Food Franchise

Posts Tagged ‘Franchisors’

Potential Franchisees seeking a business opportunity that can be run from have never had such a great choice. Franchisors have now realised that the potential for home based franchises is huge. More and more people want to leave the rat race and work for themselves at the same time as keeping their overheads low.

The types of businesses that can be successfully run from home are wide and varied. They include businesses like financial solutions, business advice, computer repair, book keeping, ink cartridges, child minding, car repairs, business coaches and publishing your own magazines.

Most of these franchises provide you with comprehensive training in how to set up your own home office. They will give you advice on basic bookkeeping, making sales calls, setting up broadband, setting up wireless connectivity and much more. There is a lot more to working at home than people realise!

When people first start thinking about working from home they fail to realise that their family will feel threatened. What was once their own private domain has now been turned into business premises! The first action that anybody should take is to set up a dedicated office that does not infringe on other family life.

The best idea, if possible is to convert the garage properly. It might cost a bit of money but it means that business visitors do not have to set a foot inside the house. If the garage is large enough then it is a good idea to add a toilet. This means that for all intents and purposes it is a self contained unit.

It is also important that people are comfortable in their working environment. Taking this into account make sure you have a water cooler, proper lighting, decent carpet and ventilation. After all chances are that you will spend more time in your “office” then in your house!

The basic equipment that is required includes a computer, broadband connection, printer, fax machine, filing cabinet, desk and some chairs. You can now get all in one printers that are also fax machines, copiers and scanners. Investing in a good quality machine that you can buy cheap ink cartridges for is a must.

One of the mistakes that a lot of people make when they work from home is to get up, switch on their computer whilst still in their night dress and start working. Before long it is mid afternoon and they still have not had a shower or brushed their teeth! Get into the habit of getting dressed before you even check your emails!

Make it clear to your family and friends that even though you are at home you are not to be disturbed during normal working hours. Otherwise you will get uninvited friends dropping in unannounced for a cup of coffee and a chat. It is amazing how fast the working day can disappear when you are entertaining!

There are some very good franchise opportunities for people seeking to work from home if you set up your home office correctly and manage to get disciplined. If you miss the banter of the office than there are some really good online networking sites that are business related.

Franchisor Pro Forma Statements: Marketing, Mendacity, or Malfeasance

The Franchise Relationship

In theory, the franchise relationship is a symbiotic relationship, such as a marriage, or a partnership. However, as often happens, there is a significant gap between theory and practice. What should be well understood is that the goal of the franchisor is the same as any other business entity: maximize profits. Moreover, we live in an era of immediate gratification; therefore, in many business entities long-term planning is limited to managing earnings per share (EPS) for the current reporting period. Thus, many franchisors will maximize profits in the short-term whether of not this has a deleterious effect on the franchisee. I owned and operated a family restaurant’ franchise; therefore, this discussion will tend to focus on this type of franchise.

Clearly, the franchise relationship mimics a marriage in that there is a strong tendency for disputes to become more frequent and bitter as the business relationship evolves from the honeymoon stage to an actual business relationship, a partnership where one partner controls the other. Often, the franchisor is soon viewed as a greedy control freak by the franchisee as the realization dawns that the franchisor is not be the savior that he made himself out to be during the courting period. In fact, it soon becomes evident that the franchisor may have been somewhat less than candid during the sale of the franchise.

Pro Forma Statements

Pro forma financial statements is the term applied to financial statements that would result if certain projections for costs and revenues had occurred during the financial year of the pro forma statements. Clearly, they are what if’ statements based upon assumptions made by those generating the statements. The validity of the pro forma statements is directly related to the validity of the underlying assumptions. To be sure, pro forma statements are a valid accounting tool; they are used frequently for planning purposes. For example, they are part of the annual budgeting process for most organizations. What the pro forma financial statements depict for management is what the financial statements will look like if the planned activities for the budgeted year actually come to pass as forecasted during the budgeting process.

In summary, the key for anyone working with pro forma statements is to determine precisely what the underlying assumptions are, and the