You have just started in your new franchise. You completed the training with flying colours, and you are confident that success is just around the corner. It has to be doesn’t it?

So often I see new franchisees thinking that because they’re part of a franchise network, the systems and the brand will do it all for them. This level of thinking is quite common and blows me away every time I hear it.

Perhaps you have been in your franchise for just a few weeks, or perhaps more than a few months and the initial rush and buzz has wound down and it’s starting to become more challenging than you thought it would be. You are possibly now thinking more business, increased profits and more free time would be nice. So how do you achieve that? How do you guarantee your success, how do you ensure long term sustainable success?

If your franchisor could wave a magic wand and suddenly change something about your business what one thing would you have them change? Would you have them provide you with an easier way to contact more, better qualified prospects,
and would you want those prospects as well as your current customers to view you as even more of a professional, or maybe even an expert in your field?

Perhaps you run a retail business and you would like to be a more effective sales
person and deliver more superb customer service. Perhaps you are in a service based business where you would like to be a more effective presenter, or more effective at closing sales or handling objections. Or is repeat business more important to you?

The list of questions could just go on and on. As a Franchise Coach I am often asked all these questions and more. In a nutshell people want to know how they can be more successful. How can they get more out of their franchise that they have either just bought, or have been running for a while. The systems show you how to run the business and that’s great. What can you do though, to take your business to higher levels and beyond?

The key point to make right here is the only person who should be responsible for waving the magic wand over your business is you. Sure you have bought a franchise and that should make you instantly successful right? Well not really. There are a few other ingredients you need to mix with the proven franchise system and the tools that your franchisor has given to you to make things the way you want them to be. Your goals for your business will always be different to another franchisee in your network, so it’s important to look at the other ingredients and combine them with the tools provided to create the ultimate success you not only desire, you deserve.

Throughout this article I will be discussing some areas and other factors that are critical for you to realise real business success. We will explore some of these key areas that you can begin to put to use immediately to help you improve the results in your business and your life. I could write a book on this topic so these key areas will get you started and perhaps look out for the book in the New Year, I might just have to write one. Take these general ideas and start focusing on those areas in your business.

For more comprehensive information on how to be more successful in your business feel free to email me for more information.

Start With The Right Mindset

Whether you make it or not in business, success comes down to one fundamental
characteristic, one vital ingredient. That ingredient is you must have a mindset of a successful business person. Study successful people if you have to. Look at the greats and what characteristics they had that kept them on track, that kept them persevering through the hard times and driving them forward in the
good times. If you don’t have the right attitude and the nose for business you will struggle.

Changing Our Thoughts

We all have thoughts. Everything you have done from birth to this moment is based on thoughts. It’s these thoughts that control us
and affect the way we feel. Over time these feelings create your belief systems, which include your feelings about “who you are” and “what your place is in the world.” These can be negative or positive. Our feelings and beliefs are what determine our actions. We tend to act consistently with the beliefs we have developed over time.

So our thoughts, create our beliefs, which then determine our behaviour. It is then our behaviour which determines the actions we take and it’s the actions we take which determine our results in life and business be that positive or negative.

If you want to develop your own freedom and personal responsibility for your life and business success, it’s important to make a conscious decision to do so.

The Business You Are In

If you do not take anything else from this article, remember this…
You are in the Sales & Marketing Business. Until you completely understand this, your business will be no better than, or no different to, any of the other choices your prospects and customers can select to do business with.

There are more and more franchised brands coming to play in the market, so it’s vital to understand that you are not in the business of selling coffee or making burgers or cleaning pools or mowing lawns. You are in the sales & marketing business. It’s what your product or service does for the customer and not the actual product or service itself.

The marketplace you operate in is so fiercely competitive, so cutthroat, and so unforgiving that you absolutely must do something to differentiate yourself from your competition. It could be just that little something you do to make the customer feel they belong with your company. Remember your customers names, offer that little extra, invite them to come back and make them feel welcome are just a few ideas. How many times have you done business with someone who really doesn’t make you feel welcome at all. Do you go back… No. Why would you?

Taking Action Makes the Difference

Most people I talk to they believe that knowledge is power! I believe they are only half way there with this statement. Only Applied Knowledge is Power. It’s not what you know it’s what you do with what you know that counts! Start Today, Take Action not just in your business. Take Action in your life as well.

Goal Setting

In order to take Action you need to know where you are headed. Success requires Goals! Some laugh at the old saying: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Maybe you think goal setting is not that important. I urge you to Think Again!

