10 Steps for Choosing the Right Franchise

There are many well-known franchise opportunities available in almost every industry you can think of. Some are well established with proven systems and support structures in place, while others are relatively new. Choosing the franchise that suits you will reduce risk and raise the levels of success.

While specialist advisors are a necessity to assist you throughout your business venture, the following steps will help you to evaluate any franchise opportunity you are considering.

1. KNOW YOURSELF
The first topic of research will be you. Consider your strengths and weaknesses. What is your level of knowledge, where might you need development and are your skills transferable? Will you be able to manage the high level of personal energy required to get yourself started? Are you a team player, or do you prefer to work alone? Will you require staff? Only after you have analyzed the depth of commitment required to start a new business venture will you be in a position to make a specific choice.

2. KNOW YOUR FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS
The costs of a franchise can vary considerably. While smaller investments can be affordable through personal assets, most potential franchise owners will need to consider additional borrowing. The increase in small business ventures have compelled many banks to have business start up kits, which include information on the requirements of starting a business, self evaluation reports and financial planning forms. No matter how much security you can offer, banks need to be convinced that loans can be serviced. What the proposed business can afford is more important than what you have.

3. KNOW WHAT FRANCHISING IS
Find out all you can about franchising. In particular focus on the unique relationship that exists between franchisees and franchisors. Look for a Franchise Association closest to you to obtain guidance from. Once again the banks can provide a wealth of information in this regard; it is now within their interests to build relationships in an extremely competitive financial environment by providing separate departments that serve the franchise industry. Search the internet, but be aware that different countries will have different compliance issues. Even if you have a preference this early in the game, research is still a vital process that needs to be completed. There is also the chance that research will open up alternatives you may not have previously considered.

4. KNOW THE INDUSTRY
You have already analyzed your skills and knowledge; now look at the different types of businesses that you feel are potentially suitable. Identify the different companies that are offering opportunities in the area. Consider the requirements of the proposed industry and see if it matches your skills and aspirations. It is not necessary for you to have worked in this industry before, but you need to feel comfortable and happy working in this environment. How durable is the potential market? Who are your customers? Who are your competitors? Is it an international franchise or newly introduced to your area? Is the market large enough to sustain a long-term business? Get to know the franchisor. You need to be happy with the industry you will be working in and with the people you will be working with.

5. EVALUTE THE FRANCHISE
Once it is established that you are interested in a particular franchise, information will be sent to you. Read all the information you receive thoroughly noting any first impressions and any initial questions you may have. Discuss and clarify any concerns you have with the franchisor. The size of the franchise should not restrict the availability of information you need regarding the company's history and profile, market conditions, the franchisees role and the costs involved. Examine company records in detail, check credit references. Closely examine the outline of the franchise particularly the manner in which the franchise is sold and operated. Look at all the details of any commissions’ payable on the sale of the franchise and ask to see references of present franchises and company outlets. Make sure you understand the components that make up the franchise fees.

6. QUESTIONS FOR THE FRANCHISOR
The greatest source of information you will obtain regarding the franchise system is from the franchisor. Prepare for every meeting with your list of items that need to be clarified. Ask all the questions you need in relation to the franchise, products and services. Do not be afraid to ask questions relating to the profitable viability of the franchise. You need to find out the success of the franchise, talk to other franchisees as well. What training and support exists? Is the franchise bound by any code of practice?

7. TALK TO THE FRANCHISEES
The surest method of evaluating any franchise will be to talk to a number of franchisees in existing businesses. In this way, you will get a realistic assessment. What value have they got from their business, both financial and personal? Make sure you chose the franchisees to speak with. You may not get a balanced picture if you speak only to 'approved' franchisees. The perspective of international outlets can also be of use, but, remember to consider different conditions, population structures and competition.

8. SPECIALISED FINANCIAL ADVICE
There could be some reluctance on the part of the franchisor to reveal financial projections in case they are viewed as guaranteed. However, what reports are available should provide relevant figures based on the existing climate. Whether the projections you receive are forecasted or guaranteed, an accountant with franchise experience should be able to give you qualified advice. Encourage your accountant to work with the franchisor. The franchisor will be able to offer cash flow, borrowing and overdraft guidelines. Take all the advice you can get. As a new business owner you do not want to start your business under capitalized.

9. SPECIALISED LEGAL ADVICE
It is important to fully understand the terms and conditions of the franchise agreement. Understanding your obligations and the franchisors responsibilities need to be clear from the start. Use a lawyer that specializes in franchise agreements to define legal terms you have difficulty with to save you time and money

10. CHECK WHAT YOU ARE PAYING FOR
Before you sign on the dotted line, make sure you know what the up-front franchise fee includes and what refunds you may expect if you change your mind or fail the training. What are the performance criteria? You must also have a clear understanding of any ongoing costs. You need to know what fees are payable, how they are calculated and what they are for.

