Every New Year brings promise, anticipation and New Year’s resolutions. But this blog post isn’t about eating clean or taking up Pilates. Whether you believe in resolutions or not, making a list of action plans can help you achieve your goals of opening up a franchise in 2016.
We recently chatted to some of our franchisors about their New Year resolutions and here’s what they told us:
In 2016 we have two objectives… To bring accounts & Bookkeeping into the 21st Century with the use of “Smart Technology” and to work with our team of bookkeepers to penetrate the UK market.
-Dan O’Donoghue, Professional Bookkeepers Association
We want to continue to be the best value recruitment franchise, help all our franchisees earn at least €100,000 per year, and to grow our franchisee family to 50 by the end of the year. If you've ever wanted to go into business, but without the stress and financial gamble, please contact us to find out how we can make it happen.
-Ben Cofield, Novi Global
Have no clue where to even begin? Here are the eight best New Year’s resolution ideas for potential franchise holders looking to set up in business next year.
1 Set Your Business Resolutions
It’s beneficial to lay out what you want for your business in the coming 12 months. Be specific, so you can actually measure results and see whether you accomplished them by year’s end. Assess your knowledge, skills and interests to generate ideas on the type of franchise you’d like to own. By taking a look at your experience and determining what you’re passionate about, you can narrow down the industries that appeal to you. Start off by logging onto www.franchisedirect.ie.
2 Do Your Research
Narrow your selection. Research the demand for the products or services the company offers and potential earnings. Take a look at the growth of the industry; and evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the franchise you select. Pay attention to how long the company has been in business, strength of the brand, consumer feedback, current locations and projected growth.
3 Review Your Business Plan
One of the most important requirements for any entrepreneur is a business plan; not one that lives in their head or one that is consigned to an office filing cabinet, but a living, breathing business plan. If you haven’t written one, now is the perfect time to do so. If your business plan is in a drawer, take it out, read it and update it accordingly
4 Run Through the Numbers
For many people, numbers are not necessarily their strong suit and when you’re starting out and don’t have a dedicated in-house accounting department this can result in serious problems. You are going to need to prepare audited financial statements for the franchise company. You’ll need an experienced accountant to produce these audited statements and to advise you on the structure of your business enterprise.
5 Optimise Your Website
All businesses should set up a website when they start, but many entrepreneurs ignore it. It is essential that you have a user friendly site and that your website is maintained and mined for information. Where are your customers coming from? What are they looking at? All of these questions, and more, are easily answered using free tools such as Google Analytics. Your franchisor will also be able to advise you about their policies regarding franchisee’s websites so ensure you check in with them first.
6 Get Reading
New franchisees are typically very busy people, dealing with a whole raft of different issues and challenges. However, time needs to be set aside so as to consider the bigger picture as wider circumstances impact upon the prospects for businesses. One way to go about this is by reading publications that either relate to the industry you are in or that will broaden your knowledge in a particular aspect of business. Again the New Year offers the perfect opportunity to broaden your knowledge base by reading relevant business books and journals.
7 Create a Conference Plan
Attending conferences and industry trade shows can be very beneficial for you as a business owner. Not only can you meet others in your field (or potential customers) but you also learn from leading experts. Do some digging to see what’s available to attend in 2016, and put them on your calendar.
8 Invest in Technology
If you’ve been putting off that computer or software purchase, now’s the time to go ahead with it. There are bargains to be had in the January sales too. You’ll be more efficient, if you have a computer that doesn’t take an hour to load. Also, if you want to reduce your taxable income, you need to spend money before 2016 fades away.