A comprehensive and accessible companion to a proven business model, this book shows how to franchise an existing business, supported by case studies, data, and research reports on the franchise industry. For small to medium sized businesses, franchising can lead to successful and profitable growth, and plays an important role within the US economy. Utilizing a proprietary dataset with the most up-to-date statistics regarding a range of franchising trends, this analytical guide is based on management research frameworks that will lead to better understanding of a range of franchising strategies. Issues covered include: The franchising business model, including its history, economic impact, and regulations Critical factors that significantly influence franchising success, enabling a comprehensive feasibility analysis of franchising potential or existing business ideas Implementation components of franchising strategies, such as different franchise structures, regional development plans, and future trends With its clear focus and practical orientation, this book will be a valuable resource for entrepreneurs, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students, interested in acquiring the knowledge, skills, and abilities to succeed in franchising.
In an environment where the chances of failure are much greater than success, what will make your company a winner? Drawing from fifty years of experience, research, and observation in entrepreneurial strategy, Tom Cannon offers a game plan for entrepreurs. Dividing the book into two basic parts—the marketplace (external environment) and the organization (internal environment)—he outlines the ten core capabilities that every business must master in order to be successful. Illustrating each principle through examples of real companies, and engaging the reader through diagnostics, checklists, and other interactive exercises, Cannon presents an essential resource for entrepreneurs; managers of startups, spinoffs, and other entrepreneurial units; and students of strategy and business development. At the heart of the book is an emphasis on how entrepreneurs can execute ambitious visions and strategies by mastering the basics and recognizing opportunities to continuously improve and innovate.
Entrepreneurs—and entrepreneurial companies—live or die by the quality of their plans and proposals. Whether it's to get funding for a new product line or business from a client, writing hard-hitting prose that answers essential questions and makes specific requests is an indispensable skill. Entrepreneur, ad man, and writing teacher Dennis Chambers shows how entrepreneurs can persuade people, through skillful writing, to pony up capital or contracts. This ability—which can be learned—is rare in today's media-saturated world. But it counts more than ever if an entrepreneur wants to make it over the magical five-year hump and on into lasting business success. Numerous examples and exercises ensure that entrepreneurs understand how the writing game is played—and that they play it well. Unfortunately, most don't play this game well. Most business writers mistakenly believe their task is to inform. They write to fill an information gap or to update the reader on a particular project. Or they write about what's important to them. What these writers do not take into account is that the speed of today's work world has reached overdrive. The typical reader simply doesn't have time to ponder dense, poorly organized information and intuit the appropriate action. And readers don't give a hoot about what's important to the writer—they want to know what's in it for themselves. Business writers need to use all the tools at their command to persuade, inspire action, and in general move a project forward. This book is about how to be persuasive in two key skills in business: writing proposals and writing business plans. Step by step, Dennis Chambers illustrates the techniques of effective business writing, with numerous examples throughout. Whether the objective is to secure financing from an investor, lay out a marketing strategy, or secure a large contract, getting results requires crafting an effective structure for the proposal, and using words that sell. Chambers is an able guide in saving entrepreneurs time and undue effort while reaching the goal of long-term business success.
Branding is a hot topic in business, but what does branding really mean? And how can entrepreneurs create a consistent and compelling brand while also managing the day-to-day operations of their business? In BrandFix, Kady Sandel draws upon her experience as a brand strategist, designer, and entrepreneur to demystify branding for startups and business owners. Through real-world branding examples and step-by-step recommendations, Kady will show you how to create a cohesive road map for your brand. Discover how to: * Identify the unique traits of your brand so you can express them to your customers * Differentiate your company from your competitors so people choose you every time * Align your branding efforts with your business goals to scale your company * Decide whether or not to be "the face" of your company and move forward with confidence *Translate your brand strategy into powerful and consistent visuals that keep customers coming back for more You've spent enough time trying to crack the branding code on your own. It's time to take your business to the next level and create a brand that people will remember.
Learn how to stay sane and ensure both you and your business thrive for years. You run a business. And running a business is hard. It can ruin your health. It can ruin your relationships. It can ruin your life. But only if you don't equip yourself for the journey. The responsibility, stress and loneliness of being an entrepreneur are a far cry from your friends who work salaried jobs. The path of least resistance is to let the stress and isolation of starting, running and growing a business infiltrate most aspects of your life. Over and over we've watched our fellow entrepreneurs succumb to the mental toll and chaos of running a business. We've also experienced it firsthand as we've launched and grown our own businesses. Odds are good that you've been overwhelmed at some point. Maybe you've read self help books only to find that books about stress management typically don't take into account the unique experience of entrepreneurs. Or they're 'lifehacks' written by a blogger with no formal training, offering advice based on anecdotes. Why do I need this book? You want to invest in yourself (and consequently, your business). You want to learn proven strategies, tactics and techniques to overcome the challenges that cause you heartburn and headaches. You want to get off the treadmill of stress, anxiety and isolation that entrepreneurship brings. You want to prevent burnout, depression, isolation, and the emergence of damaging coping strategies and self-sabotaging choices. Every aspect of this book is a pairing of psychological expertise with decades of entrepreneurial experience. Author, Seth Godin calls it, "A personal, generous and incredibly useful guide to staying sane and changing the world at the same time. Read it before you think you need it." Here are just a few things you will take away: New ways to deal with the responsibility and fear that go along with being an entrepreneur Why knowing yourself and where you came from is crucial to your success How to succeed as an entrepreneur no matter your personality type How to keep stress from ruining your relationships Dealing with depression, anxiety, burnout, ADHD and other common psychological burdens How to get more things done - and faster - by dealing with procrastination, distraction and muddled priorities How to deal with overwhelming (seemingly) massive failures How to find personal calm in the midst of chaos And much more... Love the book? Read a review! And join the conversation by joining our Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/zenfounder/
Why stumble alone on a risky venture on your way to failure when you can tap into the best ideas and minds for increasing your chances for success? Most entrepreneurs have had to learn things the hard way--concepts such as: big ideas rarely make great businesses; laboring on a business plan can be a waste of time; and you will need dramatically more start-up money than you originally thought you did. Lenoard Green, an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and business professor, has encapsulated together all the inside secrets, proven strategies, and mistakes experienced so that you can learn it all beforehand, rather than when all your capital is on the line. Based on his popular Ultimate Entrepreneurship course, The Entrepreneur’s Playbook explains how to: Locate sure-bet opportunities for improving products Find funding Take calculated risks and minimize failure Get serious about positioning, distributing, and licensing Stripping away the complexity favored by business schools and the hype of the technology sector, the book reveals eighteen down-to-earth principles and dozens of tactics for every kind of business. Plus, the invaluable instruction available for you is now interactive. Dozens of exercises are given throughout the book that can be submitted online for feedback.
