How to Research a Low-Cost Franchise (Entrepreneur.com)

How to Research a Low-Cost Franchise

Does that franchise concept really deliver? Here’s how to find out.

By Carol Tice | Entrepreneur's StartUps - June 2009

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneursstartupsmagazine/2009/june/202004.html

Markus Romero didn’t like crunching numbers or sitting behind a desk; he was busy managing nightclubs and operating mobile tanning salons in Las Vegas. But after he discovered Instant Tax Service, his attitude changed.

He was so intrigued by Instant Tax’s model of targeting low-income tax filers that he took a job as a trainer for a large Instant Tax franchisee. Romero, 36, also grilled other franchisees about their first-year expenses and profits. He found the calculations easy, and he liked helping people get quick refunds. He was impressed that the franchisor offered a first-year buyback program--a strong indication that Instant Tax was confident in its model.

In April, Romero became an area developer for Instant Tax in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He opened his first franchise for just $34,000 and plans to spend the tax off-season helping others open Instant Tax units. His advice to people investigating franchise offers: “Go out, get your hands dirty and see if it’s for you.”

With banks tightfisted on lending right now, low-cost franchises are attracting a lot of interest, and there are hundreds of them to choose from in every imaginable business sector, from automotive to technology. (About 25 percent of Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500^® companies have starting costs less than $50,000.)

You’ll need to do some sleuthing to find out whether a particular low-cost franchise is really a good business opportunity and if it suits your own interests and skills. Many would-be franchisees skimp on research, making an emotional purchase because they personally use a service or like a product.

Particularly if the franchisor is fairly new, you’ll want to dig deeper to learn about the success of the franchisor’s concept. Street Smart Franchising co-author Joseph Mathews says, “Find out what their motivation is for franchising. A lot of companies don’t have strong businesses, so they get into franchising because the economics aren’t good enough for them to expand the normal way.”

Don’t get dazzled by a franchisor presentation; ask hard questions of both franchisees and the franchisor before signing on, says Mark Siebert, CEO of consulting firm The iFranchise Group. “There’s a level of financial analysis that often doesn’t happen,” he says. “You should assess the risk and possible return.”

A key issue to research is how many franchisees have failed over the years. Talk to franchisees and see if they’re enthusiastic about how they’re treated by the franchisor, Siebert says.

It’s also critical to understand what you’ll be doing on a daily basis as a franchise operator. Many low-cost franchises, particularly homebased ones, are heavily sales-oriented. Siebert recommends you “ask yourself, ‘Am I comfortable selling? Can I sell this product or these services?’”

Elements of Success
When she looked into the Merle Norman franchise, April Walter decided she definitely could sell the 77-year-old beauty chain’s products, which have a long-standing, loyal clientele. Though she had used the products herself, Walter, 36, didn’t just automatically sign up; she compared several franchise concepts before concluding it was the best fit for her market and her skills as a former HR executive. She opened her Merle Norman Studio in a new regional mall in Macon, Georgia, last October for about $60,000 and projects first-year sales of $170,000.

She was impressed by what Merle Norman had to offer, including three full weeks of training and a franchise fee of $0. The company helped Walter negotiate her lease and design the studio layout. “Merle Norman had three things I was looking for: low startup cost, a strong support system and longevity,” she says.



Walter interviewed several franchisees before signing up and was comforted to learn the average tenure was more than 10 years. From frank conversations with franchisees, she learned what the costs would likely be and how long it could take to become profitable. Based on her research, she estimated it would take six months to a year to see a profit. But even in the down economy, she says she was close to breaking even after just four months, thanks in part to her highly trafficked location.

Strength in Numbers
Thorough research is more important than ever in a sluggish economy, says John Reynolds, president of the International Franchise Association Educational Foundation. It’ll be hard work to land customers when consumers are skittish about purchasing, so you’ll want a strong organization that supports your efforts as a franchisee.

“The basics are even more important now,” he says. “If it’s a small franchise, talk to every single franchisee. This is like becoming part of a family, and you want to know everything about them.”

