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Between 2004 and 2005, the number of Franchise 500 companies increased by 11 percent, which is significantly greater than the previous year’s growth of 4 percent. This growth in both major and small business franchises is a reflection of American’s desire to build their dreams of entrepreneurship. Corporate employees are looking now to own their own businesses, and so there has been significant growth in some specific small business franchises that does not seem to be slowing down.

If you are interested in small business franchises to start your own company, there are some that are forecasted to see significant growth over the next few years. You need to look closely at your interests, the time you have to offer, and the amount you want to spend on a small business franchise before you determine which one is best for you. Once you know what direction you would like to take with your small business franchise, you may then want to consider which of the small business franchises will be best for you and your situation.

One of the small business franchises that is growing in popularity is the do-it-yourself meal preparation business. People are working longer hours, most households are two-income based, and families no longer have time to do the work associated with preparing a nice family meal. These hot small business franchises are growing rapidly, because it fills a need that many families have. If you like to cook, this may be the small business franchise for you.

If you are an eBay aficionado or you like to buy, sell, and work with the computer, eBay consignment stores may be on your list for small business franchises. These new, and rapidly growing, small business franchises offer people the opportunity to drop off their items with you to sell for them on eBay. Many of these people who would use your service do not want to learn to sell on eBay and would never do it if it was not for these small business franchises.

Small business franchises for pets and children are also popular and continue to grow. If you love pets, you have the options of a variety of small business franchises from pet sitting, dog walking, and training to pet supplies and scooping poop. The possibilities seem endless as Americans grow closer and closer to their pets. Children also provide a number of small business franchises, as specialty services like day-care and tutoring area are always needed.

Read the rest of the article here: Small Business Franchises.

Why Small Business Checking Accounts Are Playing a Bigger Role

A recent study by research corporation Synergistics shows the importance of business checks and checking accounts for smaller-sized companies.

The relationship that both businesses and individuals have with the financial institution managing their funds is usually a stable one. People don’t like to change their account often because it’s a hassle. The same goes for businesses.

But the findings released by Synergistics reveal that there has been a “significant degree of activity surrounding the small business checking account.”

Research shows that around one-third of smaller organizations have opened or closed an account within the past two years. More than 25% have opened a new checking account over that same time period.

Genie Driskill, the COO of Synergistics notes that in the past, credit was thought to be the most important financial service for smaller companies.

“However, small business checking accounts have now moved front and center, as small business bankers have recognized the importance of these depository products as a lead service in small business relationship, particularly as the credit crunch and resulting stricter lending standards has all but halted small business lending,” said Driskill.

It’s been tough for the average sized business to get a loan thanks to the sluggish economy and problems in the financial industry.

The interesting thing about this particular study is that more business owners are opening new checking accounts than closing old ones. 27% have opened new accounts while 15% have closed accounts. Just 8% have done both.

These findings are evidence that financial institutions should guard their business customers carefully, and should also offer new features and benefits to clients with business checking accounts.

This has not typically been the case with business checking. Very few companies can earn rewards with checking accounts or even debit cards when compared to credit cards. Only one in twenty business accounts offer any sort of rewards incentive.

Features like overdraft protection can also be used to attract small business customers. This type of protection can be just as useful to a business as it is to a consumer.

Data from the Synergistics study also prove that business checks continue to be a preferred method of conducting financial transactions in the small business world.

When a company uses checks it is accessing funds it already has available to it. This is something that both consumers and professionals have had to get used to. As long as credit continues to be hard to come by, business checks and personal checks will be a necessity.

For those of you not familiar with Groupon, the company sends daily coupons of local businesses to its members by email. Members who buy a coupon typically get 50% to 70% off on a product/service.

Taking a quick look at their offering and comparing it to marketing partnerships (MPs) you can find some slight differences. For example, Groupon members who pay for a coupon worth $100 in the store, may buy it for $30-$50. In a marketing partnership (MP) on the other hand you don’t have to give any discounts. And if you do, $10-$20 off is more than enough on a $100 product/service.

If a Groupon member pays $50 for a coupon, assume that Groupon splits the proceeds leaving the business owner with about $25. In a MP you don’t have to pay anyone if you don’t want to.

The good thing about Groupon is that they can deliver a lot of customers to your door step. However, it’s possible that most of them won’t be your ideal/target customers, won’t spend more than the value of the coupon and won’t become a repeat customer. In a MP the majority of customers delivered to your door will be your target customers.

