Author: Ken Garron

Some businesses arrive and depart about as quickly as sunrise and sunset — think cookies or cupcakes or donuts. Sort of like a one-trick pony, catering to a fleeting taste is far riskier than seeking to serve a market niche with enduring demand. Related: The Entrepreneur’s Checklist: 7 Things You Need To Start A Business Sure the new cupcake confectionery might be jammed for the few months after opening, but after a while, people may start to crave cookies, banana bread or brioches and they’ll likely end up at the full-service bakery that supplies a treat for every mood. On the other hand, some things, like certain services, just never go out of style. Think about what you need on a regular basis, related to household maintenance and upkeep, educating your children or taking care of aging parents. So when you’re contemplating starting up a new business, always consider long-term viability, larger market forces and filling an ongoing market need. You can find plenty of choices in the service sector. Among the options are:

1. Health Care

Senior care is one of the fastest growing needs as the Baby Boomers age. You can also find opportunities with businesses to modify homes for seniors.

2. Temporary Staffing

Many businesses need employees to work flexible schedules on an as-needed basis. This is especially true in this era of extra-lean corporate staffs.

3. Cleaning Services

You can find great options for house cleaning or business janitorial services. Other ideas include carpet and upholstery cleaning services. In an economy where many businesses have outsourced these jobs, opportunities abound.

4. Business Services

In one of the fastest growing segments of the franchise industry, options include printing services, business coaching services or companies that offer document shredding. So contact a franchise coach, who can help you locate a business that best matches your skills and experience. Then when you take the leap, you’re making an educated decision based on strong fundamentals and solid research.

Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you’ve always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-4589.  

Almost everyone at one time or another contemplates starting a business, whether to escape from the frustrations of corporate America or to finally find fulfillment for your creative self, long trapped in stifling jobs.  Of course, the failure rate for new businesses can seem a daunting barrier. The Small Business Administration puts the survival rate of businesses at only 50 percent over five years. The good news is that the odds for survival improve the longer you’re in business. The toughest part is getting through the uncertainties of the startup period. The truth is not everyone is suited to starting and running his or her own business. And those who succeed learn how to capitalize on their strengths and gather as much preparation as possible before startup. You do not want to learn as you go or, before you know it, your money will run out. Fortunately there are many ways within easy reach to improve your odds. First, you must answer the most basic questions about whether you’ve got entrepreneurial talent and the right experience and skills for running a business. A recent Gallup survey of entrepreneurs found that “entrepreneurial talent significantly increased one’s odds of business success.” What separated these business owners? According to the 2014 Gallup study, they were more likely to:

• Clearly articulate their competitive advantage to their clients
• Make decisions about pricing, product or service with their customers in mind, and
• Spent much more time planning for growth and aligning employee responsibilities with goals

In short, they were strategic in their management. Successful entrepreneurs have confidence, independence and determination, think creatively, can delegate, seek knowledge, and build lasting relationships, according to the study. You might have the skills, knowledge and experience, accumulated after years in the workforce, to successfully manage a new business, especially if you have established backroom expertise to help you along the way. The best place to find added support is with a franchise, which comes with all the training and operating systems you need to get started in a new business. So if you feel you may come up short on some of the qualities shared by entrepreneurs, you can rely on the time-tested experts that have helped thousands succeed as new business owners.

Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you’ve always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-4589.  

