One of the major benefits of starting up a franchise business is that most do not require a franchisee to come with any previous knowledge of the industry, because the franchisor is willing and able to teach whatever is needed. But in some cases, entrepreneurs are interested in starting franchises precisely because they do know something about business, because they’ve spent years working for someone else and are now ready to step out on their own and turn a profit for themselves. Among all possible industries to enter, someone with a history of business success should seriously consider a business consulting franchise. There are different varieties of these, but the most prominent categories are coaching, financial consulting, staffing, and franchise consulting. Each approaches other companies with a specific service, but all are perfect opportunities for the businessperson with a long history of experience and success.
Coaching
Particularly in the world of small business, there are plenty of new business owners-franchise or otherwise-who are just starting out, just running into their first big problem, or perhaps even unsure how to best respond to great success. Like an athlete trying hard to perfect his sport and establish himself as someone to be reckoned with, what this budding businessperson needs is a coach. FocalPoint and ActionCOACH are two big franchise names in the coaching world that are able to help smaller businesses with almost any aspect of the company in which they’re struggling. With comparatively low startup costs, these two franchises will take the wisdom you’ve already accrued over your years in business and add to it proven teaching techniques that will enable you to maximize your clients’ success as they enhance and expand their own companies based upon your input.
Financial Consulting
Many small businesses primarily have a problem with finances. They simply don’t understand how to practically manage money, accrue money, or regain money when it seems to be lost. Blue Coast Financial Group is a great work at home business that is skilled at helping their clients solve these kinds of monetary problems. Covering all angles of company finance support, Blue Coast Financial Group franchisees help fellow businessmen with everything from equipment leases to workers compensation analysis and recovery. Particularly if your past expertise has been in corporate finance, there are too many small businesses out there that are more than willing to pay you to help them get back on track.
Unlike Blue Coast Financial Group, however, some finance home based businesses are even more specific in their brand of work, like L & W Investigations, who specialize in insurance fraud investigation. Though this franchisor doesn’t require any previous experience in the field, having a preexistent familiarity with business and/or personal finance can only add to the success of your franchise. It can be personally challenging and morally fulfilling to help insurance companies and legal firms unearth and stop instances of fraud; it helps the company recover losses and ensures that premiums stay just a little bit lower for honest insurance buyers.
Staffing
One of a handful of staffing franchises, Snelling Staffing Services’ sole purpose is providing skilled employees to the employers who need them. With over 50 years in the industry, Snelling Staffing Services has the ability to match your business intuition with knowledge and systems that will help your business succeed. Though this franchise may be on the expensive end of things, it’s the perfect work from home opportunity for any business veteran who knows what makes a great employee, which is a skill that will make a huge difference in the long run for any client.
Franchise Consulting
Another profitable opportunity is the business of franchise consulting: helping men and women through the process of finding and starting their own small business franchises. FranVentures and FranCorp are two of the industry’s leaders in this field, having spent the last 25 years connecting innumerable people with franchises matched to their skills, finances, and goals. This route is perfect for the entrepreneur who knows how to read people and connect them with the right business, no matter what it might be. FranCorp even comes complete with a built-in system to expedite selling your franchise in the event that you decide to move on to another field or retire altogether.
Anyone who has lived a life of business knows how difficult it can be, and they can see the warnings, pitfalls, and signs of potential success in another business far in advance, giving clients enough time to respond accordingly. This is precisely why business consulting franchises exist, and why it is so beneficial when seasoned businessmen and businesswomen are involved in them. If you have spent your time in business, purchasing a business consulting franchise will enable you to profit others and profit yourself just by lending a knowledgeable, helping hand.
Great Work From Home Small Businesses for the Seasoned Entrepreneur
Setting Up Your Home Business with Small Business Loans
More and more people are setting up home businesses these days. Some of them may have been laid off from work. Others may have found difficulty finding employment. Still others may have chosen to change careers midstream after finding their true passion and deciding to make a living out of it.
