Franchise opportunities bring many entrepreneurs into the world of small business. Many people hunger for the success of many franchise owners - and overlook the failure of many who try.

By definition, a franchise is “a business system in which private entrepreneurs purchase the rights to open and run a location of a larger company.” McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack ‘n the Box, right? Yes, but the franchise world is bigger than fast food restaurants. It includes convenience stores like 7-Eleven, hotels like Hampton Inn, hair stylists like Cost Cutters, and plumbers like Roto Rooter.

Depending on the franchisor’s requirements, the franchisee boards the brand name ‘success train’ in exchange for upfront money and a percentage of revenues thereafter. The business owner (franchisee) receives training, supplies, product, advertising, and a range of support systems – just about everything to make the franchise work. Yet, there are downsides.  Among them, the franchisee surrenders independence. The franchisor has invested big bucks in development and is not about to let a first time entrepreneur run it into the ground. Again, depending on the franchisor, the franchisee can expect a complicated, multi-faceted contractual relationship.

Interestingly, there are a number of franchises available for start-up at reasonably accessible costs. For example, Entrepreneur lists 50 “low-cost” franchise opportunities. Among the 50 companies listed, there is a wide range of franchise fees, royalty fees, length of agreement, and so on. Additionally, there is a variety of expectations, cash on hand demands, and net worth demands. You would be well advised to work with an attorney specializing in this arena and to examine the nature of support and training in meticulous detail.

One thing I should bring to your attention to is the nature of the franchises on the list. Almost all of the 50 are service franchises, some of which can be run from home. Almost all of them address lifestyle issues: home/office cleaning services, tax preparers, exercise classes, training lessons, carpet cleaners, travel agencies, landscape maintenance, and pet care. In fact, seven of the top 10 are commercial or residential cleaners. These choices reflect an economy that assumes a future where consumers will be employed. These future consumers will look to keep up their homes and businesses.  These are conservative spenders who are less likely to eat out or sleep over at a franchise, but who are more likely to spend on home improvement and self-development.

Such opportunities are loaded with concerns that are subtle and not apparently part of the upfront costs. For example, your research has to determine the reputation for support from the home office; such support is part of your purchase, and if it isn’t there, you have been scammed. Upfront costs and royalties are intangible until you run the numbers, so get a fix on how this rolls out. Franchise contracts are usually unilateral and favor the franchiser; make sure you can live with those implications. Also, make sure you can meet and exceed the high productivity requirements. Finally, only you can figure out how long you are willing to owe your royalties and loyalties – to “the company store” – without resentment. If you don’t like the arrangement now, your sentiment is unlikely to change in the future.

No graduate business school fully prepares you for the real work of entrepreneurship and small business ownership.  Studying theory, managing numbers, and examining quality processes can only give you the background necessary for what the real world dishes out.

So, while there are good arguments for continuing education, most business and management schools do not have a small business focus. They neither appreciate nor share the daily pressures that we know as small business life.   Here are three areas many business and management schools fall short:

1. Your skill set must be broad and deep.

Despite what you read and have been told, it takes more than hard work. Think about it: when you are an employee, you are responsible for one area of thought and operation, but as a business owner, you have to know about each and every corner and aspect of the company and its operation.

You must have practical skills, like the operating of office machines, phones, word processing, and spreadsheets. You need to know software, such as office, accounting, and tax software. You must master the ins and outs of your production, shipping/receiving, and customer service. You have to be on top of purchasing, supply chains, and billing. You’ll want to know personnel and payroll laws as well as risk management. Even if you delegate some functions, you need to know costs, overhead, compliance, accounting, and so on.

Solution: Be your own best critic. Know what you can do and can’t. Hire the advice you need and study as you grow. The “need-to-knows” can be daunting, but you are better off going into the business with a full awareness of what you don’t know.

