What is a Franchise?
Owning your own business is a dream many of us possess.  One of the most common ways to achieve it is through the purchase of a franchise.  The concept of franchising involves the selling of an established method of doing business to someone else.  Many retail and mobile-based businesses these days are actually franchises.  The parent company provides brand-name products or services, plus support in the form of training and advertising.  In return, the franchisee pays fees and royalties to run the individual business.

The Franchise Buying Process
There are a number of steps one should follow in order to determine (a) whether buying a franchise is the right move to make, and (b) selecting the proper franchise to purchase.

Read More

Five Magic Steps
At some point in any entrepreneurial career a business owner will be compelled to say, “I want to sell my business.”  Whether he or she is a sole proprietor or the head of an ownership group, selling a business does not need to be a complicated affair.  There are a few simple rules to follow and a minimum of steps to take, so read on and sell your business with confidence.

1. Decide on a Valuation
Putting a price tag on the value of the company is the first and most important step you will take to sell a business.  There are various ways to figure that value, most of which involve looking at previous net earnings, the replacement value of existing equipment and inventory, real estate values (if property is part of the equation), the price at which similar businesses in your industry have changed hands (i.e., comparables, as they are known in the home real estate market), and formulas that calculate earnings factors based on capitalization rates and bank discount rates.  A number of professionals can help you put an asking price on your business for sale, including business brokers, accountants, or even real estate attorneys who specialize in handling the sale of small companies.

2. Tips on Preparing Your Business For Sale
Before actually putting your company on the market, it will pay serious dividends to get your business into optimal shape.

Read More

One question I get asked a lot goes something like “I’ve got an idea for a business. I need to get finance from the bank, buy stationery and equipment and do some research. I’m not sure how to plan everything that I need to do.” Do you feel like this? Do you have a business idea and so much to do to get it up and running, that you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start?  If so, you’re not alone. Thousands of new business owners feel like this and that’s why it’s vital to put down on paper what you need to do. Here’s how: 

Take a big piece of paper and then write down everything that comes into your head that you’ll need to do to set up your business. Don’t worry if it sounds silly – just get it down. You might want to carry this piece of paper round with you for a couple of days just in case you think of anything else you need to do. Once you’ve got down the vast majority of all the things you’ll need to do, now is the time to start organising them. The first thing to do is group them. For example, anything to do with finance, group them all together (you could do this using a highlighter pen or writing them in groups on a separate sheet of paper); anything to do with getting a loan, group this too. Keep grouping the categories until you have five or six main headings to do. With grouping, what you’re trying to do is firstly realise that a lot of the tasks you need to do are related and can be done together and secondly reduce the number of things you need to do into five or six areas. As such, if when you do this exercise, you find that some things don’t quite fit into a category, that’s fine – feel free to break them out into another heading. 

When you’ve got your groups, take a good long look at them. Is there a logical order in which they need to be done?

Read More

Multiple Owners Could Mean Multiple Headaches
Some business owners have the privilege of controlling 100 percent of their enterprise.  These companies are sole-owner entities.  You have no one to answer to but yourself in the event of business challenges, but all the success you achieve is yours and yours alone.  For everyone else – caution and a good “prenuptial” agreement is vital.  With companies that have more than one owner, no matter how small some of those ownership shares might be, a great deal of angst and potential bitterness – not to mention litigation – can be avoided by starting the business with a buy-sell agreement already in place.

What is a Buy-Sell Agreement?
In basic terms, a buy-sell agreement is a document that describes a prearranged plan to account for the disposition of ownership shares under a variety of circumstances.  The agreement should be written to cover a wide range of contingencies, including death, divorce, incapacitation, personal bankruptcy, retirement, or just plain got-tired-and-want-to-sell syndrome.  The agreement will also include limits on the sale of ownership shares under non-catastrophic conditions, as well as who gets first crack at the seller’s portion and how a price is determined.

