Gelato Business Uses Fresh Hawaii Fruits

Kevin Chan uses small batches to create delicious gelato at A Latta Gelata.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEnVUXZj4EI&hl=en

How to Write the Perfect Business Plan

"A franchise is more likely to succeed with a projected plan for all eventualities: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail..."

The old adage "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" is especially important for first time franchisees. Those who understand the benefits of business planning are more likely to be successful and pro-active to management decisions, than are those who react to day-to-day operational issues. Franchisees who fail to plan strategically end up confronting problems head on and may be unable to manage the business effectively on a daily basis.

This type of business management can have a negative impact on the franchise, staff and other individuals involved in the operation. It can also leave very little time for any other business management concerns. Therefore it is necessary for franchisees to construct an effective business plan for their franchise system.

Your business plan will be the "sales document" for you and your business and its preparation should project the image of what you want for your business. The following is a useful guideline on how best to approach drawing up a business plan and the key terms it should contain.

1. Introduction

Purpose of the business and business concept;




Overall business objectives;




Legal status of the business stated; benefits and shortcomings of this business system.

2. The Product and Service

Product or service your business will offer; include relevant history of the franchise product or service;





List the Unique Selling Point (USP) of your business product or service; the key feature that makes your product stand out from the rest in the market place;




How the product or service can be developed with the help of the franchisor.







3. The Personnel

Include details of anyone who will be involved in making your business a success. These people are very important to your business success. Include in this section:

Brief summary of each person's skills and knowledge of the particular sector, including their personal assessment of attributes, strengths, weaknesses as well as your own assessment of each person;




Relevant experience, commitment and reasons for involvement;

Don't forget to include yourself in this assessment of key personnel- you are the driving force behind the business operation.





Include a detailed CV for each person in the "Appendix" at the end of your plan.

4. The Market

This is probably the most important section of the business plan. Without a clearly defined market, your business will not succeed. If you can show that you have "done your homework", you will gain credibility for the whole business plan. Your franchisor will also have research in this area you can avail of.

Describe the current conditions in the market place for your product or service;

Detail any relevant facts and figures relating to the market sector(s) that you will be targeting, and the type(s) of potential customers for your product or service.

Details of competitors should be included with reasons why potential customers will choose your product/service over your competitors.

5. The Marketing Plan

Include your marketing objectives; i.e. number of sales.

Where your product or service will be positioned within the market place in terms of image, price and quality. You can avail of franchisor assistance in determining the marketing strategy.

Planned marketing, PR campaigns and advertising;

Customer service policy is planned and how it will work.

6. The Operation

Include sources of supply, labor and materials;

Detail resources required to operate your business; what you already have and what you will need to acquire;

Identify any crucial procedures or sensitive issues and outline possible solutions;

State where you intend to operate from- your current premises and future requirements;

Outline your projected Health and Safety policies.

7. The Premises

· Location;

· Future business growth;

· Running costs and Uniform Business Rates, rent, etc.

· Insurance

· Planning Consent, planning issues.

8. Financial Information

(a) Introduction: Start with the key facts; the forecast profit (or loss) for the year;

Whether additional financing will be required and what for;

Break even sales for the business should be calculated and shown as a % of your anticipated sales;

Details of the money you need to take out of the business to live on - required income.

(b) Profit and Loss Forecast

Your forecast profit (or loss) should be based on your anticipated sales, minus your direct costs and overheads. The assumptions made should include:

Justify anticipated sales as best you can;

Any direct costs (materials, etc) should be detailed;

Don't' forget overheads;

(c) Cash Flow Forecast

To anticipate how much cash your business will require, you should convert your profit and loss forecast. List the following assumptions:

When will you get the money from sales;

When you will have to pay suppliers;

The timing of specific overheads;

How much capital equipment that you require for the business. Differentiate between existing equipment and expenditure still to be made- how much and when.

9. The Appendix

This is the final section of the BP. It should include the detailed information mentioned earlier and the following:

Details of premises;

Insurance Details;

Product brochure, photographs, letterhead.

Anything else that you believe will enhance the credibility of you or enhance the credibility of your business.

The Keys to Dominating Your Local Business

Before you can learn how to run, you need to learn how to walk first. This also applies in business. So before you expand globally, you must concentrate locally. And when I say concentrate that doesn't mean just to run your business. You should bring your A-game and dominate in your field. In other words, your business is on top of the world or at least somewhere close to that. You must "crush" your competitors with all your might, or at least leave them in your dust.

