Keep your fork; the best is yet to come. Remember your mother saying that when you were growing up? Mmmmm. Just inhale that delicious aroma. Savor the taste. Can’t you just taste it now? Dessert. Every child’s delight. Who are we kidding? Every adult loves dessert. How many of you have a favorite dessert? This question is not directed at your waistline, it is directed at your taste buds.
My mother was a combination of Martha Stewart, Julia Child and Betty Crocker when it came to baking. She knew how to perform magic with a few mixing bowls and an oven.
When Mom said, “Keep your fork, the best is yet to come.” We knew it was true.
Launching your own business requires a winnowing fork and a tuning fork, not a dinner fork, but the best is yet to come.
Compare the new business to a cake. Before you start gathering ingredients, decide what flavor cake you choose to make. Do you have the ingredients on hand or do you need to go shopping? A cake requires basic ingredients: flour, shortening, sugar and eggs, plus special additions for the special flavor variety.
The ingredients of a new business are just as basic.
Decide what kind of business you wish to open. Are you seeking a franchise, a brick and mortar or a home based business? Franchises are typically a quarter million to three quarters million to buy the rights to the business and even more money for the physical location. A home based business has the lowest start-up cost, usually less than twenty thousand and a lower overhead since it is home based. Typical brick and mortar businesses have a slightly lower initial cost than a franchise but probably require the cost of a physical location.
Do you have the skills necessary or do you need to seek a coach to assist you? Franchises provide training and business plans. New brick and mortar business provide neither training nor a business plan. Home based businesses may provide some training if they are part of a network marketing company or MLM; however, since it is your own business, you still have 100% responsibility for you business plan and your results.
How many hours a week do you plan to devote to your new venture? Franchise or brick and mortar will require closer to sixty hours per week at the specific business location. Home based businesses can be conducted on a part time or full time basis; ten hours per week is minimum and twenty to thirty is more realistic.
How much investment will be required and do you have not only the minimum start up capital, but also extra income to support yourself in the interim? Any business will require development time. Purchasing a franchise or existing business will provide some existing customer base due to the name recognition; however, building a business requires time and effort.
Free marketing trades off low cost for slow speed of locating customers. If you want large quantities of customers within a short period of time, you will need marketing dollars. Regardless of cost or speed, every business requires marketing and customers. A plethora of marketing methods, techniques and cost factors are available. Balance your marketing budget with the speed and quantity of customers desired. Add in your marketing expertise in order to estimate the total cost and time.
Have you written a business plan which incorporated the SMART criteria?
S – specific
M - measurable
A - attainable
R - relevant
T - timely
Gather all of the ingredients; combine them in proper proportions and develop the new creation. Select the proper location and target customer.
With your cake, you selected the proper size pan, prepared the pan properly, preheated the oven to the proper temperature, placed the cake inside the oven and checked it frequently.
Your business requires your time, constant attention and total dedication. Unlike a cake, the business requires tweaking and shaping on a frequent basis.
Once the cake is baked, you may decorate it.
Your business may take months or even years to bake. Decorating the business with flourishes and fanfare may consume several years. With consistent, persistent and focused action, it is possible.
Anticipate the delectable morsel of cake on your dinner fork. Use your winnowing fork and your tuning fork to create the profits of a well designed and managed business.
Keep your fork; the best is yet to come.
For a complete personalized goal setting and goal achieving plan, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com
Showing posts with label franchise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label franchise. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Friday, October 23, 2009
Cost calculation
Reality check! What is most important to you, the initial cost or short and long term value?
When Jim Rohn was 25 and broke, his first mentor, Earl Shoaff, recommended that Jim purchase the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Jim Rohn, now a multi millionaire, purchased the book from a used book store for 47 cents. Jim Rohn estimates that the book helped him to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. He spent 47 cents and gained value which earned hundreds of thousands of dollars. I repeat the question. What is most important to you, the initial cost or the short and long term value?
It is not unusual to hear people balk at spending $400 to start a business which can generate a hundred thousand dollars year after year. Look at the cost to value ratio.
A franchise will cost 250,000 to 500,000 to 750,000 for the initial purchase. In addition there will be employee costs, rent and utilities for the space to locate the business and inventory for starters. As the past owner of more than one brick and mortar business, I can guarantee that there are MANY additional costs associated with a brick and mortar business. Employee costs alone are extensive.
