Franchises and Still Trying to Sell

Franchises and Still Trying to Sell

Alas another week have come and gone and the end of the quarter is nearing.  This week was a very informative one about franchises.  I have thought about them in the past as I have met quite a few owners of them and for the most part, they seem happy and wealthy.  I only wonder if they would be even wealthier if they had just invested the time and money into something else. I guess the grass could always be greener if you know where to look. I also enjoyed Elder Robbins’ talk about making a living and life and how our motivations should be pure and not solely to get gain.  In my industry it is easy to lose focus as I work with money all time and I see all the cool toys and fancy houses that people have and it is hard not to want what they have.  What I have to do is to take a step back and realize that they have been accumulating wealth their entire life and I have only been working at it for a decade compared to their 5 decades or more.  This week for the $100 challenge I was able to get people to try some of my products during the holidays and was able to sell 16 bars at $2.00 a bar. Now I am at $72 of the $100 I need and I only have a few weeks left! Wish me luck! 

Building a Business

Building a Business

Well folks, another week has come and gone way too quickly and this week was especially busy for me as I had to travel to California for a training on trusts for my work.  The training was great and actually gave me great information on how using trusts and business succession planning can help entrepreneurs a lot more than they know.  I enjoyed the reading about Burt's Bees this week and how it was built from the ground up by two people that society would have not bet on to succeed.  That tells me that anyone can become a successful entrepreneur if you are willing to put in the effort.  For my $100 business, I was unable to sell any addition products this week but did reach out to some potential buyers and I am hoping that something will pan out next week.  It is not easy working full time, taking four classes, being an executive board member in my daughter's school and trying to run a business and having a family all at the same time but I find it is fun for me and I love a challenge.  I wonder how bored I will be when I am finally done with all of my education plans. :)  Maybe there will be more non-profit boards I can sit on.  

Making Money and Managing Employees

Making Money and Managing Employees

Well, another week has come and gone, all too quickly I might add.  This week has been great in that I have learned a lot about starting a company and what is an effective way to do that.  I was really impressed by Jet Blue's story and also the article we read based on the results of over 1,400 companies.  I found out that the key to success is constantly doing the right things, all the time.  It sounds simple but if you think about it, you will see that a lot of companies will try and do many things but they do not always do the right things and that is why they may fail or not be as successful as others.  I hope that if I am ever in a capacity to lead a company, that I will be able to use what we have learned here to do a great job.  What is awesome though, is that I can use what I have learned in my profession and it will and has helped me immensely.  

This week for the $100 challenge I have my first order in!! It is for 20 bars at $2 a piece from a friend that will feed them to her family for breakfast as they are a busy household with not a lot of time to prepare a nutritious breakfast.  So that makes $40 of the $100 I need to make for this assignment done! Maybe I'll get the rest by end of next week. 

Leadership and Selling

This week has been a bit stressful but full of great opportunities to learn and grow.  The articles that I have read and videos I have watched have taught me a lot.  I have found that my style of leadership is the best, and that I would make a great leader.  I have also learned that even though I am not an actual "manager," I am a manager in that I have people that I work with and in that I manage how we work together, and that they look to me as a leader to learn from.  I am not as turned away as I used to be about managing people, so if the opportunity presents itself in the future, I will actually consider it now.  As for the $100 business, it has not been as easy I thought it would be.  For me, finding the time to market my product has been the most difficult but I think I may have found a great vendor to sell my product through.  They are friends of ours that own two convenience stores in the area.  I need to figure out what the state requires me to do in order to legally sell my product in their stores.  Hopefully it is not too much as I don't have a lot of time left.  I was hoping to make my first sale this week but so far, not yet.  Maybe next week. 

Organizing and Directing

Another week has come and gone and this week contained a lot of important information for running a business.  I really enjoyed reading in the E-Myth about how I can create and define the roles of the employees in a company so that anyone that comes into that role will only need to read a manual and have some training and will be able to perform the job exactly as the business needs them to.  I also enjoyed learning about how create more loyal employees and how to be more loyal myself to my employer.  There are many moving parts to running a business and it always seems as if there isn't enough time in the day to get it all done.  This week for my $100 business project, I decided that I wanted to test the products of my competition to see what they taste like and how they are marketing their product.  I discovered that there really is a gap in market for a really great tasting breakfast bar, as even the really expensive bars still tasted like cardboard.  With this knowledge, I will be able to speak more confidently to prospective customers about the quality of my product and how they will not be disappointed.  I have also decided, based on the readings, that I will offer new customers a money back guarantee that if they do not like the product, I will refund all of their money. I think with this knowledge I will be able to be much more successful. Next week I plan on making my first sales! Wish me luck!