Franchising

a. You may decide to either buy into someone else's franchise as a franchisee or

b. Create your own franchise operation that sells rights to specific territories or product lines to others. Each will require further legal, financial, and marketing research.

Distributors. You may decide to work as a local or regional distributor for several different product lines.

Outline your sales plan below:

__________

What is your advertising plan? Each product or service will need its own advertising strategy as part of the total business marketing plan. Before developing an advertising campaign for your business plan, take time to review a few basic assumptions. By definition, advertising is any form of paid, non-personal promotion that communicates with a large number of potential customers at the same time. The purpose of advertising is to inform, persuade and remind customers about your company's products or services. Every advertising activity should have specific goals. Common examples are:

To bring in sales orders or contracts

To promote special events such as sales, business openings, new products

To bring in requests for estimates or for a sales representative to call

A special goal at the outset may be to use special media to establish yourself even before startup and to get potential customer "feedback"

- These might include one or more of the following:

Purchase and distribution of business cards to potential clients

Posting notices on free bulletin boards in area supermarkets or office complexes

A telephone survey of potential clients to alert them to your startup plans.

To assist in determining what types of advertising are appropriate and within company budget projections, it will be necessary to carefully review your customer profile.

From this review, establish a clear statement of advertising goals. Write down what you want your advertising to accomplish:

The next step will be to develop answers to the following crucial questions:

Q. What should be said about the business and how should it be stated?

A. __________

Q. What media should be used?

A. __________

 Q. How much can be afforded?

A. __________

 Q. How can the advertising program be implemented?

A. __________

 Q. How can its effectiveness be measured?

A. __________

The basic criteria for selecting specific types of media will include concise answers to the following:

Trading Area - Do you plan to serve or sell to an industrial market, a national market, a neighborhood or specialized market? Describe yours:

__________

Customer Type - What does your potential customer read or listen to? Where? How often? What image does the media you are considering suggest? Does it fit your customer? Describe your customer:

__________

Budget Restrictions - How will the amount of money you have to spend limit the media you can use? How can you spread your budget out over a year to give a repetitive, continuous message? While you may have to spend more at the start, a good ongoing guideline is that advertising should not exceed one or two percent of sales. Set forth how much you are willing to invest in advertising in the first year: __________

Break into months or quarters:

__________

Continuity of Message - How will the type of product or service, customer profile and seasonal buying patterns affect your choice of media and the frequency with which you advertise? Explain your message here:

__________

Past Performance - What is the track record for use of the medium you are considering for your type of business? What do your competitors use? What does your trade association suggest? Enter appropriate comments here:

__________

Management Plan

Who will do what? Be sure to include four basic sets of information:

State a personal history of principals and related work, hobby or volunteer experience (include formal resumes in Appendix).

List and describe specific duties and responsibilities of each.

List benefits and other forms of compensation for each.

Identify other professional resources available to the business: Example: Accountant, lawyer, insurance broker, banker, etc. Describe relationship of each to business: Example: "accountant available on part time hourly basis, as needed, initial agreement calls for services not to exceed x hours per month at $ xx.xx per hour".

To make this section graphically clear, start with a simple organizational chart that lists specific tasks and shows, who (type of person is more important than individual name) other than for principals will do what indicated by arrows, work flow and lines of responsibility and/or communications.

Concisely answer the following questions:

Q. What are your personnel needs now?

A: __________

Q. What skills must each key person have?

A: __________

Q. Are the people needed available? Name them, indicate full or part time and salary rates:

A: __________

Detail a proposed work schedule by week, and month for at least the first year.

If you have identified any gaps in personnel skills, state how these will be overcome by training, purchase of outside services, or subcontracting. Check with the nearest state employment service office for assistance. Write your plan:

__________

If you Operate a factory, wholesale outlet, retail store, Service shop, or are a contractor, you'll need to sell. However good
your product is, regardless of what consumers think of this, you must sell to survive.

Direct selling methods are through personal sales efforts, Advertising and, for most companies, exhibit - including the styling
and packaging of the item - in kitchens, in the institution, or even both. Establishing a fantastic reputation with the general
public through anyhow and distinctive services is a direct method of selling. While the latter should never be disregarded, this
short discussion will be restricted to direct marketing methods.

To establish Your Company on a firm footing requires a Whole Lot Of aggressive personal selling. You might have established
competition to conquer. Or, if your idea is fresh with minimal if any competition, you've got the additional problem of convincing
people of the value of this new idea. Private selling work is nearly always necessary to achieve this. If you aren't a good
salesperson, seek an employee or asociate who's.