A home based business can be started from your garage or kitchen table or even a spare room in your house. Therefore, zero additional rent or utilities. No employees or employee costs which represents a huge decrease in expense and headache. There should not be any inventory. If you select a company where you have an auto ship and end up with a garage full of product, shame on you; that is an expense you do not need to incur.
Another factor to consider with a franchise or brick and mortar business is that you must physically leave your home and spend time at the business. This adds the travel expense of going back and forth to work as well as additional clothing expense; you can’t go to most professional businesses in your bathrobe. Lunches away from home becomes another expense,
Personally, I have a thirty second commute from my bedroom to my home office. No traffic. No weather challenges driving. No vehicle expense. No expensive restaurant lunches. No lost time commuting.
Every business everywhere requires marketing! There are many ways to advertise your business to fit any marketing budget. Every business will require marketing. Marketing will consume either time or money or a combination of the two. This is the one thing all businesses have in common.
Franchise and brick and mortar businesses are very expensive to start and operate. Home based businesses are extremely low cost to start and operate.
Bonus! The return on your investment is much faster with a home based business than any franchise or brick and mortar business and requires far less time to earn a profit.
Carefully examine the cost to value ratio. Home based business wins every time.
When Jim Rohn was 25 and broke, his first mentor, Earl Shoaff, recommended that Jim purchase the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Jim Rohn, now a multi millionaire, purchased the book from a used book store for 47 cents. Jim Rohn estimates that the book helped him to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. He spent 47 cents and gained value which earned hundreds of thousands of dollars. I repeat the question. What is most important to you, the initial cost or the short and long term value?
It is not unusual to hear people balk at spending $400 to start a business which can generate a hundred thousand dollars year after year. Look at the cost to value ratio.
A franchise will cost 250,000 to 500,000 to 750,000 for the initial purchase. In addition there will be employee costs, rent and utilities for the space to locate the business and inventory for starters. As the past owner of more than one brick and mortar business, I can guarantee that there are MANY additional costs associated with a brick and mortar business. Employee costs alone are extensive.
A home based business can be started from your garage or kitchen table or even a spare room in your house. Therefore, zero additional rent or utilities. No employees or employee costs which represents a huge decrease in expense and headache. There should not be any inventory. If you select a company where you have an auto ship and end up with a garage full of product, shame on you; that is an expense you do not need to incur.
Another factor to consider with a franchise or brick and mortar business is that you must physically leave your home and spend time at the business. This adds the travel expense of going back and forth to work as well as additional clothing expense; you can’t go to most professional businesses in your bathrobe. Lunches away from home becomes another expense,
Personally, I have a thirty second commute from my bedroom to my home office. No traffic. No weather challenges driving. No vehicle expense. No expensive restaurant lunches. No lost time commuting.
Every business everywhere requires marketing! There are many ways to advertise your business to fit any marketing budget. Every business will require marketing. Marketing will consume either time or money or a combination of the two. This is the one thing all businesses have in common.
Franchise and brick and mortar businesses are very expensive to start and operate. Home based businesses are extremely low cost to start and operate.
Bonus! The return on your investment is much faster with a home based business than any franchise or brick and mortar business and requires far less time to earn a profit.
Carefully examine the cost to value ratio. Home based business wins every time.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Marketing and Mindset
Marketing can be paradise or a deserted island to your business. Effective marketing generates an abundance of high quality traffic. Poor marketing or insufficient marketing provides either a high cost per lead or very few leads or a combination of both. High cost and low traffic for an extended period of time spells death to a business. How are you doing? How is your lead flow? Have you placed a strangle hold on the throat of your business?
There are numerous web sites on the internet bragging about huge cash flow income. Some of them even display their bank account as proof. If they truly are making a multiple five figure income per month then one of two things is likely to be true: either they are making a nice profit or they are spending big bucks for their marketing. Making a great net profit? Wonderful. More power to you. If the other scenario proves to be true then the marketing budget is pouring out like water from a flood. This huge expense may or may not be displayed in the bank account shown. This is a very important fact to be determined before you invest in a new business.
Whether it is a corporation, franchise, small brick and mortar business or home based business, this fact holds true. The object of business is not only to provide value but also to make a profit. All legitimate businesses strive to provide such high value that customers gladly pay the price requested. The juggling act all businesses constantly face is generating a high volume of highly qualified traffic to their business at a cost feasible price. Missing either one of those ingredients spells disaster for the bottom line.
