The independent business vs franchise: what are the risks?

While a franchise does not guarantee success, nor should be regarded as a business concept as a “magic bullet” will solve immediately or increase their financial situation, definitely the possibility of failure is much lower than representing open and operate an independent business, although the characteristics of the concept are very similar to the operational structure of a particular franchise, or have the means and suppliers enough to compete.

The explanation is very simple: we must remember that a franchise is not just a business model or marketing strategy and growth, but also is the result of tests, successes, setbacks, market research and competitive intelligence, experience and position or brand recognition has been gained through a persistent struggle to get a name and prestige.

There is no doubt that a skilled person, entrepreneurial, creative, full of excellent ideas and looking forward to having a business achieve its goals achieved, moreover, that an independent business in no way implies a certain failure.

However, we must remember that all franchised businesses that today are widely recognized, have traveled that road and have learned the basis of high and low to overcome obstacles and build a solid operational and administrative structure and tested.

For this reason and in the course of this long road to travel, the lack of a mark in position, the lack of experience, lack of support from a corporate to administer and provide technical assistance to a network of units and the learning curve, mean difference and an important risk factor.

The reasons for the fees

Just a franchise fee means the right to use a mark, the transfer of knowledge (know-how), assistance in locating and / or approval of the appropriate location, delivery of operational and administrative manuals, induction and initial training and general technical assistance in the pre-opening. While royalties translate into support and ongoing support (consultancy visits, training and updating, new strategies, procedures or technologies, supplies at the best market conditions, etc.) Always bearing in mind the philosophy of win-win -Win (Client-franchisor-franchisee).

There are also contributions that the franchisee must make to the development and implementation of marketing strategies and advertising to local and institutional level, in order to position and increase the presence and image of the network to the market.

The reality is that having a strong brand and recognized in the market, makes a big difference since day one. When a recognized brand opening a new branch, the market is already familiar with the brand, know the products and / or services with which this account as well as their prices. There are no unpleasant surprises. This phenomenon accelerates the recruitment of new customers and significantly increase the short-term results, shortening the time of return on investment.

A simple comparison

To clearly understand the difference and only as a comparison, we could say that an independent business is similar to traditional postal service, in which the share is lower than that of a parcel and courier service, in which the delivery time is greater we do not know the route of delivery and where there are many risks that fail to reach its destination.

For its part, the franchise, is like a parcel and courier service, which actually has a higher cost, but it most certainly know the delivery time (which will be significantly lower relative to you would do with the traditional service ) offers online tracking service by telephone or directly at each office (TA) and unanticipated risks that could cause delay or loss are significantly lower.

In conclusion, the excess is no better than the independent business and franchise; however, the Franchise is a joint effort to minimize the likelihood of risks and failures, in which the learning curve is greatly reduced.

Training : what you need to be a better entrepreneur

The training concept is new to many employers, its about 3% of people know how you can support a coach, either in his personal life or your business. But you know what a coach can do for you?.

Coaching is about helping a person to think for themselves, find their own answers, to discover within himself his potential, his path to success, whether in business, in personal relationships, art, sport, work, etc. The aim is to improve their performance, focusing on how best to achieve it.

There are basically 3 types of coaching:

1. Life Coaching. Life Coaching focuses mainly on personal situations, the importance of this type of coaching is to find personal situation does not allow people to reach their full potential in other dimensions (business, work, recreation, etc.)..
2. Business Coaching. Business Coaching focuses on improving specific areas of the company, there may be sales coaching, marketing coaching, etc. The coach should not necessarily be expert in the field, the coach is an expert on helping the trainee (the person who receives coaching) to find the best ways of doing things, in this case can be made in group coaching sessions.
3. Executive Coaching. The executive coaching is aimed at managers and business owners with the intention to help them get clarity, focus and time to take their organizations to higher levels of performance.

The coaching sessions are a simple but very powerful process. In the session the coach, unlike what many think, fails to give advice or recommend actions that would further the role of an adviser or consultant, the coach will help the trainee to look inside the best answers to resolve situations that do not allow 101% that we all can give.

It is also important to note that coaching sessions are focused on a specific target, if the trainee is not clear who wants to improve the situation, you can spend an entire session to the definition of this objective, which must be positive, be of sufficient interest or challenge, take a while to complete and will be measurable and more.

The sessions usually last 60 minutes once a week, it is best done outside the territory of the trainee, mainly to avoid disruptions, although there are very friendly business coaching process and spend hours and “sacred”, which interrupted for any reason one session. The sessions in normal situations and depending on the objective should not last more than 6 months to avoid a situation of dependency on the coach.

