Legal Basics For Running Your Own Franchise

 Knowledge needed to start Businesses

By Ronna Kaleah 

The dream of owning a business is one shared by millions of people. Getting out of the traditional workforce and securing a piece of the entrepreneurial spirit is a driving force for many, but oftentimes potential business owners have no idea where to start. If you want to run a business, but do not have a product or service of your own to market, you may want to consider owning a franchise. In simplest terms, a franchise is a business that markets an already existing product or service that is owned by another company.
The franchisor will grant the franchisee a license to market their product. Notable examples include popular fast-food chains, such as McDonalds and Starbucks. The individual companies are selling a product that is not owned directly by them, but they get a portion of the profits. Franchises are very popular among start up businesses, because they allow new owners a quick opportunity to start earning their own income. The legal relationship can be a bit complicated, however, so if you are considering starting your own franchise, here are some helpful tips to remember.

The legal basics of owning a franchise
Get all agreements on paper
Obligations
Can you renew your license?
Territory
Provisions for termination

After hiring an attorney that specializes in franchise law, you will want to get all of your agreements with the corporate headquarters in writing. A contractual agreement is binding; you should never accept or agree to any terms verbally. This is the cardinal rule of doing business, so make sure all of you have all of the proper documentation.
When you own a franchise, you are subject to certain obligations put in place by the franchisor. Their may be restrictions put in place that prevent you from outsourcing the business operations to another entity. You also may be restricted from partnering with other franchises. Knowing what the terms are to your contract will better help you understand what you capabilities are.
Given that you will be granted a license to run your franchise, you will want to know the terms of your renewal. All licenses expire, and there may be conditions put in place that can restrict you from renewing them. For instance, if you do not meet a certain quota for product sales, your contract could be terminated.
When you run a franchise, you are assigned a specific territory for running your operations. Make sure you select a location that is going to be profitable, because there will likely be provisions in place that restrict you from expanding your operations elsewhere. Franchisors are strict when it comes to territory, and may even require you to relocate your business if it is not meeting certain profit margins. Will you have the ability to move if need be? Lastly, when you sign the contract with the franchisor, you are legally obligated to run the business. This means you cannot simply close up shop when you feel like it. The legal ramifications of doing so can be very serious, so know what provisions are in effect for terminating the contract on both ends.

Siskinds represents financial institutions, businesses and individuals by providing the right blend of service providers, such as paralegals, bankruptcy trustees and bailiffs to help recover defaulted accounts in a sensible and speedy manner.

Incredible Advantages Unique To Franchise Businesses

 By Christopher Joseph Smith

Entrepreneurs are some of the most celebrated people in Western society. This is mainly because we all dream of starting our own business with no money and ascending to the heady heights of the millionaire lifestyle; every year, thousands of people set about making their own business dreams come true and most fail. Yet these failures are still celebrated as 'eccentric' or 'a good try'; it's better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all, after all.
So why is it that people who choose to franchise their own business aren't quite as celebrated as entrepreneurs? Perhaps it's because they operate under the banner of a wider company but there are a lot of similarities between franchisees and straight-down-the-middle entrepreneurs, including the fact that both oversee the day-to-day operations of their own business.
However, the distinct lack of celebration for hard-working franchisees in contrast with the high-flying glamour of the entrepreneurial lifestyle can make the latter route seem far more appealing. If you're currently thinking of starting your own business, don't be blinded by this idealistic view of starting from scratch; franchising, too, offers some unique advantages.
Easier To Secure Funding For
In the current economic climate, securing funding for a largely speculative venture is incredibly difficult as banks simply aren't willing to take the kind of risks they were in the past. In contrast, lenders will be willing to loan money to someone with an established brand with an established track record behind them. Running your own business under the banner of a brand with a proven business model that works makes securing essential funding a lot easier.
More Support
One of the most daunting aspects of starting your own business from scratch is the lack of dedicated support for your particular business - as you are pitted in direct competition with other business operating in your field, you'll probably find them less than willing to dish out advice.
Franchisees, by comparison, benefit from a whole network of people who've been through exactly the same experience and will be more than willing to advise on issues relating to the business as your success directly impacts upon them. Similarly, a franchisor will also be on hand to steer your business to success.
Quicker To Get Off The Ground
A common misconception among potential entrepreneurs is that starting your own business is as easy as coming up with a great product, registering a name and getting to work. In reality, there is months worth of paperwork to fill out and legal loopholes to jump through; actually getting to work is an arduous and long process.
Franchising, while not a direct-to-market solution, is a much shorter process; with a business model, branding and a store in place, all getting to the marketplace requires is extensive training and proving yourself as a franchisee!
More Likely To Succeed
While it's not an absolute given that a franchise business will survive where a startup would fail, franchise businesses offer an excellent chance at succeeding in business despite a competitive market. The established business model and marketing of your franchisor will have succeeded in other markets, which is why they are looking to expand. With this proven track record of success behind you, your own chances of succeeding improve too.
So franchising; while there are some creative compromises to be made and a certain degree of control to relinquish to your franchisor, there's no doubt that opening your own franchise represents a fantastic opportunity to be your own boss - and make a lot of money in the process.