Read More

Keeping Things In the Family
After toiling for years to build a successful business, you are proud of your accomplishments but ready to take some time off, or perhaps retire altogether.  Because you have so much invested in your company – both financially and emotionally – you hate the idea of seeing strangers behind the counter, or in your favorite office chair, or chatting up your suppliers.  Perhaps it has been your dream to create a business your children could enjoy, and maybe even hand down to their children.  Some of the greatest private wealth ever created has come about through the multi-generational ownership of business enterprises.

Benefits to Family Ownership
There are many challenges a business owner faces when it’s finally time to move on.  By selling to a relative, some of these problems disappear or are greatly lessened.  If a buyer comes from your own family, there is no need to actively market the business for sale.  Little due diligence is necessary, because you already know everything about that person’s financial situation and business acumen.  Financing the sale is easier, and there are tax advantages to transferring ownership to a relative, such as via a private annuity or an installment deal.  One might assume the buyer has been intentionally groomed to take over the business, so there is an expectation that the success the company has enjoyed down through the years would continue uninterrupted.  Customers and suppliers alike would see a familiar face and feel comfortable that the business has remained in satisfactory hands.  Finally, if your personal relationship with the buyer is a good one, they will likely welcome your continued involvement with the business, especially during the critical transition period.

Read More

Be a Smart Business Seller

Congratulations!  You have built your small business into a very successful enterprise over the years, and now it’s time to sell it and enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Perhaps you are dreaming of retiring next to a mountain stream with a fishing pole in your hand, or you may have other business ventures in your blood that you plan to finance with the proceeds from the sale of your current venture.  No matter what the reason, you can’t move forward until a buyer is found and a check is burning a hole in your pocket.  You probably sought out professional help when it came time to start your business – using the knowledge of your attorney, accountant, banker, and so on – so why not engage the services of a professional to help on the other end of the transaction?

The Business Broker

Read More

Working from Home is Desirable
If you have ever dreamed of working from home, you’re not alone.  You could be a stay-at-home mom (or dad), a retiree, or simply someone who wants to ditch the corporate rat race once and for all.  There is something about that short commute every morning – from bedroom to study, perhaps three dozen paces in all – and the ability to spend more time with your family, that is incredibly appealing.  With the proliferation of the Internet and ever-greater prospects for telecommuting, the time has never been better to find a work-from-home business opportunity.

What is “Employment”?
Anyone who works for a living understands the nature of a job.  You perform work, and someone pays you for doing so.  You may earn money based upon the number of hours you put in, the amount of business you bring in (compensated as sales commission, for example), or a monthly or annual rate based upon a variety of duties.  If you are legally classed as an employee, your company will make various deductions from your wages – for federal and state taxes, FICA, etc. – and possibly also offer benefits such as paid vacation and sick time, or health care.  There is also an employment situation known as the “independent contractor.”  While you fulfill a specific relationship for a business – selling their products or services, contributing articles, or providing maintenance – you are not paid as part of the payroll system and typically bear your own responsibility for paying taxes, health insurance, and so on.  Most work-from-home operations, even legitimate ones, fall into this latter category.

Read More

No matter where you live or even how populated the community, there will always be a need for a locksmith.  People by nature are forgetful and this is no exception when it comes to locking your keys in your car or locking yourself out of your home.  Owing a locksmith business can be very lucrative.

Advertising and Marketing
It is important to have strong advertising and marketing skills when you buy a locksmith business.  You can have all of the skills and even a small team of locksmiths, but if no-one knows that you are open for business you will not succeed.  After you buy a locksmith business for sale, advertise in the local paper and with flyers.  This will let people in your community and neighboring communities know that you are providing them a service.  You can even list your new locksmith business in the yellow pages of the local phone book.

Participate in community events and even hold a community charity event to raise funds for a local group.  This will not only give back to the community but it is an excellent way to advertise when you buy a locksmith business.  Leaving your business cards at local eating establishments, the local library, laundry mats and even gas stations is another inexpensive way to advertise and market after you buy a locksmith business for sale.

