Want to Boost Productivity? Listen Up (Infographic)

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Looking to boost productivity at your franchise? The answer could be in the music.

In a new infographic from Superfi, they outline how different types of music can help boost productivity in busy workplaces.

For workers in a repetitive environment (such as, say, lawn & garden work or the kitchen of a fast food restaurant), researchers say there is a link between listening to music and increased efficiency.

On the other hand, work environments with an open-office, noisy area can be damaging to productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction. To combat this? Listening to music in headphones is linked to some workers completing tasks more quickly, and with better ideas.

In training and learning scenarios, however, music can be detrimental to absorbing and retaining information – so, it might be a good idea to cut it out just for then.

See the following infographic for the full details:


To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.

You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.

Small Businesses are Receiving More Financing

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The Federal Reserve just released a report documenting financing results for small businesses in 2015, indicating that approval rates for small businesses had gone up compared to 2014 levels.

The Role of Small Businesses

Small businesses have had a hard time since the financial crisis in 2008, as small firms depend more on access to financial capital from banks to fund their growth.  When credit dries up, the boost businesses receive from the credit markets slows and accelerates the economic downturn.  It’s important to remember, small businesses create two out of every three net new jobs and employ half of the private sector workforce according to Harvard Business School.  During the post-2008 economic recovery, small business lending took a long time to recover as lending rates declined 20% causing small business loans to drop from composing half of all loan volume to below 30%.  This credit crisis has slowed the recovery of an integral part of the economy.

Small Business Lending Comeback

The Federal Reserve’s credit survey for 2015 showed that financing rates for small businesses have been improving, with 79% of firms reporting being approved for some financing, and 50% being approved for all their financing needs. It seems that small banks are picking up a lot of the slack left by big banks reducing their lending volume to small businesses.  Small banks have 18% higher approval rates than big banks for small business loans, earning a customer satisfaction rating of 75 compared to a rating of 51 for large banks. 

Still a Long Way to Go

Unfortunately, the full financing needs of small businesses are not being met.  Business owners continue to report that managing cash flow is one of their top business challenges.  50% of financing applicants in 2015 had a shortfall in the amount of money they received, reporting that an insufficient credit history and collateral were the main reasons only part of their request was met.  Both large and small banks will have to increase their lending volume to meet the demands of American businesses.

Who Businesses are Turning to For Financing

Under these new conditions, small businesses are turning elsewhere to meet their financing needs.  20% of employer firms applied to online lenders, who have been lending money out with approval rates of 71%.  However, the satisfaction score they received from the businesses they lend to was only 15, much less than that of small and big banks.  Other businesses turn to credit cards for any financing needs.  The best place for small businesses to go to for any of their funding needs remains small banks, however, as they boast the highest approval rates, satisfaction ratings, and transparency ratings of any of the options.

To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.

You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.

Do You Fit the Small Business Mold? (Infographic)

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Being a small business owner isn’t for everyone – but is it for you?

In recent research conducted by Constant Content, they discovered some pretty interesting information about what small business owners are made of.

Small business owners are natural-born self-starters

Small business owners, they found, are natural-born self-starters who are mostly comfortable with being connected to their business the majority of the time.

They understand that vacations may not happen, and that much of their business’s revenue will stay tied up in the business.

Entrepreneurs are optimistic despite major challenges

On top of this, small business owners tend to have an unwavering optimism to help guide them through tough times. In fact, 65% surveyed expected for their business to be thriving within five years.

In terms of skills, small business owners are Jack-of-all-trades types, who must wear many hats to keep their businesses running smoothly. This was one of the things many pointed to as being a major challenge in owning a small business.

What keeps them interested? The perks of the job

But the perks? Being able to work in one’s passion, freedom, and flexibility.

See the following infographic from Constant Contact for more details:

What It Takes to Be a Small-Business Owner

To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.

You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.

Battle to Business: 5 Franchise Ownership Options for Vets

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No one type of franchise ownership is right for all; rather, it’s an individual fit.

