When you set off to start your own business for the first time, a very good idea is to go with a franchise.  After all, the systems are already in place, the business model is already proven, and you will have help getting your business off the ground from your franchiser.  But like anything else in life, starting a franchise business should have a franchise business plan.

When you write a business plan for a franchise, there are plenty of different aspects you are going to need to consider.  In a franchise business plan, you are going to have to account for a variety of variables beyond just the product and the logo (which the franchiser should already have well in hand).  Any one of these facets, if handled poorly, could derail your business… or derail your plans to get financing from a bank, a broker or hard money funding.

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The bottom line is that to be successful as an entrepreneur today in business and in life you’ll need to cultivate a sense of balance in your life.  Choose to do work you love, delegate the rest.  Find time each day to sit quietly with yourself and enjoy the tranquility of not having to think about anything but yourself, as difficult as that might be for you to face.  Be decisive by trusting your own intuition while balancing the advise you seek from professionals who can hold you accountable.

Most of all, let go of the notion that you have to be perfect.

Richard Dennis, a super successful futures trader once said, It’s amazing how rich you can get without being perfect.” I’ve often contemplated the dilemma of producing perfect work, work that meets the expectations of the client and the cruel alternative, less than perfect work.  It can be counter-productive when you’re continually expecting perfection.

In a blog post, Internet marketing System Seminar founder, Ken McCarthy, in a muse on perfection noted “the perfectionist will resist and reject what IS – simply because it can never measure up to his imagined goal of what SHOULD BE.”

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Joint Ventures is a concept that has probably been around for a long time, but only seems to have become mainstream over the last few years. Joint ventures can work in several different ways, but essentially means that two or more businesses will have an arrangement whereby they’ll promote each other’s businesses and profit from this whenever anybody buys. 

At first glance, this seems similar to referral partners, but actually it’s a completely different concept. In referrals, although there might be a formal agreement to refer clients in exchange for money between two or more businesses, referrals tend to happen on an ad-hoc basis. 

In joint ventures, both parties agree to promote each other on a very regular basis in exchange for money when someone buys. Let me give you a few examples. 

1. I set up a workshop. You agree to promote this workshop to your list and your contacts and whenever someone books onto the workshop from your contacts, you get paid a percentage. 
2. We both write an e-book and jointly promote this to our lists and our contacts. Whenever someone buys, we get a share of the money at a 50/50 split. 
3. You create a membership programme. I tell my list about this and drive traffic to your site. If anyone buys, I get a percentage commission. 

Joint ventures work incredibly for products and tangible services. The relationship is almost always automated – in other words, I would get paid a percentage automatically using a payment system rather than you having to send me money every month. And unlike referrals, where payment can take months to come through, with a joint venture relationship, payment is instant. 

Joint ventures are also incredibly easy to track too – the payment system you use for your joint ventures will allow you to see when your contacts have bought a product or service and give you statistics on how much you’ve got paid.

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It’s not easy to remain focused and motivated at work. There are many distractions and comforts that call to you. But if you can resist them, the benefits are many. You’ll get your work done during the hours you planned to work, and you’ll have time off with friends and family afterwards. This improved work plan may also bring a better balance between work and home.

Did you know that the tone of each day is set in the first hour? When you set your goals in advance you will have a more productive start to each day. Write up today’s work plan the night before. Break the next day down into manageable steps and work your plan step by step.

E-mail usually offers us new priorities and other peoples’ urgent requests. It’s a good idea to aim to get one priority task done before checking your e-mail, and you will start the day more on track.

The second step to better focus is to identify what your particular distractions are – so that you can catch yourself when you start to procrastinate. Once you identify your own distractions, you can use them as rewards to motivate you to remain focused on your work. It can help move you forward, even through distasteful tasks.

The third step is to structure your time to allow you to indulge yourself, after you’ve worked in a focused manner. We benefit by knowing that a reward is coming. These pleasures can help us to stay motivated.

If others are working for you and they finish a task on schedule, you may encourage them to take some time off. You might even treat them out to lunch. We deserve the same rewards. We must plan time for our own rewards.

What is your favorite distraction? Mine is reading in the sunshine. There is a spot in my garden, that allows even pale sunshine to warm me. I can stay there for hours. Which is why I’ll take a timer with me when I decide to read for an hour.

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2010 is almost 1/2 way completed. Where do you stand regarding reaching the goals you set for yourself in 2010? Where do you have to go to reach your goals?  The first part of trying to figure out where we are going is determining where we are. 