All you have to do is read the growth projections for the franchise sector of the economy to think maybe you ought to start investigating the purchase of a franchise business of your own. Franchising looks very good, indeed, going into 2016, and while opportunities abound in this healthy economic sector, to be successful, you have to follow the program.  For most entrants into franchising, that’s the whole attraction. A franchise comes with time-tested systems for everything from marketing to employee relations that help you achieve success. The catch: You have to follow the system for it to work! Still, every year I work with new franchisees who like to flex their creative muscles as entrepreneurs and try to tweak a few things on their own. While I try very hard to discourage this attempt to reinvent the tried-and-true, some persist. Invariably, they soon realize the mistake and, unfortunately, may have to pay the price with a hit to their bottom line. For those of you who are ready to purchase a new business, where the backroom is full of experts who have been operating this business profitably for years, a franchise can be just the ticket. Just look at the numbers. The International Franchise Association projects a 3.1% growth in jobs in the franchise sector for 2016, the sixth consecutive year of growth for franchise businesses, exceeding the economic growth for all businesses economy-wide. Total output for franchise businesses are also projected to increase a rosy 5.8%. The franchise business amounts to approximately 3% of U.S. gross domestic product. The opportunities for a business of your own with a franchise are wide and deep and comprise far more than fast food and retail. In fact, business and residential services can be a great match for many looking to break free of corporate America. The cost of entry tends to be lower and you can earn a good income and take control of your career. So if you like the idea of following a system perfected over time, stop sitting on the sidelines and start researching a new franchise right away.

Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you’ve always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-4589.

When you buy a franchise, you expect training and support, but not all franchise companies are created equal in this department. The great selling point of a franchise is it allows you to enter a business in which you have little or no experience and start a completely new and better career. So you have every right to expect good support and training.  The best way to learn about the support franchisors provide is to talk to franchisees. They will tell you if what they got was sufficient to teach them how to run their business. How much support and training should you expect? An initial training can vary from three days total to two weeks upfront and two weeks a few months later. The latter example is an outlier — extra training in a business that requires technical expertise. More typical is a week before you open at corporate headquarters to train you how to run the business. Some franchisors will train just the owner, and the owner is expected to train employees. Some offer employee training. Usually, you can purchase additional training if you think it’s necessary. After the initial training, virtually all franchise companies offer various levels of ongoing support, that is, someone who answers your calls to help you troubleshoot various issues as they arise. The person at the other end of the line might be with corporate or a fellow franchisee, who can be a particularly helpful source of support since they’re out there in the trenches with you. The franchise company may set up franchisee support groups, which allows you to form a tight bond with a small group of franchisees you can rely on for assistance. One way this group might function is to have a standing conference call where folks can share stories and get support to help them deal with various issues. Many franchise companies have a franchise advisory council, an elected group of franchisee, who take the lead in coordinating the direction of resources. Learning is a two-way street as good franchisors will pick up new ideas from their franchisees on new efficiencies discovered in the field. The advisory councils provide a great conduit for information sharing. Most franchisors divide up their territory into regions, each with its own representative who is responsible for providing support. Some offer master franchising, where some franchisees are responsible for supporting individual franchisees in a region. For example, as an Area Representative with Always Best Care, we spend more than 60 hours a week supporting 11 franchisees in our territory. Some franchisees need more hand-holding than others, but they know they have someone who will take their calls and help them resolve day-to-day dilemmas. Another opportunity for professional development is at an annual or biannual conference. The franchisor’s conferences offer an excellent way to stay up to date with operations. The franchisor might also offer a listserv, through which you can connect with all franchisees in the system.

If The Support Is Available, Use it!

It’s not enough to know the support is available, you must avail yourself of the service. One of the biggest problems I’ve noticed among new franchisees is a reluctance to ask for help. Perhaps they want to be independent or they think that’s just the way the franchise works. You have to pipe up to find out if perhaps there is a better way that will solve a problem you may be having. Whatever else you do, don’t buy a franchise without first clearly understanding the level of training and support you can expect to receive.

Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you’ve always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-4589.  

