Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Cost’

Anyone looking to get into self employment might consider starting their own woodworking business. If you are a bit of a handyperson then it really is the low cost business start up.

Central to your success would be a good set of woodworking plans. You can find them online and a set of plans can include hundreds of different projects for you to tackle.

With the minimum amount of tools you can start off very small and work your way up to bigger projects as funds and confidence increase. Typically you could begin by making and supplying something as small as bird nesting boxes, bird tables etc and then move on up to dog kennels, rabbit hutches and so on.

Your local pet shops, garden centres and hardware stores would be your ideal start up customers. Initially you would only need to make one item, say a bird nest box, go and visit your local retailers and take orders from the one sample. With the approach of summer garden furniture is always a popular seller and not at all difficult to make.

Having established yourself and made a bit of cash you can move on to bigger items. Wood sheds, garden sheds and the like are good sellers and relatively easy to produce. You can make the various sections at your chosen place of work and assemble them on site. Again you will probably find the designs for these goods included in your original set of woodworking plans.

To summarise it is possible to start your own woodworking business for less than 0 with nothing more than a set of woodworking plans, some second-hand tools and a little bit of get up and go!

Local business companies sometimes get complacent with their marketing strategies and ignore using the internet. What they fail to realize is that the local demographic can change and with that change comes a new or different attitude of the consumer.

If local businesses aren’t utilizing the internet for promotion today they are likely missing out on some business. And if they aren’t keeping up with modern technology they can also quickly fall behind their competition. These are common mistakes often made by small business owners.

I’ve seen companies that have obviously invested more and placed a higher importance on technology than they did on their people. And I’ve been in businesses that have wonderful people working there but are clueless about modern technology.

It’s like many things in life: it’s often best to be somewhere in the middle than too far left or too far right. As a small business today, you must have great employees and keep up with beneficial technology.

Keeping up with modern technology can be confusing though. Trying to figure out what computer systems and software are most beneficial, in addition to a phone system best suited for your needs, can be overwhelming.

Perhaps the biggest area of improvement for most small business is in utilizing an online website for marketing purposes. The internet can be a tremendous ally of yours if used correctly. Here are a few examples of internet mistakes commonly made by local business companies:

-Putting up a website and then not managing it. It has to be more than an online brochure. It’s used most effectively for two-way communication.

-Substituting a blog for a website. Any business owner serious about their business won’t allow an “online journal” to take the place of an actual website.

-Not tracking traffic to the site. Not collecting information about who is visiting your site could be the difference between experiencing huge growth and failing.

-Not taking advantage of search engine optimization. Successful online businesses understand this, but many traditional brick and mortar business are losing customers left and right because they don’t.

-Not using a professional email at your domain. Once you’ve registered your URL, you need to begin using the email address for that domain for all business purposes.

-Focusing too much on the website’s design and not enough on the content. The more relevant pages of content you have the better the site will perform despite its design. Don’t get me wrong, a nice professional-looking site is important but your time and money should be spent on the content.

Local business companies must take advantage of today’s technology in order for their business to not only compete, but to also survive. Focus on how you can utilize your website to grow your business in today’s economy.

There is a growing excitement and eagerness to step off of a corporate ladder and begin the franchise business that you have always dreamed of owning. If you are thinking about becoming your own boss and taking advantage of the business opportunities out there that allow you to be in business for yourself and run your own company you have also probably wrestled with whether or not you are ready both personally and financially. While the personal question of readiness has no clear checklist for whether or not you will experience success in the franchise business world, there are several franchise businesses for sale that offer low cost franchise owners the opportunity to begin running their own business much sooner than they thought possible. Below are listed the top 10 low cost franchises that allow a first time franchise owner the support, training, and assistance to step into the freedom of running his or her own business.

#1 Davis Coleman Limited

Davis Coleman Limited provides specialist services to banks and the legal profession such as debt recovery, property repossessions, process serving, debt counseling and more. In addition to a comprehensive training package plus ongoing support as a new franchise owner, you will also receive referrals from national accounts and the head office of clients in their local area. They allow for third party financing and can be started for £9,750.

#2 Kendlebell

Kendlebell Franchises won the IFA award for “Best Emerging Franchise Opportunity” in 2007/8. A Kendlebell franchise offers busy clients a telephone answering service with the confidence and security that their phone calls will be handled in a professional manner and be answered exactly as the client desires. Kendlebell offers third party financing, training and support, and a low capital investment of £9,999.

