Success Stories in Franchising: (1)

There are countless success stories in franchise business. The successful people in their franchise businesses are making incredible success in their wealth and well-being with their passion and dedication. Particularly impressive is the story I am going to introduce to you below about a 75-old man who believes success has a lot to do with attitude. You can definitely make another success story by taking one of the many opportunities listed in http://www.franchisant.com.

Make Your Own Success Stories

Coverall Cleaning Concepts: The King Brookins Story

(Franchise Prospect: http://www.franchiseprospector.com)

By Amy Covington 

For the past however many years, you've honed your skills in a specific trade, in a particular industry. You're thinking about starting your own business. But how do you go from being an employee to running your own business? How will the skills you learned over the years translate to a new business venture? Buying a franchise is a great way to enter into the world of entrepreneurship.

A franchise system is designed to bring you up to speed quickly and provide ongoing support, as well as a proven infrastructure even if you go into an entirely new field. All that's required: strong business acumen and a good work ethic. No one knows this better than King Brookins, who became a Coverall Cleaning Concepts franchise owner in 2002 after a career as a professional boxer, taking on Joe Louis in the 1950s, a marine and Federal police officer. He also worked as a trainer for Sugar Ray Leonard and Evander Holyfield. At 75, he is a testament to the growing number of 50-plus first-time franchise owners.

"I started out boxing when I was 13 then went on to medical school but had to drop out to care for my mother," Brookins said. "I started boxing again while I was in the service and got out in 1957. I retired from the Marines in 1962 and began coaching for the Olympic boxing team. I had 143 fights of my own, was never knocked out. I only lost 7 fights out of 143. I was a Federal police officer for 30 plus years. I've been a busy man all my life. Work has always been my thing, I love to work."

So why a Coverall Cleaning franchise? Brookins first tried to start a commercial cleaning business on his own but found it to be too competitive as an individual business owner. "I decided on a Coverall Cleaning franchise because I was out on my own and the big wigs would come in and outbid me. A friend told me about Coverall. I dropped the other things I was doing on my own. I like Coverall better [than working on my own] because you don't have to fight with the bigger companies. I wanted to find something where I didn't have to work as much as I have all my life."

What's more, Coverall Cleaning Concepts required a small initial investment, only $1,500, yet provided the advantages of a recognized brand. "I like Coverall because they do the bidding for you and get the contracts for you."

Owning a Coverall franchise allows for flexibility as well. Brookins currently works out of his house; however, he has plans to expand his business into an office. He has four employees and sees a lot of opportunity for growth. Of course, not all franchise businesses are successful. What is the perfect formula? Choosing a franchise company that offers ongoing support, which can come in the form of administrative, technical or sales support, is one way to better ensure your chances of success. Brookins attributes his success to combination of my background and the resources Coverall provides, such as securing contracts on his behalf.
Despite Brookins satisfaction with his janitorial franchise, it does take a lot of hard work and foresight to make it happen. "My advice would be to get in there and work," Brookins said. "Don't expect everything to happen overnight. Make a plan and follow that plan. If things get tough don't run away, that's the worst thing you can do. Just think about what you're doing wrong. They are certain things that the company can't do for you that you have to do for yourself."

According to Brookins, success has a lot to do with attitude. "Some franchisees want contracts in the area where they live," he said. "There are other Coverall franchisees in the same business that live right down the street. Coverall tries to keep jobs close so you don't have to drive far [but that's not always the case]. Some people can't see too far ahead and they miss out."

At 75, many Americans are retired, thinking about their next vacation rather than work. Not Brookins. "I've worked hard all my life," he said. "A lot of people look at me and say how do you do it. I do it."

Make Your Own Success Stories

Can Your Really Trust The Work-From-Home Offers?

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Can you really earn a nice income working from home?

Have you ever thought of being your own boss and starting one of the many available work at home careers?

Can you really trust the ads about the work-from-home opportunities or offers?

The answers to the above questions are yes or no.

For the ”yes”, let me tell you I'm working from home right now, earning excellent incomes. I have been rather skeptical or even taken them as total scams until I by accident got into a home-based business and later became quite successful on it. You know what? I quit my $150,000/year job and am entirely working at home making more income than my previous employment.

A larger and larger percentage of people are taking their entrepreneurial spirit to launch their own home businesses and begin new careers - work at home careers. 72% of American households are thinking about starting a home-based business.

