If you own your own independent business, there are two organizations that hopefully your are already aware of. They are doing great work promoting small, locally owned independents by promoting community and government involvement. It takes all of us, working together, to improve our communities and the local business environment.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses helps individual business owners with planning, taxes, and legislative matters. They have representatives in all 50 states and in D.C. I visit their site often for advice and articles. I guarantee that you will find several useful items of information within their site.
The American Independent Business Alliance, based in Bozeman, MT, promotes independents buy helping business owners form IBAs, or Independent Business Alliances. These alliances in turn promote community involvement, the best example being the annual America Unchained Day, which takes place every November, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. They show their communites the power of "putting your money where your house is".
I urge all independent business owners to join NFIB and look into starting an IBA. I am in the process of doing both. We need to team up for our communities and independent business owners.
Make a difference as a consumer as well. You do have choices. A good place to start is by watching Independent America, a documentary about a married couple searching for Independent America and filming the results. It's a real eye-opener.
Promoting Independent Businesses
Converting Independent Business To Franchise
In recent times there has been the prevalence of conversion of independent businesses in same industry into franchise units. This has fostered the rise and growth of a number of franchise systems. Now the question that arises in the minds of all businesspersons is that whether considering franchise is gainful. While venturing into franchise the pros and cons of it need to be adjudged properly. Only then can you, the businessperson, proceed towards conversion of your independent businesses to franchise. There are both advantages and disadvantages of conversion of your business into a franchise.
By this conversion you may get a considerable marketing advantage if you are associated with an established brand. This is especially so if the brand has a national or regional significance. Leading brands automatically drive in more customers and thus more profits. Again, a significant purchasing power savings is obtained by being associated with a large system having a much better bargaining power than a single independent operator. Besides, by changing over to franchise the benefits of an operating system of a concern of choice, which is tested and proven by many other operators to have produced the highest possible level of success in business, is obtained.
There are also some disadvantages lying in converting independent business to franchise. Fees and operational flexibility pose as important drawbacks. A converting franchisee requires paying both initial and ongoing fees. These are the fees that represent the expenses, which are not incurred by an independent operator. So, it is pointless to opt for the franchise unless the increased projected revenue, cost savings and profitability will more than offset the fee costs. Again, a franchise system has many rules based on which a franchise business is to be run some of which may seem uncomfortable. This is not the case in independent business.
In order to evaluate the prospects of conversion the franchisor may conduct a business review of the existing operation and inform the prospective franchisee of the key charges required in conversion. In this way the benefits that will accrue to the operator upon converting can be listed. Thus, a wise decision can be taken upon consideration of the profitability prospects.