Master this 7 part breakout formula to start your own business

Are you the rebel—mouthy and opinionated? Do you like the thrill of change, always eager for the next new venture? Is your idea of security to never be the victim of a corporation’s downsizing or reengineering? Are you a fiercely independent risk-taker who can comfortably handle the uncertainty of being responsible for your own paycheck? Answering “yes” to all these questions put me squarely in the entrepreneurial ring more than two decades ago, and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier. Or richer. Or more in control of my life and career. I started with only $100 in seed money and my experience as a registered nurse. After putting in long shifts at the hospital, I worked part-time from my home for more than a year before my business gained enough momentum that I could quit my day job. I continued to work from home until my business income reached $1.2 million. Did I have a secret formula? No, I was going on passion, commitment and intuitive vision, but I do have a formula now. If you also answered “yes” to the questions above, and if you have a passion for the thrill and independence of being an entrepreneur plus commitment to follow through on that passion, this 7-part breakout formula will take you wherever you want to go. One Part Research First you have to know where you’re going, so research your chosen industry. Identify types of businesses that match your passionate vision and aptitude. Explore areas that show growth potential and, using your experience and insight, look for a need not presently being filled. Find a successful company similar to the one you envision owning, and study how it started and how it grew. Learn as much as possible about the entrepreneur behind it. Devour books and publications related to your business concept. Talk to other entrepreneurs to discover their best practices. One Part Vision As an entrepreneur-in-training, you’ll need to build basic and advanced leadership skills. A successful entrepreneur is a bold visionary, seeing what others cannot and willing to follow that vision despite naysayers. Many entrepreneurs never finished college, but that hasn’t stopped them from owning large companies like Dell Computer and small companies like neighborhood restaurants and consulting firms. They relied heavily on their visions, not on MBA programs. Entrepreneurs handle ambiguity with ease. They get a thrill out of leading the way into unfamiliar territory and thumb their noses at failure. Fearless pacesetters, they are usually mystified to find they’re weak at operations and management. That’s okay. Other people can manage for you, but you must be the guiding force that inspires your managers and staff to follow your vision. You’ll shoulder responsibility and hold yourself personally accountable for the outcome. As a leader you have to focus on the big picture and trust others to focus on the details. People who do it all are self-employed but not entrepreneurial. Three Parts Action You must also be an actor. You act and get things done by delegating, subcontracting and leveraging other people’s talents. You’re innovative and unflaggingly determined, willing to put in fast-moving 16-hour days to reap the rewards of independence, creative freedom and unlimited financial gain. Learn to be a marketing genius. Everything is marketing, from the way you say “good morning” to the contacts you make on an airplane to making a sales call. You sell ideas, products and services to potential purchasers by getting inside their minds and creatively communicating benefits. Above all you must grow your enterprise and make a profit. People who say, “I love it so much I’d do it for free,” are not entrepreneurs—they’re volunteers. Most entrepreneurs are willing to start small and grow slowly, but they fully expect to make money. There is nothing noble about being poor or failing financially. Two Parts Strategy When you know where you’re going and have the courage to act, the only thing missing is the strategy for getting you there – but this is no small thing. Jumping into business without a strategic plan is like jumping in the ocean without knowing how to swim. To create the strategic plan, envision your enterprise exactly as you want it to be. Then write down your goals and objectives for achieving that vision. For each goal, create a strategy and a target date for achieving it. Assess your strengths. You already possess knowledge, skills and experience your enterprise will draw on. One of my strengths is that I’m persistent and go for it all the way. List all your strengths that apply to your enterprise. Then appraise your challenges. They might involve market penetration, profitability, expertise, competition or location. Challenges change as your enterprise changes. My first challenge was getting clients to recognize the need for a new type of consulting service. When my company grew, a new challenge surfaced: my weakness as a manager. Without addressing that weakness, I might have worked solo forever, never achieving the bigger vision. That challenge led me to seek the right directors to support my vision. How will your challenges impact your goals? Finally, act like a CEO. Create an income and spending plan. Know where your money is going, question every expenditure and keep the cash flow positive. That means taking in more money than you pay out, plain and simple. Make a budget and stick to it. A CEO gets things done through delegation, so create a framework of people who can help you achieve your entrepreneurial vision. Even if you work solo, you can benefit from a myriad of talented consultants, vendors and subcontractors. From day one I hired a subcontractor to assist me with client projects, which worked so well that I put off hiring my first employee for ten years. Eventually I recognized that to stretch toward a bigger vision, I needed employees. Expect your framework to change as your vision grows, but build it only as big as you need. I always joke that I’m a working CEO, a style that makes things happen. But no enterprise is unsinkable—even the Titanic sank its first time out. In 1990 I hit an iceberg when my largest clients dissolved their law firm. Thankfully, through my vision, strategic plan and framework, I had the necessary lifeboats in place. My business stayed afloat and took a new course that changed my business forever. After being an entrepreneur for more than two decades, I’m happier, more alive and more constantly challenged than I ever imagined when I started out working in my one-bedroom condo. Answering “yes” to some simple questions about myself made all the difference. If you’re mouthy, opinionated, independent and your desire for adventure leads you to entrepreneurship; I guarantee this tested formula will take you wherever you want to go.

