Making Sure Your Franchise Door Fits!

Written by Jim Otto

In his book START WITH WHY, Simon Sinek tells the story of a group of American car executives who went to see a  Japanese assembly line. At the end of the line the doors were put on the hinges just like in America. However, something was missing. In America the workers at the end of the line tapped the door with a rubber mallet to make sure the doors lined up properly. In Japan that job did not seem to exist. Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they made sure the doors fit perfectly. The Japanese guide looked at them and smiled sheepishly, "we make sure it fits when we design it". You see, in the Japanese auto plant they didn't examine the problem and accumulate data to figure out the best solution - they engineered the outcome they wanted from the beginning. If they didn't achieve the desired outcome, they understood it was because of a decision they made at the start of the process. 
 
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Sacrificial Success and Franchising Folly

Written by Jim Otto

I recently met with a top-notch franchise consultant. He had developed a franchise system that he had built out and sold for a handy profit, hence his new business of being a "Franchise Consultant". Everyone wanted to know what his secret to success was. After two days of meetings with Bob (his name for the sake of this article) he finally told me the secret. As he was describing various franchisees, he told me about his best franchisee ever.  "Our best franchisees did about 2.5 to 3 million per year, but we had one guy in Milwaukee who did almost 5 million!"

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The Perception of Your Franchise - Awesome or ??

Written by Jim Otto

How your business is perceived by your customers and potential customers will most likely determine your businesses success or failure. Let me clarify. Perception is defined as, "the state of being or the process of becoming aware of something through the senses." So let me give you an example of that in business terms.
 
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The Inevitable Business Crisis and How to Handle It!

Written by Jim Otto

There is only one thing that is inevitable in business ownership: the crisis. And while there's many crisis situations that your franchisor can help walk you through - some of them will ultimately end up requiring a solution that only you as the business owner can provide. And the fact of the matter is that when you do become a business owner, you will sometimes experience crisis frequently. Furthermore, they are often unpredictable, and can cause serious damage to your business. Whew! Sounds fun doesn't it?    
 
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Understanding Your Biggest Fixed Business Expense

Written by Jim Otto

In franchising a lot of time and effort goes into researching the best opportunity. If the franchise system that you are looking at has at least some track record and history of performance, you'll discover on close examination that they'll have over performing locations, average performing locations, and under performing locations. The list of reasons that this happens is a mile long. But with "location" as usually being listed as one of the top reasons that a franchise fails, make sure that the franchise that you are buying into has a model for picking a location that has proven track record of increasing your chance for success. 
 
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