Take Simple Steps To Make Your Franchise Business Recession-Resistant
Take Simple Steps To Make Your Franchise Business Recession-Resistant
That, however, is not to say that there aren’t practical steps a franchise owner can take to build the strength of his business, cut down on waste, maximize cash flow, and prepare for the hard times ahead. Though there is no sure-fire escape from the potential of great loss in recession, here is a list of actions you can take to help give your business a fighting chance of not only surviving, but thriving in poor economic conditions.
Keep Prices Competitive
This is a very obvious but necessary step to securing your continued place in the market. This means keeping prices on par with the competition, not dropping prices to unreasonably low levels that will win the customer but put you out of business. What this looks like as a Discount Party Store franchisee, for example, is visiting other party supply shops in a 10-20-mile radius, comparing prices on specific items like Halloween costumes, table cloths, wedding invitations, and gift wrap, and ensuring that your prices at least fall in the median range of all your competitors.
Expand Your Marketing Campaign
The vast majority of franchises come equipped with established marketing campaigns that advertise nationally and locally, wherever a franchise crops up, but there is always room for more. Whether that means putting coupons in the weekly neighborhood savings flyer, advertising before movies at the local theater, or printing your name and information on pens or business cards, come up with creative ways to get your business’ name out there and make it happen.
Give Clients Assignment Ideas
This idea works best in a consulting home business or other similar operations. Call to check in on dormant clients, and knowing their businesses, offer them business ideas custom tailored to their operations that you can perform for them. If they like what you propose, you may have found yourself a new assignment and another paycheck.
Don’t Be So Picky When Selecting Clients
Everyone is selective when they get to choose their own clients, but when the economy becomes as volatile as it is currently, it’s not time to be overly selective. The AmCorp Management franchisee, for instance, makes money when he can successfully recover his client’s finances that were lost to wrongful over-charging by vendors. Of course, the bigger the business client and the bigger their loss, the bigger the payoff to the franchisee, but in lean economic times, it’s important for him to pursue smaller business opportunities than he regularly would, just to ensure that he has some cash flowing in.
Offer Extra Services To Perk Up Sales
Since prices must be lowered, it’s tempting to believe that no great profit can be made, but that is not the case. Take a lesson from restaurant servers, who always try to up-sell their customers to increase the check total and therefore increase their tip. Make it a point to ask every client if he’d like small, additional services for a fee. You may be surprised what a business boost it can be.
Negotiate With Vendors
In the same way that you have to lower your prices to keep clients, so the business-to-business suppliers who provide your raw materials have to keep their prices competitive to keep your business. The Par-T-Perfect franchisee who refuses to negotiate for better prices on the cardboard hats, food, and table cloths that make his kids’ birthday parties a success is simply throwing money away without a fight. Don’t do that to your home business.
Cut Unnecessary Expenses And Redirect Those Funds
Whether it’s in supply costs, unnecessary technology, or too many business meals, most businesses are spending money somewhere that they don’t need to. Even if it requires bringing in a financial consultant, track down your finance leaks, plug those holes, and reallocate the previously lost funds to more vital areas of the business, like marketing or staff.
Stay On Top Of Accounts Receivable
What good is money if you don’t have it in your bank account? Imaginary money won’t help your home based business when the utility bill arrives, so it doesn’t make any sense that you should permit your clients to build up a continuously growing credit account without ever paying it off. A wise Archadeck franchisee taking care of his own billing with their custom computer finance system will always keep close tabs on clients until they pay for the backyard decks that his business has built. Not that he’s rude or pushy, but persistent.
Make Customer Service First Priority
Successful business leaders consistently agree: this is the single most important part of succeeding in spite of tough financial times. The key to a prosperous business is cash flow, and cash flow only comes with customers, so the only way to keep your business moving forward in good times or bad is by ensuring a steady stream of customers, repeat and new. Marketing brings in new clients, but only good customer service can keep them returning. Merry Maids may be one of the most well known work from home cleaning companies in the world, with a name that is recognized and trusted everywhere, but a franchisee who doesn’t ensure that his clients are as content as can be, will not see repeat business based solely on the power of the name.
Neither keeping a storefront nor a work at home business afloat through a recession is easy. But in the end, if you can hunker down and muscle through it, your franchise will come out all the stronger for your perseverance.
Take Simple Steps To Make Your Franchise Business RecessionResistant - To learn more about this author, visit Candice Clem's Website.
