Buying a Franchise orStarting Alone
I have often been asked what the best way to start a business is You can purchase a franchise or build a company from scratch. This ultimately depends on what you want to put in and what you expect out.
There are many franchises available to buy. Many companies you use are probably franchises, from restaurants to cleaning services. When you purchase a franchise you are basically getting a business in a box. When you buy into a franchise, many aspects of the business including marketing are taken care of off. There are many different franchises available. Some will give you the business name, equipment and everything you need for start up, others only give you the basics and you still have to buy or lease a location, purchase equipment and the inventory you will need.
Some key drawbacks of buying a franchise however are that you are not free to change much of your business model, and of course the initial outlay. Visit the Key Mergers website for more information or if you would like to f you would like to buy a business or even to sell one.
Starting from zero and building a you very own company however means that you can grow the business organically over time, you can limit your initial outlay and you can be as creative with the direction of your business as you like. However, your model may not be tried and tested and you will likely have to develop your own support network from the ground up along with your business.
the reality is, the decision whether to buy a franchise or start a business from scratch are dependent on what your want to get out of the enterprise. There is a trade-off between creativity, fleximility, risk and reward.
Holding Effective Meetings Can Be Easier than You Think!
I’m sure you’ve experienced those typical “headache” meetings! You know the kind I’m talking about — the ones where the key players are running late, no one knows exactly why the meeting was called, and there’s not a single agenda in sight. Everyone’s sitting around wondering, “Will this last 20 minutes or will we be here all day?” It’s impossible to tell!
Then, once the meeting finally gets off the ground, the real pandemonium starts. For instance:
* You may hear some people yak incessantly on the sidelines, or one or two folks might jump on a soapbox and dominate the discussion.
* The meeting topics can bounce back and forth so many times that no one can keep track of what’s actually being discussed.
* If a decision results, no one knows whether it was ever recorded or even whether anyone agreed to it.
To counteract these frustrating problems, this article reveals four techniques for running great meetings and following up afterward.
First, How Big Is the Problem?
What are the consequences of holding ineffective meetings? Meetings held for the wrong reasons, that don’t involve the right participants, or that don’t use a disciplined meeting process can waste the time, resources, and money of the business.
Not only do they have the potential to make the participants feel perpetually frustrated and unproductive, they’re also a financial drain. Just in the area of cost, have you ever tried to calculate the expense of holding even a single unproductive meeting?
If you multiply the number of people sitting in a room by an average hourly rate, and add the cost of employee benefits (overhead), you’ll see what I mean. And that’s the average cost for a holding a single meeting, not including expenses for any related travel, food, or equipment.
You can multiply that figure across the entire company to estimate the cost of meetings held per month and per year. As you can imagine, holding meetings, especially unproductive ones, can be an expensive proposition!
How Can You Turn Your Meetings Around?
In contrast to the chaotic, unplanned encounters, at well-run meetings, participants collaborate to produce a valuable outcome. They also leave the meeting feeling that their time was really well spent. Making simple changes to the protocols for running meetings can shift the dynamics into a highly effective mode. To achieve excellent results, try the following:
1. Be sure you really need a meeting before scheduling it.
Respect your colleagues’ busy schedules. Don’t schedule a meeting unless:
* You really need the cooperation of several people at once.
* The attendees must contribute to, or will be affected by, a vital decision.
* You want various people to listen and respond to what others have to say.
2. Send out a meeting notice and agenda well in advance.
Give your attendees plenty of advance notice — for example, at least a week. Also consider whether any of your invitees are likely to be unavailable on that date. If so, you may want to postpone the meeting or seek alternates.
Be sure your meeting notice includes all of the key information: Include the 1) meeting date, 2) starting and ending times, 3) purpose, 4) attendees, 5) location with directions or access instructions, and 6) the proposed agenda. That way, everyone will know exactly what to expect, what to do, what their time commitment is, and what’s in it for them!
3. Conduct the meeting using good facilitation techniques.
Here are some of the most effective techniques professional facilitators use:
* Start on time; don’t reward latecomers by waiting for them.
* Decide on times for each topic and stick to them.
* Follow the agenda; avoid hopping around.
* Discourage side discussions.
* Set a “no interrupting” rule.
* Stop, repeat, and clarify the points people are making.
* Test for closure before moving on to the next agenda item.
* Record decisions, action items, and due dates for each topic.