To maximize your chances of success it is imperative you do not rush your decision. Check out all aspects before you commit yourself. Be 100% certain that the franchise is right for you before you part with your money.

Is Time "Running Out" for You Too?

For some people it doesn't seem to matter how long their day is. They just never seem to have enough time. The clock is ticking and it's ticking too fast for comfort. It feels like they have a million things to do, a couple thousand of which were actually due last week and every new task is urgent and can't wait...

Sounds familiar? Well if it does you might be one of those people who just don't have a very good relationship with time. It is often a sign that you're not in control of your own day-planner. You may have some things on your to do list that you set out to accomplish, but anything and everything that you come across interferes with your plans. Someone or something else seems to be claiming your time to the extent that you never seem to get anything done. You might be asking yourself: "How can I possibly get everything done?" Good question. The answer is very simple: "You can't and you shouldn't want to".

Wanting to get everything done is probably the main reason why so many people are short on time. They're trying to do too many things and fail to realize that there are only so many tasks that one person can accomplish in a day. Instead of focusing on getting everything done, focus on those things that really need to get done. Separating what's important from what's not important will help you prioritize your tasks. And once you've done this, just remember that priorities are in order. That means that when you're working on something with a high priority it is okay to turn down someone asking you to do something that has a lower priority. Learning to say "no” is a huge time-saver. Of course you can also say "no" to yourself when you find yourself tempted to interrupt your work for another task that pops up. You will find that if you focus on the most important task that needs to get done during the day, the major things, you will probably have enough time left to fit in some of the minor things.

Time is an area where we can be absolutely sure that everyone is treated equally. No matter where you're from or what your background is everybody has the same amount of hours in a day. The difference is in how we choose to spend those hours. And that is why some people are considered miracle workers while others never get anything accomplished. Perhaps you've heard the story of the business consultant giving this simple piece of advice to one of his clients. His client was a CEO of a large corporation who felt he and his management team wasn’t performing to their best abilities. They just didn't seem to get the work done. The consultant listened intently for a while and then gave the following advice:

"Every night before your head hits the pillow, take a piece of paper and write down the six most important tasks you must accomplish the next day. Write them down in the order of importance. Then the next day, it at all possible, start on the first task and don't move on to the next task until the first has been finished. This may not always be possible because sometimes the most important thing can be something that comes up later during the day. For instance your most important task may be a certain presentation that is scheduled to take place somewhere late in the afternoon. In that case you would move on to point number two. You wouldn't want to be sitting idle all day, right?"

When the client asked for the price of this advice, he was told to simply put in into practice and then determine the value himself. After a certain period of time had past the client wired an amount of $25,000 to the business consultant. Apparently this little piece of advice had worked out quite well for him and the members of his management team. Do this for a while and you will see your effectiveness soar. A great side effect is that people around you are bound to see it too.

Some pointers that may help you in this direction:

Become more efficient in your communication. This means: on the phone, in emails or letters, and of course in face-to-face conversations. A lot of time spent in communication is very inefficient. This is especially wasteful because you're not just wasting your own time but also somebody else's.

Touch everything only once. This can be a really great time-saver. Every piece of information should preferably pass through your hands only once. This goes for mail, email, but also things like certain websites, articles, newspapers and other sources of information.

In order to do this successfully you will need to learn how to take decisions quickly. Some decisions just aren't worth too much of your valuable time. The ability to take decisions is the key to becoming successful anyway. So why wouldn't you want to speed that process up a little. The ability to take decisions quickly, especially minor ones, will free up a lot of time that can be spent on more important things. Aside from that, it increases self-confidence, which will help you in when taking decisions on more important issues.

How to Become a Better MLM Recruiter

The lifeblood of any multi level marketing business is recruiting. Without new distributors your business will not grow. Anyone that has been involved in an mlm business for any period of time knows this and yet it seems to be the hardest thing to do. Why is that? Here are a few recruiting tips that can help you and your group to not only grow, but flourish.

1. First of all when you are talking to a prospect you need to try and see your business through their eyes and ears. The longer you are involved in your business the harder this is to do. You begin to assume things about your business that a new prospect will not naturally know. They do not know how great your products are. Or they do not know how great your compensation plan is.

The key here is to never assume, but to ask questions and then listen to what your prospect is saying. They will lead you to what is important to them and then you can proceed from there.