What is your status?  In Facebook and Twitter we want to tell others of our status in our personal life, but do we tell others or even really tell ourselves what our professional, business or financial status really is.  Are you happy with your status?  Are you better off this year than last year?  Did you start that business you wanted to start, get a new job, buy a business, sell a business, retire… ? It is said when planning  ”How do you know if you got there if you dont know where you were going.”   But preceding this above-mentioned planning tenet is the need to know where you are starting from. A person wanting to start a business or buy a business and has $1,000,000 in the bank will plan to start or buy that business different than a student that just graduated from college and owes $40,000 in college loans and $0 in the bank.  It’s always a good time to plan ahead – We’re 1/2 way thru 2010.  What is your status?

1. Working for a wonderful boss and company and love my job.
2. Own my own business and business is good and look forward to continuing my success.
3. Own a struggling business and barely hanging on.

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“Earn $10,000 Per Month Working just 2 Hours per Week”… “Lose 10 pounds per day by just Sitting on Your Sofa”… “Take this Pill and all Women will Love You”…

Eye catching titles intending to entice one to read your message. Many of us use the Internet to further our knowledge and educate ourselves on our areas of interest. I am in the business of helping people buy businesses and sell businesses. I also do get involved with business consulting to both startups and small businesses. The above headings are written to get our attention and get us to read.

Does one think that you can get rich just working a couple hours per week? Lose weight by laying on the sofa? I dont think we really believe it to be probable – maybe we think it to be remotely possible, and just that sliver of hope warrants us to spend our valuable time to read. Optimism is a wonderful trait-when tempered. Kind of like the optimist that falls off a 90 story building and while falling past the 50th floor says to himself – “so far so good.”

Small business is of great interest to me, and I have various sources of information that I tend to follow. I write for a website that reaches many entrepreneurs, aspiring business owners and current business owners searching for both information and opportunities.  On my own website, I list 1000 plus businesses for sale from Florida and around the United States.  Within these businesses for sale certainly exist tremendous opportunity for those willing to put in the necessary risk and hard work.

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All businesses make marketing mistakes. By identifying some of the most common mistakes, you will be more likely to avoid these mistakes in your business.

#1 My Clients Want My Service / Product: Assuming that your clients want your products and service is an exercise in blind optimism. Just because you’ve created an ingenious product or offer a one-of-a-kind service, does not mean people want it. You must prove to yourself that your clients want what you are offering by first finding out what your target market really wants and needs.

#2 Inconsistent Effort: One of the biggest challenges of service-oriented businesses is to market consistently. As part of your marketing strategy, commit to setting aside a minimum amount of time each day where you will engage in marketing activities.

#3 Offer Multiple Services: Being clear with yourself about what you do is the first step in being clear with your target market about what you do. Are you a jack of all trades or do you offer a specialty service or product? Instead of marketing all of your services, try marketing just one of them.

Action Step: Take this week to examine your marketing efforts to ensure you are not committing any of the above marketing mistakes. To learn more about the evolution of your business and how to progress to the next phase, check out our website to access FREE business tools and downloads.

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Your products or services are the heart and soul of your business; without them, your business cannot exist. Much like the human body, a healthy heart is imperative to a healthy body. Although there are other organs and appendages that carry out the body’s functions, none of those can be completed without a functional, intact heart. As the business owner, you must become in tune with every facet of your business. Let’s apply this to your business:

Strategic customer service, brilliant marketing, nor effective human resources can overcompensate for mediocre products or services; when a business’s products or services are of the highest quality, the task of building a functional, productive business around those products or services is an achievable one. You must be able to create functional supports around your product or service so that you can deliver them; in essence, your business’s products or services are its foundation – they are why you went into business in the first place. How well do you know your products and services?

How comfortable are you with speaking about your products and services? Could you present an impromptu presentation on your products and services, clearly articulating to your customers the benefi ts that they will receive? Do you understand the pricing? Are you able to differentiate your products or services from those of your competitors?

If you had some difficulty in answering any of the above questions, do not be alarmed. Many businesses struggle with being able to truly understand their products or services – most seldom do. However, by becoming introspective and really doing some investigative work, you can improve your professional level of confidence and comfort.

Check out the Functional Business Plan Assignment – Part 4: Products & Services to form a better understanding of your products and services.

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At the start of a new year, it’s a good idea to take stock of your business by reviewing your Vision, Mission, and your Main Business Goals (If you don’t have a Mission or Vision statement, click here to download an exercise on writing them). Now, I hear you asking, “How are a Mission and Vision Statement going to help my business?” True, having a well written Mission and Vision is not going to miraculously bring you more customers. But, it is going to jump start your strategic brain and ultimately lead you to the detail of business planning: your Main Business Goals.

