Franchise Article

Every customer service business has them: those pithy, one-line sayings that are supposed to sum up everything about some aspect of business in only a few short words. "A penny saved is a penny earned": meaning that it is always best to save. It sounds like wisdom, and in many cases it is, but to say that that holds up as a universal business truth is less than correct, because sometimes, for example, a penny spent is 2 or 3 pennies earned. Below are a few other common idioms about business that are not as universally applicable as some would have you believe.

1. "Profit is the Bottom Line"
Though it may rarely be said so clearly, this is what many businesses hold as true at the end of the day. Long time businessmen, however, will freely tell the new franchise business owner that this notion is entirely untrue.

What is really the most important financial aspect of a business is cash flow. Say, for example, an Xfactor Online Dating franchise has an exceptional profit month, in which hundreds of new members join the localized dating website, get connected with good partners, and go on their merry way without ever renewing their membership for another month. That's great for the couples, and great for the home based business for that month, but one month cannot keep a business afloat. Profit matters the most when it's consistent.

2. "The Customer is Always Right"
This is not entirely true; it is only a way of training employees how to deal with disgruntled guests. In fact, many times, the customer is simply wrong, and that is often the whole reason he came to your franchise to begin with: you know something he does not and can do something he cannot. This, of course, is no excuse to mistreat your clientele, but when dealing with those customers who just want to throw their weight around and act as though they know how your business should run, do not buy the lie that the customer is king and that you will not survive without the business of a single client. It is important to know where to draw the line with customer demands.

3. "Better Products Mean Better Business"
Many businesses believe that simply having the best product on the market will guarantee success, but the list of great products that have failed to their lesser counterparts is long. A hand-crafted, solid oak wardrobe is a far better product than the particleboard, build-it-yourself furniture sold today, but the average home is full of particleboard, not oak. This is because consumers consider far more than quality of product when they make purchases. Price, convenience, and marketing play a huge role in their decision. So, to paint the picture, someone taking advantage of a More Than Loft Ladders handyman service franchise opportunity has to keep his name in the public eye and maintain competitive pricing in order to get business. No matter how superb your loft ladder construction, lighting installation, and mild home repair skills are, if clients do not know your name or cannot afford you, your competitors will get the business.

4. "Every Customer is of Equal Importance"
If the bottom line of all franchises is cash flow, then customers stand on a scale of importance that depends on how regularly and how much they contribute to that cash flow. This, of course, says nothing of their innate value as human beings, but as far as their value to the advancement of the business, there are differences between customers, and a wise business owner deals with them accordingly.

Waring Lawn Care client who only wants one Sprayaway path cleaning each year is of much less importance to the franchisee's work at home company than the client who signs up for a weekly lawn mowing and a monthly path cleaning and had a ceramic lawn drainage system installed last month. Though the good franchisee treats them both with his utmost respect, if for some reason it comes down to keeping one client at the loss of the other, there is no contest as to who stays.

5. "You Can Never Have Too Many Customers"
The idea behind this statement is that increasing your clientele is always of benefit to your business, because customers equal cash flow. But, in fact, you can have too many customers, and that can be detrimental to your business.

As soon as your staff can no longer keep up with the workload of client demands in a timely and accurate manner, you have too many customers. An owner/operator work from home business like Red Hot Camera is the perfect example. When there are no longer enough hours in the day to drive across the region and attend to every customer's real estate photography jobs, it is time to cut back on business or hire help. If the franchisee waits too long, and clients begin to complain that their photos are not coming back to them in a timely manner, the owner is likely to start losing clients to better-equipped competition. And if enough of the customers are disgruntled, it is possible to lose a substantial amount of business, and perhaps the business itself, to simple customer dissatisfaction. So it is vital to know when to stop taking on clients or start taking on employees.

Take Everything with a Grain of Salt
To be fair, there is actually a good deal of wisdom in each of these mythic sayings, and each one has something to add to most business opportunities, just be aware that none of them are universally applicable. It would be great if business were that simple and formulaic, but it simply is not, so be cautiously optimistic as you receive advice from others about your new business.