Franchise or License?

Because I am a huge fan of business models than enable you to mutiply and duplicate your efforts, I decided to do some research on franchising vs. licensing. I found some great info on coollawyer.com. Here it is.

Franchise or License?
By Judith Silver, Esq.,Coollawyer.com

Q:What is the fundamental difference between franchising vs. licensing someone to operate my business in another state? I am trying avoid becoming a franchise, but I have people interested in using my business and my business model in other states.

Answer:The line between franchising and licensing is not always a clear one. However, as you evidently know, offering a franchise subjects the offering party to FTC and state regulations, which require disclosure statements to accompany such an offering.

Most state franchise regulations allow that if a franchisor, the party offering the franchise, has complied with the FTC regulations, then the party has also complied with the state regulations. Otherwise, the regulations for franchise offerings vary by state.

If you currently have a license agreement where you license your trademark and give or exert control over the licensee's business model and get paid, generally speaking, you are probably operating a franchise and are subject to franchise regulations. These regulations do allow an exemption for a single license within certain parameters. If you state to your buyers that you are a "franchise," however, you definitely fall under the regulations.

Franchise RegulationsThe purpose of the franchise regulations is to be sure that full disclosure of all information is disclosed to someone purchasing a franchise. FTC Franchise Regulations require disclosure of a great deal of information regarding the advertising, offering, licensing, contracting, sale or other promotion of a franchise. These disclosures include:

The name of the franchisor Any fictitious names of the franchisor The trademarks of the franchisor The last five years of business experience of the franchisor's directors and officers Whether the franchisor's directors or officers have been convicted of or plead nolo contendere to any felony involving fraud during the past seven years Whether the franchisor's directors or officers have been a party to, settled or convicted of a civil action involving fraud during the past seven years Whether the franchisor's directors or officers have during the past seven years filed for bankruptcy, been adjudged bankrupt, been reorganized due to being insolvent and so on All terms of the franchise agreement, including how to terminate, modify and sell it Information on site selection, training programs, financial statements, other franchisees and so on

The disclosure statements for a franchise and their legal agreements are lengthy. You always want to have an experienced franchise attorney help when you write the franchise disclosure statements and your franchise agreement. These documents are analogous to SEC disclosure statements in complexity and magnitude. The analogy makes sense, since the franchisee is, in a sense, investing in the franchise.

"Avoiding" Becoming a FranchiseThere is no clear direction about how to avoid becoming what is defined as a "franchise." Above, we've mentioned some of the regulations involved. The best approach would be to work out your business goals, what you can live with and without, your financial goals and so on and compare that to the definition of a franchise. Then discuss your business goals with your franchise attorney, making sure to consider the best way to accomplish what you have in mind while still being in compliance with the law.

Alternatively, consider expanding your own business instead of selling your model to others. If your company owns and runs all the retail stores with its employees and offices nationwide, it's probably not a franchise--it's just one company doing business in many states. By rearranging your goals and seeking investors instead of franchisees, you might find another approach that makes sense.

All answers are general in nature, not legal advice and not warranted or guaranteed. Readers are cautioned not to rely on this information. Because laws change over time and in different jurisdictions, it is imperative that you consult an attorney in your area regarding legal matters and an accountant regarding tax matters.

Building Your Personal Brand

Below is an article I recently wrote for the South Florida Business Journal. Check out the article here.

1. Be the poster child for your community. I achieve this by volunteering for lots of charity driven events. You may choose to pick just one that you are passionate about. I wear my name badge inclusive of my logo and I am sure to always have a camera in hand. I look for the most influential people in town to network with and I make sure to get a picture with them. The society sections of the newspaper are always looking for event photos and why not your face be the one that is seen week after week in the news. It establishes creditability and keeps your name and face amongst the readers and leaders of your community.

2. Brand yourself as the "Expert" in your field. To do this, you must know your core competency well and you must excel at what you do. Testimonials from clients verifying your expertise are critical. Establish relationships with the media and be known as the "go to" person when stories or information are needed relative to your scope of expertise. Guest blogging and submitting articles are a few ways to brand your name and face while sharing your knowledge on a topic. You will want to invest in a professional editorial or press release written about you and your successes. Find a local newspaper or popular website that will bring you in as a columnist or guest columnist. Ask a few local radio show hosts if you can be a guest speaker on their show. Post any and all of your work on your website and on YouTube, again, always including the title expert wherever your name appears. When someone googles your name, you want lots showing up about you and your company.

3. Start a meetup on www.meetup.com. Meetup is an amazing website that offers anyone the ability to start special interests groups enabling you to grow your database while keeping your name in front of the public. Membership is typically free and it doesn't take long to go from a few members to a few hundred. Hosting a meetup enables you to bring in guest speakers that you are interested in meeting but it also allows you to take the spotlight and showcase your talents. My meetup is called Boca Raton Entrepreneurs http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1655/ and although I am in the business of women, my meetup is open to all and enables me to connect with great men too! Anytime you can take on a leadership role in your community, it is sure to pay big dividends.

