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Get Started in Franchising: Financing a franchise

by Kurt Illetschko

Investing in a franchise is probably the largest financial transaction you will ever undertake, and you will have to borrow money. In most instances, this money will come from a commercial bank but other sources of funding exist. Let’s look at these first.

Soft loan
This is a loan granted by a family member or personal acquaintance. It is usually unsecured and sometimes interest-free. This notwithstanding, some basic formalities should be observed. Unless both sides understand the terms of the loan, the lender may feel entitled to interfere in the running of the business. Alternatively, he/she may ask for the money back at a time when the business’s cash flow cannot support this. It is best, therefore, to have a loan agreement drawn up by a solicitor.

Grants and subsidised loans
From time to time, grants and subsidised loans become available. These are generally offered through small business support schemes operated by government agencies. In most instances, the borrower will have to satisfy the grantor or lender that the proposed business has economic merit and creates jobs. A reasonable own contribution will also be required.

Bank loan
This is the most accessible source of loan capital and many franchisors have lending agreements in place. Banks are generally keen to fund franchises because they know that franchisees of a reputable franchisor enjoy a head start in business. Basic lending criteria apply and a reasonable own contribution will be required.


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Get Started in Franchising: Teach Yourself

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Be a Great Entrepreneur: The power of negative thinking - "Never, Never, Never give up." The title is a quote from Winston Churchill.
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Be a Great Entrepreneur: What makes a happy entrepreneur? Live your future happiness today being who you want to be
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Be a Great Entrepreneur: Work–life balance When was the last time you:
had a fantastic night out with your partner?
spent some quality time with your family?
visited a gym?
Be a Great Entrepreneur: Business start-up A start up is the hardest way to make money as an entrepreneur. It is also the hardest to finance, the hardest to raise first sales. A start-up, by definition is unproven and very high risk.
Be a Great Entrepreneur: Networking Do any of the following apply to you?
Uncomfortable asking for money.
Hate prospecting or cold calling
Avoid selling if I can
Can get people excited about my offer but they never seem to buy from me.
Be a Great Entrepreneur: Finance for business - finance raising the better way If I said that you have to sell whatever it is that you do and make £10,000 and be paid in cash in the next four weeks, is it possible?
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Household name companies go bust.
Banks can and do run out of money
Base interest rates change (We have ranged from 17% to 0.5%).
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Improve Your Cash flow: Cash flow forecasting template There are a number of ways in which a cash flow forecast can be structured and much depends on the nature of the business and the format of the information available. The following is a typical format for a manufacturing business using typical terminology:
Improve Your Cash flow: Debt collection Debt collection is not the most attractive task for those running a business to carry out. It can be embarrassing, frustrating and often fruitless, but it is often the task that makes the difference between survival and bankruptcy. It is also a task that is often ignored or given to someone who has neither the skills nor the motivation to succeed.
Improve Your Cash flow: Investment Political spats over the years have shown that much depends on the definition of money spent; one person’s cost is another person’s investment and the impact of cuts is seen as different in each case.
Improve Your Cash flow: Discounted Cash Flow Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) is a technique that supports decisions to invest in projects that will provide long-term benefit. It is by far the most valid technique though it is relatively complex compared to other more simple methods, for instance the Payback technique which asks the key question – how long before we get our money back?
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Starting up What are the initial things to do when setting up your small business? First, write a profile of your likely customers, including their age range, spending power, location and how your product or service would match their needs. Then consider your competitors and decide where you differ from them and your own unique selling points (USPs).
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Small business advice Many organizations are eager to advise small businesses, including:
banks
the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP): www.dwp.gov.uk
the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS): www.bis.gov.uk
local authorities
local colleges.
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Funding If you need funding, first assess how much funding you can contribute yourself, perhaps through redundancy or from savings, without re-mortgaging your house. If friends and family lend you money, make sure the agreement between you is written up in a clear and business-like manner.
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Methods of trading Sole trader: This is for a one-person business. You do not need to register with any official body, but you do need stationery with your name and business address. You must inform the DWP that you are self-employed. You are personally liable for all your business transactions and debts.
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Law for small businesses Most small business law applies if you employ other people. However, there are some laws you must obey as a small business entrepreneur. The Trades Description Act requires you to offer for sale products or services which are fit for purpose. The Data Protection Act might apply if you maintain a database containing more then just names and addresses. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 must be followed if you work on other people’s premises.
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Book-keeping and accounting Book-keeping and accounting are two different and distinct aspects of financial transactions. Book-keeping is about ‘doing the books’, keeping strict and accurate records of all day-to-day transactions, doing VAT returns (if your turnover is £68,000 or more – 2009 figures) and paying wages if you employ others.
Set Up a Successful Small Business: Tax for small businesses Let your accountant handle your tax returns and all correspondence with HM Revenue and Customs; it will save you a great deal of time and, probably, money. The tax year runs from 6 April one year to 5 April the following year, irrespective of your company’s financial year. Your self-assessment returns must be in by 30 September if you want HM Revenue and Customs to calculate how much you owe. In any case your return must be in the following 31 January, or penalties will apply. Be honest with your accountant.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Trial balance The purpose of the trial balance is to help find any errors that need to be amended in order to be able to then go on to prepare the final financial statements, i.e. the balance sheet and the profit and loss account.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: The trading, profit and loss account The preparation of the trading, profit and loss account is carried out from the details listed in the trial balance, i.e. specifically the amounts which relate to the operating expenditure and operating revenues of the business
