Franchising
Franchising:
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// ]]>[removed] [removed] [removed] you are an sales executive who is being displaced or who is dissatisfied with the way you are being treated by your company. Recently you have been thinking about putting your resume on the street, but more often than not you have found yourself thinking about going into business for yourself.
Whenever you think about going into business for yourself, you think about the horror stories and statistics you read in the Journals about the failure rate of independent businesses. Those statistics dampen your desire to own your own business.
Yet every week in those same newspapers you see ads by companies offering franchise opportunities. If you want to be self employed and are intrigued by the idea of operating a franchise and want to find out more about selecting the right one for you, read on.
What Is Franchising?
Franchising is one of three business development strategies a company may use in capturing market share. The others are company owned units or a combination of company owned and franchised units.
Franchising is a business strategy for getting and keeping more Projects from the customers. It is a marketing system for creating an image in the minds of current and future customers about how the company?s products and services can help them. It is a method for distributing products and services that satisfy customer needs.
Franchising is a network of interdependent business relationships that allows a number of people to share:
- A brand identification
- A successful method of doing business
- A proven marketing and distribution system
In short, franchising is a strategic alliance between groups of people who have specific relationships and responsibilities with a common goal to dominate markets, i.e., to get and keep more customers than their competitors.
The business relationship is a joint commitment by all franchisees to get and keep customers. Legally you are bound to get and keep them using the prescribed marketing and operating systems of the franchisor.
To be successful in franchising you must understand the Operations and legal ramifications of your relationship with the franchisor and all the franchisees. Your focus must be on working with other franchisees and company managers to market the brand, and fully use the operating system to get and keep customers.
Other franchisees and company operated units are not your competition. The opposite is true. They and you share the task of establishing the brand as the dominant brand in all markets entered and reinforcing the customers? familiarity with and trust in the brand. So in this respect you are working as a team with others in the system. Other franchisees share with you the responsibility for quality, consistency, convenience, and other factors that define your franchise and insures repeat business for everyone. Increasing the value of the brand name is a shared responsibility of the franchisor and franchisee.
As a franchisee you own the assets of your company, which you have chosen to invest in someone else?s brand and operating system and ongoing support. You own the assets of your company, but you are licensed to operate someone else?s business system.
Franchising allows one business to operate under the name of another business’ established brand and sell a prescribed product or service. POME includes Franchising as an exclusive chapter as it involves down the task attributes for the Operations team, to out source and share the responsibilities and delegation, especially for Marketing and sales. Hope by now, you been acquainted well with the difference between marketing and sales.
Franchising can seem like an easy way of starting or expanding your business, but it’s not something you should rush into without the proper knowledge. Whether you are buying a franchise or franchising your own business, it requires a significant investment of your time and money. Normally, Marketing people do Franchising, for the receipt of the Product and Project sales. It involves a decentralized Operations tasking from the established business Operations Point of view:
Below are some important issues to consider:
Buying a new franchise/ franchising your own business:
Buying a franchise gives you the right to run a business and sell a prescribed product or service. Before you buy a franchise, you should consider the same issues as when purchasing any other business in addition to the specific issues of franchising.
It’s important to understand that when you buy a franchise and sign the agreement, you are agreeing to run the business according to the requirements established in the contract. You are also bound by the Franchising Code of Conduct. Consider consulting a business adviser, accountant or solicitor for advice.
- Complying with the Franchising Code of Conduct
- Entering into a franchise agreement
- Understanding your tax obligations
- Resolving franchising disputes
- Complying with the Franchising Code of Conduct
All franchise businesses are required by law to comply with the Franchising Code of Conduct( as per the Contracts/regions). As a franchisee, the code details:
- your rights
- your obligations
- the information franchisors must disclose to you
- the elements a franchise agreement must contain
- A mediation procedure for disputes.
- Entering into a franchise agreement
The franchise agreement is a legally binding document spelling out the rights and responsibilities of both the franchisor and franchisee.
