Building Residual Income By Franchising Your Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleThe vision for every entrepreneur is to eventually figure out how to scale to the point where the day to day business isn’t reliant on the owner every minute of every day.  For many, this objective never comes to fruition as the business is structured in a way where the business owner is consumed and literally devoured by the entity.  The business owner becomes an employee in reality and the business never grows beyond what that business owner is able to accomplish with their own two hands.  The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber, says it best, to build a business, one must figure out how to get themselves OUT of the business before they can start to work ON the business.  Franchising is a the ultimate definition of scale where a business owner removes themselves completely from operational responsibilities in order to become a coach to others who wish to enter the world of entrepreneurship.  The reason why franchising lends itself to scalable, high-residual income is the same reason that Larry Ellison has a net worth of $49.6 billion and a boat that is larger than some countries.  Once you are able to create the formula for what you do and replicate that formula through scaled growth, you have achieved the ability to generate income for your intellectual property.

Franchising is a unique vehicle in that it allows businesses that traditionally are not scalable, such as restaurants, retail and service businesses to become scaled through franchisee’s investment and willingness to manage the local business.  When you franchise a business, you create a vehicle that supports residual income through long term relationships with independent franchise ownership and contiguous brand equity.  Franchisees pay a fee to you as the franchisor for the rights to your intellectual property and brand recognition in addition to making the investment in opening the new franchise location of your business model.  Where the residual income is derived from franchising is that a franchisee typically commits to a 10-20 year relationship where they are agreeing to pay a percentage of their revenues on a weekly or monthly basis.  In addition, many Franchises also require franchisees to purchase products and business items from the franchisor as well which may be sold at a profit to the franchise network.  This is where residual income is generated and at the time where a franchise system becomes self-sufficient is when the business owner can step out of day to day operations entirely and focus on building the business and moving the company forward.  Visionary entrepreneurs who leveraged franchising to expand such as John Hewitt in the tax preparation business or Ray Kroc in the hamburger business were most likely not the best tax preparers or burger flippers, they were great at finding scale and achieving residual income for their ideas.

To franchise a business one must be in a position where they have the right formula in place, systems, processes and procedures to be able to teach a third party how to do what you do.  In many cases, I’ve found that business owners don’t realize that franchising is a viable expansion model and that they could achieve this residual income sooner than expected.  My advice is always to let the market drive this decision of whether to franchise your business, if people are asking for what you do in their market and how to invest in your business, the franchise expansion model needs to be on the table.

For more information on how to franchise your business, visit Franchise Marketing Systems: www.fmsfranchise.com/

About the Author

Christopher James ConnerChristopher Conner, President of Franchise Marketing Systems has been in the franchise industry since 2002 working with several hundred different franchise systems in management, franchise sales and franchise development work. His experience ranges across all fields of franchise expertise with a focus in franchise marketing and franchise sales but includes work in franchise strategic planning, franchise research and franchise operations consulting.  To read Christopher’s complete biography, click here.

Top Tasks For Entrepreneurs To Outsource

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Outsource|Top Tasks For Entrepreneurs To OutsourceIf you’re an entrepreneur or the owner of a small business, then you already know how very valuable your time is. One simple way to deal with not having enough time is to outsource some of your everyday tasks so you can concentrate on the mort important parts of running your business. Do what do you best, and outsource the rest.

A common question that small business owners ask themselves is what kind of tasks they ought to be outsourcing? It can be tough to trust someone else in the early days of your business, but these tasks are some of the best ones to outsource.

Bookkeeping And Tax Returns

Business owners small a lot of time performing basic bookkeeping tasks and lodging tax returns. You could spend your time looking for articles to help you, like ‘14 Foolproof Bookkeeping Tips’ or you could outsource. One of the best jobs to outsource is bookkeeping, as it’s so time-consuming. You can save hours a week if you use an outsourced bookkeeping service, and feel confident that all your finances are being looked after by a skilled, trained professional.

