Category Archives: Franchising

Selling Your Business And Franchising Made Easy!

Many would agree that selling your business, or at least the rights of it, is not easy. Of course, it is emotional for you especially if you really worked hard for it, then letting go may be hard for you to do. And others also see selling the rights of a business as a new beginning. They see it as an opportunity to expand their business and make it more known to the people. This part of the business development may be a rollercoaster ride for some of the businessmen, but before they consider the thought of selling the rights of their business (franchise), they must first rationally evaluate their business to see if it has these much needed characteristics before franchising.

These characteristics are:

Credibility. Before selling the rights of the business, you must first establish your credibility in order to be sellable to other business investors.

Distinctive. A business must stand-out in order to be noticed. The distinction might be in the products or services you offer, it may also be from the marketing strategy or the lower investment cost or a different target market.

Easy to operate. When you are selling, you must think that the business investors or buyers are relatively new. So, to help them succeed in their endeavor your business must be easy to operate.

Adaptable and in demand. These characteristics are important especially if your franchise will be brought to new locations. The services and products should also be in demand so that selling it would be easy.

Fast return of investment. Your business must give the franchisee a fast return of investment. It does not have to be automatic but it should also be reasonable.

Strong management. In franchising, you must be able to produce strong managers to prevent the business from faltering.

If your business is all these, then selling it would be easy. But it also comes with lots of paper works and legal stuffs. You may be a good businessman but you might need a good and expert conveyance partner to help with these paper works and legal issues.

Your commercial conveyance solicitor will be the one to prepare your franchise plan. He will make the business outlines with your guidance of course. If a franchisee is interested in your franchise, then he will draft the franchise agreement and the Franchise disclosure document. These documents must also be in line with state and national laws and must come up with the legislative requirements.

Before selling the rights, you must also register your intellectual rights to it since you are the original owner of the business and the idea was yours.

Contracts that needed to be signed will all be prepared by the commercial conveyance solicitor. So, they actually help you by being in charge of the legal and paper work aspect when you are planning to sell your business. This helps save a lot of your time. That is why, selling your business is now easier to do!

Understanding How Franchising Fees Affect Your Franchise Business Opportunity

If you have looked at franchise opportunities and did some research, then you will have seen the term franchise fee. In this article, we will discuss how franchise fees work, what reasonable ones are and how to analyze your franchise agreement to determine if you’re making a smart decision or not. After reading this article, you will be able to understand franchising fees in their proper context, and improve your chances of entering into a great franchise opportunity.

A franchise fee is what the franchisor charges for use of brand-name. In other words, they leverage all their marketing and advertising dollars and the position they created in the customer mind to command a fee. In exchange for that, you benefit from getting customers who already have a favorable expectation of what your franchise does for them.

The franchise fee is determined by how much the franchisor believes the business system is worth. Naturally, different franchising fees vary depending on the development of brand, the proven track record of the franchise itself, and the system of processes and services that have been created within the franchise.

Sometimes a franchise fee includes training and ongoing support. Typically, if there is a low franchise fee, it generally means that once the transaction is complete, you’ll be on your own when it comes to staff training and support for your franchise. Depending upon your experience in running businesses successfully, this can be good or bad. If you’re good at running a business, then the ongoing training and support are probably something you don’t need. On the other hand, if you’re an experienced, than it might be well worth the franchise fee you’ll pay in order to get the proper support.

Finally, party or franchise fee goes into the advertising and marketing budget of the franchise system itself. If you don’t contribute to the marketing, then nobody can benefit from the branding this marketing creates.

The best way to be confident in exactly what your franchise fee includes, always be sure to pick up the UFOC and any other documents that are available. Before selling franchises, the franchisors are required to submit certain financial documents that outline what support they will be offering. It is important to thoroughly look over these documents, because they include any lawsuits and litigation that has been brought forth to the franchisor since they have been in business. You may be surprised at how little of support is delivered by some of your favorite franchisors. The UFOC is your best bet at seeing exactly how franchisors spend your franchise fee and royalties.

In order to understand if a franchise fee is appropriate, you must do the proper research. Compare it to other competing franchises. Get a franchise lawyer to go over the agreement with you. The franchise fees are relative to the context. Depending upon other parameters in the franchise agreement, franchise fees will vary. By knowing how to analyze a franchise agreement, you automatically know whether the franchise fee is reasonable or not.