Importantly, the result of each coaching session should normally be a series of actions that lead to the conclusion of the stated goal of the best in the shortest time possible.

Use Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses and Independent Professionals

Today we are going to talk about eight ways to use use social media marketing for small businesses and independent professionals.

For companies that are beginning to glimpse the Internet can be an important channel of communication and/or marketing, one of his main concerns is to gain visibility in search engines (especially Google).

A person or company could have a great website or blog but if anyone could not find it … you have nothing. It is therefore imperative that small businesses begin to use social media marketing  to reduce its dependence on search engines and gain new sources of traffic to their websites or blogs.

There are plenty of sites dedicated to social media, though with different approaches: YouTube (which is now the second form on the web), Mister Wong, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, , Blogs, Google Bookmarks, Linkedin, Xing, Yahoo Anwers, It must prove that seem most appropriate to your target audience, very often a combination of several.
Here are eight ways in which small businesses can reap the benefits of social media marketing with a moderate investment of time and/or money.

# 1. Have your own blog or website

This seems very obvious but most small businesses or independent professionals do not have or cannot use it to enhance their ventures. A blog is an excellent opportunity to connect with your customers and prospects.

A platform as WordPress.org is widely distributed and is open source, which for you means it’s free. There are lots of templates ready to use, so investing in money can be smaller: a domain and hosting are ready.

# 2. Comment on other blogs in the same subject or complementary

Blogging involves building relationships with other members of the blogosphere, participating in discussions. For this we have to look and see other blogs related to your topic to participate by giving your opinions.

Of course such participation demands an investment of time but note that useful and intelligent comment (that’s the secret) on other blogs, increase your authority on the subject and attracts traffic to your blog.

# 3. Participate in Yahoo answers

If you want to position yourself as an expert or in your field, share your expertise answering questions on Yahoo Answers and you will thus establish a direct connection with a potential client.

But keep in mind that if you do not have a blog or website where you will not attract these prospects, so # 1 point is crucial.

# 4. Use the video as a marketing tool

YouTube (owned by Google) is the second largest search engine today. Video cameras are becoming increasingly affordable, you don’t have to be a movie star to make a short video demonstrating your knowledge, and even a short video (less than 5 min) can be very effective from a marketing standpoint.

And know that YouTube is the largest video-sharing site, but not alone, many other places to upload your videos and increase the contact points.

# 5. Take photos of your products and share them on Flickr

Flickr can also be a marketing tool. There are many armed groups active in Flickr around brands or themes. Do some research.

# 6. Search the various social media sites

Digg, del.icio.us, Mister Wong, Reddit, fresqui, Keegy, Magnolia, LinkedIn, etc. But one of the most effective (best time/score) is StumbleUpon.

# 7. Subscribe to mailing lists or groups

Mailing lists and groups are part of social marketing. This involves finding potential customers in places that they frequent. It’s like the traditional marketing: if you are an architect working in countries or gated communities, then you’ll want to come and show photos of your work in decorating magazines.
And where do you find these groups? A little walk through Yahoo groups or Google groups you will appose the road.

# 8. Use twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that lets you post messages with up to 140 characters. It is a good tool for networking with colleagues, customers and members of your industry and instant communication with your contacts (new and potential).

At first glance, Twitter seems like a waste of time. But analyzing their uses can say it is an ideal tool to almost instantly know anything new that happens in your area of interest is the quickest way to help spread an idea, ask for opinions, share links, promote your products and services to a defined audience , disclose the content of your blog, and so on.
As you make your confidence and better social media marketing skills will improve your chances of significantly increasing your visibility online, your authority and reputation.

Make Money with GumGum

Another great way to monetize your blog is using GumGum. This company works almost as easy as Google Adsense, and that handles JavaScript code.

The company intends to do that by convincing contributors to upload photos and movies to GumGum, and enticing publishers to embed GumGum’s Flash-based embeddable code rather than upload the file.  Once the publisher embeds the code, GumGum hosts the image file and uses its proprietary authentication software to track the number of times the image is viewed. Based on that, it calculates the licensing fee owed to the content owner. If a publisher would like to host the image for free, GumGum has an ad-supported model which overlays advertising on the image, revenue from which it shares with the content owner.

The very simple how it works and as GumGum will give you access to display a large number of photographs, which will carry advertising and for each person to click into them, you can earn up 20% of the click, and that the rest will be distributed among GumGum and Glam Media

Weapons of Mass Promotion

Boost for Team Promotional Products, one of the leading promotional market in Australia, it is customary to call the companies potentially interesting to ask if they use promotional items. I was surprised to see how many small businesses that do not use products and promotional items ..