Another way to create sales is by advertising. This may be done Through newspapers, shopping papers, the yellow pages section of
the phone directory, and other printed periodicals; radio and television; handbills, and direct email. The media you choose, as
well as the message and style of presentation, depends upon the specific customers you would like to attain. Plan and prepare
advertisements with care or it'll be unsuccessful. Most media will be able to describe the characteristics of their audience
(readers, listeners, etc.). Ever since your initial planning described the characteristics of your potential clients, you want to
match these characteristics with the media audience. If you are selling expensive jewelry, don't market in high school newspapers.
If you repair bicycles, you likely should.

Advertising can be quite costly. It Is a Good Idea to place a limit upon An amount to invest, then stay within that limit. To help
you in deciding how much to spend, study the operating ratios of similar companies. Media advertising salespeople will allow you
to plan and also prepare advertisements for you. Be sure to tell them your budget limitations.

A third Way of sparking sales is effective displays both in Your place of company and outside it. If you've had no previous
experience in display function, you are going to want to study the subject or turn the task over to somebody else. Observe screens
of different companies and read books, trade magazines, as well as the literature provided by equipment manufacturers. It may be
wise to hire a display expert for your opening screen and special occasions, or you could obtain the services of one on a part
time basis. Much depends on your kind of business and what it takes.

The appropriate number and types of selling effort to use vary from business to business and from owner to owner. Some companies
prosper with low-key sales attempts. Others, such as the used-car lots, thrive on competitive, hoop-la promotions. In any case,
the importance of successful selling can't be over-emphasized.

On the other hand, do not lose sight of your major goal - to Make a profit. Anyone can generate a large sales volume selling
dollar bills for ninety cents. But that will not last long. So keep control of your costs, and cost your product carefully.

Record Keeping. 1 essential element of company management is the keeping of adequate records. Study after study shows that many
manager failures can be attributed to insufficient records or the owner's failure to make use of what information was available to
him. Without records, the businessperson cannot see in advance which way the business is going. Up-to-date records may predict
impending disaster, forewarning one to take action to prevent it. While extra work is required to keep an adequate set of records,
you will be more than repaid for the effort and cost.

If You Aren't prepared to keep adequate records - or have somebody Keep them for you - you shouldn't attempt and run a small
business. At a minimum, records are Required to substantiate:

1. Your yields under taxation legislation, including income tax and social Security legislation;

2. Your request for credit from equipment makers or a loan From a bank;

3. Your claims about the business, in case you wish to sell it.

But most important, you want them to run your business successfully And to raise your profits. With an adequate. Yet simple,
accounting system you may answer such questions as:

How much business am I doing? What are my expenses? Which appear to be too high? What's my gross Profit margin? My net gain? How
much am I piling in my charge business? What is the state of my working capital? How much money do I have available? Just how much
in your bank? Just how much do I owe my Providers? What is my net worth? That is, What's the worth of my possession of The
enterprise? What are the trends in my Receipts, costs, profits, and net worth? Is my financial position improving Or growing
worse? How do my resources compare with what I owe? What is the Percent of return on my investment? How many cents from every
dollar of Earnings are net gain? Answer these and other questions by planning and studying balance sheets and profit-and-loss
statements. To do this, it is Important that you record information about transactions as they happen. Keep This information in a
comprehensive and orderly fashion and you'll have the ability to answer the above questions. You'll Also possess the answers to
such other vital questions About your business as: What products or services do my customers enjoy best? Next best? Not at all?
Can I take the merchandise most frequently requested? Am I Qualified to render the services that they demand most? Just how many
of my charge Customers are slow payers? Shall I switch to cash only, or use a credit card Charge plan?

 brick-and-mortar bridal building-material bulk-sms burger bus business-broker business-coaching cabinet-making cake cake-shop campground camps-for-children candy candy-apple car-import car-painting carpet-installation cbd cell-phone-repair charter-fishing chauffeur chicken-shop childrens-party-planning childrenwear chocolate christmas-light-installation cigar-lounge cinema-hall cinematography civil-contractor clothing clothing-line cna cnc-machine coffee-van collection-agency commercial-cleaning computer-shop concrete content-writing cookie cosmetics-retailing cpr-training craft-beer crafts credit-repair crochet crystal csa-farm