#3 Myhome Lawn Cutting and Care

Myhome Lawn Cutting and Care is more than just a lawn mowing franchise, they handle all of the lawn care, landscaping, and all areas of yard care. Each Myhome employee is trained to be a “turf expert” and whether your niche is caring for properties, or simply managing and running a business that does, the training support and excellent relationship Myhome maintains with its franchise owners makes this low cost franchise an alluring opportunity. Minimum investment required is £6,000, total capital investment required is £25,000.

#4 Maid 2 Clean

Maid 2 Clean has been providing high quality domestic housekeeping, cleaning and ironing services to thousands of private residential householders since 1993. As a Maid 2 Clean franchise owner you receive comprehensive training and management skills. This minimal risk, high margin business offers the perfect franchise opportunity for the entrepreneur looking for a rapid return on their investment with a relatively low cost to start up and over 90% repeat customer business. Maid 2 Clean offers third party financing and requires a minimum investment of £8,246.

#5 Business Referral Exchange

Business Referral Exchange allows natural networkers who enjoy meeting people and passing on contacts the perfect opportunity to being their own low cost franchise business. This effective and sought after business allows you to use your natural personal skills to generate business contacts and connect them with other business partners to further their networks. As a Business Referral Exchange owner you will receive an intensive training course followed by ongoing support and additional training, lead generation, and access to a large database. BRE requires an investment of £5,000-£15,000.

#6 ORCA Websites

ORCA franchises sell tailor made websites to small and medium sized businesses without requiring their franchise owners to have experience and previous web design backgrounds. ORCA guarantees its franchisers a protected territory with a regular supply of new business enquires, rapid return on your investment, and ongoing training and a business mentor. An ORCA websites franchise requires an initial investment of £10,950+VAT.

#7 Cardgroup Greetings

Cardgroup Greetings is a low cost franchise requiring a total capital investment of £9,995. With this comes extensive training and support to franchise owners who will own part of the best and most widely sold greeting card and gift distribution business in the world. Originally formed in Sweden Cardgroup is now present in over 24 countries and continually growing due to the success of its franchise owners.

#8 City Local

City Local Franchises are low cost business franchise opportunities that offer their owners a valuable service to local areas by creating and maintaining a high traffic website that connects local business and owners with their clients. It provides valuable information to the public and allows small businesses the opportunity of much publicity and heavy internet traffic. Prices for City Local franchise opportunities begin at £9,900+VAT.

#9 Babyprints

A Babyprints franchise is a franchise business for sale that requires a minimum investment of £15,000 and a total capital investment of £17,500. Babyprints creates impressions and casts of children’s hands and feet. These timeless icons serve as some of the most precious memories of many mums and dads of their children’s first few months of life. Franchise owners get to provide these families with what will likely be one of their most darling possessions. As a Babyprints owner you receive exclusive sales territory, ongoing training, and marketing support.

#10 Billboard Connections

Billboard Connections provides effective outdoor advertising solutions for large and small businesses and provides their franchise owners with recurring income. Billboard Connections advertise themselves literally and each franchise has very low start-up costs with low overheads since owners will not need an office, staff, or stock. This home based business franchise requires a relatively low initial investment of £10,000-£15,000.

Whether you have been saving for months and months to start your own business or have multiple businesses or franchises already, any of these franchise opportunities would be worth considering because of their comparatively inexpensive startup commitments.

The six-figure book advance, like the New York Times bestseller, is the object of many a writer’s fantasy. Whether it’s also a realistic goal is something else again.

*Can you really get a six-figure book advance?*

When Susan Page wrote *The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book* in 1997, she included the following list of the qualities that you and your book have to have if you’re going to get a six-figure advance.

1. Your book is on a topic of wide general interest that could excite a large number of readers.

2. Your book has a distinctive angle and makes an original contribution to its field.

3. You have substantial credentials to write on this topic OR you have a co-author who does, OR you can get an extremely famous, well-credentialed person to write a foreword for you.

4. You have prepared an extraordinary proposal and are working with a competent editor already.

5. You have a show-stopping title.

6. You secure the services of a well-known, experienced agent who believes the book can earn such an advance.

7. You are both willing and able to promote your book on radio and TV and in print.

This is not a mix-and-match list. You have to have *all* of those things to get the big advance, unless you are an international celebrity or a best-selling author.

