Work from Home Franchise Business
Joel Caws - Technical Director, Select Your Franchise
With the pressures of modern day living, more and more people would like to be able to work from home. There are many home based franchise opportunities and other businesses which have the flexibility to be run from a home office.
Of course there can be quite a few advantages to this lifestyle choice:-
- Flexible working hours – can fit around your lifestyle
- No need to answer to anyone else – you are the boss!
- You benefit directly from the work you do
- Lower overheads – no office or premises rent to pay
It would seem like the ideal scenario yet some of us are more suited to the work-from-home lifestyle than others. Two main qualities for working from home are:-
- Motivation
- Discipline
For a home based franchise or work-from-home business to succeed the owner must be dedicated to its success. He or she must be motivated each day and disciplined to carry out the business tasks without getting distracted by home life. This is easier said than done since everyones motivation can go up and down from one day to another and its the discipline to get on with work on bad days which is often the most challenging.
For those with the discipline and motivation to make it work a home based franchise business can be a great way of running a business for yourself yet with the lifestyle advantages of being based at home.
If you are interested in looking at some of the work-from-home opportunities available to you, you can start by browsing our home based franchises section.
Sales help for Franchisees: Closing the Sale With Ease
Naz Daud - Owner, CityLocal
How confident are you when the time comes to close the sale? One of the most consequential factors at play that can contribute to a successful closing (and possibly understanding when you should move on) has to be the leverage
and confidence you posses when going into a sale. Apply the following information to your franchise business effectively and you will be able to build both your confidence and leverage:
Stop emotional attachments when they are clouding your vision
Emotional attachments can reek of desperation whether focused on the ego, the money or the time invested into your sales process. And anyway, many prospects see right through the desperation or need for a quick sale and can even sense that your pitch is now more focused on getting a deal done than it is about the solutions and value you can offer. You need to be able to close the sale with a greater sense of confidence. This, in turn, should eliminate bad deals altogether from your franchise business.
Manage your pipeline
You need to manage all of your accounts over the entire sales process using an account profile management system (a corkboard will suffice) to post prospect information on as they progress through sales cycle stages. This is a great way to visually follow your sales activity. There are software programs that do the same thing; however, seeing your writing and notations up on your wall is a constant reminder to work harder to make your franchise business succeed. Engaging yourself in activity’s which move you through your sales cycle will give you the power to either close a sale or walk away confidently.
Formulate your value statement
You need to believe in your mission, the products you market through your franchise business, and understand what benefits your customers receiving. And the term, “Value statement” denotes the fact that you need to have a very enthusiastic and confident belief in whatever you are selling. A lot of it can come from the positive results experienced by your clients.
Possess a very stout history and track record
Amassing an impressive track record full of positive testimonials and results is priceless. For your closing ratios to increase, you should be focused on all of the great results that your franchise business can provide to your customers. Ask your prospects what they want to do with your services or products once they are in possession of them. Understand what their specified objectives are and then over deliver those objectives. Because in the future when you need help closing a deal, you can contact these satisfied customers who will gladly help you out.
As so many of us are already keenly aware of, losing a deal that you have put your heart and soul into can be quite demoralizing. Maybe your business activity was lacking or the qualifying questions were lacking something, etc. Whatever your situation is, effectively utilizing the tips in his article will allow you to close more deals with ease and waste a lot less of your precious time. And we all know that time is money!
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal. This Franchise Opportunity is for people who would like to work from home and be their own boss – Read more about the CityLocal Franchise Opportunity.
Tags: business sales, franchise sales, franchisees, naz daud
Franchise Views: UK emerges from recession
Joel Caws - Technical Director, Select Your Franchise
I was reading with interest the latest news on the UK economy emerging from the recession. The economy grew, even if not by much, in the last quarter of 2009 signaling the end of the longest recession in over 50 years. It might not be by much but there is a positive outlook at least. It’s promising news for the franchising industry, for both franchisors and franchisees alike.
Franchisors
As the economy begins to grow again it should spark renewed confidence and interest in new business start ups which is good news for franchise recruitment. The extra security and support of a franchise business vs. conventional self-employment should also help bring added confidence to potential buyers especially with the insecurities of the recession still clear in their minds.
Franchisees
For existing franchisees, a confidence returning to consumer spending would of course be a welcome increase in turnover. This in turn has a knock on effect for Business-2-Business franchisees as their customers begin to see increased cash-flow from consumers further down the line.
But we are not out of the woods yet…
Its easy to sit back and think ‘thank goodness its all over’ but we are not out of the woods yet. Businesses can fail coming out of recession due to increased demand for products and services but lack of sufficient cash-flow (caused by reduced business during the recession) to sustain the demand. This can be especially true for business-2-business where there is delay between providing goods and/or services and actually getting paid. Good management of cash-flow, stock and labour is essential to make it through these times.
We can be positive that things are moving in the right direction, but be sure to take a sense of care and diligence to ensure you don’t become trapped through, what is predicted to be, a slow economic recovery.
