Should I Buy A Work From Home Franchise?
Should I Buy A Work From Home Franchise?
Movers and Shakers
Alright, so I don’t even actually know what a mover or a shaker is, but I can tell you they most likely would not thrive in all work at home franchise environments. If you’re a person who needs fresh air and plenty of physical activity, then spending eight hours a day cooped up in your home office is not a very good idea. At least if you work in an office outside the home, there’s the benefit of being outdoors for the commute each way. But at a home based business, there isn’t even that: it’s wake up in your house, eat in your house, work in your house, go to sleep in your house. Maybe you can look out the window once in awhile.
Of course, I make that sound worse than it is for comedy’s sake, and most franchise opportunities do include their fair share of leaving the home-office. Take, for instance, Vehicle Tracking Solutions. Much of the work involves little more than a computer and phone, from which you contact potential clients, current clients, and your distributor to make sales and schedule deliveries of GPS delivery-vehicle-tracking equipment. Still, there is the occasional business meeting with a client to seal the deal with that personal touch, so there is a degree of out-of-the-house time, but by and large, the owner of a work from home franchise is going to have far more hours around the house than hours out to lunch, and even those days outside are not going to be physically rigorous at all. It takes a special breed.
Ground Troops
In America we like to think that everyone is a leader, capable of heading up the charge, rallying the troops, and starting a business, if only they’ll put their minds to it. In reality, that’s just not the case.
Though most of us have never been to war, it provides a brilliant snapshot of this truth. There is one general, and thousands are under his command. Neither party can do much good without the other, making them both very important, but that doesn’t mean they’re interchangeable. A General must be able to act without needing someone to look over his shoulder, while the troops are responsible for obeying commands. Granted, in a franchise environment, the franchisee is maybe more of a Colonel than a General because the franchisor is there to help, guide, and oversee at every step along the way, but the point remains that someone more equipped to execute commands than lead a company, stay on task, and see the big picture may not do very well with a home business franchise.
With a DVDNow or ACFN ATM franchise, for example, the onus is entirely on the franchisee to be actively looking for locations in which to put the DVD vending machines and ATMs (respectively) and keeping track of all the current locations on a regular basis. He must make sure that each machine is working properly, ensure that relationships with the hosting locations remain in good standing, and keep track of all his own finances (personal and business). Home based business owners must be able to issue commands as much as they can follow them.
The Easily Distracted
We’re all now familiar with pop-up ads and banners on the websites that we frequent: those silly, flashing advertisements for a free laptop if we’re willing to fill out a survey. Though we’d like to say that we’ve never been baited by such a foolish ploy, that would be an outright lie; the fact is, we’ve all clicked them. And why? We click the laptop banner because it looks more interesting than whatever ho-hum thing we were doing before it magically appeared to save us from the doldrums. And what was that ho-hum thing we were doing? Probably work.
The fact is we all have gotten distracted by something at some point, our minds taken off task by an ad, or a magazine, or a conversation across the room. Some of us, though, are far more prone to it than others, easily drifting off into what color the walls should be painted when there are Adventures in Advertising clients who need to be called if their business is to be secured. The problem is that the home is where most of us stockpile all our most entertaining possessions, making it all the harder to work and not watch TV, surf the web, play a videogame, or maybe just go water the lawn, for the fifth time today. If you know that the home is not where you find yourself the most clearly focused on what you need to do, even when it’s not what you want to do, think twice about working from home.
Doubting your qualification in any of these areas does not necessarily exclude you from getting into home based business. You can still very much make it in the market, but it will take that much more effort on your part to develop or bypass the skills you do not yet have. Give it deep thought, ask yourself as many questions as possible to determine what you are capable of and what you want, and take the counsel of good friends. There is honor both in working for yourself and in working for someone else, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Should I Buy A Work From Home Franchise - To learn more about this author, visit Candice Clem's Website.