A side effect of Groupon is that it may harm your brand due to heavy discounting. A MP on the other hand will strengthen your brand and market share.

Let’s take a retail clothing store for example. And let’s say you’re the owner and want to promote a $100 jacket. Assuming Groupon sells the coupon for the jacket for $50 that leaves you with $25 per coupon purchased.

So, if 1000 people buy the coupon, that’s $25,000 for you.

Now, let’s say people buy not only the jacket but also spend an additional 20 dollars in your store. That’d be another 1000 x $20 = $20,000 dollars for you. So you end up with $25,000 + $20,000 = $45,000.

Assuming that the jacket cost $45 to procure, you just broke even.

But what if your customers spend only an additional 10 dollars in your store?

You’d lose $10,000.

What if 50% of the customers are existing customers?

You’d unfortunately cut into your own profits.

Another question to consider: How many new repeat customers will you get? The point is, you’ll only know the answers after you’ve spent the money. That’s why Groupon falls under the more risky methods of small business marketing.

In case of marketing partnerships you don’t have to spend any money if you don’t want to. That’s why it’s less risky in terms of small business marketing.

In conclusion, Groupon may work well for certain businesses who do the math. It all depends on a few “little numbers”.

Small Business Federal Grants – Top 7 Reasons to Apply

If you are a small business and could use financial help, then looking toward getting a grant is an excellent option. When you are not sure where to begin, knowing a little more about the way government grants work for small businesses can be a huge help. It is a good idea to have some inside information as to how you will go about getting a grant for your business.

Years ago, the only way to access small business federal grants was to locate a grant finder and then go about hiring that person in order to locate the specific type of grant you needed for your business. Then that person would apply for you.

We now have access to quite literally thousands of free money grants that are available to any citizens or residents of the United States who apply for them. These grants are available for you to search and apply for without using a middle man, therefore eliminating their fees.

Small business federal grants can help your business in many ways. The following are acceptable reasons for applying for federal government grants:

1. You can use a government grant for starting a small business.2. You can use a government grant to add another business location.3. If you are a woman or minority business owner, you can apply as well.4. A great reason to apply for governments grants, is that you currently have a business and would like do renovations.5. Use grant money to get out of business debt.6. Use grant money to purchase equipment and supplies for your business.7. Use grant money to continue your education in your current industry.

Getting small business federal grants to use for any of the above reasons and many others as well, are easy to locate yourself. It is as simple and choosing the type of grant you need for your business and applying.

Do not limit yourself to applying for just one type of grant. If there are several grants that apply to your business situation, feel free to apply for all of them. There is no telling how many grants you will be accepted for.

If you walk into any business today, you will see that they rely heavily on computers. As technology advances businesses become more and more reliant on computers. Why? The answer is simple; technology makes everything run smoother and faster than ever before. We all remember the dental or medical offices of yesteryear — if someone called the front office, the staff had to run to the filing cabinet and search through their file to schedule an appointment. What a hassle.

Now, businesses run with ease thanks to sophisticated technology. But there are still some getting it wrong. We will now take a look at a few mistakes to avoid like the plague:

1. Backup!

If you only ever learn one computer function, this would be it. I have seen businesses on numerous occasions forgetting to back up their systems. Hard drives do not last forever, so without having a backup procedure or process in place, that little hard drive could send your whole company crashing down. Remember this, being without your data for one day is difficult. Being without your data for several days is devastating.

It is not hard to set up a regular automated backup and this should be done as soon as possible. I also recommend “verifying” the backup at least four times a year. Verifying is a process of restoring the data to a safe location to verify all the data is actually there and the proper data is actually being backed up.

2. Get the best hardware money can buy.

Yes, I have seen it hundreds of times; businesses choosing quantity over quality. Do not go for cheap pieces of hardware, it is all well and good if you have found a great piece of hardware for a low price, but consider this, is it reliable? Will it constantly break down on you? If so, you could spend a lot more money on service calls.

Always follow the System Recommendations of your software vendors. If a software vendor loves the most expensive printer or video card, take note. They have likely worked with that hardware extensively and it performs well. Treat System Recommendations as your bible and use it to your advantage. It will save a lot of headaches down the road.

3. Get a great tech. team

Finally you should consider getting a great tech team that know: software, hardware, and technology inside out. I have been in situations that when the unlikely does occur, such as system failures, there were technicians on standby: but they did not have a clue what they were doing, so the company ended up suffering for the whole day.