* Summarize the key decisions and action items before closing.
* End on time.
4. Follow up afterward with summaries and action items.
After you’ve completed all of that hard work, you can avoid having everyone’s ideas and decisions simply melt away because no one sent out a good summary or bothered to track the agreed-upon assignments.
A summary doesn’t have to be fancy or very detailed to be effective, but it should contain enough substance to inform the people who weren’t there, for example. The summary should list 1) each topic, 2) the key points of each topic discussion, 3) all decisions made, and 4) action items and due dates. At the end, it may include the next meeting’s 5) proposed agenda, 6) date and time, and 7) location, if known.
With a little fine-tuning, you can convert your meetings from profit stealers into profit boosters. The process will transform the quality of group collaborations and breathe new life into your morale and productivity!
Copyright 2005 Adele Sommers
Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is the creator of the award-winning “Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance” success program. To learn more about her tools and resources and sign up for other free tips like these, visit her site at http://LearnShareProsper.com
Fail to plan… or Plan to FAIL??
Running a business, whether it be an offline multi-billion
dollar company or an online part time home business, they
share many similar traits.
One of the biggest obstacles I have endeavored to
translate to many, many small business / home business
people, is a very simple phrase……’ Treat It Like a REAL
business, Because It IS a REAL Business’.
The fundamental reasoning behind so many failures in small
business, is the clear lack of willingness to act like a
real business. Many people may ‘ have a go ‘, they could ‘
give it a try ‘, or ‘ let’s see what happens ‘ - all with
the.. ‘ what have I got to lose? ‘ attitude. THAT, my
friends, is one of the biggest secrets to FAILURE.
OK - so let’s assume that your small business / home
business / BizOp etc., is NOT you main source of income. It
is NOT responsible for putting food in you family’s
stomachs, it is NOT what keeps a roof over your head…..
it is NOT the sole form of income that you, your family and
your Bank Manager rely upon.
So look at it like this. If it WAS, would you put as much
effort into it as you do now? I can pretty much guarantee
that your efforts would be substantially more, because
everything relies on the success of your business,
vis–vis the money your business generates.
Well, now we have ascertained that you should be running it
like a real business…….Are you?
> Do you have a business plan?
> Do you know each step that your business will take over
the next week, month, year, three years….?
> Have you prepared your agenda for acquiring new
customers, products, joint venture partners?
> Do you have a timetable of events?
> How often do you research, analyse, read-up and check out
your competitors?
> When was the last time you contacted your client base?
> Do you offer them special offers, free resources and
reports? What about surveying them and asking for their
opinions?
> How often do you do all this?
> Does your business have a ‘company objective’?
> Has your ‘company’ it’s own ‘customer mission statement’?
> Have you set yourself / your business targets….use my
S.M.A.R.T. Principle…… …….targets which must be
= Specific………….. each item / area of business must be
targeted specifically.
= Measurable…….. be able to measure your targets,
how much, how often etc.
= Achievable……..don’t think that you can sell 2 million
units if your competitors only sell 50 units.
= Realistic………….. be honest with yourself. Can it be
done?
= Time-bound…….give limitations and deadlines to
whatever you are planning. Open-ended is no good.
If you want to run your BUSINESS ‘willy-nilly’, or ‘Gun Ho’
- then expect eventual failure. However, with some applied
thought, planning and foresight, you can develop your
little, part-time home business into something which
definitely has increased chances for success.
Apply time-management techniques, stick to time-tables and
deadlines. Look out for ‘Time Thieves’…….. These are
people or events which steal time from you, time which
could be more effectively used elsewhere.
Example: Someone calls and asks when you can deliver a
certain item, you reply “within two days”, they are happy
with your response BUT instead of the conversation
finishing, they go on to talk about weather, sports,
families etc…
…..before you know it, a one-minute call has turned into
a 30 minute episode of everything except business. Not
Good. This is time you could have efficiently used
elsewhere………they have stolen your time from you. Look
out for the ‘Time Thieves’ - they are everywhere. Spot them
- deal with them.
Time Management is KEY to business planning. If your plan
has a tight schedule to work to, then your management of
ever-so valuable time will be very important. Plan your
time carefully, effectively and efficiently……but do
allow for some overspill and overlap…….it happens in
any business!
One KEY fundamental of business planning is the ability to
be flexible and adaptable. Never assume that once you
create your plan, that you must stick to it rigidly, but
flexible when necessary, but not to the detriment of the
your success. Remember, overspill and overlap work both
sides of the same coin.
