This year, management has enhanced its vocabulary with words and phrases such as “downsizing,” “career regression,” “fiscal consolidation,” “asset realignment” and “negative career development.”  They were developed by some MBA-types to say that a company down like the economy and entire industry, had missed its projections, fired people and made cutbacks.

There’s a new business climate and sense of urgency in every sector of industry and commerce.  The “good old days” are gone forever.  It wasn’t that many years ago that nearly anyone could make money in business and consumer PC/CE marketing.  Almost no one could fail. 

To put it another way … in a hurricane even turkeys can fly.

Well, the hurricane has passed.  It has changed the landscape.  Our emphasis on product innovation has placed us at the mercy of a constantly changing customer base. Profit margins for “brands” are being driven down by the high cost of marketing (PR, sales literature, advertising, promotion, etc.), defensive product line extensions and the competition.

In this new environment, management is confronted with the need to survive in conditions that they often don’t understand, and generally cannot control.

The New Marketing Strategy

When many think they have a marketing problem, the first thing they do is a barrage of news releases, an editorial tour, a brochure or a corporate ad campaign. 

Wrong.

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Fair Pricing for Buyers and Sellers

Whether you are planning to buy an existing business or expect to sell one you currently own, one of the biggest challenges involves deciding on a fair price.  As the buyer, if you pay too much, you risk damaging future profit by digging too deep a hole early in your ownership cycle.  As the seller, asking too little unfairly discounts the investments you made that created a successful business.  Additionally, an improperly priced company sends the wrong message to potential buyers.  If a business is being sold for significantly less than its true value, potential owners will immediately sense that something is wrong.  This is hardly the way to attract a group of qualified buyers.

Abandon the Dartboard

Believe it or not, one of the most common ways people price a business for sale is by guessing.  “Well, I paid X dollars ten years ago and made Y dollars a year in profit, so I’ll figure a 10 percent annual increase in value and sell it for Z dollars.”  Good luck convincing a savvy buyer that the price tag you posted is an accurate one.  One of the dangers of putting the wrong value on a business involves a concept called “shelf life.”  The longer your business remains unsold, the likelier it is you will sell it for far less than its true worth.  Let’s say you guess that your business is worth $1 million.  Maybe it is -maybe it’s not.  But because you have no facts to back up your claim, your company stays on the market for months and months.  As you get more anxious to sell, you keep dropping the price until a buyer surfaces.  That is neither a profitable nor a sensible exit strategy.

Revenue Versus Profit

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Welcome to Your Financial Freedom

The decision to purchase a business is perhaps the most expensive one any person can make during their lifetime.  You generally expect the acquisition of an existing business to far exceed what you might spend to buy a car, and possibly even a home.  While your principal residence may be pricier than the actual cost of acquiring a company, the additional funds necessary to keep the business running and weather whatever rough times are thrown your way can eat up ten of thousands of additional dollars.  With this kind of money at stake, doesn’t it make sense to save as much as possible?

Tips for Saving, and Savoring

No ten-point list can ever hope to supply you with every imaginable consideration when it comes to buying a business.  While the Ten Commandments proved eminently satisfactory to the ancient Israelites, modern-day entrepreneurs must look far beyond the basic tenets to make all the appropriate decisions.  Keeping that in mind, we all need a reference point from which to work.  The following factors - listed in no particular order - should be a good jumping-off point, but feel free to expand on them and dig even deeper to decide that the business you plan to buy is right for you.

1. Consider the History - Plan For the Future
Every business owner has his or her own way of doing things.  The price of the business you plan to buy is most likely based on historical factors - real estate prices, equipment and inventory value, and existing sales versus the cost of operation - but its true worth should instead be calculated on future potential earnings.  Only when you understand what the business will provide can you comprehend whether it is a good buy today.

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If you have recently decided that buying a franchise is the right business decision for you, there are a number of elements worthy of consideration.  With thousands of franchise businesses available in hundreds of different fields, the possibilities are practically endless.  Narrowing the field to make an informed and practical decision is vital; otherwise you could end buying a franchise business that is a bad fit for your personality or skill level, or it could prove to be the wrong business model at the wrong time.

In order to understand how to buy a franchise, there are many factors to weigh.  The following information provides some ideas to consider and will hopefully make your decision to buy a franchise business an easier one.

