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5 Myths About Starting a Franchise Business Debunked

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Franchise Business|5 Myths About Starting a Franchise Business DebunkedThere’s no denying that you’ve got several routes into the world of commerce, and one of those is starting a franchised business. Many of today’s top everyday brands that you see on your travels are franchised organizations, so that’s proof alone they are a winning idea.

The thing is, some entrepreneurs feel like starting a local or regional company under the umbrella of a franchised brand is a bad idea. If you’re here today because you’ve had similar thoughts, take a look at these franchise business myths debunked:

Myth #1: Franchises Are Only in a Few Industries

When you start a business, you want to do so because you have brilliant ideas for products and services in a specific niche that you think will be very successful. With that in mind, you might assume that franchises aren’t available in your niche industry.

The truth is, you’ll find franchise opportunities available in virtually all industries and sectors. For example, you could launch a franchised top senior referral business to provide elder care services under an established franchise brand.

Myth #2: Franchises Will Make You Go Bankrupt

Another myth some entrepreneurs have about franchises is they assume you need to pay high upfront fees followed by hefty regular payments. Again, the truth is different from the misconception!

Most franchises offer a low-cost route to starting the business, and the franchisers don’t “tax” franchisees with eye-watering regular licensing fees. There are plenty of franchise opportunities out there, so you’ll find out that offers the best deal for you.

Myth #3: You Have No Freedom

Decent franchise opportunities only lay down the basic framework for the deal. Typically, you’d need to brand your business in the same way as the franchisor and use their corporate colors for all marketing and literature.

Apart from that, franchisees typically have lots of room to add their individual touches and make the brand memorable in the area they wish to cover. Plus, you have complete control over who you hire and fire and the day-to-day managerial decisions you need to make.

Myth #4: You Can’t Set Up a Part-Time Franchise

Why not? Did you know that many people set up businesses that they operate part-time and work in a regular 9-5 job the rest of the time? There’s no reason why you can’t set up a part-time franchise.

When you do more research into franchise opportunities, you’ll notice that the business model gets explicitly designed for people to start it on a part-time basis before committing to a full-time schedule as the brand grows in their areas.

Myth #5: Franchises Restrict Profit Potential

Lastly, it’s worth keeping in mind that franchise opportunities only lay out the ground rules for setting up a business using the franchisor’s branding. There are no restrictions on how much profit you can make in the business.
If you think about it, franchisors want you to make lots of profit because it helps them better promote their franchise ideas to other prospect franchisees like yourself!

How You Can Stand a Chance Against Your Big Brand Competitors

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Competitors|How You Can Stand a Chance Against Your Big Brand CompetitorsEntering the fray of the business world with your own name and plans can be a thrilling decision to make, especially when you feel like the service or product that you’re providing is something that you are genuinely proud of and excited to show people. The downside of this excitement is the inevitable anxiety that you may feel upon being faced with the reality of the market already being dominated by large, established brand names that you fear your potential customers will stick by no matter what you do to try and convince them otherwise.

While this is an understandable fear, it’s important to recognize the possible options you have as far as standing up to your competition. Having a quality service to offer is important, but it’s hard to draw in crowds of people just from that alone, unfortunately. You’ll need to make decisions to put yourself in the best possible position to be a cut above the rest. When you’re in the early days of your business, the decisions you make are important, and it’s good to know what you can do that will potentially save you a headache, and some money, further down the road.

Save Money in Key Areas

As well as using cost-effective platforms to market your services, for example, you might be looking for other ways that you can save money. After all, making such decisions can give your business every advantage it needs to survive in this competitive environment. Unfortunately, spending money is a reality of the trade and something that you’ll need to do a lot of the time if you hope to make any money back. The important thing, therefore, is learning where to cut costs. For example, you can compare your energy supplier to other options at businesscomparison.com and potentially find a cheaper alternative that can save you money on one of the business essentials, money that you can then spend elsewhere.

Find Your Target Audience

You are no doubt aware of how important marketing is to a business. That should come as no surprise to you. You’re likely already in the midst of making several marketing pushes that will hopefully take your business to more widespread knowledge. That being said, it can be difficult to know what form of marketing will be most effective for you. What can be important is finding your target audience and then working out (via research) what method is known to appeal most to that crowd, meaning you can then focus your efforts and save both time and money to hopefully yield more effective results.