2. Spend some time just building a little rapport outside of your business. This simply means talking to them about them. Everyone loves to talk about themselves. You will very quickly find out what their hot button is by finding out what they like to do in their spare time. What they do and don't like about their lives right now. Making a friend goes a long way when it comes time for them to listen about your business.

3. Work at becoming a better communicator. The best skill you can develop when it comes to communicating is to become a better listener. Have you ever been in a conversation and felt like the person you were talking to was not hearing what you said. Many time people are so busy thinking about what they are going to say next that it wouldn't matter what you were saying because they weren't listening anyway. You have 2 ears and one mouth for a reason.

4. You get paid in your mlm business to get a yes or no out of your prospect. The sooner you find this out the better off for both of you. As you are talking to your prospect you basically go through the whole process just to find out if they are interested in joining you or not. Don't be afraid to find this out. If the answer is no that's o.k. because you can quickly move on to your next prospect.

To summarize this article, asking questions, becoming a better listener, and arriving at a final decision is the fastest way to make your network marketing business grow. Doing this over and over and getting your group to do the same will make all of you better recruiters.

Constructive Life vs. Destructive Life

Which life do you lead? Do you consider your life to be constructive or would you describe it as destructive to you and all around you. Both result from a chain reaction, one leading to a downward spiral and the other leading to an upward spiral.

Living a Destructive Life

What do you remember about your childhood, early adulthood? Is it failing exams, being told off for not going to school, failing your driving test, leaving your first job because you kept making mistakes and thought they would probably sack you anyway....?

This perception of your early life can only lead to a negative self image. Your subconscious mind constantly focuses on these negative situations. When a new situation comes into your life, say you get a new job; your subconscious gets to work analyzing this new set of information. It takes it apart and compares it to what has gone before.

'...only stays a maximum of 18 months in a job so will have to move on in a year or so.'

'...had trouble with the boss in most past jobs so will have trouble with this one.’

'...got on with colleagues for the first six months then relationships went downhill so will have problems with colleagues by the end of the year.’

Your subconscious mind does not rationalize - it simply takes the facts that have gone before and acts on them. In this case it sees a new job as something temporary and tells your conscious mind that you should expect all of the problems you have had before.

This leads to a negative perception of your job. A negative perception leads to lack of confidence, lack of motivation and ultimately depression. What chance does your new job have - none! This will impact on your wider life making it harder and harder to get what you want in life - so you sink deeper and deeper into depression.

Living a Constructive Life

What do you remember about your childhood, early adulthood? Is it playing with friends and siblings, holidays you have enjoyed, getting a mention from your teacher because you took an injured dog you found in your garden to the vet, getting your first job...?

This person's subconscious mind is very busy! Busy relating new situations to all the good things that have gone before! If this person decided to set up their own business their subconscious would be saying something like this:

'..Well this is new but I have been successful in my career so far so I will just use those skills and experience to succeed in my business.’

'..I will have to find new customers but that is OK because I have always been very good at developing customer relations.’

'..Once I am up and running I will need new staff but that will be fine because I have always got on well with the people reporting to me.'

What do you think is happening in this person's life? Because they are focusing on success, they are looking forward to achieving it. This makes them feel motivated, which in turn leads them to take action. This action gets results so they feel more motivated (and happy!) and so it goes on.

Which life are you leading?

Using Third Party Credibility

It's no secret that the best form of advertising is word of mouth. Always has been and always will be. Even in today’s information age, where it's nearly impossible to shield ourselves from the daily blaze of information coming at us through various media channels. Mass marketing communication has pervaded pretty much all areas of our lives, but still it lacks the power of good old word of mouth.

The direct selling and network marketing industries were built upon this foundation and both are thriving these days. One of the reasons for this is that as we are bombarded with mass communication messages, the value of a more personal message from a trusted source increases. Traditional companies are starting to pick up on this and are trying to implement programs to stimulate word of mouth by their existing customers. For many companies this transition proves to be slightly more difficult than they anticipated - hardly a surprise to those that have been successful in that area. The approach to using good word of mouth advertising differs very much from regular advertising.

Even though there are many differences between regular marketing and word of mouth, there are also some important similarities. One of them is the power of the use of a third party. Of course it's nice if you say how great your company is and how wonderful your products and services are. But that's kind of like your mother saying you're such a nice person. It's not that it's not true. It's just that the source isn't considered to be very objective. A third party is. It doesn't necessarily mean that the third party is completely objective but at least it's considered to be at least more objective than your mother, or your company, or you.

