With the start of the new decade the lending markets in the US are still extremely tight.  Many franchisers have stepped up their financing assistance to help new franchisees get started.

Franchisers are offering incredible deals, some are even waiving fees completely.  many franchisers are offering unprecendented levels of franchisee assistance.  Some are making loans themselves, while others are discounting franchise fees or leetting new franchisees pay their fees over time, says business-acquisition specialist Ted Leverette of Parter On-Call Network in Florida.

To take advantage of the deals to be sure to choose a franchisers who’s willing to share the risk with you.

Bad customers are costing you more than you realize.  You already know that some customers are less profitable and more difficult to serve than others.  Accepting lower margins on some accounts and making higher margins on others seems reasonable, especially if your sales are slow. If your business has limitless resources and you have unlimited patience, then you can afford this overall profitable mix of good and bad customers.

Here are some types of bad customers to get read of:

1. Slow-paying customers:  These customers consistently pay late and only after a series of follow-ups calls
2. Customers with constantly-changing and ever-expanding needs:  These folks have full-service expectations with limited-service budgets, and are typically the bane of service firms.
3. Price-sensitive, demanding customers:  You offered incentives to these customers to attract new business and hope to nurture their accounts to targeted levels of profitability.  Or you accepted lower prices because you were convinced that these customers would require fewer resources or accept no-frills product lines.  Instead, these customers resisted standard pricing and insisted on high service levels and numerous product features.
4. Conniving Customers:  These customers seem to have legitimate complaints but they misrepresent problems to extract restitution in the form of full refunds or heavy discounts.

Holding onto a bad customer prevents you from serving the good ones.  Therefore cut your losses early.

We are looking for authors and we want you to submit an article that will be featured on the BuyTradeBiz Resource Page or on the BuyTradeBiz Blog.  Share you knowledge with over 3,000 business brokers and be recognized by your peers.  By having your article published on BuyTradeBiz you will generate great exposure for you and your company.  Click here to submit your article today!

Can You Get a Top Price for Your Business In a Down Economy?

You didn’t get to be the owner of a successful private company by following the crowd.  You instinctively found opportunities to prosper within every crisis you faced.  Now, you are considering selling your company to perhaps, spend more time on Cape Cod or restoring that ’55 T-Bird that’s been collecting dust in the back of the shop for years now.  But, with the economy in the shape it is, doubtless best to put any plans of selling on hold for awhile until things turn around. Right or wrong?

Good News
Our experience selling businesses more than 2,000 businesses over almost thirty years through the best and worst of times is that private companies’ valuation methods do not change during a recession. In fact, a down economy might be the best time to sell a good company!

Here are some of the reasons why:

• Savvy individual and corporate acquirers understand that the best way to grow is through acquisition of profitable companies that will help their core business prosper.  They realize they must take advantage of an opportunity when it’s available or risk losing it altogether.
• Fewer profitable companies are on the market in poor economic times primarily because business owners who, under normal conditions, would be selling their businesses are deferring a sale because conventional wisdom dictates that “you can’t get a good price in a down market.”
• Serious buyers are constantly in search of quality acquisition opportunities.  The number of Main Street and middle market business buyers increase as more and more people are laid off and/or outsourced.
• You can get tomorrow’s price today for your business if you choose a buyer who recognizes the opportunity your business represents and considers expectations of future profitability when assessing value.

In order to obtain an optimum price for a business, regardless of the economic condition, one must attract the type buyer who will recognize the opportunity the business represents.  In real estate, optimum value is determined by the entity that will recognize highest and best use of a property.  Business prices typically reflect an acquirer’s perception of future earnings under their ownership. Therefore, the optimum value of a business is determined by the buyer who recognizes the most opportunity the business represents.  A business can be considered worthless to one yet be worth millions to another.

How to Identify Your Ideal Acquirer

There is no substitute for real world experience when it comes to differentiating between buyer types and determining how various issues surrounding your business and industry will impact their perception of value.  Public companies call upon their Investment Banker to obtain the pre sale intelligence required to make informed decisions.  Private companies can call upon their Business Intermediary to obtain the same kind of information.  The first step is to engage a Business Intermediary (Broker) who is familiar with the marketplace for your size and type business.  This professional will employ a two step approach to the process i.e.:

Step One – Provide you with:

• An overview of marketplace dynamics, a description of the different buyers, how they think and how their thinking impacts the value of your company.
• A summary of what buyers can be predicted to pay for your business,
• A list of recommendations both long and short term to enhance and increase your company’s value – in other words, be sure that a satisfactory outcome is obtainable before you bind yourself to a contract to sell.