2.  The marketplace is not friendly.

The free enterprise system puts you into market competition. You’re entering a world where other businesses want your customers and may not be friendly about it. It may be one thing if you are the only candy store on the county square, but most businesses competitors would rather you were not in the picture.

Be prepared for price wars, false claims, and downright personal attacks. With some stamina and character, you can weather shady practices. You are well advised to avoid the dogfights and foul play, and to focus on your quality and customer service.

Solution: Customers can be selfish. They will shop for price and move their business at a whim. You need to determine their purchasing motivation and be there to meet them with what they want. Structure customer loyalty by frequent contact, promotion advantage, and response to feedback. Build partnerships with your customers, so that their self-interest is in your interest as well.

3. Small businesses cannot afford debt.

Income does not begin the day you open the doors. From before the doors open to well after, money is scarce and start-up costs are high. You have to pay to get it running, and you have to expense the search for new customers. So, you find yourself hurting more than your competition all the while you are bringing in less.

Add, as I would suspect, the necessary costs of supporting your family and household, and debt can be tempting. Trouble is that debt is another expense – interest as well as principal payments. In fact, debt is usually collateralized with something you cannot afford to lose.

Solution: Don’t borrow to start a business – without fully understanding the implications. The more you borrow, the more you reduce your chance for success.

Now, you may find such things discouraging, but I hope not. I am more anxious to see people enter into business ownership with their eyes wide open. Too many small businesses fail despite the hard work of their owners. Proceed with eyes wide open:  hard work is not enough!

The Khan Academy is a non-profit organization with a mission to bring free world-class education to anyone anywhere in the world.  So, what does it mean to the small business owner?  Think “Finance.”

We can all use the occasional “brushing up” on our financial knowledge and skills.  In fact, most entrepreneurs didn’t get into their position by majoring in finance or related fields. I think the Khan Academy affords a great opportunity to learn about financial skills for the non-finance type.

For example, look at the inventory of 24,000 videos currently posted:  Core Finance, Banking and Money, Valuation and Investing, and Venture Capital and Capital Markets.  Yours for the asking, and all for free.

Do not expect glossy videos with high production values. (When he started, Khan used to record the videos in a closet at home.) However, they are illustrated on a blackboard like screen with color accents in simple language and visuals that seem to stick with you. Some of the courses fall in sequence, but one of the values is that the study is self-paced.

The videos are exercise-based, but the value is here is in the trial-and-error learning. You learn fast – or you don’t – and, then, you move on. The retention comes from this process; it deepens you understanding, even if you stumble on solutions.

Parents should check out the website for free videos of 15 – 20 minutes in length that tutor your child on all levels of math, most levels of science, and even a few in Art History, Civics, and History. As founder, Sal Kahn, says, “It doesn’t matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology, The Khan Academy’s materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.”

The inventory of courses includes a huge number of math lessons, statistics, and SAT Preparation lessors. It includes tests you can self-administer, and it offers courses in lessors on Humanities you might just have a curiosity about. But, keep an eye on the growth in courses related to small business and small business management.

Grovo is a small, business friendly online training program. A hub for web users, Grovo trains people in the latest ins and outs of social media and other sites – all at no or low-cost, depending on your preferences.

You’ll find easy-to-follow videos on navigating social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as more challenging sites like Google Analytics. It offers self-paced courses for employees with certificates awarded on completion.

Enroll for a free three-day trial, or sign up for $9 per month. (Special programs for larger or more directed business applications run to $190 per month.)

Grovo is a timely innovative idea  promising big things. Check it out at www.grovo.com. You’ll find an extensive list of sites served and courses offered. Grovo writers and voices have created a university of videos, lessons, quizzes, and glossaries. Videos and materials demonstrate high quality, well done, production standards.