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Car Wraps A Profitable Way of Giving Exposure to Your Business

Car wraps Jacksonville FL are designed for maximum exposure of your business, organizations, programs and anything your wish to get exposed! It can go anywhere and can be seen by anyone whom you pass by at. A typical wrap can be seen by up to 50,000 pairs of eyes each and every day if you position it properly. Thats more than the number of pair of eyes that could have seen your advertisement if you opted to advertise using billboards, magazines and /or newspapers.

How would this help your business?

As mentioned, car wraps are designed to give your business, sponsor, event, organization or activity maximum exposure. And it is not limited there. You can advertise almost anything you want. You have the freedom. Other than that, you do not have to compete with other advertisers as the advertising space you use is exclusively you own. It also helps you save money (which you can optionally use to expand your investments or in whatever way you want) since you do not have to pay time and again for the advertisement you set up using the car wraps. Unlike with the billboards and magazine/newspaper advertising that you pay monthly or per advertisement, you only pay one time when you opt to use the car wraps advertising scheme and that is during the installation of the wrap.

What other benefits can it give you?

Other than giving your business the maximum exposure that you need and want, car wraps also give your car a more stylish, eye catching, flashy, personal and professional look. Advertisements are designed to catch peoples attention and leave that lasting impression in them that they need your business. Or simply, your business is what they have been waiting for all their life! When you use car wraps, the same logic applies. So you have to make your car wraps design that will give your beholders the same impression. And since your business is an extension of your self, your car design becomes more personal. People who know your business will immediately associate your business and you once they see your car. The wrap will also give impression to people that you take your business seriously, thus they will also take you and your business seriously.
Some people might think that car wraps are expensive. It might be true since the actual cash out is higher than what you pay every month when you use billboards, magazines or other advertising method. But in the long run, you will realize that is actually cheaper, more effective and more profitable.

Franchising Mistakes To Avoid

A franchisee must be a sound business person. Even if its about food or cosmetics for a franchise to be a success it is important for the franchisee to have sound business sense and keep the franchise on track.

There are many aspects to running a franchise and the success of a franchise can be assured if mistakes are avoided.

According to people in the industry the most common causes of failure of a franchise business are:

1. Signing a contract without legal counsel or understanding the fine print. It is important to comprehend clearly what clauses 1-23 of the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular or UFOC mean. Be smart read the document and make a list of questions you want answers to. Ensure you are in agreement with everything before you sign and use any negotiation skills you have to your advantage. A franchise business must benefit both franchisor and franchisee.

2. Not doing the foot work to determine whether the franchise has any chance of success or not. Find out all about successes and failures. Ask about litigations and more. Make the effort to contact other running franchisees and ask about problems encountered. Get a clear picture.

3. Miscalculating finances. New franchises need capital to set up things and get the business moving. These include finding allocation, refurbishment, equipment costs, salaries, training, promos and more. When planning finances its important to think of the impossible and include costs of insurance and more.

4. Taking an unviable business loan. Very often its not a good idea to take the first loan offered. There is a need to think of returns, interest, pay back tenure and more. Use expert help to get the best support at the lowest costs. Often paying for a good consultant will save thousands of dollars later.

5. Failing to build a rapport with the franchisor and his /her key personnel. For a franchise to work you need a good relationship with everyone; the sales people, the field representative, the district supervisor, the marketing people and others who hold a franchise of the same franchisor as you. If your instinct tells you there is not much substance below the surface, avoid the business.

6. Analyzing business potential and entering an already saturated market. Study the lay of the land and also find out whether there is a need for your kind of business in the location specified by you. Success needs potential and uniqueness. Being one of many in a small area waters down possibilities of profit.

7. Taking into consideration personal aspects like health and family responsibilities. It is important to know you can burn the candle at both ends until the franchise runs well. You have people you can depend on and are in good health. Thinking the unthinkable makes sound business sense.

8. Ignoring clauses in the contract that refer to breaking the contract etc. pay attention to each and every aspect; consider what will happen to the franchisee if you are hospitalized or die.

9. Taking up a business on an impulse without requisite skills. It is crucial to know whether franchising is for you. A business needs long term commitment and cannot be abandoned on a whim.