In everything we do, we seem to have a natural tendency to follow the people around us or people we look up to. Since the latter aren't always present we usually reside to the people around us. Another tendency most people have is to distrust the seller or at least question the truthfulness of what they're saying. These two tendencies combined lead to a situation where almost all our purchases are driven largely by what the people around us say and think about certain products and services. When the selling party advises you on a certain purchase he or she usually has an interest in making a sale and therefore may not be completely objective. When a neighbor gives you advice, you don't worry about this and therefore you find it easier to trust him. Your neighbor just served as a third party.

We generally tend to like testimonials better than commercials, probably because they don't involve hard selling, or at least not to the same extent. The impact of a good testimonial is a lot bigger than that of an advertisement. Especially when it is delivered by someone we know and respect. So the point is to find a third party that can endorse you or refer people to you - preferably someone that has credibility. This point is well understood by many network marketing companies. After decades of aggressive growth this industry still deals with something of a credibility issue. Of course to anyone that has done their due diligence, the validity and opportunity of network marketing should be crystal clear. Unfortunately for many individuals in the industry, most prospects haven't done their due diligence and wouldn't even know where to begin. That's where the importance of third party credibility comes in.

Some network marketing companies have earned endorsements from people that are widely recognized as successful and are using their influence to boost company growth. They know how people will react to an endorsement by a world famous millionaire or even billionaire; "If successful people like that say it's OK, it probably is...” This phenomenon can be seen in every business, in every country and in every city. The opinions of the movers and shakers in any area just seem to have more effect on people. The point is whether you're in network marketing or in a traditional business, using third party credibility can greatly improve your results. Unfortunately very few people seem to actively use this strategy.

If you are in business for yourself you can at least see if you can take advantage of this. Get some testimonials from your existing customers, especially from those customers that seem to have some influence in the community.

Try to find out what kind of person would be good match for your prospective customers. Determine some characteristics and then search your existing customer base to see if you can find any people meeting these criteria. If you do, simply contact them and ask them if they would help you out by sharing their story. In most cases you won't have to compensate them for this, but it wouldn't hurt if you did a little extra to make it worth their while. After all, you're asking them to help you out.

If you can't find a suitable candidate amongst your existing customers, try the rest of your network. Perhaps you can find some people there that aren't buying from you yet, but would be happy to become your customer and endorse you. In this case you would probably have to do a little more in the form of compensation to sway them.

Perhaps you could throw in a discount or provide a part or all of your service free of charge. Yes, this will cost you some money, but it's probably a lot cheaper than running an ad in the local newspaper. And it will probably generate a lot more business for you.

Success Is All in Your Mind!

How do you measure success? It's probably not exactly the same for any two people. While athletes measure success by wins or their personal best, a business owner may measure success by the amount of money their business nets every year.

Regardless of how you measure success, it all starts in your mind.....your subconscious mind, to be exact. While most people are familiar with the concept of the subconscious mind, few truly understand how to use its power to create the success (and happiness) that they desire.

To take advantage of this incredibly powerful tool, you must first program your subconscious mind for the success you are seeking. Without a clear, consistent "picture" of the results you seek, your subconscious mind can actually sabotage even your best efforts.

Any time there is confusion, your subconscious will struggle to help you achieve your goals. That's why the more concise your goal and your mental image of its results, the better the chances you'll achieve it. By creating and focusing on this concise concept of what you want to achieve, you're helping your subconscious mind manifest that result in your reality.

It's very important to monitor what you tell your subconscious verbally and silently. Most people are surprised to find when they actually start to "listen" to the words they use on a daily basis that they are issuing counterproductive "requests" to their subconscious.

Make sure to use positive descriptions when speaking aloud or to yourself silently about your goals. Instead of saying "I won't be overweight anymore", phrase your request in a positive way: "I am thin.”

Also, it's important to use a present tense, not a future tense like "I will be thin" as your subconscious takes everything literally. If your request is in the future, it will think that it doesn't need to change anything now. It lives in the present.

Be careful not to use negative words accidentally: such as "I'm not going to be poor any more." Your subconscious mind doesn't understand words like "not", "doesn't" or "won't". It will automatically delete those words from your request which will almost always create the opposite meaning and results of your goal!

There are many techniques you can use to create clear pictures of your completed goal. Most find that imagining a movie in their mind of what it will be like when you achieve your goal to replay in your thoughts to be very effective. For example, if you're trying to wipe out your credit card debt, imagine yourself receiving statements from your credit card companies with a $0 balance on the payment section.

Remember, what you focus on expands. If you constantly see yourself overweight, or in debt, that's what your subconscious mind will continue to create for you in your reality. It's very simple and takes very little time to mentally produce a "movie" that gives your subconscious a clear idea of what results you want. With consistent attention and effort toward what you DO want, you'll be amazed at the results you can create with your mind!