This is a continuation of the Top 5 Buying Factors when Purchasing a Franchise and today we will cover: AFFORDABILITY.

Having affordability listed as the second most import factor usually surprises people. Unfortunately, some people feel safe about the decision that they are making, but sadly they end up not being able to afford it. This is where your CPA comes in very handy. We usually use the typical rule of thumb that you should have 1/3 in liquid capital of the total amount of the franchise. You should also have some extra reserves just in case.

Here is an example. The average franchise according to the International Franchise Association costs approximately $150,000. Therefore the average person should have about $50,000 in liquid assets that they are willing to invest. Most people can get the financing for the remaining two-thirds from a SBA approved bank or other financing sources. There are many services available to roll over money from 401k’s and IRA’s to help with the expenses.

The number one reason that franchisees and business owners go out of business is lack of funds. Whether it is a Fortune 500 company or a brand new business, if you cannot pay your bills, then you are done. Do not over extend yourself financially. It is unfair to you and your family. If you take the rule of thumb into account above, you should be all right. But please, consult with your CPA or financial advisor so you can make an educated decision.

The other nice thing about purchasing a franchise is that there is no correlation between the cost of the franchise and how much you can make. Franchises range from approximately $20,000 to over $3 million. The ones that have the large price tags, have large price tags because they have a lot of build out expenses, needed working capital, equipment, etc. Just because they have the large upfront fees, does not mean that it is going to be more successful compared to one that does not. Some of the most successful franchises that I know of are in the $75,000 range or less.

Remember, do not overextend yourself financially and you do not have to spend a lot to make a lot.

Jania Bailey, Guest Blogger
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Finding the Right Image

Look at other business cards and identify your likes and dislikes, your business card reflects who you are, it captures the essence of your business image.

Consider an eye catching logo, graphic or picture if appropriate.
A business card should:

• Have your business name that is clear and easy to read Have a tag line to convey the benefits at a quick glance
• Must be printed on heavy card stock
• Can be printed on both sides for additional information/appointments
• Always include your name and title, address, phone number, fax number, email address and website.

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Carry at least 20 cards at all times and hand to everyone you meet

Please share ideas that you have used on your business cards that have been effective in your business.

Julie Brander, New Haven SCORE
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Listen First for Understanding

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.

Fully 75 percent of people are extroverts, according to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. It means most of us are more likely to talk than listen.

As an entrepreneur, your ability to listen to clients, advice, the marketplace and trends all help you make good decisions. Here are some ways to listen and build success:

What is active listening? Learn more.
Learn through listening. Advisory board article.
Making the sale. Eight tips by Rieva Lesonsky.
Getting a mentor on your team. Ask SCORE online.

Share your comments. We’re listening to you.

Christine Banning, SCORE
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The Value of a Positive Attitude

The other day I was reading an article about ridding yourself of the negative voices in your head. We have all read such articles — “I don’t deserve this or that” – “I’ll never be as pretty as my friend” and other such self defacing thoughts. I had many sales women on my sales team who came on as, what I called, shooting stars. They sold everything in sight only to drop from the heavens a month or so later. This being an example of “I don’t deserve to be successful, rich, good….” pick your poison.

Then shortly after reading the article I was talking to a woman at SCORE who’s company was going through bad times. We went through the standard routine of cutting back payables, collecting receivables, etc. but I noticed she was doing this with a very positive attitude. I was a bit surprised as many clients we now see at SCORE are very serious and worried. I asked how she was able to go through this difficult time for her company and maintain her positive attitude. Her answer: “I have a Happiness Filter which filters out negative thoughts.” Never thought of negative thoughts being blocked by a Happiness Filter and loved the concept. Was she being unrealistic and a bit Pollyannaish? I don’t think so as she had a good handle on what needed to be done, but she used her Happiness Filter to keep her moral and productivity up. Seemed like a great idea to me. Do any of you have a Happiness Filter? I’m working on keeping mine in 24 hour operation. No more bad dreams day or night for me!

How is your Happiness Filter doing?

Betty Otte, SCORE Orange County
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Nominate Yourself Today

BusinessWeek presents the fifth annual “Best U.S. Entrepreneurs 25 and Under” contest. The goal is to identify companies that both demonstrate a clear potential for growth and establish the talent of the young folks behind them.

