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Getting your Franchise right from the start

Christine Thompson-Wells, The Money Psychologist

A single thought will start you on the road into business. After the initial single thought, a collection of thoughts start to take place in your head and these then start to take shape into ideas; an idea has some machinery about it and becomes a moving, living part of your thinking. This is the beginning of the solidification of your franchis venture. of course, some people have had dreams and desires to go into business, but never actually take up the challenge or the venture.

However, if you feel that your thinking is guiding you in that direction and you have the drive to take on something different, perhaps now is the time to take up the challenge. When we take up a challenge like this, we as individuals start to grow both within our mental capacity and within our human spirit.

Once you have the collection of ideas and there is a chance of making a change, start to write the points of your thinking down; write them down on anything from the back of a magazine, old envelope, anything; put your written ideas somewhere safe ready for the next round of thoughts that come into your head. Thoughts, like the choice of your franchise business, what you want to do, to produce, sell, make, or manage all need to be thought about at this stage. Remember, keep thinking things through; this thinking time may save you a lot of heartache and money in the future. As the ideas become more meaningful, look at all aspects of your venture, even the negative side: Ask, ‘…do i need to develop more skills? Do i have the confidence to do this? Do i know the business i am proposing to go into? have i got enough money to get me started, if not, how do i get more money? will i need to find premises to work from? will the rent be too high or can i start by working from home? Will I have to employ staff? Do I really need staff in the beginning? How much will staff wages cost? At this point, you haven’t spent any money. Yet, you are facing both the good and not so good parts of your ideas and this is becoming a real-life experience for you.

As the ideas mature, for some of us, we see the vivid picture of what we want to develop. Other people like to cut out pictures from magazines to remind them of their project, some people like writing things down and putting their ideas into boxes. When we really have a desire to change, somehow, the thoughts just don’t go away, they are there at the back of our mind during our working day; while we are socialising in the evening, even when we first wake up in the morning – the thoughts about what we want to do in the future continue to come forward. Now, is consolidation time, keep the thoughts and ideas fresh, keep writing them down. little do people realise, that this very exercise is the start of their business plan. And yes, you do need a business plan even if you want to start a franchise, even if it’s an informal one to know what you need to put in and get out of
the business. writing up a plan gives you a bigger picture even for the smallest of ventures. Before you show your ideas to anybody, it’s advisable to have a confidentiality agreement at the beginning of your business plan. Let’s then look at preparing a business plan.

Some of the headings would be:
company background, management, the market, sales, objectives, milestones, corporate aims and objectives, products, swot analysis, strategic alliance, financial plan, start-up summary and finally, the executive summary.

The executive summary usually goes at the beginning of the Business plan. However, as you are only in the ideas stage, the executive summary can be done later. As you prepare yourself for your business venture, start to list your actions under each heading. At this stage of thinking, it doesn’t matter how many changes you make to your business plan, but what is important: you are giving your self direction, discipline and installing the motivation to move forward. Taking the time and ‘getting it right at the beginning’ pays dividends, I call this ‘working out’ mentally. when we ‘work out’ mentally, we have a bigger picture to work from. Just think, all of this is done with your mind before you spend a penny of your hard earned money. ‘Working out mentally,’ jotting things down allows you to modify your plans and direction and to keep adding the changes until you can see a working model of your future business.

Once I have my plans in place, I draw flowcharts or diagrams; this exercise allows me to see the pathway forward. when going forward, you will need to put timelines into place. Timelines act
as guides and will give you a gentle nudge to stay with your business plan; timelines also allow you to regularly modify your plans and keep your dreams in reality and alive. The planning stages of any business are the most important in any start-up business. setting our thoughts and actions in a positive direction, writing out a simple sample business plan all add to getting it right in the beginning. whenIi take the above steps not only do I know i have done my best but, I can feel the excitement of the project developing, the dream starts to become a reality.

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