4. Join me on www.linkedin.com to have access to the 650,000+ people that I am connected to. Social networking is an essential component to growing globally today. Set up your profile if you are not already on Linkedin and invite me using the email address kellie@womenswellnesssociety.com You can search for anyone that you are looking to be connected to on Linkedin, it is quite profound. By inviting well connected people to join you on Linkedin, you can have access to their client base and everyone elses through simple introductions. You will quickly see how six degrees of seperation unfolds.

Do....

Keep your brand consistent throughout all of your marketing collateral and your website
Spend most of your time marketing!
Have a mentor
Belong to a mastermind
Have a media link on your website that profiles all of your articles and society pictures
Grow a very large database of connections - database is king!
Send a monthly newsletter, but make the subject line interesting enough that your subscribers are dying to open it.
Get to know the people who make things happen in your town and keep your name in front of them by sending cards and small tokens letting them know you appreciate them
Assume everyone wants to do business with you
Be a connector of people
Give back as often as you can

Don't....

Ever let customers walk away unhappy
Lose focus of your core competency
Try to be the best at everything, recognize your strengths and delegate the rest!
Ever stop growing your knowledge in your field
Be afraid of failure and......

Don't ever stop networking!!!!!

Free Tools You Can Use to Prepare For A Recession And Maximize Your Website Traffic Through Tough Times

Get ideas for marketing your website on the internet using internet marketing promotion and advertising strategies.

By Jay Berkowitz, http://www.tengoldenrules.com

As many businesses are finding out the hard way, discussions about whether we are in a recession or not doesn’t impact the hard fact that we are clearly in economic down times. Many business owners, particularly small business owners, have begun reaching out for free tools and ideas for marketing on the Internet. That’s why the team at TGR has created a list of “Ten Free or Low Cost Ways to Use the Internet to Help Your Business in Down Times.” These Internet marketing ideas, tools and technologies are immediately available online to maximize your website traffic and help businesses weather the current tough economic climate.

1. Companies can maximize web site traffic by using Free Search Engine Optimization techniques. Generating additional search engine traffic results from two things, using the right words on your website and creating links TO the site. Step 1; adding words to your website. Search engines read words that are on your site, and when someone searches those words, you must have them on your site. The easiest way to accomplish this is to write many articles about your industry. Free tip – you can find the word phrases that people search most frequently through a free trial at Wordtracker.com. Step 2; Build links to your site. When another site links to your site, that is giving your site more importance and credibility which can move your site closer to Google’s first page. Ask to get links from industry associations and your local Chamber of Commerce.

2. Create a FREE Offer on your site to get leads. A free brochure, a free eNewsletter, a free white paper, or a free industry rate calculator will attract people to sign up and when they do you can ask them for permission to send a free eNewsletter or more special offers in the future.

3. Measure the cost to acquire a lead and a sale. You now have the ability to measure your Internet marketing promotion and advertising efforts using a FREE product from Google called Google Analytics. This tool enables you to see details about your visitor and learn more about them and where to spend your advertising dollar.

4. Intelligence Tools such as Spyfu.com and Compete.com. These websites offer free products that can show you where your competitors are advertising on the internet and how much they are spending.

5. Take advantage of FREE Internet products like Google Optimizer to improve conversion on your web site. Optimizer allows you to test different offers, different prices and different designs on a web page to determine which is the most effective and could maximize your website traffic.

6. Generate greater awareness for your business or product by using Free or low cost Internet Press Releases. Another Internet marketing idea is to use free press release options include PR.com and Click Press.com. Tip - we recommend PRWeb.com, for just $80 your press release will have an excellent chance to get picked up in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

7. Develop an eNewsletter. eNewsletters are a staple of effective online communications. A FREE eNewsletter is a great reason for people to sign up with you and become a lead on your website and then you have permission to send them great articles about your industry, profile your expertise, and provide case studies and client testimonials. It allows you to stay top of mind with current customers and prospects and gives them a ‘send-to-a-friend’ feature to forward your information. Tip – make sure you add the articles to your website so the words in the articles get picked up by the search engines!

8. Create a virtual internet sales force using Affiliate Marketing. Affiliates are marketers who will send traffic to your website in exchange for fee for leads or percentage of the value of a sale. Some Affiliate networks we work with are Commission Junction, Linkshare, Share-A-Sale. Tip - Determine how much it costs you to get a sale and offer the affiliates slightly less. Affiliate marketing is very direct - you only pay for a lead or a sale.

9. Build your company’s position on high traffic Social Media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Another way to maximize your website traffic is to link from social media sites to your company’s website. Both sites just started allowing company pages and it is a good way to build presence and links for a website.

10. Cut out the middle man by selling direct at eBay, Amazon and Yahoo stores. Many businesses are developing a whole new branch of their business by selling direct to the consumer through online stores. Many companies have started to refocus their internet marketing promotions and advertising efforts and began utilizing trusted name website to sell products. While you do pay a fee to the website, they have built in traffic and they offer easy to use tools to build virtual stores with eCommerce functionality.

Jay Berkowitz has managed marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Sprint, Coca-Cola and McDonald's and successful dot-com eDiets.com. Mr. Berkowitz is the Founder and CEO of http://www.tengoldenrules.com, an internet marketing consulting business based in Boca Raton, Florida. Ten Golden Rules helps companies get more traffic to their websites and convert that traffic to sales with a focus on improving internet profit.