For veterans considering franchising after the military, it’s important to really evaluate their options – how much time they want to invest, financing and capital, and market factors – before jumping into the franchise ownership game.

Becoming a franchisee is incredible rewarding for vets: it provides them with a systems-and-processes, team-driven environment just like in the military, and the opportunity for them to apply their military-honed skills to maximize business success.

Here are the 5 Franchise Ownership Options for Vets:

1. Single Unit. This is the most popular options for new military veterans, as it gives them the experience of owning a single franchise at a low start-up cost. With training provided by the franchisor (and financing options and veteran discounts available), this will allow you to hit the ground running in business as you learn to optimize business operations, sales and marketing, customer service, and more.

2. Existing Franchise. This involves purchasing an already-established franchise location from another franchisee. With this, it’s just like owning a single unit except you know what to expect from the franchise in terms of long-term sales, supply needs, and existing trends.

3. Multi-Unit Franchise. By investing in a multi-unit franchise strategy, you’ll negotiate a deal to open several franchises in a short amount of time. In order to ensure its success, you’ll need to hire top-end managers to optimize each location’s operations, and then delegate, manage, and track key objectives while overseeing all units.

4. Area Developer. Much like a multi-unit agreement – except on a much bigger scale – being an area developer involves opening even more franchise locations, often within a specific geographic area or zone. While this strategy involves a huge amount of start-up capital, it can allow you to penetrate the market quickly, establish the brand in the area, and significantly boost your earnings and success.

5. Master Franchise. A step above area developer, becoming a master franchise owner is like getting the key to oversee a huge amount of franchises while acting as an intermediary between individual franchisees and the franchisor. More specifically, you’ll collect fees from an entire region of franchisees but you won’t be the owner of the individual locations. This will come at a very large fee, however.

To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.

You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.

What Makes the Modern Team?

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How people work is changing.  Increasing emphasis is being placed on teamwork and cooperation between coworkers; today, MBA programs are filled with student teams, the expectation being that modern workers will need to manage team dynamics, collaborate across departments, stay in communication with other employees, and juggle all the new responsibilities workers have in the 21st Century.  But why do certain teams succeed and others fail?  It’s not as simple as throwing smart people together in the same room.  Proper team management requires appraising your employees’ values, skills, temperament, and more to create a team worth more than the sum of its parts.

Understanding Team Dynamics

Many companies are becoming obsessed with maximizing worker performance, and a key factor in productivity is inevitably tied to how employees contribute to a team’s output.  The rise of Big Data has provided powerful tools to minutely analyze what actually makes a high-performing team successful, and one of the most recent insights was just published in The Harvard Business Review.  They found that “the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50 percent or more” over the last two decades, with the majority of their time simply spent communicating with  colleagues.  The ability to work effectively with others is now one of the most important skills a worker can have, and managers should be working to make sure employees are placed in the right environment.

Many workplaces have rough heuristics for creating a successful team:  “match introverts and extroverts,” “don’t have too many strong leaders,” or “good friends make good teammates.”  But how can you be sure these are effective?  It turns out that a lot of ideas about how teams work are just plain wrong.  Two teams that are almost identical on paper (same backgrounds, personality profiles, and networks) can produce drastically different results.

The Reason Certain Teams Succeed

Researchers have settled on the idea that group norms have a large impact on a team’s productivity.  Group norms are the unwritten rules and behavioral standards that define a group’s behavior with each other.  For example, one team may have a culture that encourages vigorous debate before a decision is reached, and another may believe that sober discussion and agreement produces better outcomes.  These group norms end up overriding an individuals personal work preferences and can be a source of friction and stress.

So what norms end up being enforced by successful teams?  It may surprise you, as many different types of teams can be successful for different reasons.  A high concentration of smart, hard workers wasn’t the recipe; a more well rounded group often found ways to make up for individual weaknesses and adapt quickly to changes.  There were two main factors that indicated a team would succeed:  First, members of a successful team all spoke for approximately the same amount of time.  Each team member was provided opportunities to talk throughout the work assignment and have their opinion heard.  This creates feelings of value and responsibility for team members, enhancing productivity and job satisfaction.  Second, successful teams had a high average social intelligence; that is, they could tell what and how their teammates were feeling as part of the team. Low-performing teams often had members who weren’t sensitive to how their colleagues felt about their work or the team, leading to increased stress and inefficient outcomes.