So if you are starting up a company or thinking about creating yourself a paperless office, then I would definitely take the above tips into account to create an amazing and robust business!

When we talk about small businesses some people will think about a small retail store, a small restaurant, an errand service or some other small operation running from as low profile location. This is what usually qualifies as a small business within many people’s minds.

However, the concept of small business can end up becoming a big disappointment if you start short on capital or miscalculate the requirements for a safe start and a solid operation.

This leads us to the first problem of starting a traditional small business: you will need to have money or at least borrow some, and if things do not go exactly as planned you could end up choked in debt.

15 years ago this was the only way to go for the small entrepreneur, but over time the advent of the internet has opened the most fertile ground for the small business owner to flourish and succeed away from the common risks of starting a small business within the traditional model.

And I am not talking about hypes or get-rich-quick schemes, I am talking about truly entrepreneurial options that require from you what any new business would: brain power and hard work.

Indeed, building a profitable online business that you can make a living from is possible, but you need knowhow and the necessary tools to get it up and running.

The knowhow will only come as a result of education, and the tools might not be essential, but will certainly help you achieve results faster.

The good thing about this option is that unlike the traditional business model, you will not have to borrow thousands of dollars to start on solid profits, because starting a $10,000 per month online business will cost you less that $500 and you will be able to run it entirely from your home office. Of course, no matter what education or tools you get, this outcome will only come after a few months of study and hard work.

But the very best part is that once you reach a level you feel comfortable with, you will gradually be able to literally let your business structure work for you, as the internet can deliver something no other business model can: automation.

The internet is a multi-billion dollar industry, and if you manage to get yourself just a microscopic chunk of its profit potential, you will be making more money than you would within any other business.

Small Business owners hear the word marketing and quite often they’re not too sure what it means, or the full extent of what marketing can do for their business. Do not confuse business marketing with simple advertising. So unlike advertising that is a one-off effort, business marketing is a continued process with consistent efforts over a period of time. It is creating a community where your clients, customers and prospects all hang out, interacting with you and the wider community.

Already 40 – 50% of people would have stopped reading by this point. “Community, I don’t need one of those,” is the typical response I hear.

Imagine if everywhere you went, you heard people speaking about you, your business and your product and services. Imagine how many referrals you would get, imagine how many more sales you would make, imagine how much easier it would become.

Business marketing put another way is simply building your profile. The more people that know about you and your business, the more that people will use it. So unlike advertising that are one off efforts, business marketing is a continued process with consistent efforts over a period of time.

There are many ways to market your business including, videos, articles, social media, online and offline magazines, newspapers, blogs, email marketing just to name a few, but all of them only work when a consistent effort is put in.

So what I’m saying is you can’t just decide to do it for a week and think, “Well my job is done”.

On average a business owner should be spending 80% of his day on marketing and sales. I know through chatting with business owners that this number for most people is more like 30%. So where do we get caught up, admin.

Creating a community of followers is extremely rewarding when done correctly. Not only do you know that you’re providing a great service or product but you’re helping to change lives for the better.

A common thought by small business owners is that you need to be a certain type of person with personality plus to have such community. I disagree as it is purely a mindset on how you approach your prospects, clients and customers. I know to us everyone in our community is a valued person, no matter whether they are a client or not, it doesn’t matter. Being able to provide information, advice, tips and hints I see as a privilege.

A mission for our community is to be able to interact with them, gain feedback from them and get them to start to interact with one another. We do this through social media platforms, blogs, video’s and articles.

Business marketing should be fun, if you’re thinking that it’s a chore, or something you can put off for another day, then my guess is you’re probably not going to be real successful in the long run.

To work out if you have a good community base ask the following questions. Do people respond to emails that I send out to a mass crowd? Do people write comments on my blog? Do people provide me with general information about themselves? Do people communicate on social media with me?

These are all great ways to begin to understand how much of a community you really have. So what is it you could do today to start building a community around your business?

When businesses do attract new customers, it’s now a lot harder to keep them. The web has enabled your customers to shop the entire planet for the best deals and bulk buys. This means you the business owner must work harder and smarter to keep your customers.

Studies show that consumers have a low tolerance for bad service. You can see this pattern so strong in salons, after about three negative experiences, customers will abandon your salon. (Check out your card file or data base) Just recently surveys by American Express show how Australia rates extremely low in Customer Service…. Yes, many Business owners have Blind Spots and cannot truly see what is happening. This is where I strongly recommend using Secret Shoppers in your business to see how you are rating.

