Small Franchise

A big concern of franchisees in recent years is the very vocal groups of individuals across the country espousing the movement to buy local and support small business.

While none would argue that the little guy doesn't deserve the support of the community, this movement demonstrates more of a lack of understanding of business than a truly noble aim. This movement is a source for many franchise owners, most of whom are, in fact, members of the local community themselves.

It seems that many of the people who claim to support local business forget that the owners of their local franchises actually are members of the community, who chose to do business under a trademarked name for practical business reasons.

Franchise businesses are local businesses and the owners of local franchises deserve the support of the community just as much as the independent business owners. Still, it is a hurdle that the franchise owner has to overcome when dealing with the community and trying to develop a positive image.

One of the best ways that a franchise owner can remind the community that his or her business is a local business is to be involved in the community. The more that they see you out in the community, engaged and contributing, the more likely the community will be to view you as a valuable member rather than a corporate interloper.

Be involved in church, community functions, school activities such as the PTA (if you have kids) and other such activities.

If nobody in the community ever sees you outside of the confines of your business, then don't be surprised if they treat you as an outsider or even possibly as a hostile antagonist to local business.

On the other hand, if they see you engaged in the community they will be more prone to view you as a part of it. You might even have lunch occasionally at the local "Mom and Pop" diner and support other local businesses. Eating at the competition stands to help you a lot more than hurt you.

Beyond just being involved in the community, it would behoove you to find ways to give back and support the community. Sponsoring a local little league team isn't just a nice thing to do. Having your franchise's name on the back of their jerseys is a great bit of PR as well.

Being active with local charities and education creates a positive image of your business and reaffirms that even though your business operates under a national name, you are still a local business.

Finding ways to support the activities of your high school aged employees is also an excellent way to build your image in the community and win over both friends and family members as well.

By actively helping in your employees fundraising events for band, athletics and other extracurricular you foster a degree of trust within the community. When people see that your franchise is concerned with the people of the community they begin to view you as local business instead of the erroneous view of an outsider come to take away business from the community.

If you have any additional franchise questions there are many places you can go. Examine a real franchise example at filtafry. For even more information about this particular emerging franchise visit Filta Fry.

Interested in getting you questions answered right away? Call the Filta Group at 407-996-5550.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Swanson

In the world of business, when most people think of franchising they think about the high-dollar heavy hitters in the restaurant and lodging industries.

The reason people associate franchising with these large entities is because those are the ones that are highly visible, both in advertising and in sheer volume of locations. However, there are a large number of brands in various sectors of business that offer franchising options on a smaller scale.

Small business franchises make ownership a realistic possibility for thousands of investors who aren't in a position to purchase a large chain business. Besides just low start-up costs, they generally operate at low overhead and are easier from an administration standpoint, as well. Are small franchises smart investments, though, or is it a case of "you get what you pay for"?

As we mentioned above, the big names can afford to run multi-million dollar ad campaign that give their franchises high-profile national exposure. For the smaller companies, a spot during the Super Bowl just may not be a feasible marketing strategy. However, in this media driven consumer economy, advertisements drive the market. Its why the big guys do so well and why they keep getting bigger. Does this mean the smaller name franchises can't compete and thrive? Absolutely not.

In fact, many small franchises wouldn't really benefit from the same type of marketing. Many smaller businesses focus on specialty niches within the marketplace. As such, broad reaching marketing campaigns wouldn't even be especially effective. Why spend money advertising to everyone when you are only trying to reach a handful?

Smaller franchises often tend to focus on narrower promotional styles, like demos and ads in industry specific journals, that are much less expensive and much more affective for the small franchise owner. The franchise owner benefits from advertising pertinent to his or her business and generally has to chip in much less in advertising fund fees than the big guys.

What about other fees though? This is where the little guy does sometime lose out to the big guy. Almost all franchisors take a royalty fee for the use of their name. This fee is taken as a percentage of the franchisees' profits. While this percentage may vary somewhat from franchisor to franchisor (which is something that should be considered when selecting a franchise), the average in the U.S. is around 7%.

Now, let's look at some numbers. If you take a business that is making $500,000 annually and a smaller business that is bringing in $50,000 and take 7% from each, that's $35,000 from the first and $3,500 from the second. While the first is paying more in royalty fees, that remaining $465,000 is going to cushion the blow a lot more than the smaller owner's remaining $46,500.

Those figures, of course have to be balanced against the initial franchising fee and start-up cost, and the ongoing cost of doing business. The small guy may be making significantly less, but he paid a lot less for his business too, has a lower overhead and is turning a profit years before the big guy even has his business paid off.

So as you can see, the answer to our initial question is, "both". With smaller franchises, you get less franchise for less money, but that doesn't necessarily make them a bad investment. The important thing is to go in with both eyes open.

Have additional franchising questions? Get more franchise information with a real business example at Filta Fry. The Filta Group is an international franchising company located in Orlando, FL. For immediate answers to your franchising questions, call 407-996-5550.

Additionally, you can get more information on Filta's emerging franchise by going to filtafry.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Swanson