10. Not creating a sound business plan. To avoid losses its important to monitor the business from day 1.MIS systems will help nip problems in the bud. Close monitoring and staying ahead of competition are required 24/7.

Use resources provided by the World Wide Web to educate yourself on the franchising business secrets and work models. Be determined to be a pro franchisee.

Shurguard Self Storage

Shurgard Self Storage

Shurgard Storage Centers based in the USA was one of the Self Storage pioneers both in North America and in Europe and is now wholly owned by Public Self Storage; however this was not always the case. The company was founded by Chuck Barbo. Chuck Barbos Grandfather emigrated from Norway in 1871to start a logging business and starting businesses was certainly in the blood. However Chuck did not start his career early he first got his education at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he tried to earn a business degree. However he lost interest in this after a very short time and switched to history. He qualified as a teacher and went off to teach kids at a high school in Seattle. This never lasted to long and the draw of business soon resurfaced.

Chuck got the property bug in 1966 when he sold a property north of Seattle and learned that he would earn much more money selling property than teaching kids. Chuck then moved to Olympia, Washington where Shurgard was born. Chuck like Bradley Hughes of Public Storage started off as a property developer and went into partnership with other property developers. In 1971 both Don Daniels and Chuck formed a business called the Barbo-Daniels Group. It was then that they opened a Self Storage facility called B-D Mini Storage. Although Chuck was convinced about the merits of Self Storage it was much more difficult to persuade the banks. With a background in high school teaching it was particularly difficult for Chuck to convince the banks to lend him money. Un-deterred Chuck managed to grow the business and during the 1970s and 1980s but had further problems raising capital via the banks for Self Storage. It was during this time that Chuck found another way f developing the business growth by entering public partnerships to fund construction. Chuck raised over $700 million allowing for another 20 years worth of growth.

In the 1990s Chuck decided to merge his many property concerns into a separate company Shurgard Storage Centers Inc. It also followed that Shurgard would float on the Stock Exchange already converted to a REIT a real estate investment trust. By this time Shurgard had one hundred and thirty nine storage centres in seventeen states. Following the successful floatation of Shurgard Chuck ordered more aggressive expansion; he started by buying 20 already trading centres and opened eight centres organically. With his European roots Chuck made a very bold move in 1994 when he opened an office in Brussels, Belgium to look into the feasibility of opening Self Storage Centres across Europe. When the feasibility study was complete Chuck started up the Shurgard Storage Centres Benelux & Co, giving Chuck a launch pad in Europe.

In 1996 Shurgard had 275 storage centres in the USA and was moving into other types of Self Storage such as the mobile storage concept. This made Shurgard the second largest Self Storage operator in the US. The march of Shurgard continued apace over the 1990s including acquisitions in Washington, Michigan and even France.
With Public Storage still growing far quicker than Shurgard, Chuck took a leaf out of Bradley Hughes book by building up partnerships in order to speed up growth. Chuck got together with Fremont Realty Capital another US REIT business. This allowed Shurgard to purchase several more small chains and lesson the costs of development. However this was never enough to keep pace with Public Storage and Chuck believed he would be able to grow in Europe without the competition from Public Storage. By this time Shurgard had opened 19 Self Storage centres in Europe and again Chuck managed to secure new financing for his expansion from Deutsche Bank, AIG the insurance giant, and Credit Suisse. Not a bad line up of financial backers. This allowed Chuck to open up in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, the UK and Sweden.
Public Storage however surprised Chuck by buying up Shurgard shares in 2000 becoming the largest shareholder very quickly. Chuck and the management of Shurgard Storage Centres did resist and Public Storage backed off, selling the shares. After the Public Storage attempted takeover Shurgard got back to matters at hand and proposed a “Partnership Scheme” which was in affect franchising the name and branding to existing Self Storage businesses across the country. The main difference with Public Storage failed attempt at this strategy was that they wouldnt allow participants in the areas where they had Self Storage Centres. In 2002 Shurgard Storage Centres had over 450 storage centres in Europe and in America and the expansion just continues with the purchase of Morningstar Storage Centres adding another 40 branches to the Shurgard portfolio.
In conclusion Shurgard although not quite ever catching the success of Public Storage, Shurgard have become a powerhouse in the now Global Self Storage industry. Chuck Barbo identified the need for Self Storage in the US and then brought the product to Europe.