Your main business goals are the overarching, strategic actions you will take to bring your mission to life and achieve your vision. This is where the action comes to your business. It is your objective, your aim, your target, and your intentions for being in business. Knowing your Main Business Goals will tell you what you need to do each day in your business.

What does a Main Business Goal look like? Take a look at Cold Stone Creamery. Based on it’s mission and vision (click here to read) of becoming the #1 best-selling ice cream brand in America, the company’s goals might look something like this:

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I believe there exist a disconnect between all the news media exposure regarding the “green movement”, “green jobs”  and the actual mindset of most small business owners and entrepreneurs.   It is no doubt that “green” has become one of the more reported on phenomenon over the last couple of years.  The  US election had strong ties to green promises and future and has created general optimism.  One of the most important part of starting a new business, or buying a business is the due diligence needed to evaluate the opportunity.  Do you want to start a business or buy a business in the “green Industry” ? – perform some due diligence beyond reading the headlines. 

Please consider that small business owners and entrepreneurs are wired to think in the now, and fast, and today and ASAP.  Much in the Green Industry is very policy driven, and that policy comes from federal and state levels, and that policy is wired to work within targets such as long term, next year , and eventually…  To me this creates a disconnect between the small business owner/entrepreneur and the potential opportunities.

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The downturn in the economy has led many to a mindset of fear and scarcity.  It is difficult for entrepreneurs and professionals to succeed if they cannot picture or perceive that success.  As top level athletes will confirm, along with all of their preparation and training, they visualize their successes prior to competing.   Dr. Jim Gottfurcht, PhD, one creator of “The Psychology of Money,” is one of the pioneers in studying how individuals think about money, states that at any moment people experience one of two states of mind:  Prosperity Thinking or Poverty Thinking.  Prosperity Thinking is when one aligns his or her beliefs, expectations and feelings with abundance, optimism and confidence. Poverty Thinking is limited and rooted in fear and mistrust.   According to Dr. Gottfurcht, by increasing Prosperity Thinking and decreasing Poverty Thinking, one can become more confident, optimistic, and successful.

It makes sense that focusing on poverty and scarcity closes down possibilities and opportunities. It can also predispose both entrepreneurs and businesses to fail.  Particularly during this time of recession, unemployment and overall gloom and doom, it’s more important than ever to shift a personal and business mindset from one of scarcity to one of success.

In her book Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting, Lynn Grabhorn discusses the following  four steps:

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Ever feel that doing the right thing to please others is costing you more than it should? Here’s your dilemma.  You want to do your own thing, but you also want to be accepted. You want to “fit in”. You want to do the right things so that you can be successful at your chosen goal – whether that be a high-flying corporate business broker, a self employed entrepreneur, a punk-rocker, or a circus clown.  Although, chances are you are an entrepreneurial spirit and doing your own thing comes with the territory. 

Sometimes our problem isn’t that we don’t have what it takes to be a successful X, Y or Z, but that we have not taken control of our own lives and destinations.  We are surrounded by people who cannot or will not support and encourage us to do it.  They plant doubts in our minds so that we end up doubting ourselves and thinking our dreams are silly. After all, they know what is best for us, right?  Wrong. 

Then we do our best to “fit in” and please others by doing what they expect of us or want us to do.  They use manipulative guilt games to persuade us to do things that please and make sense for them… but leave us dull and empty… wondering, “Is this all there is?” and “Why aren’t I happy?” 

Have you noticed the same people who would advise you to do as other people do because that is “the norm” and expected by society, are the same people who would chastise you for copying others with comments like “… and if they decided to jump off the roof, would you do the same?”   

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It’s been said that on a plane trip, President George Bush senior personally wrote 40 notes of appreciation to various members of his staff. When his aides compared their notes, they discovered that every one of them was different. You can imagine how much each person appreciated his or her note. And most of them probably still have them. Personal expressions of appreciation can be great motivators. Recognizing your team members for their contributions is an important part of leadership. When people are properly recognized, they are likely to continue engaging in business with you. The ideal workplace is one where people are happy, productive, and proud of their accomplishments. Acknowledgment and rewards go a long way toward making a happy workplace.