The system sets up a personal dashboard from which you can customize and follow your progress to become more proficient in use of sites that promote or manage your business

Grovo begins with a survey (some may find too narrow) that asks you to choose a category:

• Social Media include Facebook, Quora, Twitter, and others.
• Productivity has sites such as BasseCamp, Google Docs, Mint, and more.
• Online Marketing navigates Craigslist, GoDaddy, Facebook Pages, and similar tools.
• Web Essentials over Chrome, Skype, Firefox and related sites.
• Shopping offers courses in eBay, PayPal, and Amazon.
• Entertainment takes you through Yelp, YouTube, Opentable, etc.

 Grovo lists course title and duration. The structure of courses is well planned and easy to follow, and I can recommend Grovo, especially to business owners who, frankly, are lost when it comes to the technology overwhelming them and waste time hunting and pecking their way around sites that are less than intuitive.

 I also think it is a great tool for training employees to a consistent skill set. How many of your new hires claim a competence that you find they exaggerated? By assigning them to Grovo training, you can follow their progress and be satisfied in a certificated outcome.

 What’s the downside? Well, some people find the content to be weak. The scripts sometimes sound like the website’s own public relations. Perky, upbeat, and filled with buzzwords, they are often superficial, failing to drill down into definitions or navigation steps.

 Users with a higher level of experience and expertise may find their training needs better served by www.lynda.com, But, more about that at a later date!

Entrepreneurs differ from wannabe entrepreneurs in one significant way: they take action. Inertia is the first cousin of fear. Doing nothing accomplishes just that. I think part of this is because people interested in changing course think they have to make huge, drastic leaps and that is terrifying to most of us. But looking around at your business, your career, your relationships or life in general and correcting course in one small way is doable-and can lead to change, sometimes even big change.

Failure is inevitable, but in many ways, so is success. Life is cyclical. The question is

are you noticing small successes when you make a change?

Ask yourself “How would I know that I was on the right course? What small moments might indicate that I am on the right path?” If it is career and you volunteered for one project, you might think you were on the right path if you got noticed or mentioned for your contribution. But would you notice the new contacts you made that might pay off five years in the future? If it is business and you want to increase your marketing reach and you tasked an employee with taking out one small online ad, but attracted no new customers, would you appreciate the fact that your employee gained new knowledge?

Successful people take risks and fail-and fail again and again. But they ACT. They do. All major companies can point to a significant failure. Major inventors and innovators have ridiculous stories of projects that were doomed, but that later morphed into something they never expected that was wildly profitable. Had they not failed the first time, they would have never made it to point b or c.

Look at your relationship with your most difficult supplier. What small change could you make (not him) that could improve that relationship? Do you dream of having more time off? What small risk could you take to move closer to that (investigate hiring a part-time virtual assistant, scale back the size of your home/yard, talk to your boss)? Doing nothing won’t get you there. Trying and failing and then trying again are far more likely to get you where you want to be.

I’d love to hear examples of your own trying and failing. What unexpected event occurred because of your own small risk?

So you want to own a small business and funding is in the way. We’ve looked at reducing auto expenses, higher education costs and learned all about paying less than retail. But isn’t there a discouraging underlying message in all of this? We don’t question anything and instead, we buy…and buy some more.

Funny to think of how early George Carlin caught on to this troubling trend. This video was from 1986 but the original skit came years earlier. There are over 32,000 storage unit companies (companies-NOT units!) in the US as of 2011 whose only focus is in providing us additional room for our stuff. The average unit is between $50-$100 per month and many individuals forget or abandon the stuff that was important enough to warehouse. This doesn’t include an entire industry built on “organization”. How much stuff is enough and how much is simply too much? Seems like it is too much if you have to pay to store it or buy lots of storage products.

So why do we care?

     Because every time you make a spur-of-the-moment purchase, you make a choice- a choice between the unnecessary and YOUR DREAMS.

You know what is most disturbing? We aren’t any happier-despite bigger houses, multiple cars, better education, dining out and technology. None of that has equaled contentment. And isn’t that what all of this is about-entrepreneurship, freedom, autonomy, small business ownership? We dream of these things because we are pursuing happiness. And stuff has been proven, time and time again, to just not do it. And in fact, the inability to let go of our clutter can stress us out or turn into a full blown mental illness.