Survival of Interviews

 Now days overall people when asked about interview everyone will be blank and not confident them self ,such dont know nothing.We already know panels also human being like us and they are curious to know their prospectus potential .So they will elect the person who can be profitable towards their company .

Here are Do's and ten Don'ts that are well worth remembering when you go for your next interview.
1. Do smile and appear positive. Look as if you are the kind of person it would be good to have on board, and that customers would find it a pleasure to do business with. It's an easy thing to do, but it helps your acceptability with any interviewer right from the start.
2. Do use the interviewer's name, they love to hear it. Make sure you get the pronunciation right, people can get offended even by unintended mispronunciations. However, only use the interviewer's first name if they indicate that is the way they want you to address them.
3. Do sit up straight and look attentive. Avoid slouching in your chair or adopting a casual pose. Look as if you treat the event as important, and are giving the matter your full attention.
4. Do maintain a respectful space. Don't lean on the interviewer's desk or get too familiar. Good manners in an interviewee will always be appreciated.
5. Do give tricky questions initial thought. To give yourself a little time say something like "That's an interesting question... " Look thoughtfully out of the window for a few seconds, then try to give a considered answer.
6. Do be careful of wide-open questions, like a request to "Tell me a story". Ask for clarification, or cut the options down with responses like: "What would you like me to tell you a story about?"
Be equally careful when different people ask you two different questions at once. Stay in control by saying something like: "I'll be happy to answer both these questions. Now let me start with number one."
7. Do make all your answers sound like you. Even if you take the trouble to learn a whole series of great answers off pat, do practise saying them, or altering them, till they all come across naturally as the genuine you.
8. Do avoid self-criticism which damages your chances. If you have to admit to an error or a failure, show just how you have turned that into a valuable learning point, which has simply added to your experience.
9. Do switch off your mobile phone. It could well irritate the interviewer if it suddenly rings. And don't be tempted to answer it if it does! That would imply that anyone who happens to come on the phone is more important than what you're doing now. Definitely a no-no.
10. Do speak in terms that the interviewer wants to hear. What they want to hear is not how good the job would be for you, but about what you can do for them, about the skills and experience you can bring to the job, about the contribution you can make to their business.
Now let's look at the Don'ts.
1. Don't argue with the interviewer. If you happen to disagree on a point, say: "I think our experience might be different on that subject", or "I respect your view on that. On the other hand, some people might say... " That allows room to maintain your position politely and without offence.
2 Don't knock previous employers or other candidates. Someone who excuses themselves by simply criticizing others is not the kind of person employers want to have around.
3. Don't tell lies. It is perfectly legitimate to gild the lily as best you can in telling your positive stories, or to put the nicest gloss on episodes that did not work out so well, but draw the line at telling lies. If you are subsequently found out, your candidacy will be dead as a dodo.
4. Don't swear. Even if the interviewer does. No-one ever got a job by being good at swearing. nd no-one ever got rejected by failing to swear. The safest option is to use polite language throughout.
5. Don't smoke during the interview. Even if you are invited to do so, decline until at least the interview is over. It is too distracting. Interestingly, a friend of mine once got to the last two in a competitive job contest, and the company later told him that in the end they had decided on the other candidate because he didn't smoke!
6. Don't raise the question of pay until the end, and then only if you need to. If you raise it early, you give the strong impression that all you're interested in is what you can get out of the job, not what you can put into it. First, persuade the company about the useful skills and experience you could bring to the job. Then when they are convinced about the value of that, come to an arrangement which is a good deal for both parties.
7. Don't drop your guard during an interview. Even if you are being shown around a company's offices, labs, or manufacturing plant by some assistant or junior, just assume that they are also part of the team who will take part later in deciding on your suitability for the job.
8. Don't mention any work or jobs you have done which haven't appeared on your résumé. That will just raise doubts about the veracity of what you have told the company, and about your credibility generally.
9. Don't appear downhearted at any time, even if the interviewer has just made some negative comment about you. Otherwise you may look like the type who simply gives up when faced with difficult problems. Just take it on the chin, and refer to the positives that you do bring to the company.
10. Don't panic! Ever! There is no value in it whatsoever. Just make up your mind before any interview that, even if put under pressure, you are going to stay calm and collected throughout. That kind of self-control is a quality any company will appreciate.

