally?  

Hundreds of baseball players are selling baseball skills, but that doesn’t turn them into a popular brand like The Iron Man.  Throughout his career, Cal was always selling RELIABILITY and DECENCY.  Consumers identified with his blue-collar work ethic and “bought into” his brand.  Day in and day out, everyone knew what they were getting from Cal.

Clarity of Message
Once you have determined what it is you are selling, you need to make sure that this is clearly communicated through all that you do - from your PR and marketing messages to your people on the street to the products and services you provide.  Not 9 to 5.  But 24 hours a day!

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If you have decided to add another business to your portfolio then you may want to look into the interior design industry. There is much demand for an interior design business owing to the trend of employing someone to decorate a home or an office from top to bottom. There are many interior design businesses for sale out there, and a large number of them can be found on various business websites on the Internet.

Although many interior design businesses do prosper there are several interior design businesses for sale as a result of competition squeezing the little man out purely and simply because they do not have the business know-how to make it work. You do not have to have any knowledge about interior design to make a wise investment in the business, just the business acumen to make it succeed via marketing and advertising. If you have that knowledge then you can make an awful lot of money out of it.

Choosing The Right Interior Design Business
Location is everything when it comes to choosing the right interior design business for sale. The business itself has to be in a great place in order to be visible and ultimately desirable. For example, the best place for commercial interior design businesses for sale is in the city center or on the outskirts of a large town. However, if you are aiming for the residential market, which will reap less in terms of profit, then you have to consider the two above locations or retail park-based businesses. If you are aiming for a mixture of the two then a convenient location that is easily accessible via transport links is better.

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The American public rightly holds American heroes in high regard, and there are very few individuals that should be considered in the same elevated terms for their entrepreneurial skills in addition to their bravery. Fred Smith is a very unique individual that deserves plaudits for his service as well as his business acumen, or more specifically his company’s ability to get a package from one side of the country to the other in 24 hours. Federal Express, or FedEx as it is now known, was the first overnight service in the world and now operates in many countries worldwide. As such, Fred Smith is just as decorated in business as he was in the Armed Forces.

The Young Military Entrepreneur

Frederick Wallace Smith was born in Marks, Mississippi on August 11, 1944. His family was relatively well off as a result of his father’s entrepreneurial skills. Fred Smith Senior founded the Dixie Greyhound Bus Lines as well as the Toddle House restaurant chain. This may be where Smith gets a lot of his business talent from, even though he never really got know his father because he died when the entrepreneur was just 4 years old.

Although Smith did well at school, his first love was flying when he was growing up. He loved the freedom of soaring through the air and this was probably the one element of his life that determined his entry to the military. However, before enlisting, the budding entrepreneur attended Yale University to major in economics. Before he graduated in 1966, Smith wrote a paper for one of his economics classes that was to shape his future and the future of mail delivery. He actually formulated a business plan for an overnight package delivery service. However, for the next three years the entrepreneur was to hardly think about it.

The Military Years

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When it comes to using your resume to apply for a job, it’s important to remember that form matters just as much as content.  A nice looking resume can’t make up for one that is full of spelling errors, typos, and factually incorrect information.  However, an unattractive resume can completely undermine even the most impressive and well-documented credentials.

In almost every situation, it is advisable to limit your resume to a single page.  There are a few circumstances where longer resumes are acceptable, but not many.  The layout of your resume should allow for a sufficient amount of white space around the edges of the page.  One inch margins all the way around the document are ideal, although it may be acceptable to shrink margins a little bit if necessary to fit the document on a single page.

The font that you use should be clear and easy to read.  Ideally, you should use 12 point type.  If you need to use a smaller font to make your resume fit on one page, you can go to a 10 point font, but never smaller.  You  can make your name and contact information a little bit larger so that they stand out on the page.

Verdana and Arial are excellent resume fonts because they are easy to read and the transmit well via fax.  You should never use ornate fonts on your resume, such as Algerian or Bradley Hand.  These fonts are nice for invitations and other casual communications, but they are not appropriate for a resume.

If you are going to fax your resume to prospective employers, it is advisable to print it on plain white copy paper for ease of transmission.  If you are going to hand deliver it or mail your resume, you should invest in high quality resume paper, which you can find at any department or office supply store.  Stick with white, beige, or gray paper.  Pink paper does not send a professional message, nor does any other pastel, bright, or patterned paper.

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