Before you spend another dollar on a “thing”, take some time to ask yourself: will this purchase move me any closer to my dreams?

Some additional reading for you:

Authentic Happiness

Lighten Up: Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less

University of PA’s Happiness Project (assessments, research, scales)

At this point in our series, you may be wondering what some of this has to do with small business mentoring. Don’t! For many people who dream of starting a small business, money is the thing that stands in the way.

There are two ways of dealing with a cash shortfall: make more or SPEND LESS.

Americans are notorious consumers and, thus, I want to help you be smarter with your outgoing cash flow so you can make small business ownership, or any other dream requiring money, come true!

After your housing, your car is generally your next largest expenditure (and symbol of success). Many of us are still managing purchasing and maintaining vehicles by rules that made sense 20-3o years ago. This is a costly mistake. With car financing rates so low, it is tempting to purchase a new car even when it isn’t necessary.  No one wants to deprive you if you can afford a new car that you are eyeing, but too often it is an impulse purchase. Here are some things to consider:

• Consider only buying used. A new car depreciates instantly and rapidly.
• Leasing is OUT. Read Clark Howard’s information on leasing a car. He doesn’t have anything good to say.
• This isn’t 1980, folks. Newer (1990′s and newer) vehicles will last 200k miles or MORE.  Save money and keep your car for an extra 50, 000 miles or more.
• Proper maintenance can do amazing things. 2.8 million miles? It has been done.
• Oil changes and tune-ups are not required as frequently for vehicles 10 years old or younger. The NY Times announces it isn’t necessary to change your oil every 3000 miles. Here’s some info on tune-ups and other ways we waste money on our vehicles.
• With gas hovering around $4/gallon, how you drive is critical to saving money.
• Ask yourself which would make you prouder (and be smarter): driving a car further that is fully paid for or spending $500+ dollars per month on a rapidly depreciating product.  Check your ego at the door and drive smart!
• Consider trying for a shorter work week or take public transportation one day (or more) each week.

Look. If you are a car aficianado and it is a passion, that’s one thing. Save for and buy the car of your dreams. But stop worrying about what you “should” drive and drive your vehicle longer and smarter. Invest those savings in your small business or other dreams!

University degrees are not the only option for building wealth and a business or career path. In the spirit of questioning everything, let’s look at some alternatives to a traditional university degree. 

Vocational and Technical Education(aka “vo-tech”): Many of today’s best paying jobs are in technical or medical fields. One of the issues new college grads face when going into the work world is a lack of real world work experience. For many young people and those pursuing new careers, 1-2 years of vocational education is a wise choice compared to college, especially when they aren’t sure what they want to do. From HVAC repair to welding, surgical technology to practical nursing, you can get an affordable certificate or associates degree that pays a higher-than-average starting wage.

WARNING: Your best choice are vo-tech schools affiliated with your state education department. Credits might not transfer to universities and many schools are not accredited. Do your homework!

Online Education: For many individuals, balancing work and education is a challenge and online education is becoming an increasingly respected choice that offers you scheduling flexibility and allows a young person to build their resume while pursuing a degree. Look for online programs that are associated with a state university versus some of the very expensive online-only schools out there.

State vs. Private Schools:  Sure. The quality of the education mightdiffer somewhat and there might be a certain carte blanche with some private universities, but for many people attending a local privatecollege like University of Dayton or University of Evansville (sorry alumni) or similar, once you move out of the area, that carte blanche is gone but the massive student loan debt (which can be 4 times as much as a state school in the same area) remains. Consider a state school.

Apprenticeship/Mentoring: If you or your child has an idea of what they’d like to do, it might be wise to get them a strong mentor in their chosen career field or to sign them up for an apprenticeship first before investing in their education. I’ve written about apprenticeships here.