Setting up a home business gives you much more freedom than regular employment. You are now your own boss. It gives you more time with your family and for yourself. It eliminates the stresses of the workplace and the fatigue of commuting to and from work. This redounds to better physiological, psychological and emotional health and greater productivity. It is also a good way to start going into business because of the lower start up costs. You save a lot on overhead expenses by having your office in your own home.
Despite the low start up costs of a home business, it is not a free ride. You will definitely still need some additional capital as you go along. The good news is that you can start very small and, because of this, you need not approach those intimidating banks and financial institutions for small business loans. After all, it is common knowledge that not only is the process of applying for small business loans lengthy and complicated, but approval is also mostly withheld anyway.
What you should do is approach a merchant service, instead, and apply for credit card services. What has this got to do with your need for small business loans? A lot. Through the same merchant service from whom you get your credit card services, you can get cash advances that are just like small business loans, albeit with lower ceilings. That would not be a problem given your smaller capital needs.
But what are credit card services? Is this the same as applying for a credit card? No. It is actually the other end of the equation. Credit card services allow you to accept payments through credit or debit cards in person, through the internet, by phone and by fax. The merchant service provides you with terminal equipment for physically swiping the cards and the software and high speed IP solutions necessary for all kinds of transactions.
Having credit card services is actually necessary for practically any home business that is involved with sales. The ability to accept debit and credit card payments will boost your income. Having multiple payment options, such as person-to-person, online, phone and fax payments, will further attract more customers.
Most merchant services require only a short minimum period to determine your business’ capability to generate credit card and debit card sales. Your average monthly income through your credit card services will be the basis for the amount of cash advances you will be allowed to make. You will not be required to put up any collateral at all. It is like getting pre-approved small business loans. But there’s more good news. You need not scrimp and save to muster enough cash for loan repayment every month. All you need to do is attend to your business and its profitability. As your credit and debit card payments roll in every month, a certain percentage is automatically paid to the merchant service for your loan. You need not worry about it since you will always be able to afford your payments. Your customers will ensure that.
As your business grows and your sales multiply, you may qualify for bigger and bigger cash advances that you can use to further expand your home business. And you’re on your way to the big time.
Steps in Setting-Up a Home-Based Business and Using Small Business Loans from Credit Card Services
Setting up a home-based business may be a more cost-effective alternative to setting up a major company, but it may still drain the limited resources of a small business owner. To keep the business going, small business loans will definitely be necessary. These can be availed of through credit card services. This article will show you how.
First, you need to set up your home based business. Do your research on the type of business you want to establish. Find out what licensing and zoning requirements you need to meet and ensure that you meet them all. Do not attempt to cut corners here.
Get the services of an accountant, even if only on a consultancy basis, to help you set up your books and records correctly from the start. Ask for help in determining deductions so that you can plan on your business expenses. Establish a routine for keeping strict records of all income and expenses right from day one. Keep all business related receipts, invoices, client records, bank statements, bank deposit slips and canceled checks.
Being home-based, you need to set aside a particular place in your home just for your business. Make sure it can accommodate all the necessary equipment. Check that you have the appropriate electrical outlets and have them installed if needed to avoid overloading your system. Set up rules to keep the area insulated from household noise and disturbances.
Have a business phone installed that is separate from your residential line. Avoid having your children answer the business line. Install an answering machine to take calls when you are out or occupied.
Get a post office box so that you can use that address in your official stationery and other documents, keeping your business profile professional. Hold client meetings in rented conference rooms or set business meetings in good restaurants.
One of the most important steps in setting up your home-based business is to acquire credit card services that will enable you to accept credit card payments and debit card payments. These credit card services provide all the necessary software and hardware for you to be able to process payments in person, online or by phone. This step alone already expands the customer base that you can access.
Credit card services will also serve you well once your home-based business begins to feel the need for additional capital. When you need to get small business loans, you will not have to approach banks which are most likely not sympathetic to small home-based businesses.