PLAN. Plan carefully, plan honestly, plan realistically.
But you must plan.
Final thought. Think long and hard about the ‘company /
business objective’ and the ‘Customer Mission Statement’.
Put together a short (two - three sentences) paragraph for
each, which clearly defines….. A). What your business is
all about. B). What your customers can expect from your
business.
Chose the words carefully, put into 2-3 sentences
everything that encapsulates both statements totally and
work to these statements closely.
Plan for success, because without planning, you will fail.
Copyright © 2004 Gary Durkin
All rights reserved worldwide.
Gary Durkin is the owner / CEO of
http://www.DoubleEdgeMarketing.com
http://www.247-Profit.com
http://www.eProfitGroup.com
http://www.InternetAdviceCenter.com
http://www.AffiliateMastermindProtege.com
…and the creator of the Serling Combination® package.
Gary has enjoyed more than a decade of international
business success, and has been doing business online for 5 years.
Offline, Gary controls millions of dollars worth of global
investments each day… online he applies to skills he has
developed over the years by working with some of the
World’s leading internet marketers and specialists.
How and Why You Should Form a Limited Liability Company in Arizona
In order to form an LLC correctly, I would strongly urge you to consult an attorney and a C.P.A. There are legal and tax consequences that you need to consider carefully. LLC formation in Arizona requires the following:
<1i>Select and reserve the name of the LLC.
<1i>Prepare the Articles of Organization of the company and the consent of statutory agent to file with the Arizona Corporation Commission (”ACC”).
<1i>Prepare the ACC cover sheet that must be filed with the Articles.
<1i>File the Articles with the ACC on an expedited basis (recommended).
<1i>Receive the approved articles from the ACC.
<1i>Obtain a federal employer ID number.
<1i>Open the company’s bank account.
<1i>Arrange to publish the Articles of Organization in a newspaper in the appropriate county.
<1i>Obtain an Affidavit of Publication of the Articles of Organization and mail it to the ACC within the time required for filing the Affidavit.
<1i>Decide how the LLC will be taxed.
<1i>An LLC can be taxed as federal income tax paying entity depending on how it chooses to be taxed.
<1i>Sole member LLCs may be taxed as a pass-through for federal income tax purposes, as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. Multiple member LLCs may elect to be taxed for federal income tax purposes as a partnership or a corporation.
<1i>LLCs that are taxed as a partnership are not federal income tax paying entities. LLCs that are taxed as corporations are federal income taxpaying entities.
<1i>If the LLC is taxed as a partnership, the profits and losses pass through to the members prorata based on their percentage of ownership, or as otherwise provided in the partnership agreement and the special allocation of profits and losses. If the LLC is taxed as a C corporation, the LLC reports profits and losses as a tax-paying entity rather than the members.
Jo Ann Joy, Esq., MBA, CEO
Copyright 2006 Indigo Business Solutions. All rights reserved.
joannjoy@IndigoBusinessSolutions.net, Phone (602) 663-7007, Fax (602) 324-7582
For more information about these and other important business topics and for legal consultation, please visit our website at http://www.IndigoBusinessSolutions.net Copyright 2006. Indigo Business Solutions is a registered trade name.
The future of your business starts here.
About the author:
Jo Ann Joy is the CEO and owner of Indigo Business Solutions, a legal and business consulting firm that differs from other business consulting firms, because it offers comprehensive legal and business counseling. Jo Ann has a law degree, an MBA, and a degree in Economics, but she is not a traditional attorney. Rather, she is a strategic business attorney who works closely with clients to create and implement strategies that will greatly improve their performance and success.
Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals
Should we or should we not set big, hairy, audacious goals where success is far from certain (at least without the benefit of hindsight)?
I for one am grateful for the existence of people who set big goals. My country (the USA) would not exist otherwise. Nor would my city, my family, our computers, the Internet, my breakfast, this Thanksgiving holiday, or the various freedoms I enjoy today. A number of people close to me would be dead if not for the existence and drive of “unrealistic” goal setters.
If you have a Hitler setting big goals and you don’t have an equally strong goal-setter like Winston Churchill on your side, well, … there won’t be much quo left in your status. Personally I’d rather see a lot more Winston Churchills or Mother Theresas or Stephen Hawkings out there trying and failing than none trying at all.