How to Create Strong Teams

The main two factors are equal speaking opportunities and encouraging social sensitivity between team members, but there are some other indicators of success.  Making sure a team has clear goals is important, and so is creating an environment with a high degree of psychological safety and a culture of dependability.  Managers need to create teams that listen to each other and are there to support each other.  It doesn’t mean that work relationships become more than professional, but it does mean that giving your conduct at work a more personal touch could do wonders for your colleagues’ performance.  


The act of creating and managing teams has an outsized impact on the success of your business.  However, there are a lot of resources out there to help you succeed.  If you’re thinking of starting a business, becoming a franchisee is a great opportunity.  To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.  You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.

Empower Your Staff: Incentives & Ideas for Engaged Employees

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According to a poll by Gallup, 70 percent of American workers aren’t reaching their full potential, 52 percent are not engaged and 18 percent are actively disengaged. Gallup also estimates that disengaged employees cost the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity.

Engaging your employees is one of the biggest challenges and responsibilities of managers. But with your bottom line at risk, getting your staff to take ownership of their work and sales number is crucial. Motivate your team for success with a few key factors that could skyrocket their sales.

Empower Your Team to Succeed

Pressuring employees to hit goals and take more ownership of their sales numbers won’t do much without the right tools. Empower your team to succeed by giving them the technology and resources they need to complete tasks. For example, if your sales people need to take payments on the road, set up a mobile payment processor to close a sale on the spot. Take the time to listen to what your team needs from upgraded devices to new apps and customer relationship software. Ask your team members to write up a proposal on what they need and how it will affect their sales numbers. Letting your employees project their own success motivates them to execute.

Create an Incentive

Incentivizing your sales team for success takes more than just a pat on the back. Figure out what motivates your employees whether public recognition, a goal toward a promotion or the chance to work on a choice assignment. You can anonymously survey your staff to come up with an incentive program that works within your company’s goals, or ask each member independently what they want. Lay out your expectations of how your staff will work toward their incentives and create a schedule for how those incentives are given out.

Set Realistic, but Challenging Goals

Setting up impossible goals will only result in high turnover and stressed out employees. Create realistic sales figures that can be met within a specific period of time, but that are still challenging. Setting the bar too low can encourage employees to get complacent and opt for ease and mediocrity. Study their current sales figures and metrics to determine a realistic goal that stretches the employee outside their comfort zone.

Build in Checks and Balances

Blindly assigning goals without any adjustments to the finish line can drive down your sales. Regularly check on the progress of each rep and check-in to discuss new strategies and collaborate on tweaks as needed. Sales people who are lagging behind the team can use your scheduled check-ins and advice as an incentive to push forward and follow-through before your next meeting. Your team will see you as more than just a manager, but a leader with the ability to guide their success.

Publicly Recognize Their Work

Employees want to feel appreciated and that their work is valued to stay engaged. Keep your team integrated and involved in each other’s success by publicly recognizing their work. Instead of an Employee of the Month program, add the rep’s success to an upcoming newsletter or inter-office email. Take a moment in meetings to call out high-performing sales reps and compliment others who came up with solutions to challenges or dealt with a difficult client.

3 Strategies to Make Your Business More Secure

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Danger to your business comes in many shapes — a Verizon Data Breach Investigations study found that out of 855 data breaches examined, two-thirds of the attacks targeted small businesses with less than 100 employees. Ensuring that your business is safe and secure is critical to your success. Here a few strategies to adopt to make your operation as secure as possible:

Malware Protection

Every computer you use must be secured against cybercriminals, otherwise you risk having your most important data compromised. Or worse, you risk having your customers’ sensitive data compromised. Getting anti-virus software for your entire organization may seem daunting, but Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition offers a five-license pack to secure your business’ computers and servers from malware and other cyberthreats. Featuring a centralized management console, you can monitor the status of your firewall protection from any of the computers in your network.