Here are some of the reasons:

1. Advertising is too expensive
2. They have no idea what to do with promotional items or how to offer
3. He has no experience in this market and are afraid to introduce new techniques

Five main reasons why your company needs to develop a marketing strategy with promotional items.

1. Visibility. More and more companies use promotional products to promote their products or services. As a promotional gift to a customer or potential customer will remember your name or brand every time they see or use this article. If this well thought out and that gives the right product for the right situation, can leave a strong impression in the minds of people.
2. Scope. An article advertising gives them much greater scope for your company at the national and international importance. If your company is not dedicated only to serve the local level, a promotional gift that connects your name, phone, email or slogan, is by far the best way to promote themselves out there.
3. Customer Service. An article advertising promote your brand and your phone at any time, which can be used for technical support, consultation and emergency!
4. Professionalism. It’s been many times that a company loses a customer for not having developed a well thought out promotional campaign through advertising items. The ability of a company to promote itself effectively in today’s market is expected as both a business card.
5. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). With a promotion plan with original promotional items will not have to spend $1000 USD to achieve the desired objective. A promotional gift can be a simple timer to avoid wasting a lot of bath water, or biodegradable bags for animals, Etc.

How to make temporary tattoos?

Each year sold million Temporary Tattoos not an exaggeration at all.

If you want to buy temporary tattoos personalized with your logo or design, then I comment some important things to bear in mind:

Non-toxic and hypoallergenic inks

The Tattoo is applied to the skin, therefore it is imperative that the inks used in printing are tattoo hypoallergenic and nontoxic (Keep in mind also that the young audience is one of the most used temporary tattoos).

To be sure, is that request a certificate from the manufacturer provided by an independent laboratory to confirm both ends. If the company does not provide such a document, you may not meet the regulations to reduce the cost. Watch this: is important!

There two printing methods of the Temporary Tattoos.

The first is the most appropriate in terms of quality, is offset printing. This technique ensures excellent print quality and a seamless transfer to the skin.

Print a batch of tattoos large offset on a leaf . Offset machines are not designed to print only some pages: once the machine is installed and the inks and printing plates prepared production is released for at least 5000 sheets. (Throwing an impression with fewer leaves would increase the cost per unit.)

The second technique used for printing Temporary Tattoos screen printing. It is used to lower amounts, but the result is incomparable with that of offset.

What is the difference? screen printing, the number of dots of ink to mm is significantly lower than that achieved with offset printing, so image quality is lower and, especially, the level of detail. The advantage of doing offset is that you get the print quality of a photo. Finally, as the screen printing is used primarily for small businesses, please make sure that the inks are safe.

Screen Printing – What technique is this?

The screen printing is a printing technique used in the method of reproduction of documents and images on any material, and consists of transferring ink through a mesh stretched on a frame, the passage of the ink is blocked in areas where there is no image using an emulsion or varnish, leaving open the area where the ink pass.

It is used to print: Hats, umbrellas, shirts, mugs and any object with a flat or relatively flat.

The mesh areas to spread the template that let the ink to print a clear image on the substrate. He spends a roll or a trowel to apply the ink.

Features screen printing

1. Widely used – to print plastic, textile, metal and many other materials.

2. Good print thickness up to about 20 micron for passage.

3. Very good print quality.

4. Good resistance to sunlight – can be used for products for external use

5. Wide range of ink options

6. Marking large areas – up to 3-4 meters

7. You can reuse the photosites.

Print a logo to increase brand awareness has always been one of the best techniques to promote your company or products. It is usually used for printing screen printing advertising items when the design contains less than 4 colors.

Temporary Tattoos – Allergy Durable

The temporary tattoo is a gift cheap publicity and fashionable, many famous brands distributed stickers to apply on the skin, and often aimed at children.

But few have actually assessed the risks they are taking.

Do not forget that the temporary tattoo is applied directly on the skin of children and stays fixed for 5 to 7 days, leaving time for the components are widely available in the body tissues of children. So it is not just a sticker but a product must meet the requirements of the cosmetics industry.

In the composition of some semi-temporary tattoos, is Paraphenylenediamine, causing delayed allergies. The result: the tattooed area becomes swollen, red and irritated. More seriously, this allergy can lead to long-term hypersensibilizacion.

Certain inks used, especially in China, contain substances CRM (cancer).

How can I be sure that the temporary tattoos that his company plans to distribute 100% safe for children? What products do not contain toxic and does a not cause allergy, eczema, or worse … Cancer?

