General Business

7 Franchise Advantages You Weren’t Aware Of

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Opening a Small Business Doesn’t Have to Be Intimidating; These Franchise Advantages are Backing You Up!

When you decide to  transform your dream of owning your own business into a reality you need to look at your options. The first is independent business—going solo. This is starting from scratch and building your business from an idea to a scaleable money-making endeavor. You find what you want to sell; goods or services, find a location; brick and mortar or online. A thousand other tasks come into play before establishing your financially adept business.

There is also franchising. Franchising is a method of expanding a business, distributing goods and services through a licensing partnership. The most prolific and widely-known brands are all franchises. Businesses like Panera Bread, Anytime Fitness, and Starbucks are examples of huge franchising models we all know. The person who began the business is the franchisor, who partners with those interested in investing, the franchisee. Essentially, franchising is the same route of business as going solo, only in this model someone has already went through the independent building and made it work.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique

Splash and Dash  began with an idea just like every business. The signature service provided members with unlimited monthly bath and brushing for a set price. No other pet grooming business did this. This membership service is at the core of the franchise. From this point, the brand—upscale ambiance, convenient retail products, pleasing aesthetic, emphasis on knowledge—was built around the service.  A few shops were really successful and the company grew from there.

The franchise advantage is that a franchise model’s strategies have a proven formula that has been shown to work in the marketplace. What are the franchise advantages and disadvantages out there?

Quicker Return on Investment (ROI)

Those interested in business have no doubt seen the gloomy SBA statistics showing how quickly businesses go belly up. It’s not a pretty picture. Investors pour their life savings into a business that fails in the first three years and are forced to declare bankruptcy. Entrepreneurs that work hard can expect to have their business become profitable around the third year, if the business hasn’t already failed.

One of the swiftest franchise advantages is the franchisor will work with you to ensure this does not happen to your location. A reputable franchise will measure company success on their franchisees’ success. Splash and Dash makes it a personal goal for their shop owners to break even within six months of opening doors. This is an amazing turn around rate for investors.

Lower Risk

Franchising is the best method for a business to grow to its full potential. The risk is a two-way street.

The risk is low for franchisees because the systems of business have already been perfected. Revenue streams, brand, and marketing are all pre-established and set in motion for the favor of the whole company—every franchisee benefits from this.

The risk is lower for a franchisor because the franchisee assumes the responsibility of financing and operations. A franchisor provides the tools to open and maintain the business, but there is no liability if this business fails. It will hurt the company holistically, but a franchisor will not lose capital. This is why it’s important to partner with the right fit who will give you the support you need.

Strong Profitability

Different franchise models have various methods of securing profits. Most franchises have entrenched revenue streams. A business capitalizes on a niche. This niche needs to be stable or even better growing.

Splash and Dash secures profits with a model of recurring revenue. This is based on the membership that customers purchase for a mutually beneficial agreement. A customer pays monthly for their membership and can use Splash and Dash services at their leisure. If a customer is coming in twice a week to have their dog groomed, they will naturally purchase their products at this one-stop-shop. Splash and Dash services also have add-ons for the benefit of clients’ pets. Each customer can choose to take advantage of an add-on or not, and members are discounted on all services.

This is just one example of the franchise advantages a particular company provides. Each model is different and has different methods of profiting.

Brand Recognition

Branding is loosely part of the umbrella of marketing, but instead of pushing outward on customers, a brand should be drawing them in. A company’s brand tells the story of the company. The values, products, and services the company provides.

This is a huge advantage franchise owners have over other small businesses. In the food service franchise sector, many customers are finicky. They know what foods they like and what foods they don’t like. They have their trusted brand and are loyal. Many franchise owners receive customer loyalty just because they are a representative of a certain brand.

If you choose to invest in a franchise, go with a brand that aligns with your own value and story you want to tell your customers.

Expansion & Penetration of Other Markets

That old expression, “When something ain’t broke don’t fix it” translates into the franchise world as, “My shop is seeing huge profits and everything is going really great so I guess it’s time to open a second shop and make more money.” Of course, this is the ideal situation, but rapid growth is a franchise advantage across the board.