The biggest obstacle for most people wanting to start their own business has been the high cost of starting a new business. However, with new technologies available today, you can start and run a successful home based business for virtually nothing. And you can do so in an almost endless variety of markets.

For the “no”, not all opportunities as advertised are true. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, a work-at-home scheme as advertised is a get-rich-quick scheme in which a victim is lured by an offer to be employed at home, very often doing some simple task in a minimal amount of time with a large amount of income that far exceeds the market rate for the type of work. The true purpose of such an offer is for the perpetrator to extort money from the victim, either by charging a fee to join the scheme, or requiring the victim to invest in products whose resale value is misrepresented.^[1]

 

Undoubtedly, legitimate work-at-home opportunities do exist, and many people do their jobs in the comfort of their own homes. But anyone seeking such an employment opportunity must be wary of accepting a home employment offer, as only about one in 42 such ads have been determined to be legitimate.^[2] Most legitimate jobs at home require some form of post-high-school education, such as a college degree or certificate, or trade school, and some experience in the field in an office or other supervised setting. Additionally, many legitimate at-home jobs are not like those in schemes are portrayed to be, as they are often performed at least some of the time in the company's office, require more self discipline than a traditional job, and have a higher risk of firing (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Work-at-home scheme).

 

Wikipedia gives a good summary on the signs of a work-at-home scam versus a legitimate job may include:

• Payment of fee is required prior to starting employment. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission states that under no circumstances should anyone be forced to pay a fee in order to obtain a job. In many countries, no legitimate employer will require a fee be paid as a condition of starting work (except perhaps a small amount for a criminal background check).
• Pay is too good to be true. Though there may be legitimate jobs in existence in which employees are paid to perform the particular task in question, even from home, in reality, they would be paid a wage that is fair for that type of work and level of education, not the $40 per hour or $3000 per week that is typically offered in a work-at-home scheme.
• Employer will seemingly hire anyone, with no experience necessary and no qualifications. Legitimate work-at-home employers will only be interested in those who have the proper experience, skills, certification, and other qualifying factors, and will give at least some scrutiny to an applicant seeking employment. But the perpetrator of a work-at-home scheme is only interested in the payment required to join.
• Company is little known, and does not seemingly have a customer base bringing them revenue from which they can pay employees.
• Company does not appear to have a permanent location. Its address, phone number, and website appear to be centered around recruitment of employees, not customers.
• Company tries to show unnatural benefits of working in a very short period of time.
• Keeps on contacting you again and again until and unless you reply.
• Multiple pop-ups display upon attempting to exit the web site that is advertising the work-at-home opportunity. Legitimate employment sites will not display this level of desperation, especially during a recession.

If you are seeking legitimate work at home jobs its important to research, learn and educate yourself. Home Job & Business Network provides you with the tools and resources you'll need to do that.

Home Job & Business Network is committed to providing the best information, advice and resources for anyone who would like to work from their own home. We provide weekly updated content, daily legitimate work at home jobs, reviews of work at home resources and more.

[1] Federal Trade Commission. / "Federal, State Law Enforcers Complete Bogus Business Opportunity Sweep". ftc.gov. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/12/falsehopes.shtm /. Retrieved 2006-12-06.

[2] "Working From Home: Don't Get Scammed". ABC: Good Morning America. Retrieved 2009-07-03.

Franchise Guide

Franchise or Business Opportunity?

Business opportunities are less structured than franchises, so the definition of what constitutes a business opportunity isn't easy to pin down. In essence, a business opportunity is any package of goods or services that enables the purchaser to begin a business and in which the seller represents that it will provide a marketing or sales plan, that a market exists for the product or service, and that the venture will be profitable.

Here are other key factors:

• A business opportunity doesn't generally feature the seller's trademark; buyers operate under his or her own name.
• Business opportunities tend to be less expensive than franchises and generally don't charge ongoing royalty fees.
• Business opportunities allow buyers to proceed with no restrictions as to geographic market and operations.
• Most business opportunity ventures have no continuing supportive relationship between the seller and the buyer; after the initial package is sold, buyers are on their own.

