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Changing Careers
Many people contemplate changing careers at some point(s) in life. Many things can lead an individual to re-assess goals and refocus on doing something meaningful and fun.
Jumping into a new career can be tricky. Assessments of retraining requirements should be made before plunging into such things. It often takes a while to work up to a successful new career and it is wise to look at this from a financial standpoint (make sure to work out a livable and affordable budget).
Changing careers can be both exciting and frightening at the same time. It can be helpful to work with a professional career coach to get some insightful advice. These individuals can evaluate strengths to find great career matches. Being successful in a new career requires you to assess your goals and yourself. Remember, however, that there's always a means of finding a way to get to where you want to be.
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Arts Education Franchise Opportunities
Combine your love of art and children into a great career choice by exploring these exciting arts education franchise options! Costs for an education franchise typically range from $25,000 to $250,000 but there are packages as low as $2,000.
Not every education franchise requires a teaching degree. In fact, you may be surprised to learn of the variety of child education franchise options available. Abrakadoodle, provides art education classes for children whereas Actor’s Garage focuses on children’s acting schools. Not to be left out, Batter Up teaches children culinary arts for nutrition and fun while Kids “N” Clay Pottery Studio brings new meaning to getting your hands dirty. Whatever your area of interest, chances are there is a child education franchise available.
When considering the purchase of an education franchise specifically for children, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Most states and federal regulations will require a criminal background check before working with children for both yourself and employees. The safety and security of children is the foremost consideration when working with any vulnerable population but even more so with young children.
Does the franchise meet the needs for all children including those with special needs? Depending upon the franchise, service area and population, the need for specialized training in addressing the health and other needs of children with disabilities and chronic illness related issues remains pertinent. Simple CPR and First Responder training can go a long way toward addressing the basic conditions encountered among children.
Security Issues. Custody disputes, parental rights, visitation issues. Predators. Everyone has heard the stories on the evening news and parents need assurance they children will be safe and secure when at your facility. Plan to address this need continuously.
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State Franchise Tax Board
*Depending upon the individual states in which you are doing business, you may need to pay taxes to each state franchise board.
Each state has its own requirements for how and when it collects taxes. Staying up to date on the ever-changing requirements and laws of multiple states can be a big burden for a small company. Corporations with offices in multiple states need to stay on top of the various requirements and deadlines. This can become burdensome. Before expanding your business into new territories across state lines, check with each state franchise tax board to understand your obligations.
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Pet Franchise: Path to Profit
According to the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey, 63% of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 71.1 million homes. In fact, more households have pets than children! Even more surprising, while household spending on pets increased 18% after inflation, toy sales dropped 25%, spending on day-care centers fell 15%, and spending on children’s clothes was down 15%. Clearly, Americans love their pets.
So what does it require to become the successful owner of a pet franchise? First, you need to enjoy working with pets and their owners. Decide what type of pet or pets you want to work with. Obviously dogs and cats are the most popular pets but horses, exotics and many others are growing trends in pet ownerships.
Next, it’s a good idea to track down a copy of market research related to pet ownership and trends in order to assist you in selecting the type of service you would like to supply via your pet franchise. One of the best sources for market research related to pet ownership is the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook. It is available by calling the AVMA at 800-248-2862, ext. 6670.
Finally, take time to explore the many options and choices related to pet franchise ownership. Entrepreneur.com provides a comprehensive listing of available pet franchises with complete information on required investment, requests for more information and other pertinent descriptions.
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Home Based Business for a Woman
Ladies, stay clear of envelope stuffing schemes and the like when you're looking for a home-based business. Before beginning make sure that you possess the following:
• a sound business plan • a product or service that has an honest demand • a reasonable chance of success based on your skills and background
It might be helpful to find women who are making money in successful home-based businesses and ask them about the specifics involved in their businesses.
Women's franchises are another popular way for women to re-enter the workforce or change careers and some franchises even offer means of starting home-based businesses for women.
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Franchise Basics: Understand the Difference Between a Franchise and Product License
Many people do not fully understand the difference between a franchise and product license agreement. In this short franchise basics tip, we will explore the pros and cons of each, so the small business owner can decide on the most desirable course of action.
-In both cases the small business owner typically has the benefit of a product or service that has already been tested on the market. With the typical franchise, the product or service is usually part of an entire scope of services that may include all or a part of every business function such as advertising, training, location selection, purchasing and even pricing.
-The benefit of buying a franchise is the comprehensive support, training, expertise and reputation of the franchise but the trade off is often the lack of flexibility.
-A product license agreement also allows the small business owner to use a proven product or service but unlike a franchise, they typically use it within an existing business structure. This typically provides a greater degree of flexibility related to most other business decisions but the trade-off is the difficulty in knowing how any product or service will be accepted outside of the original use or population.
-Franchise fees are typically higher than those of a licensing situation but don’t expect the support, training or other business “know how” associated with buying a franchise. Because there are fewer government and other regulatory requirements to offer a product or service for licensing, it can be more difficult to fully evaluate a license opportunity.
It is always advisable to consult with an attorney before making any business related decision, but especially when attempting to navigate the waters between purchasing a franchise versus a licensing opportunity.
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Investigating Franchise Business for Sale
In addition to the usual fees, structure, and support inquiries you should take into consideration before purchasing a franchise, you should also check into the background of the franchise business for sale. Decipher how many franchise owners it has had. Note that a number of owners over a short period of time is probably a sign of some business difficulties (either in that particular location or within the franchise as a whole).