Clearly defined goals and strategy are the single most important structure in long-term effectiveness, profitability and sustainability in your business. They need to be constantly revisited, refocused, and re-shared with those who implement it in the real world.

If you are too busy to spend time with your strategy, you are too busy to succeed and will ultimately fail. You only have to look around at others who have failed this lesson.

Focusing on one’s goals helps make business enjoyable, and lessens that feeling of being torn apart at the seams. After all life should be fun and enjoyable. When you have a direction and a plan then you don’t have to worry about so many unknowns. The benefits of goal setting are enormous, and there are meaningful values to be gained from practical goal setting. Goals direct us, they help us achieve higher results, because they are focused on results. Just remember: your goals should be SMART goals.

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.

Eliminate Procrastination

It’s a word that we all understand from first hand experience. In business, procrastination costs time, money and sometimes the goodwill of a customer or a fellow worker. So how can we stop putting off what we need to do? Sometimes a task or a project seems mind boggling. Plot it out on paper to make it more manageable. Break the project into smaller chunks. Decide on a deadline to complete each task and block in time on your calendar to do it.

As you jot down your project schedule, figure out your most productive work hours. Set aside at least a couple of hours at your best time of day to grab the project by its horns. If you work in an office, you are probably interrupted an average of every six to nine minutes. So, put a note on your door saying “quiet time” and ask your staff not to interrupt.

Keep these tips in mind. Don’t just plan. Start NOW. Do something, anything, to get the project going. Work at least ten minutes and chances are, you will get involved and keep working Furthermore you might finish sooner than
you think.

The Most Profitable Thing You Can Do In Your Business

Follow Up With Your Current And Past Customers With An Unrelenting Vengeance

The most effective, the most cost-efficient, the most profitable thing you can do in your business is to create a database of your current and past customers and follow up with them. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate system, plan or strategy and it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune either, it does have to be well thought-out, planned and tailored to the unique wants of your customers if you want it to be overwhelmingly successful.

This one strategy is the most overlooked, yet most effective marketing tool you have in your “toolbox” for getting your customers – current or past – to buy from you more often, extending their buying lifetime with you and getting them to refer others to you.

Closing The Back Door
How to Keep Your Customers For Life!

For the most part, your financial and business success is largely dependent on two factors:

1. The amount of income you receive, and
2. Your ability to control expenditures.

The first factor, your ability to generate income, is perhaps, the most important
activity you can pursue on a daily basis.

Income, or the amount of money your business takes in, makes everything in your
business possible. The creation of revenue dollars for your business can be divided into two sections:

1. The acquisition of new business, and
2. The retention of existing business.

The retention of, or reselling to existing customers is much more profitable than
acquiring new customers. It is far easier to sell additional products or services to existing customers – people who already know you, like you, and trust you, than it is to new prospects.

The average business spends six times more to attract new customers, than it does to keep its existing customers on the books.

So Why Do Customers Quit?

It seems almost futile for a business to spend the time, effort and money to bring a thousand or more new customers in the front door each year, only to lose nearly that many out the back door. Yet that scenario is all too often experienced by too many businesses each year.

Why is it that so many people leave one business, and begin trading with another?People who, at one time were so happy with the company, business, advisor, or
salesperson they dealt with, the product or service they purchased, or the price they were paid for it, but left to go somewhere else and start up an entirely new relationship with another salesperson and company. Why do people do that?

The correct answer to that question is critical, and will pinpoint the problem.
Once identified, you can begin to develop a solution. Your implementation of that
solution will determine the amount of your renewal or repurchase income.

A survey on “Why Customers Quit,” revealed some interesting statistics:

• 3 percent move away
• 5 percent develop other friendships
• 9 percent leave for competitive reasons
• 14 percent are dissatisfied with the product
• 68 percent quit because of an attitude of indifference toward the customer by the owner, manager or some employee.

Start getting feedback from your customers, perhaps have a questionnaire they can fill out, start measuring the numbers. What ever you do though make it a point to call and follow up your existing customers and ask them for their
feedback. This will show your customers that you care and take their comments seriously.

Where to from here? As I said earlier in this article this is a topic that I could write a book on. You have been exposed to just a few areas that are available to help you become more successful. Ultimately it’s up to you. Just
being exposed to them is not enough. You must do something with them.

Start planning, take action and you will be amazed at your results.