Another option is Symantec TruScan Proactive ThreatScan, which provides protection from the newest viruses, spyware and malware by analyzing their behavior and identifying them before they are even in the system’s database. Take your virus protection seriously — the National Cyber Security Alliance points out that 20 percent of small businesses fall victim to some form of cybercrime every year and that more than half of them go out of business less than six months after an attack. For a small business, cyber security is an essential component of protecting yourself from harm, and it’s not worth the risk of going without.

Secure Backups

The concept of cloud data storage has changed the way businesses access their documents and collaborate, but cloud storage isn’t without its own risks. Cybercrime targeting customer data is dangerously prolific. This year’s data breach of health insurer Anthem compromised the Social Security information, birth dates, names and addresses of as many as 80 million customers, according to Infoworld. That’s why it is so important that you use a cloud data service that guarantees data security. For example, Crashplan offers 448-bit encryption to protect your data. Take your cloud storage as seriously as you do your anti-virus protection, and go with a cloud data service that makes security a top priority.

Portable Security

Security systems are a response to someone breaking into your business, and while they can discourage crime, they aren’t designed to help you catch criminals. Luckily, security monitoring has embraced the digital age and you no longer need to spend a fortune on a video security system. Instead, you can install a Logitech Alert 750i Master system equipped with webcams that can be monitored from a smartphone app. The bundle comes with a camera and the software necessary to monitor and record. With the Logitech Master System, you can receive real-time alerts directly to your smartphone or email if motion is detected on your property. And the built-in 2GB micro-SD card can store up to a week of video so you can review the footage or present it to the authorities if the unthinkable happens.

Why Video Marketing Is Vital for Your Business

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According to Cisco Visual Networking Index, consumer Internet video traffic is rapidly rising and will account for 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by the year 2019. This shows a 64 percent rise since 2014 with no signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, Media Post reports that mobile devices dominated views of Super Bowl 50 advertisements on YouTube, and 60 percent of the 330 million views came from mobile devices.

The numbers are clear. In order to compete in today’s marketplace, you need a video marketing strategy in place that’s also readily available and watchable on mobile devices. Need more convincing? Here’s a run down of why video can significantly impact the bottom line for your business and what to do next.

Video showcases your brand’s culture

You can write about company culture and engage with customers at length, but it still won’t properly translate without a video to show instead of tell. A spirited video of your company at work, emotional testimonials from clients and a behind-the-scenes look at employees at work speaks volumes more than a print campaign.

Brand culture videos help consumers forge a sense of trust and camaraderie with your company simply by giving them a visual view of what’s going on. For example, Amway features a video on its YouTube channel showing how its distributors spend their time away from the 9-to-5 work day and build up their businesses. Consumers can check back and watch more footage to dream of how their life would look if they owned their own business.

Video increases sales

Online retailer Stacks and Stacks reported that consumers who viewed one of their product videos were up to 144 percent more likely to add it to the cart than customers who didn’t.

Giving customers a chance to see products in action and moving in real time, even if it’s just being held or turned to show different features, provides a more realistic view. Instead of needing to come into your store or order your product to see if the photos do it justice, customers can view videos to get a closer look.

Social media is embracing video

YouTube spent years dominating video search, but other search engines and social media platforms are seeing a rapid conversion taking place.

For example, Facebook reports its daily video views doubled from 4 billion to 8 billion in a period of a few months. Video ads are also becoming wildly popular across social media and other online platforms alike, and particularly on mobile devices. YouTube reports the number of hours people spend watching videos on mobile is up 100 percent.

Companies jumping onto the video social media bandwagon are also seeing impressive results. Old Spice pitchman, Isaiah Mustafa, famously answers tweets by video on YouTube, driving consistent traffic across multiple social media platforms. Their videos are also the stuff of viral legend with its new Mom Song.

