02/07/2009
Leading Trends in Franchising:
Where the Growth is-
* Business consulting/staffing:
“Every business sometimes needs a little help, and that need is keeping business consulting and staffing franchises growing. In addition to nearly double the number of business consulting franchises, there is also a new emphasis on companies offering small-business… consulting services.”
* Senior-care services:
“As the world ages, the senior-care industry… is maturing.”
* Personal-care services:
“Baby boomers may be young at heart, but their desire to look young as well has spurred the growth of franchises offering laser, skin-care, med-spa, massage, fitness and tanning services.”
* Enrichment learning programs for kids:
“When it comes to learning programs for children, the segment increased by 850-plus units.”
* eBay drop-off stores:
“The largest global online marketplace has been creating opportunities for all, including franchises that list and sell items for those lacking eBay savvy.”
Food:
“Franchises and their customers will never go hungry.”
* New and unique concepts:
“Innovative, original and sometimes wacky ‘franchise’ concepts are starting to shake things up… Cereality… Miami Rice Pudding Co… are among those companies that take existing products and either add a new twist or improve on them.”
Source: Entrepreneur Magazine
ActionCOACH New Zealand is the leading Business Coaching Firm. We have Certified Business Coaches all over New Zealand with more than 1000 offices worldwide.
01/07/2009
My experience stems from buying and selling franchises. I believe in franchising as a wealth creation tool but be sure you don’t become a victim.
If you want to build an international franchise or are simply looking at acquiring a franchise to increase your wealth – always look if you can tick the following check boxes.
My 7 learnings as a successful franchisee (and in order of merit):
- Buy the top franchise model in the industry i.e. if Pizza franchise – buy top franchise in the country (the criteria being, 3 -5 years of being number one)
- If passionate founders are present – big YES
- Strict code of conduct and high operational standards – is there consistency in customer experience throughout the group?
- Are franchisees considered as customers? Or is the franchisor looking at a franchisee as a glorified employee – don’t be shy – ask the franchisees.
- Are more than the 20% making money (real good money) – otherwise it’s an average franchise – Be very sure you have the capability of being a superstar! Happy customers and profitable franchisees –these are signs indicating the franchisor has his finger on the pulse! Unhappy franchisees and clients is a definite red signal.
- Buy in before the big growth is realized – i.e. see the potential for the group and buy in before everyone wants in. No different from the stock market…
- Is the franchisor operationally focused or customer-centric? If operationally focused – GET OUT!
Build or buy a franchise with the above in mind and rest assured -you will have a winner!
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26/06/2009
How cafe owners made spare time for themselves – and more money …
Wendy’s Story
Our business is Cafe Istanbul. It’s a Turkish restaurant in Wellington City, New Zealand. It’s a family-owned business that we’ve run for 11 years now. I look after the front of house, manage the staff and see to sales.
Over the last 6-months to a year, we’ve noticed a big growth in the upper end of Cuba St, where we are situated. There’s a lot more people, a lot more foot traffic, and many bars and cafes are being developed in the street.
There are also a lot of inner city apartments in our area now.
While many of our customers are students, we also cater for those between the ages of 25 and 45; we have quite a few 40th birthday parties here. We also get 21sts and even 60th and 70th birthday parties, so our customer base is quite vast.
Our cafe is very well known. Everyone in the area knows who we are and where we are. Those who haven’t been to us before will always ring up to find out. We have a lot of regular customers.
We obviously want to pitch to the people with the most money, so we’re thinking of aiming at city dwellers, the apartment people, in the next marketing campaign.
These tend to be aged 25 to 35 or 40, have a good disposable income and probably no children or dependants. They have that extra money to spend on going out.
We’re definitely considering opening up for lunch. We have done that once before and there just wasn’t enough foot traffic. But we’ve noticed in recent times that on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday (and even Sunday) there are a lot of people about and they’re all looking for somewhere to have lunch.
We faced several challenges before we met ActionCOACH, particularly regarding staffing in the kitchen (we used to import chefs from Turkey), team building with our front of house team and getting the right people.
Other challenges included putting systems in place that, perhaps, we hadn’t thought of before.
Finding the right staff had always been a big problem … we’d advertise and basically end up just having to take the first available person rather than the right person.
ActionCOACH has given me some really good information and guidelines on how to choose the right person rather than be hasty and choose the wrong person, because when running a restaurant, you need people; people on the floor and not just people who are available to work.
