LTC Private RallyPoint Member 5873997 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Is marketing your biggest issue or a clear blueprint on what to do, when to do it and how to do it. 2020-05-10T22:17:37-04:00 LTC Private RallyPoint Member 5873997

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Is marketing your biggest issue or a clear blueprint on what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

2020-05-10T22:17:37-04:00 2020-05-10T22:17:37-04:00 LTC Jason Mackay 5874047

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Acquiring capital and generating operating capital makes franchises and start ups hard to pull off.

2020-05-10T22:37:13-04:00 2020-05-10T22:37:13-04:00 CPT Jack Durish 5874051

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>I started several businesses in my life using OPM (Other People&#39;s Money), never my own. I sold a project and used the down payment to establish my business. Thereafter, I always required a down payment on every project equal to my costs. If my client wanted &quot;terms&quot;, I sent them to their bank explaining that I wasn&#39;t a bank. Thus, the only risk I took was with payment for my time and my profit. I&#39;m not sure how to respond to your survey. There is no question and the three responses do not seem to relate to a question that I can infer. However, I can respond to each as an independent issue. 1. I marketed continuously to get new customers and provided incentives for existing customers to market my business for me. 2. Yes, I had real results, mostly with existing customers providing qualified leads. 3. I tried if both ways, solo and with partners. If I were still actively employed (77 and retired now), I would never again have a partner. Every partnership ended up like a bad marriage. Indeed, my failed partnership stories sound identical to my failed marriage story. I knew very few who succeeded at partnerships. Most people launch partnerships because they lack the confidence to go it alone. If you lack confidence, you should not be an entrepreneur...

2020-05-10T22:38:44-04:00 2020-05-10T22:38:44-04:00 CSM Charles Hayden 5874081

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div><br />A primary problem for failures of small businesses is a lack of capital. <br /><br />A more important factor in my eyes is a lack of a fully developed business plan that addresses utilization of available capital and secondary resources.<br /><br />A “DICKIES” franchise I once ate at revealed another cause of failure. The ‘new owners’ observed problems with the staff’s ability to fill orders and did not engage the problem.<br /><br />My conclusion was that, “they were owners” and too important or more aptly - simply were not competent of engaging with others.

2020-05-10T22:46:14-04:00 2020-05-10T22:46:14-04:00 LTC Private RallyPoint Member 5874157

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>If you are running a business now as an entrepreneur.

2020-05-10T23:11:55-04:00 2020-05-10T23:11:55-04:00 SPC Erich Guenther 5874445

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Actually, I bought a distressed franchise of Charleys Grilled Steaks in the Dallas area and ran it for four months and I can give you some quick pointers. I had to first give a presentation to the Executive Board of Charley&#39;s Corp HQ in Columbus, OH. They did aggressively challenge me with questions so the meeting wasn&#39;t necessarily a formality. I did well but was later told, by a lower level employee anyone that meets capital requirements does well (ha-ha). I am sure that is true of most franchises. But given the Franchise experience I would tell you to avoid that completely. My next business will be my own to run without having to deal with Franchise HQ. Charleys was OK but I had conflicts with what they thought was important and what I saw moved the bottom line more......example Charleys wanted nothing to do with Catering but my first Assistant Manager was an expert in Catering and demonstrated to me that one Catering engagement could match the entire days sales for the location. Was impressed with the AM demo and not with the firm line that carry-out was against their philosophy and they wanted clients to eat in the location. Then the SIMON Mall location I was at started fighting me against catering. You can&#39;t back a catering truck up to the service door, could not park a catering truck in the mall parking lot.......ridiculous. The other problem was capital burn rate. I had set a limit on how much I would spend prior to profitability before I would exit the business and liquidate. I did a forecast about three months into owning the business and saw that I was burning too much capital and would need a substantial loan to stay afloat for another year. I could cut the capital burn rate to break even if I fired the Assitant Manager and cut the employees from 15 to 4. Then I would need to work in the restaurant for 70-75 hours as a Manager myself and would not be able to handle surges in business very easily.........so that was not an option for me personally.

2020-05-11T02:47:14-04:00 2020-05-11T02:47:14-04:00 LTC Private RallyPoint Member 5874459

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>This poll is a fail. The choices are not answers to the original question but additional questions that are not mutually exclusive.

2020-05-11T03:38:32-04:00 2020-05-11T03:38:32-04:00 2020-05-10T22:17:37-04:00