The need for small business loans usually comes when the home-based business is already at least a year old. At such time, your home-based business would have created an average monthly credit card sales record with your credit card services company. You can refer to that when you approach your credit card services company for small business loans, sometimes called cash advances.
Credit card services do offer small business loans to their clients based on average monthly credit card sales, without the need for any collateral. The aforementioned average monthly credit card sales guarantee your company’s capability to pay the small business loans. Payments will be automatically deducted as a percentage of future credit card sales. This arrangement frees you from worrying about the amortization for your small business loans, too.
As soon as you pay up your small business loans completely, you are automatically eligible for new small business loans for as long as your home-based business is getting a good monthly average in credit card sales. With the help of credit card services, you can continue to expand and grow your home-based business.
Knowing Before Buying
- Image by npslibrarian via Flickr
For smart buyers, knowing before buying principle is a must. Before buying any products, we must know more and learn more about the products, look into several alternatives, and then decide which products to buy. For example, if we want to buy electronics goods, before doing any purchases we might want to check out some electronics blog, read some review, and compare the prices at different stores. By doing those things, hopefully we can get the best items that we really need and like, which match our expectations. There will be no waste of money and no regrets later on.
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5 Tips to Successful Time Management
By Patty Benton
www.moretime4u.org
© 2005 JERPAT Virtual Assistants
Could you do with another hour added to your day? How about 10? Well, unless you are magical, this isn’t going to happen (unless you hire a Virtual Assistant), so you need to learn how to squeeze every second out of your day. This doesn’t mean packing your schedule so full you are exhausted. It means planning your time, so that you get the most out of it. It means finding balance. This does not mean giving up your free time, but planning it. Here’s a plan to get you started:
Make a schedule. Outline in detail how you will spend every hour of the day. I schedule in blocks of time for my family, and blocks of time for work. I do this in Outlook and set reminders for things I forget (like marketing). With my work blocks, I get specific and add time to work on marketing, meetings, and such. With family time, I only make a note if there is something already planned. Otherwise, I like to leave that time open for whatever we feel like doing. Usually, my rest falls in my family time.
Stick to your schedule. Hey, I know things come up, so I’m not telling you to tell your sick child that they have to take care of themselves for the next 3 hours because you are scheduled to work. What I am telling you is to stick to your schedule 99% of the time (the 1% is for that flexible time). If your child wants to go to the zoo, but you don’t have that planned until Wednesday, let them know that right now is time for you to work, but on Wednesday you can go to the zoo.
Make a to do list. Every time I think of something that needs to be done, I add it to my task list in Outlook. Then, when I sit down for my blocks of time, I look at my task list and see what falls under what my time is blocked for. This makes sure that I am not sitting around trying to figure out what to do, or trying to remember what it was I wanted to do. It keeps me on my toes, and gets things done much quicker.
Be willing to change your schedule. As your life changes, so will your schedule. Be flexible enough to change it, but be fair to yourself and your family when you change it. For example, I have small children, so my schedule is based on their schedule. My day work time is during nap time for them. When they were smaller and took 2 naps (aahh, that was the days), then I had 2 blocks for nap. But, yes, they eventually stopped with 2 naps, and now I had to make one long block. A lot is packed into those 2 hours. I make sure that I take care of business that can’t be done in the evening. Client calls and emails that need a response. Research that needs phone calls done, etc.
Enjoy yourself. Don’t make your schedule so rigid there is not time for play. Schedule that time for play. Hey, I have an hour a day set aside to watch Days of Our Lives (no jokes please). I tape it, and then when it is convenient for me and my schedule, I take the time to relax and watch it.
Now that I have said all this, be flexible in your schedule and if the sun is out, go to the park and feed the birds. Just make sure to take care of yourself, and take care of all your “obligations” by being wise about your time.
© 2005 JERPAT
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