Visit the locations and observe the way they conduct current business. If it's a franchise with repeat customers, talk to some of them. Also take the time to talk to the current franchise owner about the training and support they have received from the parent company. Compare the numbers with other franchises for sale. Make sure you hire an accountant to review the books of the franchise business for sale.
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SixTips to Selecting the Perfect Child Care Franchise.
Many people are interested in purchasing a children’s products and services franchise. One of the most popular choices with a high demand for future growth is a child care franchise. Child care franchise operations serve a vital need in the community. One of the best ways to evaluate any prospective franchise is through the eyes of your future customers. Here are five considerations to select the perfect child care franchise:
1. Safety. Every parent wants to know their child is safe and secure. This is one of the tremendous benefits to be derived from purchasing a child care franchise – the reputation of the franchise sets parents at ease even if your facility is brand new!
2. Staff. Although every state has legislation and training specifying the required training and background for staff members, most child care franchise opportunities provide specialized training and support that enhances the fundamental training.
3. Qualifications. Many children’s products and services franchise opportunities emphasize special services, programs and other provisions in order to offer a unique and distinctive level of service. For example, Kiddie Academy Child Care Learning Centers provide much more than simple day care; as their name implies, they are a child-care learning center where instruction is as important as supervision.
4. Special Population Services. A growing trend is the need for day care and other services to meet the needs of parents who work odd hours, children with disabilities and even gifted children. Rainbow Station Inc. is one such child care franchise that offers services to mildly ill children.
5. Ratios. Today more than ever there is a high demand for personalized services, even for child care services. As a franchise owner you need to evaluate the revenue projections based upon estimated number of students served and available space. Your future growth could be dramatically impacted by growth trends, zoning and space permits.
For more information on child care franchises and other children’s products and services franchise opportunities, visit entrepreneur.com’s superb selection located at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/childrensproducts&services/indexchild.html
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Research for your Low Cost Franchise
Whether you are buying a low cost franchise or not, you still need to determine that there is a demand for the product or service. Define your potential customers and figure out how and where they live. Do they buy your product or service on an impulse or is it a pre-planned and researched purchase? A low cost franchise like a snack or ice cream store depends heavily on foot traffic for impulse buys. Location is very important to these kinds of businesses. On the other hand, most people don't hire a cleaning service because they happened to walk by an office one day. For those types of businesses, advertising and publicly displaying information on the business is probably the best way to make an impact (people are more likely to research such services before purchasing them).
*Whether or not you find low cost franchise opportunities, figure out how to reach your prospective customers and what messages will reach them.
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Franchise Directories
There are a variety of franchise directories online. Some are portals, offering a wide variety of information. Others are narrowly focused on certain niches and can show you a franchise opportunity or business directory within a specific industry.
You can search through various franchise directories by industry, investment costs, region, or a variety of other categories. Franchise directories provide you with a quick way to get a feel for the franchise world including:
• availability • costs • financing options
Some franchise directories focus on U.S. franchises and others on international opportunities. Choose the one that best suits your needs.
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Top Franchises
It can be helpful to check out the management running the franchisor of the top franchises you are investigating. Find out the names and employment history of the managers. Do they have prior experience in running a franchise operation? Also, check out any indication of shady business deals. In other words, look for criminal records, bankruptcies, and a lawsuit histories related to your top franchises. Alternately, look for past examples of meeting obligations, behaving honorably, and earning stellar reputations.
When you invest in a franchise, you want to be sure it's of top quality. You are relying upon the franchisor to meet their obligations to you so don't ignore omens presented by their past business dealings.
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Existing Franchise for Sale and Your Accountant
Bringing in an accountant to examine the books of an existing franchise for sale is very wise. Unless you have a detailed accounting background, get referrals from friends and business owners you trust for a qualified accountant who has some experience in business evaluations.
An accountant will review the franchise's financial statements and help you understand them. They can also help you develop a business plan. You might want to get a Dun & Bradstreet report on the franchisor. Your accountant should assess the earning projections made by the existing franchise for sale and help you understand the assumptions on which they are based.
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Turnkey Small Business Opportunity
Some franchise operations offer turnkey packages, giving you almost everything you need to get going with your new small business opportunity. This can be a great help when you are starting out, but it can also be a great rip-off. Figure out exactly what they are supplying and how much that's worth to you. It's fair that you pay something for the ability to jump right into the small business opportunity, but you don't want to spend all your profits before you even get started. Talk to other franchise owners and find out their opinion about the turnkey package for starting a small business.
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Small Business Trends
In addition to researching the particular small business franchise you are interested in, you should research general trends about the industry as well. No franchisor is going to tell you that you're buying in at the tail end of the business cycle. Think about what competition might appear or how your business might change with new technology. Is your service something that could be offered over the web? Will it eventually become obsolete? Look at the competition in your industry and find out whether they're introducing related new products or pulling back and heading in some other direction. Is there specialized knowledge required to run this small business franchise? Is your business plan dependent on cheap labor being readily available and what do the labor supply trends look like? Whatever your success is dependent upon, ask yourself what you'll do if it is not available.
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The Small Business Administration Franchise Directory
The Small Business Administration has a franchise directory of franchises that have worked with the SBA and meet their requirements. They offer a streamlined loan application process because they have investigated the franchise operation and worked with the corporate management. However, just because a franchisor appears in the SBA franchise directory does not mean you should presume anything about their quality or profitability. The SBA will still consider financing other franchises, but the process will be more similar to their typical small business loan process.
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