Social Media

Social media is a useful resource for businesses. It’s a useful way to engage with your customers, offer customer support, and promote your products. Unfortunately, running a good social media campaign is time-consuming.

This is why a lot of businesses outsource social media management. It’s easy to find a skilled social media professional who can run your campaign and make it a success. They understand the best platforms to use and the best ways to engage with users.

Website Content Creation

There are lots of good reasons to outsource your content creation for your website. Your site needs to be full of high-quality content that is useful to your readers and helps to sell your services or products. Your content should also be structured in a way that works well for search engine optimization and tells sales prospects that your company is reliable and professional.

Writing content that manages this is not a simple task. You can pass the task onto a virtual content manager who has the knowledge needed to write content that is effective and exciting and leads to sales.

Another reason to outsource content creations is that it is a task that takes a lot of time for most entrepreneurs. Unless you’re skilled with content, it’s better to assign content creation tasks to a professional. You can also outsource data entry work, to ensure that your website is kept up-to-date, accurate, and full of useful content.

Business Research

If you want to outsource some of your everyday tasks effectively, look for the repetitive business tasks that take up your time, but could be performed remotely. Business research definitely meets that criteria.

You could hire a virtual research assistant who will study the internet to find the information that you need. You can save a lot of time and get back to working on growing your business.

How to Turn Your Hobby into a Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Turn Your Hobby into a Business|How to Turn Your Hobby into a BusinessTurning something you truly love and enjoy into a flourishing business that generates a constant flow of revenue can be an exciting and fulfilling experience. Perhaps you’re currently unemployed, you’re looking for a side hustle to increase your earnings, or you just want to leave your job and become the CEO of your life by building a thriving empire that generates Millions like the famous Dan Peña did. The good news is that you can turn something you do for fun into a thriving and sustainable business. But that will require thoughtful planning, commitment, skillful management, and a business mindset. Here are 6 practical tips to help you get started.

1. Set a Clear Goal

Choosing to build a business out of your hobby isn’t a goal. You’re looking forward to working on something you truly treasure, but do you want anything else from that business? Are you planning to run it part-time or full-time? Do you want to create an extra source of revenue? Or do you just want to challenge yourself?
Answer these questions and set expectations for your business. Clearly outlining your goals can help you remain committed to turning your hobby into a profitable business empire.

2. Do Thorough Research and Pick your niche

When you’re building a business out of something that you’re truly passionate about, it’s easy to get carried away and skip the research part. It happens all the time with entrepreneurs who are in love with a business idea. Don’t fall into that trap. Instead, do thorough market research to ensure your business idea isn’t making sense to you alone.

Market research involves you collecting as much information as possible regarding your target customers, asking the right questions, analyzing potential competitors, and discovering your target market. It also involves knowing how to monetize your products and/or services. Corona forced the would to go online and you could ride that wave and create a business line Dan Peña but with live events and video streaming on zoom leveraging new platforms like stream.club.

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3. Examine Your Priorities and Look at the Big Picture

How will you integrate your business into your everyday life? Being able to perceive the big picture will help you spot and tap into new opportunities. Here are the questions you need to ask yourself:
Would turning something you do for fun into a revenue generator be exciting, fun, and fulfilling?
Would the business generate revenue that can sustain your current lifestyle?

Would this business be a key to your financial freedom?

What other benefits will you gain from this venture apart from the cash flow? Perhaps you want to create awareness and build an identity for your online business. If that’s the case, many online business coaches out there will help you reach a global audience and position yourself as an authority in your specific niche.
Does it have the potential for capital growth?

4. Come up with a Business Model

Developing a business model is an important part of building a successful revenue generator. It’s easy to identify a problem, get an idea, and embark on product or brand development right away. But if you don’t have a clear way to monetize your product and/or service, you’ll never turn your hobby into a long-term, sustainable business.