If you set a big goal and fail, you learn something. If you set a big goal and succeed, you gain the outcome of the goal, AND you learn something. If you don’t set a goal at all, you gain nothing and learn nothing. There’s nothing inherent to this process that is stressful or peace-reducing. To create such stress requires a particular way of thinking known as fear of failure (which unfortunately many people have been conditioned to believe). Working on big goals is like rolling a die: If it’s even, you win a little, and if it’s odd, you win a lot. If you don’t roll the die, you break even. Those are great odds to me, a bet worthy of being made frequently.
Another side to this is that most people underestimate what goals are truly “realistic” for them. Certainly some people overestimate their capabilities and fall flat on their face. But if you never overestimate your capabilities by occasionally setting a goal that’s beyond your ability to achieve, you never develop a good sense of your true capabilities you never map out those edges so you risk spending your whole life way below your capacity. And unfortunately this is what most people do.
An optimal strategy for investing in your life will include failure. Consider financial investing. If you adopt a strategy that 100% guarantees you’ll never lose money, will that be optimal in the long run? Not even close. In fact, since you couldn’t invest in anything because nothing is truly risk free, you wouldn’t earn any interest at all, so inflation alone would cause you to lose money. The same effect occurs in your physical body. If you never strain your muscles to push beyond their current capabilities, you won’t just stay at the same level of strength and not grow stronger over time you will actually grow weaker.
And this is what happens to people who never push themselves to take on goals that truly challenge them. They grow mentally weaker over time, losing more and more of their capabilities.
Think back over your life for a moment and consider those times when you really challenged yourself, regardless of whether you successfully achieved the desired result or not. How would you be today if those experiences never happened? Would you be stronger or weaker?
Setting a goal and failing to achieve it doesn’t have to be regarded as some terrible thing to be avoided at all costs. In weight training failure is your goal for each session. Hitting the point of failure is ultimately what helps you grow stronger. A weight lifter doesn’t bemoan the event of hitting that limit, opting to stick with 10-lb weights indefinitely because 100 lbs is just too heavy. That would be silly. Similarly, don’t bemoan your own failures in life when you hit one of those weights you just can’t seem to lift. Simply take a step back and go after a slightly lighter weight for a while, and eventually you’ll be strong enough to heft that heavy one. Don’t conclude that just because you can’t currently lift a weight that’s too heavy for you (or achieve a goal that’s too challenging for you) that you’ll never be able to do it or that the whole process must be inherently stressful and disappointing. Learn to love the process itself.
Copyright © Steve Pavlina
Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)
Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.
Strategic Importance of Business Plans in Today’s Technological Driven Marketplace
Business Plans Are More Essential than Ever
As the pace of competition has accelerated, product life cycles have shrunk.
It used to take 8 to 10 years to design and build a car.
Now it can be in less than a year and half.
Windows of opportunity open and close with blinding speed; and customers, who are constantly being wooed by the competition, are more demanding than ever.
Some people will advise you that it is impossible to plan for the future and thus business plans are irrelevant and a waste of time.
In fact, in this era the exact opposite is true. It is now more important than ever before to have a battle plan during what might, in retrospect, be viewed as “peacetime.”.
Planning and preparation are required for your financial as well as your company’s survival. No one is saying, “The world is more uncertain for you now, so plans are no longer relevant.” The truth is that planning and that planning skills are now most important and more vital than ever. In this regard, businesses are no different from individuals.
Success in this super competitive era depends on making very clear business plans and statements. Winners develop a vision of where they intend to be going, and this blueprint will allow them the flexibility to respond appropriately when the unexpected occurs…
The basics of it all are that by not planning you limit your options and flexibility greatly .
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT Business planning now?
Good business plans require different attributes. The networking revolution created by the Web for business-to-business activities and business-to-consumer products and services has offered new opportunities but has created a very different business environment.
There are essentially only three central tenets that are a part of business plans:
1. A focus on speed in all of its manifestations
2. The integration of the Web into the core of what the company does
3. A focus on how the company adds value for its customers
THE IMPORTANCE
OF PLANNING FOR SPEED
Planning is the essential element in the competitive battleground, and speed is the central weapon. Like all artillery, speed is an asset when a company is able to employ it in building its own business; it is a liability when an “armed” competitor is moving like lightning to undermine that core business. And whether it’s being used for or against you, the ever-present element that must be factored into your plans.