One good way to find out if a franchise offer is a strong one is to compare the offer with those of other franchisors in the same business segment. When Romero looked into tax-preparation franchises, he discovered some of the big names didn’t have any franchises available. Others didn’t do TV advertising, preferring guerrilla tactics such as sandwich-board ads. Instant Tax supported franchisees with a strong national advertising program that included TV and radio ads, and a national 800 number that would refer prospective customers in his area back to his store.

Once customers come, he says, they usually return the following year and tell friends. Franchisees told him to expect annual growth of 20 percent to 30 percent, but Romero says he’s already seeing growth rates that are even higher. His own enthusiasm for the concept is also helping drive repeat business. “I found I like solving problems, putting out fires and creating wealth,” he says. “I do that with every client.”

Business writer Carol Tice is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur, The Seattle Times and other major publications.

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100 Franchises to Start for Less Than $50,000
It’s a common misconception that franchising just makes rich folks richer. They say it takes money to make money, but the following 100 low-cost franchise opportunities offer a proven system, brand recognition, training and support for less than $50,000 in startup capital.

Here are the top low-cost franchises, listed in order of their rankings in Entrepreneur’s 2009 Franchise 500^®. Whether you want to start a cleaning business or tutor the children in your neighborhood, these franchises can make you a business owner without costing a king’s ransom.

This list is not intended to endorse any particular franchise company; it’s just meant to get you started. You should only buy a franchise after conducting your own extensive research. Be sure to read the Franchise Disclosure Document carefully, contact existing and former franchisees, and consult an accountant and attorney. --Emily Weisburg

Listing compiled by Tracy Stapp

Click here to view the complete low-cost franchise listing.

101 Best Franchises to Run From Home (Entrepreneur.com)

101 Best Franchises to Run From Home

Make a living in your skivvies? Believe it.

By Emily Weisburg | Entrepreneur Magazine - June 2009

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/june/201848.html

Laid off? Looking for a new kind of challenge? A homebased franchise might be in your future. The opportunities listed here provide a proven business model, and there’s no need to worry about real estate costs--whether you want to offer pet services or start an advertising business. And even better, most of the following run-from-home franchises can be purchased for less than $50,000.

The top 101 homebased franchises are listed by their 2009 Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500® rank. This listing is not intended to endorse any particular franchise; it’s just meant to give you a push in the right direction. You should only purchase a franchise after carefully reading the Franchise Disclosure Document, contacting current and former franchisees, and talking to a lawyer and an accountant. For more, go to entrepreneur.com/franzone/guide.

Listing compiled by Tracy Stapp

Click here for the 2009 Home-Based Franchise listing

In Pitching to Angel Investors, Preparation Tops Zeal (NYT)

In Pitching to Angel Investors, Preparation Tops Zeal
By BRENT BOWERS

FOR entrepreneurs hoping to land start-up capital from angel investors, here’s what two recent studies found: Don’t get carried away when you pitch your product because the investors may lose interest faster than you can say “almost unlimited market.”

And one misstep — like stammering a vague reply instead of saying you do not know the answer — can also kill a deal, the authors of the studies say.

Angel investors are generally wealthy people seeking promising start-ups that are too small to attract the attention of venture capitalists. The estimated 260,500 active angels in the United States are the largest source of seed and start-up capital for entrepreneurs (not counting their own savings or money from family and friends), according to Jeffrey Sohl, the director of the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.

Even last year, as the recession gathered force, these angels spent $19.2 billion on more than 55,000 ventures, he said, though that was down from $26 billion in 2007. The average investment for each deal last year was $346,500.

By contrast, venture capitalists made only 440 investments in start-ups last year, putting the bulk of their money in later stages of a company’s growth in deals that averaged $7.5 million, Mr. Sohl said. “Angels provide the seed and start-up funding that turns acorns into trees like Starbucks, FedEx, Amazon and Google,” Mr. Sohl said.

Typically, entrepreneurs make their initial pitch to angels in an informal session. If their idea is judged to have promise, they may be invited to give a PowerPoint presentation followed by a question-and-answer session.

With time at a premium, it is imperative for entrepreneurs to come prepared to both meetings with solid arguments about their product’s marketability and with evidence of their commitment to their company in the form of sweat equity and their own investment, experts say.

But enthusiasm is a different matter, according to a study that was presented last week at an entrepreneurship conference at Babson College outside Boston.