Step Two – Once satisfied that you can obtain your price, even in a down economy, you authorize marketing efforts to begin.

• Marketing and Due Diligence materials are created and assembled
• Advertising and other marketing strategies are implemented to attract your ideal candidate
• You will know everything of importance about your candidate before they know your company’s identity
• Your business is sold at your price, typically with three or less exposures

In Summary:

Business pricing methods remain unchanged even in a down economy; fewer profitable companies are on the market, the number of serious buyers in the marketplace increases in a down economy, savvy business owner’s know Only the Right Buyer will pay the Right Price and; you should not attempt to sell unless you are sure you can get your price no matter what the economy.

Author: Theodore P. Burbank, FIBBA, CBI

Marketing departments of franchise chains are diving deeply into social media, with the latest frenetic energy to engage their customers going into the newly upgraded smart phones.  As more of our customers are integrating the smart phones and iPod touch into their everyday lives, franchise businesses want to be right there with them.  The goal is to get consumers to install and habitually use the application, engage the brand and find the most convenient franchise to patron.

“Creating a smart phone application is just one more way we are helping customers place orders in a way that best firts their mobile lifestyle.” Says Brian Niccol, Pizza Hut CMO.

If your franchise does not have an application for smart phones, contact your franchise today and ask them to help you develop one.  Who knows, this just might open a new market for your business.

One of the best ways for a new franchisee to get in on the action in franchising is by choosing a nontradition location.  “Nontraditional” locations include airports, college campuses, sporting events,concerts, stadiums, hospitals, military bases, government offices, convention centers, highway rest stops and turnpike plazas, and even large companies.

Nontraditional locations can be a good place to start for an aspiring franchisee.  A kiosk at a mall or a cart at a sporting even or concert can be the idea for new franchisees seeking to try out a brand, or the idea of franchising part-time to supplement their full-time income.  If all goes well, they can “grow up” and go full-time and full-size later.  Nontraditional locations also offer franchisees lower rent, whether because it’s in an offbeat location, or because of reduced square footage requirements.  When it comes to monthly bills for startup businesses, smaller is definitely better.

Reduced entry costs also mean reduced risk.  With less on the line, and if a new franchisee finds out that franchising, the concept, or both just aren’t for them, it’s easier to cut their losses and move one.

Start researching nontraditional locations for your franchise and soon you will start building your franchising empire!

One of the most important areas a potential franchisee will look when researching a franchise opportunity is the franchise training program.  Most franchises don’t require or prefer that potential franchisees don’t have experience in the field; therefore a good training program should cover not only the product or service but also setting up the business, marketing,employee management, business procedures, reporting, etc.

Franchise training program should include:

• Everything potential franchises need to know about the product or service
• Everything about using/protecting the brand
• How to find a new business location
• How to negotiate a lease
• How you complete the permits and buildout
• How to find, hire, and manage employees
• How to market your product or service
• How to keep books and records for the business
• The reporting requirements and processes
• Where to get the equipment needed for the business
• How or where to buy supplies and inventory
• How to get help when they have a problem

The best way a potential franchisee will find out about the scope of the training program is to ask existing franchisees.  They will ask the existing franchisee what stood out about the training they received and what they feel could have been covered more completely.  They will also ask how prepared the current franchisee felt when they opened their business and what ongoing training they have been provided.  Many times a training program that was find in a company’s early days is now out-of-date.  Be sure current franchisees are aware of and understand the type of training new franchisees will receive therefor an accurate assessment of its value is made.

Reevaluate your training program today and be sure everything is updated!

How do we judge if a math-learning center is successful? It depends on what types of learning centers. There are many types of math learning centers.  Some learning centers mainly prepare children for tests, some are for total skills training including thinking skills. It also depends on what parents want? Some parents only look at if there children’s marks have improved, while some parents also like to see if the math program can improve their children’s thinking skills. To put in a nutshell, a successful learning center is a place where children like to go and also enjoy it.

A successful math learning center is a place where children are smiling and happy while they are learning at the center and then come home telling their parents what they have learned and are happy to go again. A successful math-learning center makes kids learn in a happy mood.