Franchisees are by far your best resource about a franchise. I would go so far as to say you should not consider buying a franchise without talking to at least a few of the franchisees first. I know I wouldn’t.  You need to get a real sense of how the franchise’s promises pan out in the field. And franchisees are uniquely placed to give you the best answer to that question. Over the years as a franchise coach I have encountered various levels of commitment to the research I recommend. You need to cast as wide a net as possible to get a true representation of the folks operating this business. Franchisees are a diverse bunch, and you may find you don’t have a lot in common with the most successful of the franchisees in a system. This in and of itself is an important discovery. Maybe this franchise is not the right match for you. And if you can’t get many franchisees to talk to you, that’s another red flag. As they have once been in your shoes, franchisees generally are willing to share their experiences with you. Of course, they tend to be a busy group, so you may have to try a few times to get an appointment for a conversation that best suits their schedule. Here is what you want to learn from a franchisee:

9 Critical Questions To Ask Franchisees

1. Are you satisfied with the support you have received from the franchisor?

Franchisors offer various levels of ongoing support, which is particularly important for new owners to get the hang of the franchisor’s system. Has this been sufficient?

2. What type of training did you receive prior to opening?

Find out what the franchisor did to prepare the new franchisee for his or her new business. This would include training on equipment, technology, hiring, employee relations, and so on.

3. What was your background?

Was this a business in which the new owner had any experience? Get a feel for what it takes to run this business.

4. Why did you choose this franchise?

Did the franchisee go through an elaborate search process first? Or did they know someone who recommended it? You will learn how much research the franchisee did ahead of time so you can correlate this with how it’s worked out.

5. What do you like best about the franchise? Least?

Answers to these questions will give you a feel for some of what an owner does day to day. And how it’s working out.

6. How long have you been in business?

The longer the person has been in business, the more accurate read you can get on the learning curve of the franchisee. As a new business gets up and running, new owners generally take awhile before they get the hang of everything.

7. Have your earnings been what you expected?

Some franchisees may be reluctant to get into specifics on this point, but you should use sensitivity and try. Is there six figure potential with this business?

8. How long did it take you to reach break-even?

This is one of the most important pieces of information because you need to know how much money you need to set aside to pay your bills until your business starts to generate profits.

9. Knowing what you now know, would you buy this franchise again?

If the answer is no, it doesn’t mean you want to walk away. It depends what a representative sampling of other franchisees say. Not all franchisees are created equal. Some may not have been up to the task. 

Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you’ve always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-4589.  

Putting aside sufficient capital is the most basic piece of information for any new business. How to figure out that magic number can be the tricky part. From my experience as a small business owner and a franchisee, the only way to get a good read on how much is enough is to buy a franchise. With an independent business, even the best business models will likely only arrive at a best estimate of required capital. With an established franchise, you can learn exactly how much money you need because the business systems are already firmly established and lots of folks operating under the same model are updating the system on a regular basis. You can find out from these other owners how much capital they needed when they started. When you have enough money to start, you’re less likely to find yourself short on cash and forced to shut down, one of the greatest causes of small business failures today. Not only do you know how much money you need to operate, you can get a clear handle on how much you need to get started. Most of my clients typically invest between $80,000 to $150,000, which includes a franchise fee, cost to fly to the training, computer systems, plus the working capital required to get the business to profitability. The number doesn’t include your living expenses, but, presumably, you know what you need to live on until you can start earning profits. The types of businesses available in this start-up category include B2B, such as temporary staffing and business coaching; personal or residential services, such as senior care or house painting; and academic tutoring. Profits may start rolling in as quickly as two to three months, but it could also take six, nine or even 12 months to get to profitability. So preparation is critical. Most expect to earn in the six figures with these types of businesses. This is highly achievable, but not everyone gets there for a variety of reasons. While many people I work with finance their new businesses entirely with retirement savings, you only need about one-third upfront and can borrow the rest. I suggest consulting a good franchise coach to help teach you how to conduct an excellent due diligence to help you choose a business that best matches your business and professional goals. You should also consult well-respected legal and accounting experts to maximize your chance of success.

Ready to make your dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true? Get your free evaluation today! Contact Dan Citrenbaum to help you create the career you’ve always wanted. As a business coach, Dan brings years of experience helping people select and buy a franchise or existing business. You can reach Dan at dcitrenbaum@gmail.com or at (484) 278-4589.