Read More

Buying a franchise is a great way to start your own business.  You enjoy instant name recognition by providing customers access to well-known regional or national brands.  You have the backing of a major corporation and the ability to put into practice a variety of tried-and-true business methods.  Finally, any difficulties you encounter are likely issues that have befallen other franchisees in the system.  You have a ready source of advisors who have “seen it all” and will help you come up with sensible solutions.

Because buying a franchise is an expensive proposition, you want to do plenty of research up front to ensure you are making the right move and choosing the best possible operation.  Here are ten tips to keep in mind when doing research on the best franchise for you.

1. Understand the Market
Once you have decided which field to enter – maybe it’s fast food, or auto repair, or a daycare center – learn as much as you can about the industry.  Pick up some trade journals, check out the Web sites of the major corporate players – especially the franchisor you want to buy from – and visit with other franchisees to see what their experiences have been.

2. Carefully Review All Written Material
Any U.S.

Read More

In these times of job layoffs, corporate bankruptcies, offshore outsourcing and general business malaise, more people than ever are turning to thoughts of starting and running their own business.  But why risk your personal financial future – not to mention your sanity – if the path you choose for self-employment ends up suffering from the same ills that put your former employer in jeopardy.  A smart decision involves selecting a franchise in an industry that has traditionally weathered bad times better than most.

General Tips and Common Sense
During a recession, where people are either losing their jobs, working fewer hours, or fear one or the other regardless of the actual outcome, the tendency is to spend less – and then, to buy only what is necessary.  Logically, one should choose a franchise that offers goods or services no one can do without, no matter how much they wish to trim their budget.  And for situations where consumers will cut back without eliminating a purchase altogether, providing discounted items that are still good values will keep your own bank account in the black.

Some Excellent Prospects
There are lots of franchise opportunities that perform well when things are rough financially.  The ideas listed below are not all-inclusive, but you could hardly go wrong by using the following examples as a terrific jumping-off point.  No specific franchise brands are mentioned, but it won’t take much research on your part to come up with some great options in each category.

Read More

Congratulations!
So you’ve decided to be your own boss rather than work for someone else the rest of your life.  Good for you!  Many decisions will crop up before you make that first deposit or paste that first dollar bill on the wall next to your cash register.  Choosing what sort of business you wish to operate is tops on the list – retail versus wholesale and service-related versus product-oriented – as well as the specific industry you plan to enter or the type of work you hope to do.  But selecting between two major categories of self-employment is awfully high on that list – buying a business opportunity as opposed to a franchise opportunity.

What is a Franchise?
Many U.S. companies, especially those in the retail sector, provide goods and services through franchisees.  If it’s a national brand, chances are good the owner of that particular establishment has purchased the right to operate it from the parent company.  Fast-food restaurants are one major category, but the concept extends to everything from car repair shops and daycare centers to mobile veterinary clinics and home cleaning services.  By paying an up-front fee, plus perhaps a percentage of your monthly gross revenue for ongoing licensure, you have the opportunity to become an independent operator with the full backing of a major corporation.

Read More

What is a Broker?
In general terms, the role of a broker is to bring together a buyer and a seller, help each party work out its differences, and then collect a commission for closing the sale.  The two best-known examples are stockbrokers and real estate brokers.  In each case, the broker is licensed to do business by some governmental entity – the NASD or SEC for the former, and a state licensing board for the latter – where both buyers and sellers pay some shared portion of the overall commission, and laws govern exactly what may or may not be done to promote the product or service on offer.

Brokering a Franchise
The broker who specializes in marketing franchise opportunities operates similarly to the broker types mentioned above, but there are differences well worth noting.  Most franchise brokers are not licensed by any particular body and consequently may operate pretty much as they choose.  If you are looking to buy a franchise, none of the money the broker earns comes out of your pocket – instead, they receive a percentage of the upfront franchise fee you pay to acquire the business and, in some cases, a smaller cut of the annual licensing fee that goes to the parent company.  Finally, the franchise broker represents a number of different companies and is therefore not beholden to one corporation or industry.