Examine Yourself and Your Personality
Take the time to set goals and understand what you hope to accomplish by having your own business.  By buying a franchise, you are buying into a set system of rules and regulations.  If you do well within a structured environment, a franchise business could be your ideal fit.  If, however, you don’t follow instructions all that well, a franchise may not be your best self-employment option.

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Smoothies to the Nth Degree

Jamba Juice got its start in California, where juice “bars” and similar healthful establishments have been part of the scenery for decades.  Founder Kirk Perron began his business career while still in high school, starting out as a real estate investor.  Along with gaining valuable retail sales experience by working in grocery stores throughout the San Francisco Bay area, he actually came up with the Jamba Juice concept while slamming down smoothies at his local health club.  After bringing on board several people with expertise in partnership development (which turned into franchising) and marketing, he was ready to open his first location that sold only fruit-blended drinks.  Originally known as Juice Club, his early success was bolstered by a relationship with a major West Coast venture capital firm, whose principals enjoyed the beverages served at a Juice Club location close to their office.

Jamba Juice Franchise Review

By mid-1996, Jamba Juice had seen its brand expand to 30 stores, with all of them located in California.  A year later, the company signed a deal with grocery retailer Whole Foods to operate Jamba Juice stands inside their stores.  This concept has gradually expanded to include locations in airports and on college campuses.  At the end of 2008, there were 730 locations in 20-plus states plus the Bahamas.

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From Hot Dogs to Tacos

Taco Bell founder Glen Bell returned to San Bernardino in 1946 after serving in WWII, having decided to make his living as the owner of a single-location drive-up restaurant that served hot dogs.  He later opened a few more spots and added hamburgers to his menu, but the cross-town success of two brothers named McDonald forced him to find another way to compete in the quick-serve lunch and snack field.  He settled on tacos, choosing to make and sell them in volume rather than one at a time, which was the habit of most Mexican restaurants in those days.  He was so successful that he dropped all non-Mexican menu items and renamed the venture Taco Tia (“Aunt Taco”), which became El Taco before expanding into the more lucrative Los Angeles market and sporting the name we know today- Taco Bell.

Taco Bell Franchise Review

The original owner began to franchise his concept in 1964.  In 2002, Taco Bell’s parent company recast itself as Yum! Brands Inc.  The corporate umbrella includes such fast-food icons as KFC and Pizza Hut, plus A&W and Long John Silver’s.  PepsiCo had accumulated these entities individually in 1978, which then spun them off into their own group in order to separate them from the beverage division.  That’s why you will never see a Coca-Cola dispenser there!  It is not unusual to have two or more of these restaurant concepts under one roof, which means that variety is one of the main attractions of owning a Taco Bell franchise.  In 2008, there were 4,200-plus U.S franchises (most own far more than just one location), plus more than 230 franchises in 17 different foreign countries.

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Super Premium Ice Cream in the ‘Hood

Ice cream shops have traditionally served two types of frozen treats.  Either the ice cream is hard-packed and served in a stack of scooped balls atop a cone, or else it comes in soft-serve form that gets “poured” into a cone.  The founders of Cold Stone Creamery were anxious to find a delicious middle ground and created a smooth-and-creamy concoction with an added twist - a wide variety of fruit, nuts, candy, or similar items hand-mixed into every order.  The company takes its name from the granite countertop upon which the server “massages” your choice of ice cream flavor until it is malleable, and then folds in your selected items before handing it to you in a crispy, just-baked waffle cone.  This process provides a customized serving of high-quality ice cream, created before your very eyes by a well-trained “mixer.”  The company got its start in 1988 in Tucson, which is where the first franchise location opened as well, in 1995.  A short while later, Camarillo, California, became the site of the first out-of-state Cold Stone Creamery store.

Cold Stone Creamery Franchise Review

At the end of 2008, Cold Stone Creamery had just fewer than 1,400 U.S.

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Toasted Sandwiches Are Tasty

From a Denver restaurant with the unlikely name of Footer’s has come one of the most exciting food franchises around today.  The Quizno’s concept falls into the category of “quick-service sandwich shop” and is known for its baguette-style bread and a dressing that uses red wine vinaigrette as its main component, plus serving more tuna salad sandwiches than just about any other restaurant group on the planet.  Many industry experts consider their emphasis on toasted subs as perhaps one of the most recognizable marketing campaigns in recent memory.  The chain got its start in 1981 and opened its first franchise location later that same year.

Quizno’s Franchise Review

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