Make acknowledgment an everyday activity, and be sure to be authentic – people can tell when you are not being authentic. Great leaders notice what their team members do, not only the accomplishments but also the effort. Imagine how you would feel if someone not only noticed the completion of your project, but also commended you on how you mastered the difficult aspects or how creative you were. Someone noticed! Someone cared enough to say something! It feels good to be noticed or to know that someone cares. Financial and non-financial rewards provide incentives to team members. Whatever kind of rewards you choose to give be sure they will be valued by the recipients. Imagine how the legal secretary felt every Christmas when his boss gave him several bottles of expensive wine even though the secretary had often told the lawyer that he was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. The reward really needs to match the values of the recipient in order to be truly appreciated. Reward each employee according to what motivates them personally, such as giving:

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Dun & Bradstreet reports that “businesses with fewer than 20 employees have only a 37% chance of surviving four years (of business) and only a 9% chance of surviving 10 years.” The Lessons in this module, The Six P’s of Success, are dedicated to helping you thrive, not just survive in your business.

By enhancing and leveraging your abilities related to passion, patience, persistence, positive attitude, planning, and practice, you establish a strong foundation upon which your business can rest. In fact, the Six P’s are like the pillars that support you and your business. Engage yourself fully in the Lessons of this module and strengthen the pillars that will keep you in business for a long time.

If you will think of success as a journey, rather than a specific outcome, you will enjoy the process of building a successful business.

Here are the P’s:

Passion: When you follow your passion, you are so much more motivated to do things well and to spend the time required to execute your plan. Passion makes you spring out of the bed each morning, happy to start your new day doing what you love.

Patience: When it comes to business, patience is an important attribute for achieving goals, acquiring clients, developing a business strategy, working through challenges, accruing capital, and other long-term tasks. These things take time.

Persistence: There are very few ventures that succeed on the first try. A famous actor once said, “it only took me 10 years to become an overnight success.” Without persistence, no one would ever succeed.

Positive Attitude: Thomas Edision once said while trying to invent the electric light bulb, “I have gotten a lot of results.

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Business for sale by owner, or FSBO, is an attempt by a business owner to sell his or her own company. While it is understandable that offers of this kind can easily attract a lot of interest, prospective buyers of FSBO should exercise a significant amount of caution; such an opportunity can often prove to be far more risky than it may appear at first sight. On the other hand, buying an established company can also be a very rewarding endeavor. What can be done to minimize the risk and foster the chance for success?

Buying a FSBO Business – an Opportunity and a Challenge
Even the most inexperienced entrepreneur knows by heart that you should not always trust everything that a seller says. Why would this be different when buying a business for sale by owner? Here are just a few ideas for thought.

First, it is possible that the owner of that business will attempt to overstate his or her business profits. You definitely do not want to pay a lot of money for a business that will keep bleeding “red ink”. Second, when buying a business for sale by owner, he or she, even with the most innocent intentions, might be unaware of a real price of a particular FSBO. Most likely, you would risk overpaying. Third, negotiations are not an easy task.

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According to the experts, new technology appears online approximately every two and a half seconds – and theoretically, every new application has the potential to transform your business.

How do you know what’s worth your time and what’s a total time-waster? That’s a serious question, when you only have 24 hours in a day and still have a business to run.

Save time and minimize frustration by adopting this six-step process for approaching new technology.  Followed consistently, this process enables you to identify viable promotional opportunities, discern which ones appear to have sticking power, streamline the learning process, and adopt best practices right from day one!

Step 1: Don’t Believe the Hype
Enthusiastic, cheerleading-style articles touting the lastest tech tool as the solution to all of your marketing challenges are fun to read, but they seldom provide enough information to make a solid business decision!

Put yourself on a short rein, and don’t let enthusiasm for the flavor-of-the-week by your only guide.
Do your research. Discover what demographics are adopting the touted technology. For example, the audience for Twitter-powered microblogs is different from the crowd downloading podcasts onto their cell phones.

Step 2: Seek Out Reputable Resources to Serve as Guides
While you’re doing your due diligence and your research, pay special attention to where your information is coming from.  Not all resources have equal value.  Look to those individuals who are consistently cited as an expert by others.  It’s wise to have a rule of three for this.  If three disparate sources all reference the same individual or work, there’s a better than fair chance that resource has some real value that can be of benefit.

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Sometimes in business or life, we encounter ‘pivotal’ points where we have the opportunity thrust upon us to make changes.  A death, a major illness, or a major economic upheaval can force us to take stock of our lives at that point, and make changes.  But isn’t it better to seize the opportunities to change and grow as a choice?  Entrepreneurs carve out their success by doing just that. It is better to be someone who is open to learn, to stretch and push yourself past your comfort zone into what I call ‘the Winner’s Zone’.  This change is a choice!  Life is a series of changes and choices; why not control the direction and pace?