Counterintuitive pathway to gain the Power of Trust.(Fact)

Franchisors Need to Consider Low Cost High Volume Strategies - Need Franchisee Compliance

By Lance Winslow

As a former franchisor, now retired, I remember building up my company and making the perfect business model, and then I franchised it in 23 states and 450 cities. Trust me when I tell you it's the hardest job in the world. You have to be able to run the business model better than any of your franchisees, or better than any of their employees, you also have to be a strategic thinker, and lead those teams of people into battle in various regions of our country which are dissimilar. That is to say they have different market segments, weather, buying behavior, and rules and regulations. Okay so let's talk shall we?

It wasn't that I didn't know what to do, or how to do it whenever a problem arose. Very few problems were unique to me because I had experienced them in other states and cities. In fact, when the economy got tough, I knew exactly what to do; expand the business, sell more franchises, and have our franchise teams and master franchises lower the prices and go for volume. Now then, this might seem counterintuitive to many franchisees. If there are fewer customers, the last thing you'd want to do is lower your price, because if you do you go out of business, they'd think.

Nevertheless, that's exactly what you must do. As a franchisor I also realized that I needed to lower our royalty fees so our franchisees could make more money. And they needed to lower their prices so more customers would come into the store. That's what works, but it is really hard trying to convince all the franchisees to lower their prices. Although I am retired, I bet most of the franchising companies out there right now are having a tough time, as I did back then, trying to convince their teams of franchisees of their new marketing strategies to keep everyone in business.

In fact, the Columbus Business Journal in Ohio had an interesting piece recently titled; "Wendy's CEO wants more franchisee compliance with value menu," by Dan Eaton, published on November 8, 2012.

The CEO of that great franchising company is right. He needs to get all of the franchisees on the same page to keep consistency of the brand. Ray Kroc the founder of McDonald's had always done this, and even Dave Thomas who was the founder of Wendy's would agree. If you take care of your customers, they will take care of you, and you won't have to worry about the recession because you will make it through. Please consider all this and think on it.