Read More

Times Are Tough – Or Are They?

The Dow is down, unemployment is up, the dollar remains weak against various foreign currencies, exports have declined, and the value of your 401(k) has dropped so precipitously that you don’t even bother to open your bank statement when it comes in the mail.  Meanwhile, experts argue continuously as to whether we are in a recession or a full-blown depression.  What can we do?  I know – let’s start a business.  While this might sound like the ravings of a lunatic, some of the nation’s most profitable and longest-lasting corporations got their start during tough times.  This includes Disney and Proctor & Gamble during the Great Depression, and Supercuts and Microsoft at the very end of the Vietnam era, with the country struggling to survive an oil boycott and a quadrupling of the price of gasoline.

Where’s the Cash?

One of the major drawbacks to starting a business involves the aspect of credit.  Very few people, in good times or bad, have enough ready cash to strike out on their own.  Even with the recent bank bailout, few institutions are loaning money – and those that do charge high interest rates and examine credit scores with a microscope.  But except for the Internet boom, where venture capitalists appeared to throw money at anyone with a pulse and a dot-com in their company’s name, banks have always been tight lenders.  If you have solid credit, a sensible business plan, and a successful track record as a past business owner or manager, the money is there.

Exploit Market Weaknesses

Read More

Caveat Entrepreneur Emptor – Let the Business Owner Beware

Whether you are buying an existing business, purchasing a franchise, or starting your own enterprise from scratch, it pays to go into the situation with both eyes open and one hand on your wallet.  Perhaps you’re interested in building a legacy for your children by leaving them a successful business.  Maybe you’re tired of the corporate rat race and the prospect of working for someone else the rest of your life.  Or it’s possible you are the descendent of a business owner and plan to take over in the near future.  If you want to retain your financial and mental health throughout the process, there are a number of pitfalls to avoid.

Franchise No-Nos

Read More

Bigger Booms – Deeper Busts

The U.S. economy has always been in flux, vacillating between boom and bust times ever since the country was founded.  Just in the last 120 years there was the Silver Crisis of the 1890s, the great stock market crash of 1929, and the dot-com bust in the first few years of the current century.  Shaky financial times generally go hand-in-hand with job loss.  Companies disappear due to bad business decisions, lack of capital, insufficient sales, plus other reasons far too numerous to mention here, and end up pitching their employees out on the street.  Companies that manage to keep their doors open often cut staff, sometimes severely, in order to wait things out until the economy improves – which it has always done, so far.  But the current downturn, for the first time since the Great Depression, is touching the working lives of a layer of citizens not used to this sort of economic strife – the solidly middle class.

Out of Work and Anxious

Read More

Sweet Treats
There are some big names in doughnut franchising across the United States, but few have the status of Krispy Kreme – a business with such tremendous appeal that store grand openings have often attracted long lines and serious local media attention.  Each store even comes equipped with neon “Hot Donuts Now” signage to let passersby know that another batch of sugarcoated raised dough is ready for instant consumption.

Mystery and Retail Magic
From its earliest days as a regional operation based in Winston-Salem, N.C., Krispy Kreme’s mystique spread far and wide thanks to people who returned home to other parts of the country after sampling the delicious “raised glazed” doughnuts eaten hot from the fryer.  From humble beginnings in 1937, the company began offering franchises for sale on a national basis only in the mid-1990s, thereby bringing a Krispy Kreme store to a town near you.  Although some might claim this expansion has caused a bit of the old enthusiasm to wane, the company continues to field dozens or even hundreds of requests every day for more information on how to own a Krispy Kreme franchise.