Meet Coffee Groundz. It's a small coffee shop located in Houston Texas. They serve a variety of coffee (locally roasted), both hot and frozen. They also have wonderful tea, delectable pastries, superb Gelato (also made locally), fresh sandwiches, and great selection of wine, beer and alcoholic drinks. Their ambiance is great and they have incredible service. But one competitor stands in their way..... Starbucks.

Starbucks has quadrillion outlets in Houston Texas and have been in the coffee business since 1971. Coffee Groundz is just new to the industry. How will they match up with the biggest coffee chain in the world? Simple.. Use Social Networking media, Online Press Attention, Video Presence and local business domination.

Coffee Groundz Operations Manager J.R. Cohen saw an opportunity by taking "To Go" orders in Twitter. Customers send their orders through Twitter to Cohen before they leave for work. Cohen will prepare the food and drinks and ready to be pick up. It turns out to be a great idea as their customers grew to 1,000 just by using Twitter.

Today Coffee Groundz has 10,163 followers from Twitter. Because of Twitter they came out with an idea of Drive Thru counter so that customers doesn't have to wait in line to get their coffee. Coffee Groundz may not be Starbucks but they are "in line" with them.

For any line of business you need to capture the local market first and then think about the rest of world. Your local business needs to be strong only then can you venture out.

How Can a Small Business Profit From Customer Reviews?

Word-of-mouth marketing has changed completely for the small, local business. In the past, if someone had a bad experience, it may only reach a few of their friends. In today's world, with the ease of online review sites, social media, and blogging, a poor customer experience can reach hundreds or even thousands of people. This revolution has caught many owners off guard and they are scrambling to figure out how to manage and improve their online reputation. Many are hoping that Yelp will fail and online reviews will go away, but with Yelp's recent influx of $100 million in capital, they are going to double in size. Furthermore, AT&T will be launching a new review site, buzz.com. Customer content is exploding even more as the penetration of mobile devices makes it very easy to rave or rant at the moment it happens. Customers are posting about their experience before they even get the check! Here's a great example:

I don't know how I feel about paying $3.50 for a plain crepe. That's right. ONE. PLAIN. CREPE. $3.50!?! Anyways, I'm here right now waiting for my two crepes, starving and kind of still thinking that I paid too much for a crepe. It better be really really good. Waiting. Still waiting and there's only two other people here. Hungry. Eating. I'm not exactly impressed or satisfied right now. I should have just gone down the street to Osha and gotten real food. I got one plain crepe and a turkey and cheese crepe. Nothing special about them at all. What a waste. I'm going to cry one tear for my unsatisfied agony right now.

(Additional information: small restaurant with about 5 tables, in a decent neighborhood with an American Apparel across the street, has gelato, and accepts Visa and MC.)

The impact of reviews is very broad as well. 84% of Americans say online customer evaluations have an influence on their decision to purchase a product or service. (Opinion Research Corporation, 2009). You can no longer avoid monitoring these reviews. In addition, if you're business only has a few reviews, even if they are all positive, you are at an extreme risk. Just one bad review (1 star) can have an immediate impact on your overall rating and reputation. Therefore, you should work on a company or store wide campaign to generate reviews. There are a few other great reasons why reviews can benefit you:

What many business owners don't realize is that reviews have shown to actually increase profits and drive new business. Businesses with great reviews and online reputations use this as a competitive advantage over others in their area. Consumer research from the Kelsey Group reported, "Consumers are willing to pay at least 20% more for offline services that received an "Excellent" or 5-star rating than for the same service when it received a "Good" or 4-star rating, the study found. More importantly, merchants are seeing the effect on their bottom line. Of the 30 percent of small business retailers who had integrated product reviews into their Web sites, 43 percent said reviews had resulted in more sales, while 28 percent indicated reviews had resulted in more traffic. (Ratepoint, Nov 2009).

In addition, positive reviews can also help drive profits through search engine optimization and may impact your rankings on local search and general search results. For local search and mapping sites from Google, Bing, and Yahoo, the search are aggregating reviews from many sites and use both quantity and quality (overall rating) in their ranking algorithms. It helps to get great reviews across many different sites as well. For sites like Yelp and Citysearch, review quality and quantity are very strong influences on determining rankings. Reviews can even benefit you on general search engine rankings. The more review sites that have content about your business (and links to your site), the more this provides validation and "trust" from the search engine's perspective.

Review management is vital for success for local businesses. The chatmeter is designed to help you manage and monitor your reviews and save time from visiting over all these sites looking for your reviews.