One route that you might be interested in exploring if time and money are of concern to you is to take the well-traveled road of social media marketing, putting you on a cost-effective platform that gives you an easy connection to your potential customers. Social media marketing also has the distinct advantage of allowing your audience to open a dialogue with you, building up a sense of identity for your business and a relationship between the customer and company.

If You’re Not Engaging With Your Community, You’re Falling Behind

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |marketing|If You're Not Engaging With Your Community, You're Falling BehindMarketing is becoming more competitive and businesses seek more advanced ways to reach out to customers and get them to part with their hard-earned cash. As such, brands are having to come up with new tactics to grab the attention of their audiences and succeed in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, achieving that is easier said than done. Most niches have already been filled. And sometimes, when you work in a company marketing department, it feels like you’re fighting over the scraps.

Smart brands, therefore, are finding new ways to engage with the community. Instead of focusing on channels or outreach, they’re working on “impact” and “being pillars of the community.”

But what does this mean in practice? Let’s take a look.

Have A Social Purpose

Companies today aren’t the capitalist behemoths of old. Instead, they’re much more concerned about the impact that their actions have on the environment according to guild.co. And it’s not just customers driving it. Companies, like everyone else, are caught up in a wider movement that sees the role of firms in society as being about more than just turning a profit. It’s also critical that organisations preserve the natural world for the future.

Having a social purpose, therefore, is becoming a centerpiece of many firms. They’re looking to make tangible changes in their communities and tackle all kinds of issues, from social problems to climate change.

Look For Networking Opportunities

Businesses can also enhance their brands by looking for networking opportunities in local communities. It’s unlikely that a company works in complete isolation from everyone else in the community. Instead, they are part of a system of relationships. And with those relationships come opportunities.

It’s critical for businesses, for instance, to get expert advice from professionals in the local area. It’s also vital to go behind the scenes and find out what customers really think about your brand. Once you start collecting information on the ground, you put yourself in a much better position to compete with your rivals.

Involve Yourself In Community Projects

Businesses love to get involved in community projects for brand-related purposes. Firms that help a community build a solar form, as choosesolar.com, or create more green space become indispensable to everyone around them. If you can establish yourself as a rock for the community, people will return to you again and again.

Improve Customer Support

Customer support is essentially a kind of community outreach. The more staff you have available to take calls, the better the support will be.

Having an active support base is a great way to build communities online. What’s amazing about these groups is that they will also contribute information to other members, taking the burden off you. Sometimes, people will write articles explaining how to do certain things which are just as good as any guide that you might write.

In summary, therefore, engaging with the local community brings all kinds of benefits. And it helps to get you out of a marketing rut. When you relate to real people, you can make your firm grow more organically.

Investing in Yourself and Becoming That Leader Who Makes a Difference

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Leader|Investing in Yourself and Becoming That Leader Who Makes a DifferenceThere are leaders out there within the workplace that do not make an impact and that do not make a difference, and to ensure that you do not end up as one of these leaders, it is important that you invest in yourself. You are always investing your time and energy into others, and now it is time to focus on yourself. You need to make progress and changes, and to do this, you need to improve what you are offering.

Studying and Developing Your Skills and Knowledge Base

How much you know and how aware you are of the industry, marketplace, and role you are in can determine how successful you are. When you complete your bachelor’s online, you shift your focus and your efforts back onto yourself, and you once again focus on developing your skills and knowledge, which can then be directly implemented into your role. A bachelor’s will allow you to develop those areas or subjects which you may feel are not your strongest areas of expertise. Investing in yourself and in your education will ensure that you are a leader who can implement and bring about change.

What Changes Do You Want to Make?

To make a difference within your business or organization, changes must be made, but do you know what changes need to be brought about and why? Establishing root causes of problems and having the vision to make things better is what you need to be focusing on. A great advantage of studying for your bachelor’s is that it will allow you to see where opportunities for change and development lie. Through studying, you will be able to see how you can look at your business or organization differently, and most importantly, through the eyes of the leader that you are.

What Type of Leader Do You Want to Be?