The Pros

The greatest strength of franchising is its ability to bring independent retailers together using a single trademark and business concept. The benefits of this affiliation are many: brand awareness, uniformity in meeting customer expectations, the power of pooled advertising and the efficiencies of group purchasing.
For the individual owner, there are several advantages to franchising. The ever-present risk of business failure is reduced when the business program has already proved to be successful in the marketplace; the use of an established trademark saves the business owner the cost of creating and advertising a name that customers will recognize; and the advantages of group advertising and purchasing make operations more profitable. In addition, ongoing training creates an instant operational expertise that would otherwise need to be acquired through trial and error. Also, with franchising, expansion seems to come more naturally. Operating a successful franchise may quickly lead to building a second and then a third business, and so on. Fortunes have been built this way.

The Benefits

• Reduction of risk
• Turnkey operation
• Standardized products and systems
• Standardized financial and accounting systems
• Collective buying power
• Supervision and consulting readily available
• National and local advertising programs
• Point-of-sale advertising
• Uniform packaging
• Ongoing research and development
• Financial assistance
• Site selection guidance
• Operations manual provided
• Sales and marketing assistance

Nine Reasons You Should Buy A Franchise

A franchise is an established business operating under authorized permission to distribute or sell goods or services offered by the franchise company. Everywhere you look today, you see FRANCHISES! In fact, financial experts have indicated that franchising is the "wave of the future". In the next 10 years, franchising could comprise over 50% of the retail economy and employ millions of people. This growth should be anticipated based on the simple logic of the underlying concept. Franchising offers success, with the least amount of risk, to aspiring business owners. Franchises will enable hundreds of thousands of new business owners realize the dream of successful business ownership and financial independence.

In a sense, franchising is a business model whose primary purpose is risk minimization. Every study ever done on the success rate of new(non-franchise) business startups concludes the same thing. Starting up a new business is very risky. Most studies show that over 90% fail within three years. The primary reason that the failure rate is so high is because the owners have to go through the learning curve of operating that specific type business.

Unfortunately, the market place is not very tolerant of the inexperienced neophyte trying to learn how to operate a new business. If you can't compete in the market place, you get eaten by the sharks very quickly, you go bust, you lose money, your credit, your home, your reputation and sometimes even your family. Failing in business can be a horrible experience. Unfortunately this happens to thousands of poor souls every year in the U.S., and it is so unnecessary.

Unless you have considerable experience in the specific type business that you are considering going into, it is very probable that you will fail. Business format franchising is as close as you are going to come in today's market place to a guarantee of success. All the studies done have found that franchise new business startups rarely fail and when they do it is typically because the franchisee did not stick to the franchisers systems.

In all human endeavor there is involved a learning process . This learning process requires going through a series of trial and error encounters wherein knowledge is gained by trying and failing, trying and failing again and again and eventually trying and succeeding. This process is generally called the learning curve. In the context of franchising, the franchiser has already gone through the learning curve and has learned the secrets of success for the specific business. In business format franchising all that has been learned by going through the curve is transferred to the franchisee. This is fundamentally why you buy a franchise, to minimize risk and give yourself the best possible chance to succeed. Another reason why it is prudent to buy a franchise is that a franchise investment can be thoroughly researched before any significant expenditures are made.

With a new business startup (non-franchise) you are always operating in the dark. No matter how much research you do it is very difficult to get a handle on so many aspects of the new business. With a franchise the franchiser is a wealth of information about the business from how to prepare a pro forma to the best personality traits for the business. But the most important information comes from the existing franchisees. With a good systematic approach you can get answers to nearly all the really key questions. Such as, Do you feel that you were properly trained, how long did it take before you reached break even, what is your annual return on investment, how do you feel about the day to day duties of the business and if you had it to do over, would you do it again? You can in a very real sense try the business on before you buy to make sure it is a good fit for you.

Another very important reason to buy a franchise is intertwined into it's basic nature. Franchising inherently leads to rapid growth, because the franchisees provide the expansion capital. There are few restraints to growth in franchising. As a franchise system expands into hundreds of units many positive things begin to happen. The name begins to become well known because people see it everywhere. Most people associate size with success. The bigger the franchise the better it must be. The large number of units enables the franchise to advertise heavily, which tends to increase sales. A synergy begins to be created in which success begets success.

The following 9 reasons to buy a franchise will help you to understand why it will be a great investment for your client. It is your job to help your client understand the value in the investment they are about to make.

1. Buying a Turn-Key Business
2. Proven System in Place
3. Higher Likelihood of Success
4. Corporate Image and Brand Awareness
5. Easier to Obtain Financing
6. Training
7. Ongoing Support
8. Marketing
9. Exclusive Territory

For a complete list of franchise opportunities from A to Z, please click Franchisant