Entrepreneurship: Would it be wiser to spend $40k on a college education for your child or $40k on buying them a small business or a rental property or two? Honestly it depends on your offspring and their interests/passions/aptitudes but this is an example of “thinking outside the box” that we rarely investigate.

Military Service: Your child shouldn’t sign up for the pay, BUT the college benefits, the work experience and some vo-tech style training all can make military service a surprisingly sound choice.

Workshops/Training Programs: While your adult child works you can affordably help them more clearly discern a path with various workshops and training programs in things like app development. (I am not associated with, nor can I vouch for, the effectiveness or legitimacy of any/all of these programs).

MUST READ: First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham

I think we small business owners are starting to take cloud computing for granted. Like apps, cloud computing is targeted to very specific tasks. The beauty is they are often free, there is no licensing arrangement, they don’t take up hard drive space and offer more protection against viruses and hardware failure than you can provide in-house. Cloud computing is faster, larger and cheaper than working with most software. What cloud sites are the best bets for small businesses?

Amazon. Almost unparalleled in trustworthiness and service, Amazon offers very large file storage and network support as well as other tools like their new cloud drive and player.  

Google. For email, file storage, word processing, spreadsheets, project management, Google Apps for Business is  incredibly stable and trustworthy-and dirt cheap or free for its services.

Skype. Skype is great for videoconferencing and international calling. Encourage clients to sign up for an account by putting your account name on business cards. Skype-to-Skype calls are free, even when they are on the other side of the world and the quality is almost always equal to, or better, than a landline.

Evernote. If you need an all-in-one spot for notetaking with the ability to share certain folders with employees or colleagues (folders like: blog posts, possible contacts, research, etc.), Evernote and its accompanying smartphone apps is my choice. It saves URLs, allows you to comment, organize and research later.

Freshbooks is getting great press. A cloud-based tool with a free version, it allows for invoicing, expense organization and time-tracking (an important option for freelancers).

PayPal. I pay my assistant with PayPal. I send out some invoices and sell products using PayPal (though this one is available FREE now). I pay for purchases online with PayPal. It has come a long way from its early days as a payment option for eBay and is increasingly an incredibly easy way to set up payment options for products through your website. It has become an indispensable and affordable financial tool for many people for both personal and professional use.

Ok. so you are a small business owner and not a job seeker, so you may wonder “why this post?”. It isn’t about preparing for failure, but there are times that you may need a resume or CV. If you are considering expanding  your small business and are seeking investors, or you need financing for a new start up, your resume may be requested. And, if you never need these tips, your children, spouse or friend might. So from my HR pro who has literally reviewed thousands of resumes, here are some do’s and don’ts:

Don’t list any personal information like age, marital status or medical history-keep it to name, address, phone, email and perhaps your LinkedIn account.

Do list your work history first (start with most recent) and then your education and then volunteer contributions and certifications.

Don’t write a narrative! This means don’t include sentences like “at this job I ran an off-set printing machine”. Instead say “operated off-set printing machine”. Keep full paragraphs to a minimum.

Do be brief, concise, and to the point. An interview or discussion with loan officers is where you can tell your full history and fill in the blanks.

Don’t add a ton of graphics, color or fancy formatting. Most resumes are viewed online these days so you do not stand out and these effects don’t make it easier to read.

Do effectively use the space you are given. Use white space and bullet points to streamline reading, but also reduce margins and fonts ( slightly) from the default if you need more room.

Don’t list an objective. It uses up space better used for what you’ve actually done and they are rarely written well. Besides, the reader probably knows your objective.

Do start with a summary along the lines of “successful real estate agent with over 15 years of commercial and residential sales experience, specializing in hard to sell properties” or you can do a few bullet points summarizing your experience if one sentence won’t do.

Don’t trust spell check! Turn your resume over to two very adept professional-level writers to review for spelling, grammar and clarity.

Do use the active vs. passive voice and strong verbs: Developed, guided, created, coached, designed, navigated, directed…