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With recession the big threat these days, businessmen in most industries are afraid of looming business failure and hoping that they might just find the way to make it safely through to the other side of this economic storm. Operating a franchise business increases an entrepreneur’s chances of success, but to be utterly realistic, there is no surefire way to guarantee safe passage through this economic downturn, because there are simply too many business variables to control. A cure-all would be nice, but no such magical business potion exists.
That, however, is not to say that there aren’t practical steps a franchise owner can take to build the strength of his business, cut down on waste, maximize cash flow, and prepare for the hard times ahead. Though there is no sure-fire escape from the potential of great loss in recession, here is a list of actions you can take to help give your business a fighting chance of not only surviving, but thriving in poor economic conditions.
Keep Prices Competitive
This is a very obvious but necessary step to securing your continued place in the market. This means keeping prices on par with the competition, not dropping prices to unreasonably low levels that will win the customer but put you out of business. What this looks like as a Discount Party Store franchisee, for example, is visiting other party supply shops in a 10-20-mile radius, comparing prices on specific items like Halloween costumes, table cloths, wedding invitations, and gift wrap, and ensuring that your prices at least fall in the median range of all your competitors.
Expand Your Marketing Campaign
The vast majority of franchises come equipped with established marketing campaigns that advertise nationally and locally, wherever a franchise crops up, but there is always room for more. Whether that means putting coupons in the weekly neighborhood savings flyer, advertising before movies at the local theater, or printing your name and information on pens or business cards, come up with creative ways to get your business’ name out there and make it happen.
Give Clients Assignment Ideas
This idea works best in a consulting home business or other similar operations. Call to check in on dormant clients, and knowing their businesses, offer them business ideas custom tailored to their operations that you can perform for them. If they like what you propose, you may have found yourself a new assignment and another paycheck.
Don’t Be So Picky When Selecting Clients
Everyone is selective when they get to choose their own clients, but when the economy becomes as volatile as it is currently, it’s not time to be overly selective. The AmCorp Management franchisee, for instance, makes money when he can successfully recover his client’s finances that were lost to wrongful over-charging by vendors. Of course, the bigger the business client and the bigger their loss, the bigger the payoff to the franchisee, but in lean economic times, it’s important for him to pursue smaller business opportunities than he regularly would, just to ensure that he has some cash flowing in.
Offer Extra Services To Perk Up Sales
Since prices must be lowered, it’s tempting to believe that no great profit can be made, but that is not the case. Take a lesson from restaurant servers, who always try to up-sell their customers to increase the check total and therefore increase their tip. Make it a point to ask every client if he’d like small, additional services for a fee. You may be surprised what a business boost it can be.
Negotiate With Vendors
In the same way that you have to lower your prices to keep clients, so the business-to-business suppliers who provide your raw materials have to keep their prices competitive to keep your business. The Par-T-Perfect franchisee who refuses to negotiate for better prices on the cardboard hats, food, and table cloths that make his kids’ birthday parties a success is simply throwing money away without a fight. Don’t do that to your home business.
Cut Unnecessary Expenses And Redirect Those Funds
Whether it’s in supply costs, unnecessary technology, or too many business meals, most businesses are spending money somewhere that they don’t need to. Even if it requires bringing in a financial consultant, track down your finance leaks, plug those holes, and reallocate the previously lost funds to more vital areas of the business, like marketing or staff.
Stay On Top Of Accounts Receivable
What good is money if you don’t have it in your bank account? Imaginary money won’t help your home based business when the utility bill arrives, so it doesn’t make any sense that you should permit your clients to build up a continuously growing credit account without ever paying it off. A wise Archadeck franchisee taking care of his own billing with their custom computer finance system will always keep close tabs on clients until they pay for the backyard decks that his business has built. Not that he’s rude or pushy, but persistent.
Make Customer Service First Priority
Successful business leaders consistently agree: this is the single most important part of succeeding in spite of tough financial times. The key to a prosperous business is cash flow, and cash flow only comes with customers, so the only way to keep your business moving forward in good times or bad is by ensuring a steady stream of customers, repeat and new. Marketing brings in new clients, but only good customer service can keep them returning. Merry Maids may be one of the most well known work from home cleaning companies in the world, with a name that is recognized and trusted everywhere, but a franchisee who doesn’t ensure that his clients are as content as can be, will not see repeat business based solely on the power of the name.
Neither keeping a storefront nor a work at home business afloat through a recession is easy. But in the end, if you can hunker down and muscle through it, your franchise will come out all the stronger for your perseverance.
Take Simple Steps To Make Your Franchise Business RecessionResistant - 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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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle'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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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig'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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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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