There is a great need and reward for “Speed”. Planning for speed involves an even broader view. To be successful you should take on the widest possible focus on speed and create your businesses accordingly.
Build your plans with the following in mind:
• The speed with which you need to bring a product to market
• The speed with which your competitors might introduce a competitive product
• The speed required to improve existing products and bring enhancement (or future generations) of your t product to market
• The speed with which the industry, because of the Internet, could potentially be transformed
When these factors are fully integrated into a business culture, they lead to a clear way of determining the intensity at which to approach the market:
1). Faster, better, cheaper. . .
It’s getting repetitive, but if a product is faster, better, or cheaper on the Web, companies need to exploit it immediately
2). Get your feet wet now so that you’ll be prepared to swim hard
Very soon.
Even if your competitors aren’t there yet, start exploring what the Net can do for your business
3.) Planned evolution is vital.
If you that have the capability to rapidly evolve your products you will find it easier to stay ahead of your e competition, and developing this capability must be a goal of yours in itself.
.
6). you cannot waste time being concerned about Cannibalization.
Worry about “cannibalization” (creating one product to replace another) assumes that a company owns a market and has time to leave a product in the marketplace until the company is ready to replace it with something new. Smart planners realize that this is an outmoded way of thinking. The new breed of winners in most industries assume that the competition is right at their heels and any competitive advantage they have is fleeting. As a result, they worry about hurting sales of an existing product by bringing out a new one.
Be much more concerned with constantly driving to stay ahead of the competition.
Some brick-and-mortar companies have found it more difficult than others to let go of the “old way” and are sometimes less nimble than newcomers. To survive, they will need to find ways of eliminating excess baggage.
You will be ” Ahead of the the game .”
If you recognize the need for online success and can establish your operation, with an independent management style then you that can have the freedom and resources to win in a today’s environment.
You will certainly be rewarded.
.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ADDING VALUE
Lastly A good business plan should also answer this question: “In the evolving competitive arena, how does my product or service add value?” Focus on this issue and act on your findings and you are most likely to develop successful plans to which the customers remain loyal.
This is certainly an integral most basic concept which your Grandmother would of insisted on .
Shaun Stevens
Senior Marketing Consultant
Ace Employment Services Winnipeg
Experience in Marketing in the Human Resource , Training as well as Corrections Fields .
www.aceemploymentservices.net
call_kirk@hotmail.com
Ideas for Team Building-Building an Effective Team
Team building rarely happens by itself. You need to generate ideas for team building that focus on efforts to bring different personalities together, to complement and balance each other and work as a team. To begin with, there may be a complete lack of trust between the team members and this could result in conflicts. The team may be a group of disjointed individuals working in different directions and lacking focus. Your ideas for team building must include a good team leader who works to remove such conflicts and develops trust. The team leader provides a focus and direction to the team members and motivates them to work as team players towards the attainment of team, objectives.
Team Building - What To Do
You can generate many ideas for team building to resolve conflict and raise a team that complements and balances each other:
• Every team member must have a clear and complete understanding, and the acceptance of the goals of the team.
• Every member of the team must have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what function. In case, there is an overlapping of responsibilities and authority, depending on those individuals’ strengths and personal inclinations, divide the responsibilities into two parts, leaving each of them in complete control of each part.
• Have a one-to-one honest and open meeting with your team members to build trust. To build a good team, you need to be loyal to them if you expect the same from them.
• In a similar manner, allow your team members to build trust among themselves by providing them time to socialize. This brings in openness and improves interpersonal communication.
• Let the whole team take part in the decision making process, especially in matters that affect team consensus and commitment. What you need to achieve here is that each member of the team should feel he or she has contributed towards the final decision, solution, or idea.
• The more the team member feels his or her contribution has led to the final solution; the more he or she will be committed to the line of action. This leads to better team building.
• Your ideas for team building should ensure that all team members are kept fully informed, and that there are no lines of communication that are blocked.
• Do not allow interpersonal issues between team members to blow out of control. Deal with them as soon as they rear up.
• Do not always give a negative feedback. Whenever an opportunity arises, give the positive feedback and appreciate an individual team member’s special efforts. This will empower him or her to do better.
These ideas for team building, if implemented effectively can produce amazing results and change the way your team thinks and behaves.
Chillisauce specialise in unique team building in the UK and Europe for the ultimate corporate team building experience. For a more information and ideas on effective team building, please visit www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/ .