Not all leaders are the same, and so what type of leader do you want to be? For example, do you want to be one that leads from the front and commands attention, or do you want to be one that leads from the middle or the center of operations? When you know what type of leader you want to be, and you know what style of leadership suits you, then you can implement your ideas with confidence and begin looking towards the future.

Focusing on the Future

Making change can be quick, but quite often, changes happen over time. Knowing where you want to go and where you want to be as a leader is important. Your vision will help shape and define your business or organization, so it is important that you are always focused on the future. Having targets and goals for change is important, as is being open to change and improvement. Nothing ever stays still, and neither should you. A good leader who truly cares about getting results and making an impact will keep pushing and applying gentle pressure to get where they want to.

How To Take Your Website To New Heights

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Design|How To Take Your Website To New HeightsIn the 21st century, it’s near impossible for a business to survive without a quality website. Such a large percentage of commerce is now being done exclusively online, and this is encouraging a greater focus on producing enticing, effective web pages that are sure to draw in as many customers as possible. Luckily, figuring out how your business can take its website to new heights needn’t be as difficult as you might expect, as there are several simple tips and tricks that you can make the most of to transform your platform in no time at all! So, if you would like to find out more, then simply read on to uncover some of the best steps that you can utilise today.

A Recognisable Name

Before you even start to think about selling your wares online, you need to come up with a unique and original domain name that you can register for your business. Every website has a domain name, as this is essentially a representation of a physical address that a brick and mortar store has. Choosing an unusual or unrecognisable name is going to drop you in the deep end surrounded by a sea of other websites, as you need to identify a suitable URL that relates to your products and services. If your business name is already taken then do not panic, as you can experiment with adding letters or words to make it work. Adding a simple ‘the’ may be enough to identify a totally unique domain name, or even including your head office or flagship location can ensure that you have little competition. Choosing and registering your URL can be a bit of a tricky process, but luckily there are experienced teams like DomainQuick that can pinpoint the perfect match and make sure it’s yours to utilise.

The Design & Aesthetics

One of the most important aspects of your website that can make or break its success is the overall design and aesthetic that you choose to channel. Having a jumbled mishmash of random colours, garish patterns and interrupted aesthetics is going to reflect badly on your business, as you need to accurately represent your brand and its values through the design of your website. A poor quality aesthetic will lead the customer to believe that you produce poor quality products or provide low quality services, so you must make an effort to keep on top of your website’s design to ensure it meets expectations. A minimalist design is likely the best option to explore, as you can remain classic, elegant and professional all rolled into one. Always use dark text colour on top of a light background to maintain accessibility, as those with visual impairments can read better this way. When adding pictures, videos or graphics, try not to go overboard – a couple of photos per page is more than enough, as too many attention grabbing elements can quickly become overwhelming, and even increase the load time of your webpage in the browser.

Make It Interactive

Another brilliant way to upgrade your website is by making the platform as interactive as possible. When visiting a normal brick and mortar store, you will likely encounter an employee as soon as you enter through the front doors. This customer will greet you, and ask whether you’ll be needing any help during your visit – however, this essential introduction is often lost when browsing the web, as few websites give you the chance to discuss your queries without phoning up a remote call centre. Adding in an interactive chat messenger feature is a brilliant option that is sure to increase the quality of your virtual customer service, as you’ll be able to send users in the right direction whilst clearing up any issues they may have before they grow into serious complaints. Having a chat feature can be beneficial in many ways, as you can cut your customer complaints considerably by actively attempting to resolve any problems through the use of the secure messaging platform. You can even choose to program your chat box to pop up after 5-10 seconds of browsing, as this will alert the user of its presence and remind them that if they want to talk, you’re here to help!

Seek expert advice

If sales have stalled, you’re losing visitors once they hit your homepage, your landing pages are not converting or your site looks basic, it’s wise to seek expert advice. If you don’t have expertise in web design and development or you lack these skills in-house, hiring experienced developers and designers could make a huge difference to your sales, traffic volume and lead conversion rates. If you’re looking for information or services for your business, you can visit site pages and contact representatives to discuss packages for your company and get ideas. Compare quotes, learn more about agencies and view examples of previous work and case studies before you make a decision. 

Taking your professional business website to a whole new level has never been so simple when you can take the time to make the most of some of the brilliant tried and tested tips and tricks that have been carefully detailed above.