Starting your own business can be a serious and daunting task. With so many things to consider (and pay for) it's always a significant bonus to be able to find free resources that aren't just smoke and mirrors - but are truly helpful. Following is our list of 20 free resources for business that you might find beneficial as you work to grow your business. We hope they help you like they have us!
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20 FREE Resources for Businesses
Written by Jim Otto
Is there a place in the hair care franchise market for Kids Hair Salon Franchises?
There are many discussions on the hair care franchise industry as a whole as being a good place to put your franchise dollars. The most commonly thought of opportunities are the family low cost salons such as Great Clips, SuperCuts, and Fantastic Sams. The niche market that has seen rocketing growth lately is the men's hair car segment with Sports Clips, The Board Room, Spanky's, and more. But what about children - is this a valid hair care segment?
The Kids Salon Business is for Adults and Here's Why -
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The hair care industry is recession resistant, the areas that have been hit the hardest in the recent economic downturn are the high end salon services. Childrens Salons do not cater to this segment and therefore have not been as affected.
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Parents want and sometimes really NEED a professional who understands and knows how to deal with children's needs and fears when it comes to hair care.
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This niche is underserved and there is room for this salon specialty in many locations.
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As the Mommy Network is one of the best places to get information if you have a business that operates within this network your cost of advertising is drastically reduced.
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There are three types of salons: High End (these the client follows the stylist), Low End (these are walk in salons where clients are not loyal to particular stylists, nor the salon, it is all about convenience), Booth Rental (these salons the stylists actually rents the space, makes their own appointments, etc.) Kids salons don't fit any of these typical models, clients come for the atmosphere as well as the stylist. When a stylist leaves clients typically remain a client of the salon. Clients will also drive further to treat their children to the more friendly atmosphere.
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Margins tend to be high in a well managed salon as customer retention is high and advertising and incentive spending is low.
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The parent age group is the largest dollar consumer base in the nation, this lends itself to offering other products and services pertaining to kids within the salon itself.
The Flip Side of the Kids Salon Industry -
As there are many positives to doing business in the Children's Hair Care Industry. There are several issues to consider as well.
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As this niche is resession resistant it is not resession proof, owners must assure customers that they are getting great value for their precious dollars spent, services must be priced reasonably enough to retain clients.
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Care must be given when choosing a market for this concept, as it only caters to a certain age group, if there are too many kids salons in one area they will not be able to succeed.
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The Mommy network is a great place to be, but if you are not giving good service then this network can back fire on you as well.
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The atmosphere must be clean, orderly, and up to date as this clientele demands it.
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When choosing what other products or services to offer customers careful consideration needs to be given as to the costs vs. benefits of those offerings.
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As the age group is limited a kids salon needs to widen its appeal by making sure that it attracts both boys and girls and to as wide an age group as possible.
If you are considering a kids salon franchise it is definitely an adult decision! There are benefits of a franchise over doing it yourself. There are around 7 different systems in the United States and all are just a bit different. Shear Madness Haircuts for Kids, Cartoon Cuts, Cookie Cutters, Snip Its, Cool Cuts for Kids, Pigtails and Crewcuts, & Sharkey's Cuts for Kids. Of course we believe that Shear Madness is the best one - it may be small but the number of years in business and the caliber of awards won is among the BEST!
What is a Franchise Fee?
When investing in a franchise a buyer will most likely pay a franchise fee there is a LOT more to franchise ownership than this fee.
Our franchise development director says that "What is the Franchise Fee?" is the most common question asked by a potential investor. While this is one of the considerations it is definitely one of the least important items to look at.
The franchise fee is the initial fee charged by the franchisor to give a franchisee the rights to use the logo, systems, and start a business with those items. But, what you get for that fee with each franchisor does differ. Things to compare for that fee are:
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How much training is included with this fee? Every system has different training, some may be at the franchisor's office, some may be online, and some may be at your place. A detailed outline of the training you should receive is included in the Franchise Disclosure Document in Item 11.
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What items are provided? Do you get manuals? Most often you should get a Pre-Opening Manual and then also an Operations Manual. There may be other items that are neccesary to your business - which of those are provided and what must you pay for going forward?
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Access to other franchisees or management?
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What kind of ongoing support is offered with the system?
The Real Value in a Franchise Fee
While these are the items to check the value of the franchise fee probably the most important thing that you are paying for is the learning curve that the franchisor paid for with years of previous experience. This is what you need to find out about. There are franchised companies out there with huge differences in the amount of experience they have in operating the concept that you are buying.
There are actually companies out there seek out new businesses to franchise. These are usually companies that market franchises. They charge the franchisor the fees to do the legal and set up work to make them franchisable and then also charge them to do the marketing. If the franchisor does not have many years of operating history they will still be learning as they are also franchising - this is can be a dangerous combination!
The learning curve is the MOST valuable asset that you aquire when investing in a small business franchise! At Shear Madness Haircuts for Kids the operating history was 13 years before franchising. Most successful "new" franchises have suprisingly long operating histories. Five Guys Burgers and Fries seems newer, however they have been in business since 1986, and began franchising in 2001! Starbucks began opening coffee shops in 1985, and Papa Murphy's Pizza opened in 1981 and started franchising in 1995!
As companies grow they have successes and failures this is normal. When you invest in a franchise most of the franchise fee is for the avoidance of those failures! Those failures may have cost the franchisore hundreds of thousands of dollars. This alone can make the franchise fee a real bargain!
Investing in a small business franchise system can be a great opportunity. If you would like to receive a FREE whitepaper designed to help when evaluating ANY franchise click on the link below.
New Franchise Businesses pop up all the time. If you are thinking of investing in one - how can you determine the risk? Every Franchise has to begin somewhere and some of the new ones are great opportunities. But, how can you tell?
Doing your homework is paramount when checking out a small business franchise. It does not matter whether the franchise system is old or brand new there will be similarities, the only difference in the documents that you will receive is that the list of existing franchisees or those that have left the system will be much less!
There are however many things you can ask about that will give you some good information to help evaluate the new franchise business.
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How long has the franchised business been in existance. It may be that the business is very established yet has just begun franchising. Our flagship store opened in 1997, yet franchising just began in 2010.
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Is the original concept operator still involved in the business? There are concept hunters out there who take a business and franchise it, yet they are not the ones with the years of knowledge they are just companies who see an opportunity to make some money franchising yet don't have the experience with the system to give you the training that you really need.
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Has the original business been able to run more that one location?
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Has the original owner tried many different ways of doing the business so they can direct you in what has worked vs. what has not? Making mistakes is not a bad thing. It is better that the franchisor has made them in the past rather than you making them in the future!
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Is the original owner going to be involved in your training?
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Is the business something that you can see being in demand for years to come?
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Can this business be replaced by the internet or other means?
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As franchising is different from owning an individual business what systems and processes has the franchisor put into place to make this conversion?
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What does this business concept have that sets it apart from others out there that may be similar? Is it something easily duplicable? Is it something that will increase your bottom line?
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How passionate are the owners about the success of this business?
There are both advantages and disadvantages of being in the first few to start a new business franchise -
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As one of the first few you get much more individual treatment from the founders.
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Your sucess or failure is much more important to the franchosr than those later in the system.
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There are bumps in the road for any new venture, as the franchisor is also embarking on a new way of doing there business you may have to help smooth out a few of those, your input will shape the future for many to come!