The 25 best companies will be featured on the Small Business Channel on October 9 and viewers will be able to vote for their favorite. The top five most voted companies will be announced November 9. All company co-founders must be 25 or under to qualify for. Nominate yourself today.

Entry Deadline: August 16, 2009

SCORE Association
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Top 5 Buying Factors when Purchasing a Franchise

Today, we will cover SAFETY.

Safety is the number one buying factor in anything and everything you purchase and is especially true in buying a franchise. Buying a franchise is a very serious decision and sometimes a life changing one. You need to feel safe about the decision that you are making, otherwise you should not and will not do it. How do you answer the question of feeling safe about the decision that you are making you ask? Simple, research, research, research.

Research is the key to safety. You need to use all the help you can find to help you with your decision. Many people use a free service such as FranNet to help them out but you should also consider using a franchise attorney and also an accountant. More importantly, you need to do a lot of the research yourself.

Another important step to safety is talking to those who recently purchased in the franchise (known as franchisees) that you are considering. Since they were recently in your situation and now run a franchise, they will tell you exactly what the process is like. Now, some will be more willing to talk to you than others, but usually they will sit down with you and answer most if not all of your questions. They were once in your shoes and they did their research at one time as well, if they did it right. You also need to talk to the franchisees that are doing very well and some that are not doing so well.

We usually also find it helpful if you also talk to some franchisees that come from a similar background and demographics that you have. If they are succeeding, then you have a good chance as well, but if they are not, then stay away from that particular franchise. While not everything is a given, it will certainly help out in your decision process.

You need to talk to as many franchisees as necessary for you to feel that you have answered all your questions and concerns. Keep in mind, the answer to safety is in the research.

Jania Bailey, Guest Blogger
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Upcoming Webinar

Check out the “Successfully Running a Small Business Summit” on July 14, 2009.  Click here to register.

Title: Money Saving Tips on How to Recession Proof your Business
Presenter: Julie Brander, MBA, Adjunct Professor of Buisness and SCORE Mentor
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 11:00 PST
Duration: 45 minutes
Summary: We’ll discuss ways to save money and immediate action steps to reduce expenses. Examples of how to save money will be explained in the following categories: business, personal, automobile and household.

Julie Brander, New Haven SCORE
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Be Positive. Be Yourself.

LinkedIn has more than 40 million users in 170 industries.

If this is new to you, here’s the quick version. LinkedIn is an online, social network primarily for business.

Visit, www.linkedin.com. Create a profile with your name, picture and info about your career background. Then, you can send invididual email invites or load in your email contact list to be part of your online network.

This gives you a way to assemble close and acquaintance business connections in your own online, address book. Very basic. Now here is the beauty of it.

Improve Your Google Search Results: When you set up your profile, you can create a custom URL that has your first and last name. This will show up in Google results after about 48 hours and helps clients find you online.

Share Your News. You can post a sentence update about yourself, your business, an event that your connections see. You can share valuable info with contacts, without multiple emails. Just a simple weekly update.

Ask Questions/Answer Questions. You can learn from the 40 million users by asking your questions. You get many answers and can choose what helps you the most. SCORE mentors are online and often answer small biz questions.

Get Recommendations. You can send individual messages to your contacts asking for a reference. These testimonials are powerful on LinkedIn. This is a way to show that you and your business are excellent.

Be courteous. If you want to reach out to someone with a business idea, send an InMail message via LinkedIn. Many folks use a personal address with their profile, send personal messages not pitches to that address.

You will find a SCORE group online. Search groups and join us. 
It’s free. Sign up for LinkedIn.

Christine Banning, SCORE
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Optimize Your Social Media Sites Using PowerPoint

I use PowerPoint for all of my graphics projects. A designer will laugh at this because they probably use software such as PhotoShop to handle complex projects. Well, I don’t know PhotoShop well enough to whip out something fast, but I know just about everything that PowerPoint can do. And for the types of projects I have, I’ve figured out how to get them done fast using this software I already have.

My latest project consisted of changing my Twitter background for my main Twitter account, and another one here @ digitalbreaks. Here’s how I did it.