In the past, we were basically happy with what we made from the business. Even though we could probably have made a lot more, we didn’t try.
With putting different systems in place, like managing our booking times and getting more ‘bums on seats’, we’ve been able to increase the number of people we serve, and of course, the number of dollars we take.
So there’s definitely been a really good increase since we’ve started working with ActionCOACH.
Call us today to book a FREE Business Consultation with the nearest ActionCOACH Business Coach in your area. Call FREE- 0800 228 466
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17/06/2009
10 Ways To Get Your Ads Or Messages Noticed
Do you post to message boards, e-mail discussion
lists, classified ads sites, FFA sites or newsgroups?
People will usually read the subject line before they
read your ad or message, so it’s important they get
noticed. Below are ten simple, but powerful tips to
get your ads or messages noticed.
1. Use extra white space creatively in your subject
line. You can add extra blank spaces between your
words or letters.
2. Combine capital letters with lower case letters.
Use all capital letters in every other word or use a
capital letter between every other lower case letter.
3. Add text symbols in your subject line. You could
use them between words and letters. Start and end
your subject with a text symbol. ( *, $, >,{,] )
4. Begin your subject line with the word “STOP!”.
People have been trained their whole life to stop
what they are doing when they see that word.
5. Ask people a question in your subject line. We
all went to school and were repetitively branded to
answer questions.
6. Use the word “FREE” in your subject line. Your
offer should be attractive to your target audience.
It could be free information, software, trials, etc.
7. Begin your subject line with an “online smile :)”.
People use smiles offline to gain people’s attention
and to win their trust, why not use them online too.
8. Don’t use unbelievable claims in your subject line.
People have or know some who has been ripped
off and trained themselves to ignore those claims.
9. Don’t use all capital letters in your subject line.
It is hard to read, looks unprofessional, and on the
internet it’s considered a symbol for shouting.
10. Test different subject lines to see which ones
draws the most traffic to your web site. Also, read
the FAQ before posting a message or ad anywhere.
**10 Ways Articles from PlugInProfit**
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Russel Clark of Renovations, shares how Marti Amos from ActionCOACH has helped him systemize his business and take it to the next level .
Click Here to read more.
16/06/2009
SALES … the 7 most important facts every salesperson, including you, must know …
(Original article by Brad Sugars- www.bradsugars.com)
1. You’ve got to qualify the decision makers quickly and simply… I’m sure you’ve had the experience of running through your whole sales pitch only to hear, “I’ll have to ask my partner about this…”
Put a system in place to make sure you’re only ever selling to decision makers… and most importantly STOP wasting your time… it’s valuable.
2. Learn how to contact those so called ‘hard to reach’ decision makers… They’re only hard to reach because you haven’t found a way in yet… Of course, timing has a lot to do with it but your marketing is your foot in the door, and it’s then, that your sales skills are put to the test…
Strategically the fastest way to contact a ‘hard to reach’ decision maker is to send them a marketing piece about yourself and your business that has a little yellow post-it note attached with this message, “Thought you should read this… CK.” By the time they’ve thought about who sent it to them they’ve read your letter.
Or, send them a letter that promises you’ll give them a call, and then when you speak with their secretary you can say that you promised to call them personally…
Speak with the right person, find out why they buy, and help them do it NOW…
3. How to create literally hundreds or new and qualified leads each and every month … Stop wasting your time working hard and chasing blind leads and get your marketing working for you and have your leads call you. That way you’re only dealing with people who ‘want’ to work with you … I know in our franchise this is vital …
4. Price is Never a Concern… Unless YOU believe it is first… The only sales people I’ve ever met who get heaps of price concerns are the ones who focus on it themselves… Get over it; make your customers focus on value and service instead…
Ask your prospects questions that focus on service, value and their needs, never price…
5. Ask more questions… The key to selling is having your customers sold before you ask them to buy. And, the best way to do that is to have them sell themselves by answering your questions…
6. Listen and give positive strokes… After every question listen well, don’t jump in and make your point, just stay quiet, nod your head and agree, then ask another question…
Put bluntly, you don’t have to make your point every few minutes, just let them speak for a half hour or so and then bring everything they’ve said together to make your sales argument… Remember, it’s things they’ve said that makes your sales pitch to them…
7. Never ask for the sale… Assume that they want to buy and just confirm details of the sale, like their address, the color, etc. Too often people just forget to assume the sale, our franchise is built on the fact that people want to buy …
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