Why it seems so hard to get hired for your services

To answer this question let’s first take a look at the difference between promoting products VS services. Products often have cool features that show results quickly. Talk about the benefits of a feature and how it’ll make your customer’s life easier and you’ll probably get a sale. Services on the other hand, are intangible. There are no buttons to push or “before and after” pictures to see. Services often get categorized as “luxury items” we can usually survive without. They are more challenging to sell because the “results” of a service can be difficult to quantify measure or prove. Many “hard sell” sales trainers shy away from working with service providers. It is easier to train someone to sell products with features you can see and results you can prove. After four years in the corporate world selling products (Electronic telephone systems), I transferred into yellow pages advertising. Many of the “sales” techniques we used to sell telephones wouldn’t work at all in advertising! I quickly found out that I needed new sales techniques to promote the intangible results of advertising. Authors, Coaches, Consultants, etc. produce results that improve the human side of life and business and “Alternative Healers” deal with subtle energies that may take longer to produce quantifiable results. To the average consumer, these are luxuries that, although desirable and beneficial, can be “done without” if money is tight. Most of my clients haven’t got a clue how to tell people about the benefits and results of their good services. They feel frustrated and wonder why clients are so hard to get. Many are good at explaining how they work and what tools they use. The problem is that most consumers couldn’t care less about how you work. We care more about the benefits we’ll experience after hiring you. We want to be clear on what results you can deliver in exchange for our hard-earned money. “What’s in it for me?” your customers are asking. It is time to stop feature-dumping! Features only imply that a “process” is beneficial, or a “technique” is going to help…. As service providers we must be able to describe clear results to potential clients. Success Story: One client arrived in despair. She had a great service as a professional organizer and sadly, few customers to show for it. I asked her to give me the top 10 benefits of her good service…alas she (like many others responding to this request) provided a list of top 10 features instead. She listed “features” that describe how she gets to a result. Features like: - Customized quotes - Office flow organization tweaking - Created new filing systems - Ergonomic layouts for offices, etc. Sound pretty good, don’t’ they? Sure, and her customers seemed interested and keen, BUT they were not following through and hiring her. I helped her articulate a more effective sales list of the benefits and results of her good work. Results like: - Added value of charging only her client’s specific needs - Improved and streamlined office procedures - To save time and decrease frustrations - Ability to provide better customer service - Increased efficiency with improved filing structure - Less time wasted due to poor office layout - Resulting in increased productivity all around. We created a list of 6 good questions she can ask to uncover if a client needs organizational help. Why waste time telling clients all about our services if they don’t need them? Now, my client will always ask questions to find out first if someone seriously needs her service. If they do, she tells them with confidence about the results she can provide and is more secure asking for their business. By following these guidelines you too can get hired faster with more confidence practically every time! "Anna Kanary's Sales class was exactly what I needed! As someone with very little sales background and who struggles to close the deal with potential clients, this class gave me the format, confidence, clarity and momentum I needed to get out there and get more clients! Anna's expertise combined with her warmth makes this class not only exceptional but necessary...you will get more than you ever expected!" Sarah O. Bloomquist, Personal Life Coach, Innermost Coaching, innermostcoaching