“That is the trickiest part,” said Richard Sudek, an angel investor and assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and one of the three authors of that study. “We like you to show some excitement, but don’t force it. Being authentic is much more important. There is such a thing as quiet passion. Anything that comes across as slickness is a negative.”

Cheryl Mitteness, a doctoral candidate in entrepreneurial studies at the University of Louisville and one of Mr. Sudek’s co-authors, was even more emphatic. “Show your passion,” she said, “but don’t try to be somebody that you’re not. Angels are very leery of too much enthusiasm.”

Another research paper, by Xiao-Ping Chen and Suresh Kotha of the University of Washington and Xin Yao of Wichita State University and published in The Academy of Management Journal in February, came to much the same conclusion. The effects of perceived passion, defined as cues like facial expressions, tone of voice and hand gestures, “were statistically insignificant,” the article said.

Ms. Chen, a professor at her university’s business school, called the findings “surprising,” especially since she and her colleagues often rely on such signals in their hiring decisions. “You can show your passion through preparedness, how well you’ve thought out your business plan,” she said. “But the style of your presentation doesn’t matter.”

What angels are looking for, authors of both reports said, is evidence of a market opportunity with growth potential, a strong management team and an exit strategy, including a list of possible acquirers, since the eventual sale of the companies they invest in is how they make money.

“Also, angels put a high value on trustworthiness,” said Mr. Sudek of Chapman, a former entrepreneur himself and the chairman-elect of Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel group in the United States. “If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so, and promise to get back to them. Don’t fake it.”

In fact, acknowledging gaps in your knowledge and other weaknesses, and letting angels know you need their help, can add to your credibility, he said.

Here are some other tips from the researchers:

¶Memorize an “elevator pitch” for your product and its potential in 90 seconds or less. It will bolster your confidence, and you can recycle it to win over customers, vendors and employees.

¶Consider hiring a speech coach, but only one familiar with angel investors’ thinking.

¶Attend “pitching contests” that many business schools and angel groups sponsor.

¶In presentations, be upbeat but realistic in your profit and revenue projections. Better yet, draw up optimistic, middle-ground and pessimistic projections to show how carefully you have thought them through.

Ted Ray, founder of Ted’s Tinctures Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., has some advice for fellow entrepreneurs, even though he is only now starting a quest for $500,000 in angel financing.

First, he said, have a product on the market. “Nothing speaks more loudly than revenue coming in,” he said. His two-year-old company, which makes an herbal remedy called FlyRight Jet Lag Formula, had sales last year of $25,000 and is on track to increase that by tenfold this year.

Second, do not ask other people for money unless you have spent your own. He has put $105,000 of his savings into his firm and raised $185,000 from family and friends.

Third, the business plan you show to potential investors should be concise. He suggested using software on Angelsoft.net.

Fourth, seek angels with a record of investing in your field — in his case, consumer products.

And finally, he says, explore every angle. “If an angel says no, ask him for the names of four other angels who might say yes,” Mr. Ray said. “My goal is to get 100 introductions to get 10 meetings to get three presentations to close one deal.”

How to Win a Business Plan Competition (NYT)

How to Win a Business Plan Competition
By LORA KOLODNY

These days, business plan competitions yield prizes worth more than ever.

The Wharton Business Plan Competition, for example, awards $20,000 in cash and $10,000 in legal services to its top entrant. Harvard Business School’s traditional track competition awards $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in business services to its winner. M.I.T.’s Clean Energy Prize includes $200,000 in cash. And Rice University offers a whopping $225,000 prize to its first-place winner, including $125,000 in equity investment, $20,000 in cash and more than $80,000 in services.

Still, it’s really not about the money, says Cliff Holekamp, a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Washington University’s Olin Business School, which hosts multiple competitions, including the recently introduced Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition, a do-good variation with a $150,000 prize pool. “The value of participation,” says Mr. Holekamp, “is not found in funding but in a process that brings you mentorship, support, structure and access to the resources and people that will help perfect your business model.”

As impressive as the cash awards sound, Saad Khan, who has served as a competition judge and is an investor with CMEA Capital in Mountain View, Calif., says the amounts are “fairly small in the context of starting a business.” A better reason to compete, he says, is “to get feedback in real time and to get noticed by alumni who have done well, local VCs and other investors in that community.”