Page’s aim was to deflate unrealistic expectations. Her book aims to get you into print, not necessarily to get you rich. Most authors do not get rich from their books. Most publishers don’t get rich either. Book publishing is an industry in which there is very little profit. If authors get rich, it’s usually because having a book lets them sell expensive services and book high-paying speaking gigs.

*You can get a six-figure advance, but it will cost you.*

And I don’t mean the $197 price tag on Susan Harrow’s new e-book, Get a Six-Figure Book Advance. A $200 investment is nothing if it gets you a $200,000 return. Using the proposal template/software included with her $197 e-book, you’ll be able to produce the kind of proposal that will have publishers in hot pursuit—but getting the advance requires a whole lot more than just buying the book or even having all the right elements in your proposal.

*If you want a six-figure book advance, you’re going to have to work for it.*

Susan Harrow, jokingly known as a “de-motivational coach,” doesn’t try to pretend otherwise. In her August 4th teleclass, co-hosted by ghostwriter Mahesh Grossman of the Authors Team, she made it clear just how much work goes into getting a six-figure advance, and how long and hard you have to keep working *after* you get the money.

*How advances work*

In order to persuade publishers to pay you $100,000 or more before your book is published, you have to convince them that your book will sell at least 100,000 copies. (Your royalty will be about $1/book for a trade paperback, possibly as much as $3/book for a hardcover, so you do the math.) And since books don’t sell themselves, what you’re really saying to the publisher is that *you* can sell those 100,000 copies.

Yes, a publisher that invests that much money in you will also invest more in the production and marketing of your book than in someone who gets a smaller advance, but when you get right down to it, no one really buys a book because of its publisher. And your book won’t sell just because it’s a good book. People rarely buy non-fiction books for the quality of the writing. They buy for the quality of the information—and in the mind of the public, that depends on the expertise and reputation of the author. It all comes back to you.

*How do you get readers to think of you as an expert?*

First, they have to know you exist. If you’re not already a celebrity, you’re going to have to become one, or at least put up a convincing show. If you don’t have legions of fans, you should at least have thousands of subscribers to your e-zine or blog, or a syndicated column in a newspaper. If you haven’t been on Oprah or The Today Show yet, radio interviews and local TV news programs are a good start.

*Getting into the public eye*

To get visible enough fast enough, you probably need a publicist, which means shelling out several thousand dollars. In order for media attention to do you any good, you have to look good and sound good every time you appear. That means getting professional media coaching before you start lining up interviews to make up for not being a celebrity. You need to arm yourself with a repertoire of sound bites for all occasions and rehearse until you can spout them in your sleep.

That doesn’t just take money, it takes time. It takes *work*. And no one can do it for you, either, because you, as the author, have to be the one in the limelight.

*Editing is essential for a killer proposal.*

Media coaches and publicists aren’t the only team members you’ll have to enlist if you want a six-figure advance and a book that justifies it. The services of a professional editor are essential for both your proposal and your finished book. In fact, you might just want to hire a ghostwriter and get it over with, because you’re probably going to be too busy marketing to write.

That’s more money spent in advance of getting your advance.

*Post-publication publicity*

You’re not through yet, either. Now that you’ve gotten enough media attention for yourself to impress a publisher, you have to do it over again for your book. You’re going to have to shell out a good-sized chunk of that advance on your own publicity efforts. More and more publishing houses assume that your advance *is* the marketing budget for the book, so they expect you to spend your own money on getting the book sold. (Tip: when mentioning this in your proposal, always make the offer contingent on the publisher matching the amount.) This expectation actually holds true regardless of the size of your advance, but the more money you want to get, the more money you have to spend.

*Six-figure advances are not for the faint of heart*

Writing a good book is the least of the challenges facing you when you set out to get a six-figure advance. Moreover, if you *don’t* earn out your advance by actually selling 100,000+ books, your chance of getting such a large advance again are nil. To succeed when the stakes are this high, you need to become an Olympic athlete of a book marketer. That can be hard to do if you have a day job or a family, never mind both. And it’s almost impossible if you don’t have a substantial chunk of starting capital.

*Do you really need a six-figure book advance?*

For many authors, five figures are plenty, especially for a first book. Even if it loses money, that book will create the leverage the author needs to succeed in other aspects of her business. (That’s one reason self-publishing can be such a good option for business book authors.) Getting a smaller advance still takes work and costs money, but it’s a much more manageable goal for a first time author without fifty grand to invest in getting into the bookstores.