Video says much more than text

Businesses may feel intimidated to produce compelling videos that spark action, but in reality, they can be more effective at converting customer engagement than print alone.

According to an article by Forrester Research, a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. That’s certainly more words than you can ever put together in a single ad copy or white paper. Instead of potential customers having to figure out what you’re saying by digesting copy, they can see it quickly unfold by video.

Top 5 Success Secrets for Veteran Franchise Owners

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Veteran Franchise Success

Almost anyone can try to acquire financing and apply to own a franchise.

But for the most successful franchise owners, especially those with a U.S. Military background, finding the most success comes down to planning and executing on a level beyond what the average person is willing to do.

And that’s where veterans can thrive.

Drawing on their military-honed skills – and pairing them with newfound franchise success principles – they’re able to thrive, helping to ensure long-term success.

Here are the Top 5 Success Secrets for Veteran Franchise Owners:

1. Dedication and relentless commitment. Veterans are naturally committed, and pouring that commitment into their franchise is what will help make it prosper. That means staying committed, even when things are going a little off course; it’s your job to work tirelessly to get things back on track.

2. Set focused, attainable goals that make you work. Set goals for your franchise that make you wonder if you can achieve them. Whatever you do in goal setting, make sure they’re focused and in line with your overall business strategy and plans.

3. Solve problems that create efficiency. Most business owners put band-aid fixes on problems, which then return again. As a successful veteran franchise owner, however, you’ll not only solve problems, but you’ll implement efficiency improvements as a result to help minimize their impact on your business in the future.

4. Provide supportive, visionary leadership. The best franchise owners know that being right means being right, right now; in other words, they’re always looking for areas to improve. As a veteran, you can draw on your superior team leadership skills and help empower your teams to perform at optimal levels, all while planning new ways to improve your business.

5. Hiring, developing, and keeping the best talent. As an extension of your leadership skills, the best franchise owners hire, develop, and retain the top talent. This is necessary to ensure all systems and processes are fully optimized, which creates long-term profitability. Veterans possess superb teamwork and leadership skills – combine them together, in just the right way, and they’re on the road to surrounding themselves with the best people for the job.

To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.

You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.

Food for Thought: 5 Ways to Maximize Franchise Margins

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Profit margins can be tight in fast food franchises, and that’s why efficiency is key.

And efficiency can be found in all areas of the business – helping to drive profitability and growth, while ensuring long-term business success.

With inflation tied to food prices and more fresh produce in fast food franchises than ever before, finding more efficiencies – and maximizing them – is crucial to ensuring your investment pays off to the full extent.

Here are 5 Ways to Maximize Franchise Margins:

1. Negotiate (or renegotiate) the best supplier deals. Ensure your franchise has the best possible deals from local suppliers, by utilizing its purchasing power. How to do this? By opening more franchises in the region, or with partnering with other franchisees to ensure the cost of goods sold is at a highly profitable margin.

2. Optimize all franchise food promotions. Optimize your franchise’s specials and promotions by marking down the lowest-cost options at the highest margins. Some examples of this? Ice cream/smoothies, soft drinks, and simple sandwiches.

3. Choose a franchise with more low-cost, healthy options. The fast food industry is shifting to healthier options, so it’s crucial to stay on board with this trend – and invest in franchises who are doing this in the lowest cost, highest return way. Broth-based soups are a great example of this.

4. Evaluate labor costs and drive greater operational efficiency. This may be the oldest method around, but it works. By ensuring your team is operating as efficiency as possible, you can potentially reduce the number of staff without reducing quality of service, helping to drive your margins higher.

5. Creating greater value through greater prices. Are more people willing to pay higher prices for better quality food? Apparently so. The industry shift is continuing, and fast food franchises are being forced to adapt. Ensure you’re a part of a franchise that charges more for healthier options that don’t just cost more, but also provide greater margins and profits.

To learn more about entrepreneurship through franchising, attend our free monthly webinar, Franchise Ownership as a More Stable Career Path. The webinar is free, but you need to pre-register, which you can do online by clicking on the linked seminar title.

You may also register by calling 866-246-2884.