You must strive to know the amount of money that will go into developing your product or service, the appropriate pricing, and the amount your target consumer is willing to pay. You’ll also need to know how you’ll sell your product or service. You may opt for a one-time purchase or adopt a subscription model. Other options for selling your product include leasing, crowdsourcing, franchising, and ad-revenue. Next, choose a platform that suits your target customers, products/services, and pricing strategies. As an example: if you’re a podcast enthusiast, Supercast is the go-to platform for monetizing your podcast.

5. Develop a Business Strategy

You might be great at your hobby, but without a well thought out strategy, you’ll never turn it into a profitable business. Having a good strategy in place will help set your new business for success.

What do you want your business to achieve in the long-term? Your answer to this question must be captured in your business strategy. Other things worth incorporating in your strategy include your offerings, your long-term and short-term goals, your business values, your value propositions, your financial projections, and your marketing strategies.

6. Implement Your Strategy

Now that you have a business strategy, the next step is to put it into action. To implement your strategies, you must accompany each of the strategies laid down with specific action plans and the relevant steps to help you reach the intended destination on time.

You must come up with the right action plans and be ready to act in order to implement your business strategy successfully. And if the strategy isn’t bringing the desired results, be prepared to adjust it, or adopt a whole new strategy altogether. Be sure to take advantage of the latest technology to make your business strategy implementation a bit easy. For instance, if you’re building an online fitness business, incorporating Sutra software into your site will help you stay on top of your schedule, sell courses, and earn money from your fitness videos. What’s more, you can use sites like reach.live to host live fitness events. In fact, Sutrafit like McKenzie started teaching yoga on Reach.live during a crisis.

Conclusion

Turning something you do for fun into a profitable business is a fantastic way to make your life more exciting and satisfying. But you must follow the above steps to successfully turn your hobby into a reliable revenue generator.

Business Sectors to Invest in That Offer Higher Chances of Success

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Business Sectors|Business Sectors to Invest in That Offer Higher Chances of SuccessWith about 20% of new companies failing every year, investing in the right business sector is challenging. That is why every budding entrepreneur or potential business owner needs to identify which industries offer them a higher chance of success, and that’s the information which this article provides. However, it’s essential to note that the sectors mentioned are part of the fastest growing and not necessarily the largest business sectors. So, are you planning on venturing into a new business? Are you looking for the right industry to launch your business with higher chances of success? Then consider these sectors before you begin.

1.Hospitality industry

The hospitality industry includes restaurants, hotels, and leisure facilities and offers a wide range of opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. It is a sector that keeps evolving to meet the new and changing demands of its consumers – a situation that also offers new business opportunities. As the potential consumers’ spending power continues to grow, it creates more avenues for as many future investors interested in this sector. Start-ups with innovative ideas can find many businesses in this sector ready to enter a partnership with them. You’ll have a higher chance of success investing in this sector if you first have a better understanding of what the hospital industry is.

2. Technology industry

The technology industry has become one of the main driving forces in almost every business sector- so it is with little wonder it makes it onto this list. Technology is at the heart of nearly everything we do. For example, a simple-looking electric cylinder can be used in different motors to power or run machines in various sectors. The growth of many online platforms has promoted the ease of doing business across physical boundaries. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement and even better innovations, as humanity keeps searching for ways to make life easier.

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3. Healthcare industry

The healthcare industry is growing at a fast pace and has led to several breakdowns in the sector. Despite that, the breakdowns in this sector also present entrepreneurs and aspiring business innovators an opportunity to fill the gaps with innovative tech solutions. This means that a person does not need to have a background or training in health to impact this industry. The healthcare sector uses different kinds of software and hardware technologies that need constant changes and upgrading. This situation offers vast opportunities for software developers and programmers prepared to think outside the box and create new ideas for the healthcare sector.