A successful math-learning center will not be successful if their materials are boring and inhuman. Why will children be happy if all they do at the learning center is just drilling on math worksheets even it means their computation ability have improved? The untold negative side effect is they will not have fond memory and experience with this kind of learning center, I have my students in my class telling me that they “hate” this kind of math learning center but some of their parents “forced” them to go.  One thing I can say is these unimpressed children will not send their own kids to this kind of learning centers again when grow up to be parents one day.

I have done some research and also personally observed on what kind of math as pressure as their old brothers or sisters to just wanting to get high math marks for universities so these young children are happier to go to a math learning center where they do not just sit there and do pure math work.  The problem is most of math learning center cannot offer what these young children want. I know what kind of worksheets children like to work on since I have offered them choices and I have the chances to observe their reactions and feedbacks.

Children like to be entertained while learning; learning while having fun is a great way for children to learn.

We cannot turn math learning center into a circus so children having lots of fun but doing very little math. This is not an idea of integrating fun and math learning.

Many children like puzzles but not math work, so how do we “trick” them to do puzzles while they also have to do math work? We are not talking about computer games or computer-based learning here. We also are not talking give children some separate puzzle worksheets in a math class. We are talking about pencil, paper and re-printable “game, puzzles, and math” integrated worksheets.

If a math learning center can integrate math, game such as chess, and puzzles all into one worksheet then this is what children prefer to do rather than traditional type of math worksheets.

How to deliver these fun worksheets in a systematic way such that they will also increase children’s math marks is very important to make a math-learning center succeed.

A successful math-learning center must have fun worksheets and these fun worksheets also foster the environment of thinking.

A successful learning math-learning center offers something that children like and the end results are children are happy to learn and their math marks also improve while having fun.

Author:  Frank Ho, Canada certified math teacher and founder of Ho Math and Chess.

The number of businesses listed on the site has reached 2,700 and continues to increase daily. The number of brokers that have listed with site has been increasing steadily. The number of franchise opportunities that are listed in the site has also increased in the site showing the effectiveness of the company’s very active marketing campaigns. In Nov 2009, we attended the IBBA show in Reno, Nevada for the first time and received a lot of recognition from the broker community.

In 2010, we will be rolling out a new Marketing Campaign that will increase our presence within Social Media and continually increase our search engine ranking. We have introduced a Winter Promotional Offer where Business Brokers can register and renew their membership for $199 which includes a full year’s Featured Broker Membership and all the benefits the featured membership offers.

“The sites unique design, ease of navigation and clear and crisp content makes it a very user friendly site”, says a leading business broker. In addition, Franchisors appreciate the sites clean design and highly navigable interfaces. “We have invested a lot of time and resources in marketing the site, and we are very gratified with the growth and excellent feedback we have been receiving from our customers” said Sweta Shah, Marketing Director for BuyTradeBiz.com.

BuyTradeBiz.com is internet’s newest businesses for sale and franchises for sale listing website. Designed using the latest Web 2.0 concepts buyers and sellers are increasingly adopting the site as their favorite platform to buy a business and sell a business. Privately held BuyTradeBiz.Com, was founded by veterans of the software industry, to create a new paradigm for the business marketplace.

2010 brought with it a renewed sense of expanding the business.  With that came plans to target the untapped demographic and reinvent the company to include them.

Now that you have set your new goal, that hard part is achieving it.  Below are three ways that can help you recruit new clients:

1. Go where the growth is:  Identify key industry segments that are growing and reach out to them with something as simple as attending their trade show.  “At Homestead Resort, in Midway, Utah, general manager Britt Mathwich says the hotel made a quick shift away from the corporate and training market to families, after seeing a slump in business travel.  The resort picked up more business by attending home-decorating and bridal shows, he says.”
2. Strategy of secondment: Partner with companies that provide similar or complementary services.  “Maclay, President of engineering-consulting firm Voler Systems, is now working on two projects that combine Voler’s electrical-engineering expertise with the other firm’s mechanical-engineering specialty.”
3. Online Tools: Maintain a blog or a social media profile which includes facebook.come, linkedin.com, and twitter.com.  Social-networking tools are also places to post promotions.  “Mr.Maclay says he gained new clients by posting the company’s resume on Craigslist.”

Take a few minutes to update your marketing plan and get your business off to a great start in 2010!