Great franchise opportunities

If you are thinking of setting up a small business yet you are still unsure of what you exactly want to do or are scared to death of not being able to generate good business, then you must try looking into these franchise opportunities and choose the right one that will suit your taste and budget. An important factor to take in consideration is your ability to actually run your chosen franchise opportunity efficiently and successfully. One of the most popular franchise opportunity nowadays is the "EmbroidMe" franchise opportunity wherein you can create custom-made apparel as well as merchandise which has embroidery on it. EmbroidMe actually has the tagline, "Casually Dressing the World" in its retail showrooms wherein it aims to make their company known through all forms of medium, in corporate marketing programs as well as over the internet. EmbroidMe is outfitting their customers with creatively customized apparel not just for work but for play as well. They also offer all sorts of promotional merchandise as well as advertising specialty items. The catch point(s) of the EmbroidMe franchise opportunity are its sudden commercial boom. It’s a highly new and fresh revolutionary industry concept. This franchise opportunity's great and organized system allows the wonderful opportunity of being your own boss. You do not have to answer to anyone but yourself! According to Ray Titus, the president of the EmbroidMe company. They are looking for willing entrepreneurs who are dreaming of running and managing their own business but in spite of just having a small business, they are well provided with many benefits that a stable global company can offer them - not to mention, mass purchasing power as well as great advertising apart from the other possible additional help that your EmbroidMe franchise opportunity might be needing in the future. EmbroidMe offers full service embroidery as well as screen printing and other promotional products to its customers. The EmbroidMe "empire" actually now has over 250 stores all over the world and has been rated as #1 in the industry for four consecutive years as well as being one of the 50 fastest growing franchise opportunities according to Entrepreneur Magazine. When it comes to the EmbroidMe staff's training and support, a turnkey franchise the EmbroidMe company will actually assist in the demographic studies of the area that you want to put up your EmbroidMe franchise. A study on your site selection as well assistance on lease negotiations would be conducted. The EmbroidMe company will also coordinate with you for renovations that will be done on your store. This franchise opportunity will also provide an excellent 4-week training program for you and your staff. Not only that, this franchise opportunity will also assist you in conducting interviews, hiring and training prospective EmbroidMe employees since this is a service oriented franchise opportunity it is highly important that every employee must be able to comply and adhere to EmbroidMe's strict rules and regulations. The special features of this franchise opportunity are the following: turn key, absolutely no experience is needed, it is not a seasonal type of franchise opportunity, it is a business to business franchise opportunity, it needs only two employees and is a part of a $20 billion plus industry. Another hot franchise opportunity is the "SIGN*A*RAMA" franchise opportunity which is considered as the largest full service sign franchise in the whole world and has over 700 "SIGN*A*RAMA" stores in 30 countries while being rated as the #1 in the industry for 6 years running by Entrepreneur Magazine. Also headed by EmbroidMe's president Ray Titus, "SIGN*A*RAMA*" is just like EmbroidMe. "SIGN*A*RAMA*" is also looking for willing and able entrepreneurs who want to have their taste of being their own boss while having the incredible opportunity of being part of a well-known company. When you sign up for this franchise opportunity expect to receive the following premium features: when it comes to equipment, they have the full service sign centers wherein they make the most of computerized sign making technologies. The "SIGN*A*RAMA" Sign Center actually allows the customer to have a look at the draft of the sign that they wish to be made before it gets the "go-signal" for it be printed. This franchise opportunity will also assist franchisees in picking out their desired franchise location, their lease as well as in the marketing aspect of the business.