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Working from home under the auspice of your own home business is a very tempting idea for most of us, and for very good reason: who doesn’t want to avoid traffic, be free of "the man," and work on his own terms? If it’s a fit for you: check out some of the following work at home businesses. You’ll see some great examples of home based businesses as well as some cautionary examples of certain personality types that may not be geared for working at home. If you fall into one of these categories, don’t be discouraged, there are plenty of other types of franchises that will be more suited to your personality and business preference.
Movers and Shakers
Alright, so I don’t even actually know what a mover or a shaker is, but I can tell you they most likely would not thrive in all work at home franchise environments. If you’re a person who needs fresh air and plenty of physical activity, then spending eight hours a day cooped up in your home office is not a very good idea. At least if you work in an office outside the home, there’s the benefit of being outdoors for the commute each way. But at a home based business, there isn’t even that: it’s wake up in your house, eat in your house, work in your house, go to sleep in your house. Maybe you can look out the window once in awhile.
Of course, I make that sound worse than it is for comedy’s sake, and most franchise opportunities do include their fair share of leaving the home-office. Take, for instance, Vehicle Tracking Solutions. Much of the work involves little more than a computer and phone, from which you contact potential clients, current clients, and your distributor to make sales and schedule deliveries of GPS delivery-vehicle-tracking equipment. Still, there is the occasional business meeting with a client to seal the deal with that personal touch, so there is a degree of out-of-the-house time, but by and large, the owner of a work from home franchise is going to have far more hours around the house than hours out to lunch, and even those days outside are not going to be physically rigorous at all. It takes a special breed.
Ground Troops
In America we like to think that everyone is a leader, capable of heading up the charge, rallying the troops, and starting a business, if only they’ll put their minds to it. In reality, that’s just not the case.
Though most of us have never been to war, it provides a brilliant snapshot of this truth. There is one general, and thousands are under his command. Neither party can do much good without the other, making them both very important, but that doesn’t mean they’re interchangeable. A General must be able to act without needing someone to look over his shoulder, while the troops are responsible for obeying commands. Granted, in a franchise environment, the franchisee is maybe more of a Colonel than a General because the franchisor is there to help, guide, and oversee at every step along the way, but the point remains that someone more equipped to execute commands than lead a company, stay on task, and see the big picture may not do very well with a home business franchise.
With a DVDNow or ACFN ATM franchise, for example, the onus is entirely on the franchisee to be actively looking for locations in which to put the DVD vending machines and ATMs (respectively) and keeping track of all the current locations on a regular basis. He must make sure that each machine is working properly, ensure that relationships with the hosting locations remain in good standing, and keep track of all his own finances (personal and business). Home based business owners must be able to issue commands as much as they can follow them.
The Easily Distracted
We’re all now familiar with pop-up ads and banners on the websites that we frequent: those silly, flashing advertisements for a free laptop if we’re willing to fill out a survey. Though we’d like to say that we’ve never been baited by such a foolish ploy, that would be an outright lie; the fact is, we’ve all clicked them. And why? We click the laptop banner because it looks more interesting than whatever ho-hum thing we were doing before it magically appeared to save us from the doldrums. And what was that ho-hum thing we were doing? Probably work.
The fact is we all have gotten distracted by something at some point, our minds taken off task by an ad, or a magazine, or a conversation across the room. Some of us, though, are far more prone to it than others, easily drifting off into what color the walls should be painted when there are Adventures in Advertising clients who need to be called if their business is to be secured. The problem is that the home is where most of us stockpile all our most entertaining possessions, making it all the harder to work and not watch TV, surf the web, play a videogame, or maybe just go water the lawn, for the fifth time today. If you know that the home is not where you find yourself the most clearly focused on what you need to do, even when it’s not what you want to do, think twice about working from home.
Doubting your qualification in any of these areas does not necessarily exclude you from getting into home based business. You can still very much make it in the market, but it will take that much more effort on your part to develop or bypass the skills you do not yet have. Give it deep thought, ask yourself as many questions as possible to determine what you are capable of and what you want, and take the counsel of good friends. There is honor both in working for yourself and in working for someone else, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Should I Buy A Work From Home Franchise - To learn more about this author, visit Candice Clem's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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