Without going into details horribly complicated chemical composition of the inks, we give below the broad outline of what needs to check to make sure the quality of temporary tattoo:

• It is highly desirable that tattoo on the back of the components appear. If your provider does not provide them, they probably used toxic substances.
• The tattoo is a cosmetic product and as such has to meet the cosmetic standards, otherwise you are taking considerable risks. Beware of using silk screen printing, dermatologists because they doubt the conformity of the inks of the ink line. Others testify that there is nothing but problems with henna tattoo.
• The first thing you must ask are FDA licenses are ink and adhesive. Do not ask for temporary tattoos without having received these documents. You are going to distribute temporary tattoos and you will be legally responsible to the consumer. Imagine what it may cost hypersensibilizacion compensation for a lifetime.
• Two other documents are essential: A copy of the tests and TUSD RIPT. These tests are a panel of about a hundred people and determine if there is a risk of allergy late. Your provider must provide these documents.
• With the above documents, you toxicological you assure the quality of the product. Companies specializing in cosmetic always ask you even more assurance that the absence of ingredient of animal origin or certificates MSDS.
• One last tip on the quality of the tattoo himself. Many printers in Europe or Asia using an adhesive layer much wider than the design itself. The consequence is that the tattoo is going to be the first friction, or leave stains on clothing. A quality tattoo lasts 5 to 7 days in the skin.

Make Money with Chitika

Chitika is a contextual advertising company, which is market-driven U.S. and Canada only. But don’t exclude sites written in other language such as Spanish, as long as you target market is available on chitika options.

Using Chitika is a great way to monetize our blogs, but being accepted is very difficult to ask for very specific requirements such as: traffic of your website, SEO optimization, and as mentioned earlier that the majority of your visitors are from countries North America. If you do not have a high number of visitors from these countries is better to use other systems to earn money.

However if you have a large number of visitors from the U.S. and Canada. This is a great opportunity that you cannot miss. Chitika runs a referral program that pays for both advertisers $ 25 once the customer has invested $ 100 with them, as for referrals won 10% of all referrals that they may win.

Payments can be made through PayPal to the amount of $ 10 and $ 50 by check.

How to Increase Sales Through Promotional Marketing

Market developments are not always on our side. The causes are multiple, but when sales go down we can use the Promotional Marketing, A tool that can help us be successful as long as we know professionally manage.

How can we increase sales with promotional marketing?

Promotional marketing is a series of techniques integrated into the Marketing Plan, which aims to achieve a number of specific targets across different stimuli and time-bound actions aimed at a target determined.

The objective of a promotion is to offer the consumer an incentive for the purchase or acquisition of a product or service in the short term, resulting in a temporary rise in sales.

If we are to achieve the success of our promotion is necessary to start with:

• Originality. They must provide a dose of novelty and innovation to our promotions, because otherwise we will go totally unnoticed.
• Full identification of target. This will promote greater ratio positive response.
• Incentive “Ad Hoc”. Every promotion should be focused to target.
• Temporary. When we do it? When are sold more or less? Answering these questions is part of success and is a strategic decision, which it must be borne in mind is that should not persist in time.
• Promotional Mix. In the planning Coupon must include a variety of incentives and strategies.
• Being proactive. Knowing how to take advantage of potential opportunities that arise, and do not expect us to lose sales, to use the Promotional Marketing.

Objectives:

Logically, have to be consistent with the campaign communication included in the Marketing Plan, with perfectly defined if it is indeed timely, for example, the opening of a new point of sale or due to a continuity strategy. Mainly emphasize:

• Increase sales
• Counter competitor actions
• Acquire new customers
• Enhancing the brand
• Generate economic liquidity
• Loyalty
• Introduce new products
• Motivate sales teams
• Strengthen the publicity campaign

Common Techniques

Perhaps activity in this area is where they provided a greater degree of creativity for better results, but be aware that the idea would be copied quickly. Among the different techniques highlight:

• Events. They are taking advantage of promotions that are made the call and assisted by a target audience to a promotional activity of a company.
• Competitions. Perhaps it is a classic promotional marketing, but they continue to be successful, because in most cases requires active participation of the individual.
• Loyalty Programs “costumer focus”. The customer has become the hub of all commercial and business strategy, so this activity was enhanced under the name of Relationship Marketing.
• Economic Developments. We include all those who have some kind of financial reward: direct discounts, vouchers or discount coupons.
• Product Promotions. Delivery of free samples or sampling, increased delivery of product for the same price, tastings, and gift product.

And finally never forget that products must be of the quality and identical to those that is traded, delivery times should be minimal and of course, observe all that is communicated in the promotion.