Technology exchange make the Industry more competitive

Advanced LED Signs Over Neon Signs

By Allen Maccoy  

Selecting a sign for your business, will leads you to make up a choice between - LED or Neon.
Seeking the best one for your business leads to confusion that what to choose and which is the best for you? As we see our pockets too that should also fulfill our goal or motive. So the best choice is new advanced LED, as it has many advantages over NEON which shall be discussed below.
Advantages - LED Sign.
LED signs offer flexibility in your text. You can easily customize your text, LED sign is the best preference for you. Whether you want to publicize a sale or you want to let prospective consumers know your timings, you can get easily with LED signs in better ways.
This is a magnificent advantage over neon signs, because you cannot customize your message with neon's. Personalizing your sign with a beautiful message shows a professional outlook of your company. It is also easy to create images and change them, as per your wish.
You can make your message move up and down or left to right or crawl it in any direction as per your customization. This feature of LED signs provides you the easiest approach to display their messages.
LED is energy saver. They use very less energy than neon sign because it is made of a diode which is a semiconductor technology that works at very low voltage. In turn makes your electricity bill lesser as possible. Addition to this it is also an environment friendly, thus cause no pollution. You can say it as the LED's never get heat up. Even if it is on for 24*7 days, you will be amazed as the signs wills remain cool, which shows that it will use up to 75% less energy power than the neon sign.
LED Text signs come in many different ranges. You will be stunned by seeing the different designs and sizes of signs that you can buy for your commerce. This allows you to choose shape, size, colors, and design to make sure that it will absolutely meet your needs.
Create your company logo or motto in a customized form with LED signs. What an immense special touch that adds to you (business)!
Signs can market for complete day. That allows you advertise your industry every time and this may not be possible with neon signs. This means that you can reach your consumers even in your sleeping hours, with no effort. No more handing out leaflets or creating classified ads.
So it's time to flourish your business with vivid, inexpensive LED Sign.

I am an online marketer and currently I am devoting my services to aware people about better LED signs

SME to Franchising is a good opportunity

By B. Boyd

In the business industry, there are realms or types of relationships that are considered beneficial and crucial to maintain. You have the investor-investor relations, in which stocks and rights of a business are shared between individuals. You also have the very common seller-buyer relations or the connection business owners develop with their potential and existing clients. With the fast development of franchising, there is now a new realm of business relationship that is considered just as important. This is the franchisor-franchisee relationship.
Franchising has evidently and steadily risen to good fame over the past years. Most business experts agree that such is because there is a lot of promises that franchising commits to. People would be able to experience how to run their own business even without conceptualizing and actually building one. This must very well explain how there is an increase in the number of franchisees every year. Therefore, the number of franchisors has also increased. Thus, more importance is given in the quality of relationship that these franchisors develop not only with their direct market but also to their franchisees.
Work from home opportunities as well as other types of home-based franchising does not deviate from realizing the essence of a good franchisor-franchisee relationship. Everybody recognizes that developing a quality relationship with potential and existing franchisors would benefit them in that they will learn more about handling the franchise without fear of being mistreated. Franchisors on the other hand also know that having good relations with their franchisees would help them gain trust for each other.
Here are some tips then in maintaining a good franchisor-franchisee relationship:
1. Communicate.
Communication is the key to establishing a good working relationship with anyone from and within a company. When you know how to properly communicate what you want and need from the people who are involved in the company operations, you would be able to convey a lot of things. You can foster trust, acceptance, and even sincerity in communicating. This is why franchisors and franchisees should be particular in terms of communication. They have to be able to let each side know what they need and what can be given. This would help each party develop a stronger system because they have both agreed already on what they would be doing and on the materials they would be releasing.
2. Establish a work system and a culture that is agreeable for both parties.
Establishing and maintaining a good business relationship depends a lot on the culture that is dominant in the company. Franchisees always would consider the type of culture a company has before joining it. They want to become part of a company where camaraderie among other employees is prevalent, where they would feel at ease sharing what they know, and where they would be able to stay true to what they believe in. On the other hand, franchisors would consider if the potential franchisee would not have difficulty joining their ranks. This is important because franchisors and franchisees, both had agreements with the kind of culture they would run the company with, are essential in meeting the goals of the business.
3. Agree on having the same set of goals.
Probably the most certain way to develop the best possible business relationship between franchisors and franchisees is to have and work toward the same set of goals. Usually, the goals set by the franchisors are what the franchisees try to meet from their end. However, the situation does not easily get reversed in that franchisors are not always ready to move toward what franchisees aim for. But if there is a need to establish a good relationship, both macro- and micro-level goals must be agreed upon. This would not only bind both sides toward the same end together. It would also help them appreciate each others role in the continuum of the business.
Franchisors and franchisees are the most important players of work from home opportunities. The relationship is mutually beneficial in that they both would gain something from each other. But a deeper sense of the relationship can be established, which would help the business prosper more in terms of professionalism and personal attitudes at play.