Marketing is a fluid situation. What worked last month or last year may be an exercise in frustration today. For instance, Google. In the old days, 1994 to 1999, you could say almost anything in your ad and it would generate traffic. Not so in 2009. Google slaps started in October 2008. Web sites with ridiculous income claims were scolded and suspended. As it should be. Google is all about relevance. The keyword must tie to the ad to the web site. This is only fair. The person should see what they expected to see all the way down the line from keyword to web site. That is targeted marketing.
The tricky part is designing a marketing campaign which not only targets but also generates the traffic at a rate and quantity which supports a profitable business. Fortunately I have located a credible marketing education system which does exactly that function. Remember, marketing is fluid; marketing is a moving target. It is important to stay current with the newest techniques and sources.
Once your marketing is dialed in, it is time to concentrate on mindset. Without a mindset for success, all of that wonderful lead traffic will be wasted. Focus so solidly on your goals that you will not be denied. Be crystal clear on exactly what it is that you truly expect to achieve. Notice I said expect to achieve, not hope or wish or think or daydream. Being lukewarm about your goal or wishy-washy about your belief that you can actually achieve that goal spells frustration, expense, disappointment – a business disaster.
Know in your heart exactly what you intend to achieve and by what date. Goals without specific targets and specific deadline dates are just daydreams. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” said Napoleon Hill.
Combine effective marketing with a mindset for success and success pours out to you in a flood of abundance.
There are numerous web sites on the internet bragging about huge cash flow income. Some of them even display their bank account as proof. If they truly are making a multiple five figure income per month then one of two things is likely to be true: either they are making a nice profit or they are spending big bucks for their marketing. Making a great net profit? Wonderful. More power to you. If the other scenario proves to be true then the marketing budget is pouring out like water from a flood. This huge expense may or may not be displayed in the bank account shown. This is a very important fact to be determined before you invest in a new business.
Whether it is a corporation, franchise, small brick and mortar business or home based business, this fact holds true. The object of business is not only to provide value but also to make a profit. All legitimate businesses strive to provide such high value that customers gladly pay the price requested. The juggling act all businesses constantly face is generating a high volume of highly qualified traffic to their business at a cost feasible price. Missing either one of those ingredients spells disaster for the bottom line.
Marketing is a fluid situation. What worked last month or last year may be an exercise in frustration today. For instance, Google. In the old days, 1994 to 1999, you could say almost anything in your ad and it would generate traffic. Not so in 2009. Google slaps started in October 2008. Web sites with ridiculous income claims were scolded and suspended. As it should be. Google is all about relevance. The keyword must tie to the ad to the web site. This is only fair. The person should see what they expected to see all the way down the line from keyword to web site. That is targeted marketing.
The tricky part is designing a marketing campaign which not only targets but also generates the traffic at a rate and quantity which supports a profitable business. Fortunately I have located a credible marketing education system which does exactly that function. Remember, marketing is fluid; marketing is a moving target. It is important to stay current with the newest techniques and sources.
Once your marketing is dialed in, it is time to concentrate on mindset. Without a mindset for success, all of that wonderful lead traffic will be wasted. Focus so solidly on your goals that you will not be denied. Be crystal clear on exactly what it is that you truly expect to achieve. Notice I said expect to achieve, not hope or wish or think or daydream. Being lukewarm about your goal or wishy-washy about your belief that you can actually achieve that goal spells frustration, expense, disappointment – a business disaster.
Know in your heart exactly what you intend to achieve and by what date. Goals without specific targets and specific deadline dates are just daydreams. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” said Napoleon Hill.
Combine effective marketing with a mindset for success and success pours out to you in a flood of abundance.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
When Life is Spiraling Out of Control
With the economy, the pressures of daily life and the impending holiday season, control teeters on a delicate balance. Demands for our time and energy press inward from all sides.
Stop! Breathe! Relax your shoulders! Calm the swarm of butterflies in your system! Right now is the time to collect your thoughts and set up priorities. One of the age-old examples is a jar of rocks. Sort your “to do” list into three sections: major and urgent tasks, major but not urgent tasks and minor duties. The major and urgent tasks are the largest rocks. The major but not urgent tasks are the pebbles and the grains of fine sand are the minor duties.
If you fill your jar with the fine sand first, all of your time will be consumed with minor tasks. You will not have any time available for major and urgent activities. It is easy to become distracted with minor personal emails and little daily interruptions. When you allow your mind to wander rather than focusing on the task at hand, you are filling your time jar with fine sand. Spending time with minor distractions consumes all of your time and accomplishes nothing to move your business or your life forward.