Most franchise owners take their knowledge and capital and expand into the new market territories. They can open secondary, tertiary locations, and more. Some franchises like Panera, only allow franchisees to purchase packages only. Panera has a development plan where each franchise owner on average owns 15 of the bakery-cafes within six years of working with the company. No one can own a single Panera Bread.

A Helping Hand

Even seasoned business owners with tons of expertise can use the support of a franchisor when launching a business. Splash and Dash provides training and assistance for every step in the process from day one.

John Neugebauer, a franchise owner in San Diego told us this, “I worked in corporate America for about 20 years, had enough, and wanted to do something that made me happy. I went with a franchise over starting my own pet store because I have no idea what I’m doing. Having the support of the franchise behind me felt basically like they handed me their model and said ‘If you follow this, you should be successful.'”

Franchising should be a partnership and a good franchisor should invest in you as much as you have invested in them.

Fundamental Procedures Splash and Dash Assists With:

  • Hiring
  • Training
  • Site Selection
  • Lease Negotiation
  • Accounting
  • Marketing
  • Initial Stock Order
  • Point of Sales

Ease of Supervision and Staffing Leverage

Franchising allows for a consolidated organization. At the corporate level, a team of employees are expanding the franchise, assisting current franchise owners, and tending to the various demands of overarching business like marketing campaigns. The work corporate headquarters does offsets the work for each unit. A franchise owner doesn’t have to focus on these wider tasks and can leverage their efforts to their location. This also reduces a shop owner’s payroll because they won’t have to hire as many employees.

Disadvantages to Owning a Franchise

Owning a franchise is not the right choice for everyone. The biggest advantage a person can do for themselves is to invest in a franchise that works for them. There is a huge amount of differentiation when it comes to franchise opportunities and like everything, there are bad deals out there.

Some Disadvantages of Franchising:

  • Not Completely Autonomous
  • Contractual Agreement
  • Restrictions on products, services, pricing, and territory
  • Lack of Corporate Support
  • Conflicting Visions

No matter your business pursuit, we wish you luck!

 

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Top Five Small Business Trends 2017

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As the business world continues its path escorted by new technology, it’s becoming more of a pain to keep up with all the current and ever-changing small business trends that influence enterprise models. Not everyone has the time to attend the entrepreneurial conferences going on like SaaS Annual or Startup Grind Global. It’s too time-consuming.

Still, these conferences are where all the relevant marketing data and insider information is passed around before becoming influential enough to become true small business trends. Things like statistics for millennials becoming the primary spenders for the pet industry. Or, the newest software launches designed to expedite sales are all unveiled here.

For most franchise owners, attending these conferences is just about as important as having an inflatable tube man advertising your small business. (It’s not). Reputable franchisees stay up to date with all the happenings of these conferences. From there they can supply their partners with insightful information to keep the whole company updated and competitive. So, as the summer of 2017 draws to a close what should small business owners be paying attention to?

If it Didn’t Happen on Social Media, It didn’t happen

One of the strongest small business trends that isn’t going anywhere is the relevancy of social media. For small business owners, your social accounts are your best friends. As social media itself expands with even more integrated features, the free marketing platform becomes easier to use for business purposes. Announcing events, promotions, and retail sales are as easy as posting. The best feature of social media is that it’s all free. The big three—Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are all free to use.

Franchise owners have it easy when it comes to social marketing. Not only can they use social media to keep in touch with their local customers, but corporate social media platforms maintain the digital presence of the entire brand. Even a small business’ retail experience can be crafted to be shareable material.

As the future becomes the present, it is clear that social media isn’t going anywhere and organic and friendly social media posts are one of the best ways to reach customers.

Automated Back Office Systems Make it Easier

Without having the technology that can automate internal systems, many small business owners are left in the dust. Don’t be one of these owners! Automation has been making things easier for decades but is becoming more of a normative in 2017.

The Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique franchising model uses proprietary software that automates a majority of the back-office tasks. This frees up shop owners to focus on the important things. This also reduces payroll because employees aren’t forced to do repetitive tasks and productivity is streamlined. This organization makes it easier for employees to do their job systematically.

Software levels the playing field. This leveling makes it easier for franchise shops and other small businesses to compete with multinational corporations in the same industry.

Content Marketing or Bust

One of the trendsetters of small business trend pretenses is the work of the band Radiohead. Not the music—the promotional methods.

In 2016, the band pushed marketing forward 20 years by innovating what content marketing could really look like. The musicians were gearing up to release their ninth album. Instead of doing the traditional marketing for an album release–music video releases, interviews, churning out conventional content marketing—they erased their online presence. No website, no social media, nothing—all traces of Radiohead gone.

This cryptic move made everyone but the band responsible for driving content marketing for their soon-to-release album. Twitter erupted asking about the mysterious disappearance of the band’s online presence. Every entertainment magazine ran a piece questioning the band’s decision and if this meant Radiohead would be releasing their anticipated new album. The trap was sprung and the new album’s sales skyrocketed. Radiohead’s entire promotion campaign was fueled by a genius marketing gimmick of Jimmy Hoffa-like proportions. The band’s legions of galvanized fans and marketing experts alike praised their efforts for being decades ahead of the time.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The only reason many people are still talking about SEO’s importance is that Google is forcing them to. We all know it’s important, and just about think we’ve reached a consensus of how to improve our rankings, then Google throws a curveball in the algorithm.

As recently as the end of June there have been fluctuating SERP (Search Engine Result Page) rankings making everyone question if a new algorithm update was being rolled out. Google CEO, John Mueller, offered this Tweet, “Yep! We make updates all the time!” Mueller should just keep this comment on an automated loop because that’s his response to every Google update—vague and not all that helpful.

With every game-changing SEO standard, it’s important for small business owners to keep up with the trends and rank strongly with good SEO. Another advantage of partnering with a franchise is corporate will do all of this for you! Not surprising when Forbes reports that, “the percentage of small business owners using a website analytics tool sits below 39 percent; only 25 percent use customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage their touchpoints.”

Customer Experience is the Heartbeat to Small Business

The proliferation of instant access to information has pushed consumers to demand deep knowledge from all customer service representatives. This surge will continue through the year. Sales staff of small business owners need to be able to answer questions on rates, terms, and provide follow-up support. Consumers expect to be directed to content material that provides context for their purchase.

Technology is playing its role in customer interaction. Many small business owners will need to start using CRM software if they haven’t already. Software like Hubspot or Pipedrive are the most popular of these tools. Using these systems allows for engaging customer experience before the customer even walks in the door. CRM software allows sales staff to anticipate the questions and needs of customers.

What Do All These Small Business Trends Mean?

For many small business owners, keeping up with the flux of small business trends seems overwhelming. As the playing field levels, it takes the same amount of efforts the big guys have to compete. The thing is, small business owners don’t have a marketing team, a whole floor of SEOs running analytics, and an army of salesman driving company revenue.

This is why franchising has become popularized for eager entrepreneurs. New systems of business are more complex and require more expert attention. A 2017 small business marketing trends report showed that “47 percent of small business owners have zero insight into whether their marketing efforts are effective.”  With the life expectancy of a new business closing before the first three years, many entrepreneurs will want all the expertise they can get. Good business isn’t trial and error. It’s having the proficiency to scale and compete.

Partnering with a corporate team who handles national marketing, SEO, and software driven aspects of business will free up owners to focus on the segment of business that is right in front of them. Franchising isn’t the only way to keep up with the small business trends that ensure success, but it is definitely less frustrating schematic than going solo.

With the right partnership, entrepreneurs can experience new financial freedom. Credible franchises have pre-established locations already tested in the market. All the fine-tuning of business systems has already happened. This gives owners a newfound independence. Money, scheduling, and lifestyle are all controlled on your terms.

You are your own boss.

 

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