Read More

Franchising – A Great Business Model

Many of the businesses you come across in your day-to-day life, especially those with well-known brand names, are actually franchise operations.  The fast-food restaurant on the corner, the oil-and-lube shop down the street, the maid service that comes to your house in the blue-and-pink van, or the daycare center where your daughter-in-law parks her preschool child while she’s at work – each one of these establishments is most likely owned and operated by a franchisee.  People who have decided to run their own business often choose to buy a franchise.  The reasons are many, including instant credibility and brand recognition, a proven path to financial success, and plenty of support from a major corporation.

Expanding Your Business Reach

Read More

Pizza – Only a Call or E-Mail Away

From its beginnings in 1960, when two brothers borrowed $500 to buy an existing pizza place in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Domino’s Pizza has exploded into the world’s most recognizable brand in its class.  Although the company did not invent the concept of pizza delivery, it has perfected it and today even embraces the Internet to help hungry customers order and track their purchases online.  The first franchise store opened in 1967.  Co-founder Tom Monaghan ran the company until 1998, when he sold all but seven percent of his ownership stake to a prominent venture capital firm.

Domino’s Pizza Franchise Review

There are nearly 4,600 Domino’s Pizza franchises in the United States and another 3,500 in foreign countries.  The company claims to sell more than a million pizzas a day system-wide, while its drivers cover approximately 10 million miles a week.  Worldwide sales in 2008 topped $5.53 billion (an increase of 2.4 percent over the previous year), and a Domino’s Pizza location can be found in more than 50 countries.  The company has made a name for itself by developing interesting twists to its standard pizza fare, such as offering customers three different choices in crust thickness, or crust that is infused with mozzarella cheese, and it has added menu items over the years such as bread sticks and chicken wings.  This latter item has proved so popular that many Domino’s Pizza franchise stores sport an additional “Wing Street” neon sign alongside the ubiquitous red-white-and-blue domino-centric logo.

Domino’s Pizza Franchise Information & Costs

Read More

Frozen Yogurt is Back, Baby!

In the late 1980s, you could hardly walk two blocks in any direction in a major U.S. city without encountering a place selling frozen yogurt.  Touted as the healthy alternative to ice cream – all of the flavor, far fewer calories, and lower fat content – the industry began its decline around 1991.  An over-saturated market may have been one reason for this retrenchment, but so many frozen yogurt establishments offered the same flavors in the same manner that distinguishing one from the other was almost impossible.  In 2005, however, two West Coast entrepreneurs brought the concept back in a big way by opening up a place they called Pinkberry.

Pinkberry Franchise Review

From its single location in Los Angeles, Pinkberry had expanded to 20-plus stores in California and New York in just two years.  Today, the company boasts more than 50 stores in southern California and 15 in the New York City area (one in Flushing [Queens], and the rest in Manhattan), plus one “coming soon” in far-flung Kuwait! Founders Shelly Hwang and Young Lee claim to have brought their first store into the black within four months of its grand opening and insist that franchisees can expect to sell as much as $250,000 a month in frozen yogurt once they become established, generated from as many as 1,500 customers per day.

Pinkberry Franchise Information & Costs

Read More

Nothing Is Certain Except Death and Taxes

April 15 is a dark day for many Americans, as it represents a time when income tax forms and payments are due to state and federal authorities.  As tax forms have become more complex – it seems that Congress rewrites various portions of the nation’s tax code every session – the need for tax preparation services has grown significantly.  In 1982, John Hewitt left a career at H&R Block to start his own tax service.  He named it “Jackson Hewitt” and ran that company until 1997.  After selling the business for close to half a billion dollars, he founded Liberty Tax Service later the same year.  It was his goal to become the most prominent tax preparation service around, which is a pretty tall order considering his former employer is his present company’s main competition.  Nonetheless, in the 12 years the company has been around, it has grown into the country’s third-largest tax franchise.

Liberty Tax Service Franchise Review

Boasting more than 2,800 U.S.

Read More