Basic Accounting: Balance sheets The purpose of the balance sheet is to set out the financial position of a business at a particular moment in time. It identifies the different forms in which the wealth of the business is held. The assets of the business are often listed first followed by the liabilities (i.e. financial obligations) of the business.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Ledgers In a small business all the double-entry accounts can be kept in one book, called a ledger. As a business gets larger more books would be required, entering similar types of transactions together. There would be a different book for each type, keeping dissimilar transactions separate. Sales would be entered in one book, purchases in another and cash in another.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Types of small business There are three main categories of business; sole trader, partnership and limited liability companies. Any of these three categories can however, be a small business.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Book-keeping principles In making book-keeping entries, we need to consider how each transaction has affected the business. In doing so, you may find it useful to think in terms of its sources and uses of funds
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Value added tax Many countries levy a sales tax which requires businesses to add a fixed percentage to the selling price of their goods and services on behalf of the tax authorities. In the UK, this is known as Value Added Tax (VAT) and the appropriate percentage (currently 17.5% for most goods and services) has to be accounted for to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Book-keeping for clubs, societies and charities In smaller ‘not-for-profit’ organizations, the basic objective will be to provide a record of the money that has been received and account for the way in which it has been spent – often nothing more than this is required so the accounting principles that are used can be fairly simple.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Cash flow Cash flow is often described as the blood of business, due to its importance in ensuring commercial survival.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Book-keeping history From approximately 4000 BC , the growth of trade led to a need for record keeping in the Mesopotamian river valleys. Findings dating from about 3300 BC indicate that Sumerian temple officials used wet clay tablets to record stocks and transactions. For example, landowners would record the number of livestock placed under the care of farmers with special clay symbols.
Close More Sales: Keep price breakdown information to yourself In a selling situation, a professional buyer will ALWAYS push you for price breakdown information, and the more you give them, the more they’ll use it against you! That’s why you should always keep price breakdown information to yourself.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Ask for a referral with every customer you meet After every sales visit, regardless of the outcome, if you can acquire the habit of asking a simple question just before you leave, you will be able to maintain a constant flow of high quality sales leads.
Close More Sales: Confirm every sales appointment with a PS letter or email Have you ever gone to an appointment that you had originally made by telephone, only to find that when you get there, the prospect is unavailable because they had forgotten about it? If so, then you’ll already know how frustrating it is - not to mention a complete waste of your valuable time! That’s why it’s always a good idea to make a point of confirming every sales appointment by letter or email, straight away.
Close More Sales: Make good use of the customer’s name People enjoy hearing the sound of their own name because it is distinctly personal. Indeed, in an increasingly impersonal world, perhaps it’s true to say that, in business these days, using someone’s name, remembering it and getting it right is more important than ever before.
Close More Sales: Use the ‘try before you buy’ close In a face-to-face selling situation, it usually proves to be an irresistible offer to let your prospects ‘try before they buy’ and enjoy the benefits of your product during a free trial period. Providing your product lends itself to his idea, it’s a great way to reduce sales resistance, and give your product the chance to sell itself.
Close More Sales: Exercise your expertise power As an experienced professional salesperson, the chances are you know more about your industry, your market, your competitors and your products and services than just about any other person alive – and don’t forget, that includes your buyers! The fact is, you are an expert, and let’s make no mistake about it, during the course of a sale that expertise is a powerful persuasive force.
Close More Sales: Harness print power The fact that something is printed tends to enhance its believability. It has a kind of built-in authority that the spoken word or handwritten materials just cannot match.
Close More Sales: Pay unexpected attentions Giving ‘unexpected attentions’ is the simple idea of delighting your customers by sending them a little something from time to time – something that’s totally unexpected.
Close More Sales: Use pre-printed telephone inquiry pads There are a number of benefits to using telephone inquiry pads. Quite apart from ensuring that you always come across as highly professional whenever answering the telephone to a new prospective customer, over time it provides a source of information that is crucial to your ability to evaluate the effectiveness of your promotional activities.
Close More Sales: Explore the buyer’s personal interests Always go beyond just finding out what buyers need and want and try to uncover any underlying personal motivations too. In effect, the personal interests of the buyer often represent a ‘hidden agenda’ which is potentially the most powerful of all information for the salesperson.
Get Started in Franchising: Legal aspects of franchising Franchising is a complex arrangement and the franchise agreement needs to reflect that. Many prospective franchisees are shocked to find that it runs into 70 pages or more but this is necessary. Unlike most other agreements, the franchise agreement covers a myriad of different transactions that are closely interlinked.
Get Started in Franchising: Who owns what in a franchise? Questions asked frequently at franchise seminars indicate that this topic is surrounded by confusion. It’s quite simple: The franchisor owns the intellectual property while the franchisee owns the business infrastructure. What does this mean?
Get Started in Franchising: What is the best franchise? People ask me this question all the time but unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. The best I can hope to do is to tell you how it works in practice.
There is no such thing as ‘the best franchise’. If it would exist, everyone would invest in it, the market would become oversaturated and it wouldn’t stay the best franchise for very long. The human factor comes into play as well.
Get Started in Franchising: International franchises People go on holiday, see some exciting concept and want to take a franchise back home. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as straightforward as that. Franchisees are entitled to receive a business package that has been tried, tested and proven to work – in their market! Unless the foreign company has representation in your home country, granting you a franchise would be outright irresponsible.
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