Before you sign the agreement you should obtain as much information about the franchise as possible. Consider the following questions:
What are the details of the Operations?
- Do you have all the relevant information on the Operations?
- What is the track record of the franchisor?
- What are the franchisor’s current motives for franchising?
- Does the franchise have a strategic plan and what are the plans for the future?
- What is the success rate of other franchisees in the same Operations?
What is included in the sale?
- Does the sale include the use of Operations name, products, reputation/goodwill, site location, advertising budget or back-up assistance?
- What are your intellectual property rights and obligations?
- What are the terms of sale of goods? Can you purchase from outside the franchise network?
What are your obligations?
- What are your occupational health and safety Environment(OSHE) obligations?
- Understanding your tax obligations
As a franchisee you need to know how your franchise payments and fees are treated for tax purposes. When you buy, sell, transfer or terminate a franchise there may be taxes like Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Goods and Services Tax (GST), depending upon the country or region, consequences to consider.
- Resolving franchising disputes
If a dispute occurs between you (the franchisee) and the franchisor and it cannot be resolved, the Office of the Mediation Adviser (OMA), depending upon the region or the country, may be able to assist you. The OMA (POME acronym) normally be having a specialist panel of mediators across the respective region/ country, who are trained in mediation and have commercial experience. There is a fee once the mediator is appointed.
POME LIGHTER VEIN:
PERFORMNACE APPRAISAL:
A newly joined trainee asks his boss “what is the meaning of appraisal?”
Boss: “Do you know the meaning of resignation?”
Trainee: “Yes I do”
Boss: “So let me make you understand what an appraisal is by comparing it with resignation”
Comparison study: Appraisal and Resignation
Appraisal Resignation
In appraisal meeting they will speak only about your weakness, errors and failures.
In resignation meeting they will speak only about your strengths, past achievements and success.
In appraisal you may need to cry and beg for even 10% hike.
In resignation you can easily demand (or get even without asking) more than 50-60% hike.
During appraisal, they will deny promotion saying you didn’t meet the expectation, you don’t have leadership qualities, and you had several drawbacks in our objective/goal.
During resignation, they will say you are the core member of team; you are the vision of the company how can you go, you have to take the project in shoulder and lead your juniors to success.
There is 90% chance for not getting any significant incentives after appraisal. There is 90% chance of getting immediate hike after you put the resignation.
Trainee: “Yes boss enough, now I understood my future. For an appraisal I will have to resign … !!!”
About the Author
With over ten years, track record of successful leadership, excellent results through strategic skills in driving revenue and profit growth. Demonstrated ability to identify and trouble shoot critical issues impacting productivity, cost, distribution, marketing, Strategic positioning, sales and financial operations, with innate ability to build and maintain strong client relationships in operations. Expert in distilling and managing processes, enhancing internal structures, and promoting multi-skilled team competencies via nurturing mentorship and inspirational leadership. Engagements have spanned operational, strategic, technological and change management roles. Academically, I am a cum laude graduate with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (B-Tech E.E.E.) and a post graduate in Masters in Human Resources Management (M.H.R.M.) and Masters of Foreign Trade (M.F.T.). As you will see my Post Graduation’s were been studied part-time, as well as working full-time as an Engineer. I feel that this demonstrates my ability to maintain dedication, motivation and enthusiasm for a project management over a long period of time. In addition, balancing full-time work with study has perfected my time-management and organizational skills. I believe that my college degrees and gamut certifications in combination with my extensive broad-based work experience along with my drive, resourcefulness and determination, would make me an excellent candidate for a senior management position with any company. Highlights of my background include Operations related Commercial, Supply chain, Sales with a magnificent experience in Project management, technically oriented towards Automation and Security Systems in Industrial and Building sectors. Presently, writing a book on Projects and Operations Management (comprise of 12 volumes, 6K pages), and awaited for the reputed publications. These books can be checked in Google books and scribd websites too.
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