Part narrative, part business book; Architect + Entrepreneur is filled with contemporary, relevant, fresh tips and advice, from a seasoned professional architect building a new business. The guide advocates novel strategies and tools that merge entrepreneurship with the practice of architecture and interior design. The Problem:Embarking on a new business venture is intimidating; you have questions. But many of the resources available to help entrepreneur architects and interior designers start their design business lack timeliness and relevance. Most are geared toward building colossal firms like SOM and Gensler using outdated methods and old business models. If you're an individual or small team contemplating starting a design business, this is your field guide; crafted to inspire action. The Solution:Using the lean startup methodology to create a minimum viable product, the handbook encourages successive small wins that support a broader vision enabling one to, "think big, start small, and learn fast." It's a unique take on design practice viewed through the lens of entrepreneurship and is designed to answer the questions all new business owners face, from the rote to the existential. Questions about: - Startup costs - Business models (old and new) - Marriage of business and design - Mindset - Branding & naming (exercises and ideas) - Internet marketing strategies - Passive income ideas - Setting your fee - Taxes - Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) - Securing the work - Client relations - Software - Billing rates - Contracts Building a business isn't a singular act; it's a series of small steps. Using the outline found in Architect + Entrepreneur you can start today. The chapters are organized to guide you from idea to action. Rather than write a business plan you'll be challenged to craft a brand and you'll sell it using new technologies. Follow the guide sequentially and you'll have both the tools and a profitable small business.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur is impossible without accepting risk - the question is which risk to take and at what time. This guide offers practical, no-nonsense advice for marketing and financing your business, bringing on partners and employees, and launching your business as inexpensively and aggressively as possible.
"Essential reading for the business leaders of tomorrow and a fascinating study of the boardroom as the new battlefield" - Booklist THE CLASSIC MILITARY TEXT, NOW ANALYSED FOR THE BUSINESS-MINDED. The Art of War by Sun Tzu has been a much-studied work of military strategy for hundreds of years, influencing great leaders in all walks of life. Here, business journalist Mark Smith applies the lessons to the role of the entrepreneur by showing how the axioms of General Sun Tzu apply to creating and expanding a business in a successful and meaningful way. Illustrated with numerous case studies of business owners whose strategies show how these ideas can work and containing quotes and tips from well-known business leaders and innovators, The Entrepreneur's Guide to The Art of War will show you how to: • lay firm foundations for your intended business • choose your staff and co-workers effectively • study your competitors in order to be stronger and better at what you do • maintain a good working environment and happy employees • work out your business's path to continued success With helpful diagrams and illustrations, business leaders in the making will find this an invaluable companion.
Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author, combines lessons both from history and from modern organizational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help executives build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. Ben Horowitz has long been fascinated by history, and particularly by how people behave differently than you’d expect. The time and circumstances in which they were raised often shapes them—yet a few leaders have managed to shape their times. In What You Do Is Who You Are, he turns his attention to a question crucial to every organization: how do you create and sustain the culture you want? To Horowitz, culture is how a company makes decisions. It is the set of assumptions employees use to resolve everyday problems: should I stay at the Red Roof Inn, or the Four Seasons? Should we discuss the color of this product for five minutes or thirty hours? If culture is not purposeful, it will be an accident or a mistake. What You Do Is Who You Are explains how to make your culture purposeful by spotlighting four models of leadership and culture-building—the leader of the only successful slave revolt, Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture; the Samurai, who ruled Japan for seven hundred years and shaped modern Japanese culture; Genghis Khan, who built the world’s largest empire; and Shaka Senghor, a man convicted of murder who ran the most formidable prison gang in the yard and ultimately transformed prison culture. Horowitz connects these leadership examples to modern case-studies, including how Louverture’s cultural techniques were applied (or should have been) by Reed Hastings at Netflix, Travis Kalanick at Uber, and Hillary Clinton, and how Genghis Khan’s vision of cultural inclusiveness has parallels in the work of Don Thompson, the first African-American CEO of McDonalds, and of Maggie Wilderotter, the CEO who led Frontier Communications. Horowitz then offers guidance to help any company understand its own strategy and build a successful culture. What You Do Is Who You Are is a journey through culture, from ancient to modern. Along the way, it answers a question fundamental to any organization: who are we? How do people talk about us when we’re not around? How do we treat our customers? Are we there for people in a pinch? Can we be trusted? Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say in company-wide meeting. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. Who you are is what you do. This book aims to help you do the things you need to become the kind of leader you want to be—and others want to follow.