There are even worthy competitions that offer no prize money. In 2006, for example, Ryan MacCauley won the Launch Award at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with a plan for the Class Watch, a company he now runs with his brothers John and Kevin. “What wasn’t going to help us quit our day jobs and launch was a $20,000 check,” says Mr. MacCauley, “but winning gave us confidence.”

It also helped them secure a deal with an angel investor. The Class Watch, which sells customizable, college commemorative timepieces, began generating revenue in the second quarter of 2008 and hopes to hit $3 million in sales within a year.

Pick the Right Competition

Since their advent in 1984, when the University of Texas at Austin held its first “Moot Corp,” business plan competitions have proliferated within academia and beyond. More than 50 American colleges and universities host them. So do corporations, nonprofits and government economic development offices.

Hosts include Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, the states of Michigan and Nevada, the cities of Anaheim, Calif., and Pittsburgh, the Brooklyn Public Library, China’s government-controlled television network CCTV2, and Al Gore, in partnership with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

Some remain invitational but most have loosened their eligibility terms to foster interdisciplinary, international and intercollegiate collaboration (in other words, you don’t have to attend most business schools to enter their competitions).

Competition within the competitions can be fierce, however. And that’s why Cindy Boyd, who is chief executive of the Houston-based consultancy Sentigy and a frequent judge at competitions hosted by Rice University and the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, recommends that would-be entrants conduct extensive online research via the Web sites of the host organizations. Even more important, she suggests contacting past participants — judges, winners, and losers — to ask what worked and what didn’t.

Don’t submit an application, says Ms. Boyd, unless the advice you get sounds do-able for your team.

Give Yourself Time to Prepare

After selecting an appropriate competition, George Abe, a faculty director at U.C.L.A.’s Anderson School, says most teams should take at least a year to hone their business plans. “The earlier the prep begins,” says Mr. Abe, who has seven years of judging experience, “the better the plan is. You can get away with three months minimum if you have a product or service crystal clear in your mind. But you cannot be figuring out a market and competitive story in 60 days.”

Business plan competitions require an initial submission, sometimes called the “intent to compete” entry. Normally, it consists of a two-to-three-page executive summary explaining all elements of the business: product, market, competition, finances and operations. If it isn’t well written and succinct, a team won’t make it through the door.

“Students spend too much time describing the hammer and not enough time talking about the nails,” Mr. Abe says. “They have to be able to explain their product or service quickly so a judge not knowledgeable in the field can basically get it. What every judge knows is how to question students about markets, competition and finances. Those are the nails.” The bottom line: you need more than a cool idea; you have to show how the idea will make money.

Judges are often impressed by serious market research: the results of customer surveys, for example, or of pilot sales programs. That may have been what gave a team from the London Business School the edge in Columbia Business School’s first Odyssey competition this year.

The team’s plan, says a team spokesman, Vivek Makhija, was for “a renewable energy company using a combination of original and licensed technology to offer power generation at a micro level to households in India.” As yet unnamed, the company worked with an alumni mentor who is deeply involved in market research to develop comprehensive reports on rural Indian consumers’ access to and use of electricity.

Make Sure Your Teammates Know Their Roles

NIR Diagnostics wanted to commercialize technology that can prevent amputations and fatalities caused by chronic wounds. These sores may appear to be healing on the surface even though they’re actually deteriorating and infected underneath.

Clearly defined roles were essential, according to the team leader, Armen Karamanian, the interim chief executive. “We came together around common goals and complimentary skill sets,” Mr. Karamanian says. “We didn’t want to wind up with a great, life-saving idea — and lawsuits over this, that or money.” Have an honest discussion over what your team wants to accomplish beyond the academic exercise, such as how you want to start the business and who will do what, he suggests.

NIR Diagnostics won the 2009 Wharton Business Plan Competition and believes it can miniaturize, manufacture and sell by 2012 a device (based on technology created at Drexel University) that bounces lasers through layers of a chronic wound to give doctors a more complete reading of its healing progress.

The company, recently renamed Lumina Diagnostics, is now seeking a $15 million investment over several years to gain F.D.A. approvals and refine its technology..