Things to Watch Out for Being an Entrepreneur

By Linus Felix Awengen 

I mainly grew up in Switzerland in a very nice surrounding. My father was a doctor and my mother was a nurse. When I was two years old, my parents decided to move to Silicon Valley due to some research of my dad. Having settled everything down after a while in Silicon Valley, my dad and a colleague of him came up with a business idea: Inventing a new hearing aid. He started his project with a colleague in a hospital. Consequently they worked for almost two years on this project with investors and having their business idea patented. When I look back at that time I remember barely having seen my dad and if so, he was working on the computer and writing on the business plan. My brother, my mom and I enjoyed an excellent time in California with a lot of going to the beaches. Although I was very young, I consider it one of the best times of my life.
However, there came the time where our green card was no longer valid. After two years of living in Silicon Valley, we had to move back to Switzerland. At that time, I remember not understanding why. Consequently, up to the age of 10 years I only spoke English to my parents and my brother.
What now happened concerning the business idea of producing a new hearing aid is really scandalous. When my father started his new job in the hospital in Switzerland, he had an extremely selfish boss. This boss wanted to have all the recognition for this revolutionary new product. Therefore the boss didn't let my dad work and do any research any longer on creating the hearing aid. That is what made it possible for his colleague back in Silicon Valley to become the proper owner of the company. And that is exactly what happened. As the company got through the FDA, it had a worth of $ 20 million. My dad received 60000 shares whereas his colleague had 1 million shares.
What do I want to tell you with this short story?
When you are working on a business idea with one or more partners, make sure that you can cooperate throughout the whole project. You don't want to lose such a great opportunity to become a millionaire as my dad did! Pay attention to whom you are working with and don't trust your colleagues blindly.

This is an impressive story about how entrepreneurialism can work. It is all about having an excellent idea but not going the extra mile to finish it.

3 Ways to Meet Your Franchise Growth Goals in 2013

By Sherri M Starcher 

As we already head into our second week of 2013, it is likely that you've already got some pretty lofty goals lined up for your franchise this year. A new year is a great time to challenge yourself, start fresh, and accomplish great things.
We think 2013 will be a great year for franchise growth. But, getting there won't be a simple process. As always, we've got some tips to help you meet your own franchise growth goals this year.

Don't be afraid to seek out financing.
Whether it's a working capital loan to add some additional employees or equipment financing to add another ice cream machine, you're almost certainly going to need some help from a lender to allow your franchise to grow and prosper. There is almost never a bad time to seek out financing, as there are continues to be a plethora of lenders willing and ready to offer financing to franchisees. Don't let your worries of taking on more debt hold you back from your dreams of expanding or tackling a new project. After all, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

Make use of technology.
Technological improvements will likely allow you to work smarter, faster, and even save money in the long run at your franchise. Consider implementing an iPad ordering system, a more efficient POS, or even scheduling and book keeping software. You can't expect to grow if you're barley keeping up with your current operations.

Take advantage of opportunities from your franchisor.
When shooting for growth, it is almost always a good idea to jump on any opportunity that your franchisor throws your way. Do you have the chance to opt into a brand new product or undergo a brand reimaging? Take it! These are the things that will set you apart from your fellow franchisees - in your concept and beyond - and is ultimately what will bring new customers into your franchise location

Be Realistic
It's great to aim high, but sometimes setting reasonable expectations can save your sanity. Take a careful look at your business and your previous growth patterns before you decide you'd like to grow 40% over last year (wouldn't we all?). Aiming too high is only setting yourself up for failure and major headaches in the long run.
What are your growth goals for 2013? Let us know how you plan to get there in the comments!

The Engine for Business Growth: 4 Smart Things You Should Consider Before You Pursue