Schedule your time in manageable blocks. One hour blocks work the best for me for the major activities. For instance every business everywhere requires marketing. Without marketing, you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business. This rule holds true from major corporations to franchises to home based businesses. Marketing is a major activity for all businesses. Schedule time to work on lead generation. Whether you choose to use online marketing, print media, social network marketing or recruiting friends and family, you must perform marketing. Marketing represents the biggest rock in the jar. Without leads you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business.
Another major rock is mindset. Developing a mindset for success is imperative. Remember “The Little Engine That Could?” That was a book from my childhood. The little engine kept saying “I Think I Can.” Believing that you will be successful and visualizing that you already are successful is so important. Dr. Wayne Dyer talks about seeing it from the end. See your success in all of its glory as already achieved. Experience that success with all five senses. Know it, feel it and believe it. When your mind totally accepts the success as a reality, the subconscious mind goes to work on making it happen.
When you place top priority on placing the big rocks, the major activities, in the time jar first and blocking time for their accomplishment, you are more likely to complete those duties. Naming the big rocks and blocking time for them is still not enough. You absolutely must focus totally and completely on those tasks during their time slot and finish them. Making the decision alone is not sufficient.
There were 5 seagulls on a dock. Two decided to fly away. How many were still sitting on the dock? All five. Making the decision did nothing until they took action on the decision.
Name your priorities, allot time to each one, focus on task completion and finish the job.
Once the major rocks are in the jar, then add the major but not urgent tasks. Follow exactly the same method. Decide what must be done, set aside the time to do them, focus on the completion and do the necessary task.
There will always be time in the day to pour in the fine sand of minor details. No need for guilt when you have already completed all of the big rocks and then the medium size rocks and pebbles.
Life is all about priorities.
Stop! Breathe! Relax your shoulders! Calm the swarm of butterflies in your system! Right now is the time to collect your thoughts and set up priorities. One of the age-old examples is a jar of rocks. Sort your “to do” list into three sections: major and urgent tasks, major but not urgent tasks and minor duties. The major and urgent tasks are the largest rocks. The major but not urgent tasks are the pebbles and the grains of fine sand are the minor duties.
If you fill your jar with the fine sand first, all of your time will be consumed with minor tasks. You will not have any time available for major and urgent activities. It is easy to become distracted with minor personal emails and little daily interruptions. When you allow your mind to wander rather than focusing on the task at hand, you are filling your time jar with fine sand. Spending time with minor distractions consumes all of your time and accomplishes nothing to move your business or your life forward.
Schedule your time in manageable blocks. One hour blocks work the best for me for the major activities. For instance every business everywhere requires marketing. Without marketing, you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business. This rule holds true from major corporations to franchises to home based businesses. Marketing is a major activity for all businesses. Schedule time to work on lead generation. Whether you choose to use online marketing, print media, social network marketing or recruiting friends and family, you must perform marketing. Marketing represents the biggest rock in the jar. Without leads you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business.
Another major rock is mindset. Developing a mindset for success is imperative. Remember “The Little Engine That Could?” That was a book from my childhood. The little engine kept saying “I Think I Can.” Believing that you will be successful and visualizing that you already are successful is so important. Dr. Wayne Dyer talks about seeing it from the end. See your success in all of its glory as already achieved. Experience that success with all five senses. Know it, feel it and believe it. When your mind totally accepts the success as a reality, the subconscious mind goes to work on making it happen.
When you place top priority on placing the big rocks, the major activities, in the time jar first and blocking time for their accomplishment, you are more likely to complete those duties. Naming the big rocks and blocking time for them is still not enough. You absolutely must focus totally and completely on those tasks during their time slot and finish them. Making the decision alone is not sufficient.
There were 5 seagulls on a dock. Two decided to fly away. How many were still sitting on the dock? All five. Making the decision did nothing until they took action on the decision.
Name your priorities, allot time to each one, focus on task completion and finish the job.
Once the major rocks are in the jar, then add the major but not urgent tasks. Follow exactly the same method. Decide what must be done, set aside the time to do them, focus on the completion and do the necessary task.
There will always be time in the day to pour in the fine sand of minor details. No need for guilt when you have already completed all of the big rocks and then the medium size rocks and pebbles.
Life is all about priorities.
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