4. Construction industry

From construction technology to extensive infrastructure and residential housing, the construction industry has grown steadily over the past decade. For most people outside the industry, the construction sector comprises giant bulldozers and building equipment, which require a lot of financial investment. But the industry also has more than enough space for different kinds of technology and innovations that will make construction more manageable and less time-consuming. Furthermore, as populations continue to grow worldwide, there is always the need for residential and other housing needs.

Apart from the sectors mentioned, entrepreneurs can make a beneficial impact in any industry. If you have an innovative idea, do not be afraid to act on it- it would be a winning one.

Professional Development Ideas for Entrepreneurs

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Professional Development |Professional Development Ideas for EntrepreneursEntrepreneurship isn’t so much a career as it is a way of life. Owning your own business or working freelance means you don’t have the safety net of an HR department to take care of your personal administration or a boss prompting you to take a course. All of this must be instigated by you, and it is important if you want to be successful in your field. Thankfully it’s fairly easy to do in today’s digital world; there are several ways you can work towards improving yourself and your business. Keep reading to find out more.

Books and podcasts

Regardless of your entrepreneurial field or freelance endeavor, there will be people who have to tread the same path you’re on and lived to tell the tale. These people write the books like road maps for you, allowing you to sidestep common pitfalls carefully. Research relevant people, invest in their books and learn from them.

The same theory applies to podcasts. Although similar to books in many aspects, podcasts deliver a more live experience. They are often hosted by entrepreneurs like yourself and will discuss dilemmas relevant to your field. A good industry podcast will usually have expert guests on the show to offer advice on various niche aspects of the industry and help accelerate your learning.

Learn a second language

You’ve probably heard that learning a second language is a great way to advance your career; it undoubtedly is, especially for people who want to garner a competitive edge over their colleagues or peers. But for entrepreneurs, it can be even more significant and career-advancing, not only from a personal development point of view but also in terms of client service.

If you run a business that deals with overseas customers, it makes a big difference if you can speak their language. For example, you might need to take up English conversation courses to make a better impression on your customers. They will be more responsive to a company that caters to their localization, and your client retention should improve. From a personal perspective, learning a language helps develop and exercise your brain. It’s been shown that people with second language abilities are more disciplined and creative.

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Get some extra training

Never underestimate the value of continuing professional development. It’s easy to forget about this after your company is earning strong revenue, but if you want to maintain those levels and grow your business, you need to stay sharp and relevant. Your extra training doesn’t have to be in your niche field; it can be Urine Collector, for instance, if you’re a performance sports brand.

Firstly, however, think about what areas of the business you would like to earn more about. Maybe you’ve always been poor with numbers, which is why you hire an account manager. That’s fine for the time being, but it’s also a good opportunity to train yourself in accounting as well. It isn’t so you can take over the role, but you can better understand the workings of the business. After training yourself in these satellite areas, you can then diversify.

Connect with communities

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely business at times; you have so many plates spinning, employees, and clients to manage, and only you intuitively know how to manage it. Or so you think. The reality is there are millions of people in the world just like you, with the same concerns and obstacles; the difference is they have a different perspective from you and, therefore, new ideas.

Industry communities can be found on social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. They are built around people operating in your niche area and who encounter similar problems and dilemmas. Engaging with these communities is an excellent way to ask troubling questions and get support. It’s good to know you’re not alone when it comes to entrepreneurial endeavors.

Know your goals

The difference between a successful entrepreneur and one that fails is sometimes down to active versus passive personalities. The passive types tend to find some success, enough to sustain a lifestyle and then settle for it. They don’t engage further in personal development strategies or company growth. Conversely, the active ones tend to be interested in growing the business and improving their personal value.

The difference is only really an attitude. Active entrepreneurs will work to a set of goals that frame their intentions and motivate them to progress. Passive entrepreneurs may have goals in mind, but they are probably long term goals that aren’t timebound. Implement SMART goals in your life and business by identifying the broad categories or important areas to develop and then using your SMART goals to stay on track.