“Searching for the peak performer within yourself has one basic meaning: You recognize yourself as a person who was born, not as a peak performer but as a learner.  With the capacity to grow, change, and reach for the highest possibilities of human nature, you regard yourself as a person in process.  Not perfect, but a person who keeps asking: What more can I be?  What else can I achieve that will benefit me and my company?  That will contribute to my family and my community?” Charles Garfield, Peak Performers

Ask yourself a few questions and allow your honest reactions to reflect the changes in your attitudes, and actions that need to be addressed to maximize your life, your career or your organization.

What do I really want to have my life to accomplish?  What is my biggest dream?

What am I afraid of?  What is stopping me?

What do I need to change to make it work?

When will I commit to start making these changes?

Will you have the courage to change?  Will you commit to being the best you can be, and all that God intended you to become?  Remember the words of J.C.

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If your business is going to be owned by more than one owner, the simplest business form to create and operate is a general partnership. Forming a partnership entails an agreement between two or more prospective partners. Whomever you choose to be a partner in any given business venture lies solely in what skills, attributes, or responsibilities this person will be contributing. A partner can be an individual, a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, or a trust.

What is a partnership?

The flexibility of a partnership allows the business to operate in a manner that best suits the business needs at the time the business starts and later when the business has matured. Later, when the business has grown, new partners can be added, yet their management capacity can be limited to prevent the new partners from usurping the original partners. When a partner contributes capital to a partnership, the partner receives an ownership percentage in all assets of the partnership, not just in the property contributed.

All partners are jointly liable for the obligations of the partnership. Joint liability means that each individual partner will equally be held responsible for all of the obligations of the partnership. If there is an instance in which any one partner solely contributes to any betterment of the business, that business partner can collect the other partners’ pro rata share of the debt regardless of whether or not the other partners are financially able to repay their share. If this is the case legal action may be required.

There are basically two types of partnerships:

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Billionaires From the Frozen North
Any annual listing of the world’s richest people invariably conjures up many of the same names from one year to the next.  Yes, Warren Buffet is on there, and so is Bill Gates.  Ho hum.  But the average American-centric observer usually fails to recognize the wealth and entrepreneurial spirit that continues to thrive in our Neighbor to the North – Canada.  That country has its share of wealthy people, and successful people, and successfully wealthy people.  And even though the recent economic downturn has had some negative effects on those Billionaire Balance Sheets – comparing 2009 to 2008, the world’s billionaires shed approximately $2 trillion in asset valuation – none of these people is expected to show up in a bread line anytime soon.  According to Forbes, the magazine nearly everyone reads when it comes to exploring entrepreneurs and their successes, here are the ten richest Canadians for 2009, along with a brief description as to how they got there in the first place.  Unless otherwise noted, all figures are [not ironically] in U.S. dollars.

1. David Thomson and family ($13.0 billion); media conglomerate
Thomson is the grandson of Roy Thomson, who founded Thomson Corp. in 1934.  The company began as a book publisher, and today it continues to be one of the world’s prominent providers of textbooks for higher education.  But the corporation really took off once it got involved in electronic media and information technology, dominating such sectors as healthcare, financial services, law, and science.  The company acquired the Reuters news service in 2007 and is now formally known as Thomson Reuters.

2.

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Women in the Boardroom, and Beyond
Over the past several decades, women have gained a far more prominent position on the American business scene.  Once relegated to roles of subservience, as viewers of the AMC television series “Mad Men” can attest, female corporate executives have continued to assert themselves in boardrooms across the country.  The business magazine Fortune has, for the past twelve years, created an annual listing of the 50 most powerful women in business.  Some of them hold the top spots in their respective companies, while others are well on the way to that position.  The characteristics they share are hardly different from their male counterparts – vision, persistence, and intelligence – but many will privately attest to the fact that reaching this point in their careers took extra effort.  As much as we would like to believe in an egalitarian world of business, there is still an extra thrill when a woman manages to “make it in a man’s world.”  One measure of success – when the list premiered in 1998, only two women of the 50 was a CEO or its equivalent.  This year’s list includes 13 CEOs.

Most Powerful Women in Business
Fortune has selected fifty powerful women for its annual list; here is an in-depth look at the top ten:

1. Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo); Chairman and CEO
This is the fourth year that Nooyi has topped the Fortune list.  She led this food and beverage conglomerate to $43 billion in sales and led the drive to buy out the company’s two largest independent bottlers.  That move alone is expected to save the company close to $300 million a year.

2. Irene Rosenfeld (Kraft Foods); Chairman and CEO
Remaining at the number two spot, Rosenfeld helped increase company revenue 15 percent and saw her company become part of the Dow 30, a highly influential position.

3.

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