By Alam Qureshi 

If you are an entrepreneur with a booming business, franchising could take your business to the next level. Franchising does not always offer any straight forward guarantees. However, if done right the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. If you want to throw open your doors and turn your business into a household name, here are 4 smart things you should consider before you pursue.
Product Recall
Great things usually have humble beginnings. But that does not mean that you can start a franchise without gaining some recognition for your business first. You must have built a name for yourself locally before trying to market your business nationally or even internationally.
People, who purchase the rights to sell a product or service, want something that people are already familiar with and not something they have to huff, puff and convince people to patronize.
Where is Your Competition?
If you want to sell a franchise, you should zone into areas where there is little competition. If your franchise is to spread quickly like wildfire, it helps for you to work with franchisees in locations that are not under the might and rule of other franchises that sell similar products or services.
A Network of Suppliers
If you are going to sell replicas of your business to other people, you need to unearth a crack team of suppliers who understand your brand ideals and who are always on hand to offer the best prices for you and your franchisees. If you work with different suppliers, their interpretation of your franchising system will be different and it would definitely cost you more. A system should be in place before a franchise agreement. Franchisees just need to sign up and follow a laid down set of rules and regulations rather than rack their heads on how to make the most out of the business.
Marketing Support
Do you have the machinery to offer ongoing support? Franchising is not all about collecting money and allowing people figure out how to run an extension of your business. You need to offer valued assistance towards every franchise location to ensure that the franchisees are not stuck in rut.
This might require you boosting your staff numbers in order not to disturb the daily running of the parent company. The support people are to be on hand to answer questions and offer assistance in procuring supplies, training franchisees and much more.
This might prove to be a daunting task in the beginning. But it is all worth it in the end because it accelerates sales for your franchise and this in turn allows you to jack up your fees if need be.

Mom and Pop Mentality - 10 Things Sure To Kill Your Business

In no particular order, the results of my recent survey indicated a lot of employee frustration out there in the Small-Medium sized privately owned business market. Companies which ran perfectly well up to a certain level of sales, completely fail when attempting to expand.
While simple to fix, many just fail because of the simple-minded (or stubborn) nature of the business owner. Sometimes it's the children of the original owner that assumes control. What worked as a small business, could not possibly work as growth continues. Often the owner is not adequately trained or educated to maintain this control and is reluctant to yield. Proper procedures and processes, human resource policies and quality control processes are essential, but often neglected. It's easy to listen to 1 or 2 people. It's easy to manage a few people, but 50 employees or 100 employees or more require a management team - the operative word being "team".
The entrepreneurial spirit that once existed, may now be focused exclusively on money - making more money at any cost. The result is a dictatorial, micro-managed company. Product quality suffers, customers complain, employees leave.

• It costs 5 times more to obtain a new customer than it does to retain an existing Customer
• 96% of Customers who are not treated with respect never return
• Unsatisfied customers rarely complain, they just leave

The top 10 surefire ways to wind down your business:

1. Lie to your employees
2. Lie to your lawyer
3. Lie to your banker
4. Flatten a great Org Chart [make everyone report to you]
5. Employ uneducated/unqualified family members
6. Take extravagant vacations disguised as business trips, while telling employees times are tough
7. Don't listen to your top talent, humiliate them
8. Don't pay suppliers
9. Don't pay the government
10. Listen only to Confucius

Do you have any other? I'd like to hear about them from you.
So, what can you do to recover from this abysmal situation? Well for one thing, if you are the owner, wake up! If you have hired good people, recognize that the reason you may have hired them was to supplement what you could not do. You hired them based on their education, experience and expertise specifically for the position you posted. Let them do their job!
If they have already left, then rebuild your team. Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself specifically in areas for which you are not strong.
Treat employees as if each is special. Treat them as you would like to be treated.
Take a serious look at your business and prepare a solid business plan. Make sure you have a grueling 100 day plan as part of or separate from the business plan. Depending on the state of the company, re-branding may be necessary to add that fresh, new look to the company.
The plan must be signed off by Legal, Finance, Engineering, Marketing and all the members of your senior management team. Share the plan with your banker and seek their advice.

Sustained growth is the vision of one, but the effort of many.

Conduct a state of the union address and present the plan to your employees. Gain consensus. Reward positive contributions.
What next? Follow the plan! Just Follow the plan!

Terry Fagen, entrepreneur and founder of FirstQuintile Information Technologies has lived through many of the experiences he describes. What they never taught me in school, I have learned in a real-life MBA experience spanning more that 20 years in various businesses. What better way to help others, than by showing proof of what works and what does not work.
FirstQuintile is a digital communications company specializing in engineer-quality Web Sites, eCommerce - B2B and B2C websites, Web design, development and maintenance, Digital Marketing, SEO campaign creation and execution, software development and engineering consulting. FirstQuintile provides full-service technical & interactive marketing communications, pr, copy-writing, trade-shows, engineering, product and project management, strategic analysis, creative web and online advertising.

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.