Often it’s the issues related to service or your support that will break the loyalty chain, between your customer and your business, whether you are a brilliant hairdresser or not.

So Stop Pushing Products or Services. No one cares, or wants to be sold anything….. my last visit to a Hair salon, as I walked back to my chair there was a massive push to have a treatment. Now let’s face the truth, it wasn’t because my hair really needed a treatment, although a lovely scalp massage would of been great. It was because my stylist had sold highlights to the client after me and she was running behind…Come on guys!

“Shoppers are calling the shots”

For those Small Business that strengthen relationships with new and existing customers will differentiate themselves and dominate as the economy recovers.

Now people don’t care about products. But that’s what most advertising or salon promotion is about – product message or company message, not your skills or relationship. People do care about themselves and care deeply about solving problems.

In your role as a business person, providing goods and services, there should be only three reasons for clients to do business with you.

1. To help identify or clarify their emotional needs for your product or service (so they’ll buy).2. To become more knowledgeable about your offering (so they’ll be clients who return again)3. To feel inspired by your understanding, relationship and services(so they’ll refer others to you)

That’s it Period.

Everything you do and say, everything clients see, perceive and read about, should be focused on one or more of these things. Why? Because there’s nothing else you want from your clients.

Am I right?

Do you care if your clients are impressed with you?Do you care if they think your Lexus is a nice car?Do you care if they like your picture in an ad?

If you do, I’ve got bad news, because you’re concerned with the wrong things. Impressions and cars and attractive photographs of your awards are non – income producing concerns

Just stand back and listen to the conversation in your salon or any small business as a matter of fact.

Where is the focus?

Are you or your staff losing sight on what their real roles and responsibilities are?

As harsh as I may seem there are only three good pitches: sales, return on investment and referrals or recommendations.

Let’s face it; you want people to seek you out for your services and business atmosphere rather than the products you offer… both now and in the future.

Many years ago I had the opportunity to visit Disneyland. This extraordinary experience even thirty so years later is still embedded in my mind. When you understand, how their philosophy has been embodied by all team members, how proud they are to be working there. May be this is something all business should look at, and then we won’t rate so low in customer service.

When YOU Do What You Do So Well Then People Can’t Resist Telling Others About You!

Ask yourself “Are my services meeting my client’s needs, wants and desires consistently?” Then have look at your data base and see the life time value of your clients; how many are not continuing to return to you, can be a tough reality check I know, however that was the start of my difference in increasing my profit.

This is one area that all staff needs to be enrolled and really learn how to communicate with their client.

Remember: this is your business and will have a major impact on your life. Take control of it and do only the things that leads you positive results.

Helene Mearing Ignites Winners

If you are a small business owner wearing many of the hats in your business, I bet you are feeling somewhat worn and frazzled. By trying to do it all you are probably doing yourself and your business a great disservice. So what do enterprising entrepreneur’s do in this situation? They delegate.

It starts with identifying your core role. The role you want to be left with after all the other roles in your business have been filled i.e. The Executive Management role. This is important in making delegation effective. Then take a look at all the tasks you have on your plate and prioritise them.

After you have prioritised each of the tasks in order of importance (not urgency), you then need to categorise each of them into a role. For example, you may use the categories of Executive Management, Finance, Sales and Marketing, Systems Development, Administration, Human Resource Management, etc. Look at your prioritised list and identify those tasks that could be handed over to someone else.

Once you have identified the task you are going to delegate, think about the desired outcome of the task you wish to delegate. Be clear about what it is you want achieved, when the outcome is due, the quality or the standards you want applied to the task.

Identify the sub-tasks and the source of any relevant information. Identify the degree of authority the person may exercise, the status reporting required and identify whether any training is required.

Then write it all down as a clear concise brief to use as an effective means of communication when handing over to the person to whom the task is going to be delegated. It will also be an effective reference for you both going forward.

Then next task is to identify the individual who will take on this task. For effective delegation you need to identify a person with appropriate skills, experience and capacity to take on this task.

Once the task, the outcome and the person have been sorted, you need to hand this over to the person. Make sure you set aside some private, uninterrupted time for an effective brief. Communicate the scope of the task, the specific results to be achieved, any schedules and deadlines, available resources, the authority to complete the task and performance measures. It will also help if you identify any known risks or pitfalls.

Most importantly, express your confidence in this person and let them know if they need any help they are just to ask. To ensure that they have understood this task, encourage them to ask questions and to further discuss the task.