Spa Resorts - How Do They Specialize?

 by Jamie Jay Jayden
 Resorts are facilities that aim to provide leisure, recreation and relaxation. They can be focussed on general relaxation and entertainment or around a specific theme like golfing, spa treatments, skiing etc. Resorts differ from hotels as they provide a range of leisure and recreational facilities apart from basic food and lodging. They are generally located away from busy cities and towns to enable the guests to enjoy a complete break, away from the rush and hassles of daily life.

Based on their location and the kind of facilities they provide, they can be divided into activity focussed facilities like ski, golf and spa resorts, or into recreational facilities like beach and destination resorts. In this article, we shall be focussing on spa resorts and their features.

Spa Resorts

These are facilities focussed on providing a complete spa experience to their guests, but over a longer period of time. They provide a variety of facilities including fitness sessions, individual spa services, meditation areas and wellness instructions. They can be located near natural hot springs or medicinal waters.

Characteristics of spa resorts

Spa resorts have some key features that differentiate them from regular resorts. Some of these have been listed below:

· Philosophy - This is the most important differentiator between a spa resort and a regular resort. While regular ones are focussed purely on guest enjoyment and entertainment, spa resorts are focussed on providing the guests with a holistic way of living. They are retreats where the guests can rejuvenate themselves. They are centred around facilities that help the guests to re-energize, away from the grind and turmoil of day to day life

· Location - These tend to be located in isolated places to provide their guests the benefit of peaceful and natural surroundings. These can be mountain areas, secluded riversides or nature reserves and forests. Access to towns and cities is generally limited as the guests are expected to spend the majority of their time within the premises.

· Facilities - While all resorts provide basic spa facilities, spa resorts are focussed around them. They provide a comprehensive list of amenities like massages, aroma therapy, hot springs, yoga, meditation, body wraps, variety of special baths, fitness training, etc.

· Food and beverage - This is also an important differentiator between a regular and a spa resort. These facilities focus on healthy eating and thus a healthy diet forms a key part of their philosophy. They provide a balanced diet that avoids excessive oil, sugar and salt usage. Alcohol intake is also generally discouraged. Some of them even provide customized food services to suit the specific disposition of their guests.

Benefits for the owner

These resorts also provide benefits to the owners, which a regular resort might not be able to. These include the following:

· Higher occupancy - These are seen as providing a specialized service, not being offered by a regular resort. This becomes a key marketing and differentiating factor for the resort, which can lead to increased occupancy.

· Revenue per guest - Guests come to these facilities to avail their specialized services. While basic spa treatments are generally part of their packages, many guests go in for specialized treatments that increase the revenue per guest.

· Customer satisfaction and repeat guests - Like any other specialized service, guests who like the services provided by the resort are likely to come more frequently. Since the focus is not on sight-seeing and new experiences, spa resorts tend to have a higher repeat customer base.

This article aims to provide information on spa resorts. The characteristic features and myriad benefits of these facilities have been highlighted.