Ready PowerPoint for Your Design

1. Decide on your color scheme, matching your Website, blog, etc. (or not), and sketch out a rough design. (Here are some charts that show you Web colors that match.)
2. In PowerPoint, resize a landscape slide to 20” Width and 12.5 inches Height (click the File menu, Page Setup). Depending on your monitor and resolution, you may have to reduce the Zoom level in order to see more of your slide (zoom in and out as you need to see more detail).
3. Either from Slide Master view or directly on the slide, change the color of your background. Make it more interesting by using two colors and experimenting with Shading styles (click the Format menu, Background, down arrow to Fill Effects, Two colors (then click the down arrow and choose colors). Try the different Shading styles. My @ peggyduncan Twitter background is a dark blue and white with the Shading style, From tile.

Here’s a Video – Part 1

Place Your Graphics and Customize Your Design

1. Display the ruler (click the View menu, Ruler).
2. To place graphics on your slide, first set your Zoom level at 50%. The zero (0) marks the center of your slide. Using the ruler as your guide, to the left, place your graphics between 0-8.5. On the right, place them between 4.5 and 6.5.
3. Use guides and a grid to help you line everything up (View, Grids and Guides, Display drawing guides on screen, Display grid on screen.
4. Create more guides by hovering your mouse over one and dragging while holding down the  Ctrl key. When you’re finished and don’t need as many guides, click and drag some of them off the screen.
5. Add any other drawing elements and graphics you want (the higher the resolution the better). Add text using a text box so it will be easier to move around (located on the Drawing toolbar. Click the Tools menu, Toolbars, Drawing).
6. Save the slide as a PNG (click the File menu and change Save as type to PNG Portable Network Graphics Format, Current Slide Only). The final filesize can not be larger than 800k for Twitter. If you need to resize any photos (but maintain the quality), read my previous post, Resize a Bunch of Photos by the Batch.

It’s important to note that when you save your slide as a graphic, it’ll only be 96dpi. This might be good enough for your design but if it’s not as sharp as you want, check out rNr Image Exporter from the PPTools Website. This is the software I use when I need to save my PowerPoint slides in higher resolution (about $30.00 and worth every dime), especially when I need to print them.

Here’s a Video – Part 2
Here’s a Video – Part 2.5

Add Design to Twitter as Background

Once you’re satisfied with your PowerPoint design, sign into your Twitter account.

1. Click Settings, Design tab.
2. Under the default theme, click Change background image, Browse to find your graphic, double-click it.
3. Untick the tile background box (so design won’t repeat itself when viewing using different monitor resolutions), Save changes.

Tweaking It Until It’s Right

You will probably have to tweak your PowerPoint design several times and resave until you get it just the way you want it. I use two monitors: one on my laptop and a second 22″, with both set at resolution 1280 by 720 pixels. The designs looked different on both so I tweaked it as much as I could so it would look great both ways. You have no control over other people’s monitor resolutions so just do this to your satisfaction. A huge advantage of doing this in PowerPoint is that tweaking is so easy.

Now change the default colors in Twitter such as the sidebar background color, text, and links.

1. Go back into Settings, Design tab, Change design colors.
2. You may want to change the text, links, sidebar, and sidebar border, keeping everything color-coordinated with your new design.
3. Click the sidebar block to select it. Now use your mouse to click desired color in the box and use the sliding bar next to it to hone in on the exact color you want. When you’re satisfied, click Done.
4. Repeat Step 3 for each color block until you’re satisfied and click Save Changes.

Here’s a Video – Part 3

After you’ve created your new background, leave a comment and link so we can check it out.

Note: In my next post, I’ll show you how to create a customized skin for your YouTube channel.

Peggy Duncan, SCORE Atlanta
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Disaster Preparedness for Summer 2009

Although hurricane season only affects certain areas of the United States, disaster can affect any business. Is your business prepared for: floods, fire, power outages and natural disasters?

Check out these tips and tools to help protect your business from disaster:

Monitor Hurricane Patterns
Attend Disaster Prep Workshops
SCORE Disaster Prep and Relief Page
Find a Mentor with Disaster Experience

What are you doing to prepare?

SCORE Association
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