Delegating the appropriate authority can be a simple case of ‘here is the problem, come to me when you have solved it’, ‘look into the problem and tell me how you plan to solve it” or ‘look into the problem, give me a few options and I will choose the best’. Make sure you communicate this delegated authority to the rest of your staff.

Ensure you keep the lines of communication open throughout the whole process and monitor their progress either formally or unobtrusively. As the delegate gains confidence you can back out but be on hand to help when required. Remember always, you are delegating, not abdicating, your responsibility for this task.

Finally, reward your delegate for a job well done. Recognition of a job well done, with an appropriate reward and a simple ‘thank you’ go along way to improving both the individual’s confidence and productivity which has the added bonus of becoming an incentive to other team members to improve their performance.

In my experience, the most successful small businesses are the result of a smart small business owner and an effective team. Smart entrepreneurs’ realise delegation is vital in moving forward. Done well, it can help you achieve your strategic business goals faster and more effectively, with the added bonus of helping you, the small business owner, work smarter not harder.

The financial news abounds with the talk of company risk and risk abatement. The boards of publicly traded companies are land blasted in newspaper cartoons, social media and the TV evening news for not managing risk. And then there is the government, or more correctly the bureaucrats in the halls of the Republic that are legislating risk management on all companies. The sad side of this is that those legislators do not understand the simple definition and concept of risk.

If we take a short step back in the history of commerce we will find that the present science of risk management is a relatively new concept. The 16th century definition of risk meant – to seek prosperity. It is interesting to note that historically risk management did not emerge in the context as used today until about the 1960′s and became a financial management component in the 1980′s. Sure the idea of risk has been around the shipping industry for centuries, which lead to the conception of insurance companies. But in terms of general business, risk management is relatively new.

So what was it before all the academics began to develop the formulas, write books and companies were formed to develop software so that businesses and boards of directors could find their way to manage risk? The answer is a stretch of the imagination in the 21st century. It is elusive, loosing its context in philosophical approaches like modernism and the emergence of software and computational models. What is this tool set of business practices that were before the advent of business intelligence and dashboards?

These ancient tools are: Common sense, good customer value and personal integrity. All of these apply to the various aspects of assessing business risk and mitigating it. The most often used of these ancient tools has always been common sense.

Common sense is simply paying attention to the obvious and with experience and knowledge; making good decision with sound judgment. There are some problems with this simplicity in that common sense is not common anymore. Many businesses, especially small and medium businesses, start with minimal experience and knowledge in the key areas of leadership, managing finances, organizational structure and marketing.

There are key common sense indicators that businesses need to pay general attention to. These will raise the awareness on the obvious.

Simple and Quick Financial Indicators

o Cash flow – I know that there are those that will argue this point. The tendency to look at business health has been in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Although this is a good business indicator, there is nothing that defines business health better than cash flow.o Accounts Receivable – How much is outstanding, by whom and how long? o Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) – the simple point to this complex indicator is that if you do not know all the cost associated to your product or service then you cannot understand your margins which means that you have cash flow problems. Also consider employee performance as it relates to efficiencies in your product or service output as a component of COGS. I know for a fact that many businesses see this indicator in their accounting but do not always have all the proper components accurately included and therefore miss what this indicator is saying.o Expenses – knowing the details of your expenses other than COGS. Where does the cash go? This does not mean that you necessarily have to count every paper clip but it is amazing what extraneous expenses impact the cash flow.

Simple and Quick External Indicators

o Customer satisfaction – What are you really hearing from your customers about the product or service?o Competition and market – What do you really know about them? Have you reviewed your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis regularly?o Access to capital – What is happening with your bank and your relationship there? How do you finance new ideas and what is happening in the capital markets environment?

The essence of business is filled with risk. What used to be the family way of making a living using bartering as currency exchange has transformed into entrepreneurialism focused on profit and returns for investors. All businesses must evaluate what is happening, understanding risk in their enterprise, so that they can make appropriate decisions to improve their business operation and revenues. By taking the time to look under the covers at key internal and external indicators management can assess the details and construct a bigger picture to then apply sound judgment in decisions. That is what risk management is simply about. If the business is complex and the cost are justified with a solid return on investment analysis then good software tools are useful. The most important aspects to risk management are: knowledge – know your business; experience – trust your experience and that of your advisory board or board of directors and lastly, make sound judgments. Be a seeker of that elusive old school business tool – common sense.