Archive for October, 2011

3 Stuff you May Have Missed: How you can Negotiate an industrial Lease

October 21st, 2011

When you are either starting a new business or you are looking to move your current business to a new location, you will have to negotiate a commercial lease. Getting a professional lease expert is unquestionably one of the ways that you can lower your overall costs and expenses that will be related to your lease.

There is however pointless the reason why you couldn’t handle this by yourself (though you’re likely going to spend less in the long-term with professional guidance).

1) Have you figure out the going rate for comparable spaces in the area?

Before you decide to take on any landlord’s office to talk about a lease, browse around and evaluate which comparable spaces are now being rented for. Range from b2b and speak to the owners of these businesses.

Generally, most business people will be more than prepared to share information along with other businesses. When you have a general idea of the average cost of rent, then you have some bargaining power.

2) What perks do you want with your commercial lease?

When you negotiate a commercial lease, the monetary price is only one area of the deal. Parking space, utilities, and access may also be important considerations. Your company may require more available parking than your potential landlord is willing to provide up front.

Allow him to or her realize that this is a deal breaker if you can’t possess the parking that you will need.

3) How long the space you’re interested in has been available?

Should you be looking at a prime location, meaning an area that every business in town appears to be drooling over, and it’s only likely to be available for a matter of days, your ability to negotiate to some better price or perks is going to be limited…except if you deal with a professional.

If, on the other hand, the space has been empty with a sign out from advertising its availability for quite a while, you have more bargaining power.

Each time a business has any kind of leverage with regards to leasing space, then that business is able to negotiate to help save money, reduce overall costs, and also the time frame from the lease!

Landlords want to sign tenants for long periods of time, from one year to five or ten. If you have a new business and you’re not sure about whether it will survive twelve months, not to mention several, then you definitely don’t wish to lock yourself into a long-term deal.

Conclusion

An industrial lease is really a binding legal contract. Whatever you agree to, you’re obligated to satisfy which of course means you will be responsible for any rent for the entire period of your lease.

If this makes you uncomfortable as well as your potential future landlord seems to not be prepared to negotiate the commercial lease to terms that you’re confident with, that doesn’t mean you need to sign up the dotted line. Call a commercial lease expert and get some specialist in your corner.

Benefits and drawbacks of Buying a company Franchise

October 21st, 2011

According to the International Franchise Association, there are more than 7 million people employed within franchises around the world. Likewise, a new franchise reveals every 8 minutes in the United Stated. By those numbers and additional research, analysts have establishes that certain in twelve businesses is definitely an established franchise. This really is due to a growing boom in entrepreneurship – mainly the type of who are not satisfied in pursuing a diploma that puts results directly under a supervisor. The boom in franchises is also expected to continue… but is owning a franchise the right choice for you personally?

The Pros of purchasing a Business Franchise

A Franchise is Turnkey – Oftentimes, a recognised corporation has a development and deployment plan in position for any business franchise to ensure that it operates properly and profits. While there are what exactly you need to do to obtain some franchises off the floor, they come with an itemized success model – like a treasure map to retirement.

Business Franchise Support – A person opening a small company the very first time on their own will probably need to learn because they go. What this means is lots of stumbling and learning from your errors. When you purchase a business franchise you feel part of a network. You’re in business for yourself but you’re never on your own.

The Power of the Brand – For establishes companies, brand awareness can almost guarantee success once the proper research is done and you open in the right market. This could account for lots of savings on the marketing relating to launching and opening a brand new business franchise

Lower Inventory for Business Franchises -Big brands have a lot of buying power, and that collective buying power can indicate great discounts with vendors that would love to have the company of the brand, including everything from common inventory to food and equipment. A brand new small company often has less bargaining power since you need them a lot more than they need you.

Cons of Buying a company Franchise

Less Freedom – When you open a small business of your, you’re able to decide how everything rolls along. The business is really yours. Whenever you purchase a franchise, it’s -mostly- yours. You have to report financial information and comply with the uniform corporate procedures and techniques though some provide you with leeway and creative freedom to a point.

Royalty Payments – Watch franchise is required to make payments to the parent company to support the operations and advertising given by the corporate brand. That which you receive for the royalty payments – such as support and marketing – varies from company to company.

Higher Start-up Costs – In many cases it can be more costly to purchase a business franchise because you will need to go all in with neglect the and corporations routinely have the absolute minimum amount of capital that you’re expected to have on hand – not in assets – in order to get started. A brand new business proprietor starting from scratch however might be able to trudge along by their bootstraps because they grow their business.

Communication Problems – This can occur when you are in a franchise and you have to deal with corporate regulations and problem solving. Some franchisors might not be in a position to supply the field support you may need which can lead to problems in your franchise. Should you open your own business the only person you need to rely on is yourself.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

October 21st, 2011

If you’ve ever listened to Warren Buffett discuss investing, you’ve heard him mention the idea of a company’s moat. The moat is a straightforward way of describing a company’s competitive advantages. Company’s with a strong competitive advantage have large moats, and therefore higher income. And investors ought to always be concerned with profit margins.

This short article looks at a methodology called the Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. In the book Competitive Strategy, Harvard professor Michael Porter describes five forces affecting the profitability of companies. These are the five forces he noted:

Intensity of rivalry amongst existing competitors
Threat of entry by new competitors
Pressure from substitute products
Bargaining power of buyers (customers)
Bargaining power of suppliers

These five forces, taken together, provide us with understanding of a company’s competitive position, and its profitability.

Rivals

Rivals are competitors within an industry. Rivalry in the industry could be weak, with few competitors that do not compete very aggressively. Or it can be intense, with many competitors fighting in a cut-throat environment.

Factors affecting the concentration of rivalry are:

Number of firms – more firms will lead to increased competition.
Fixed costs – rich in fixed costs like a percentage of total price, companies must sell more products to cover those costs, increasing market competition.
Product differentiation – Items that are relatively exactly the same will compete based on price. Brand identification can reduce rivalry.

New Entrants

Among the defining characteristics of competitive advantage is the industry’s barrier to entry. Industries with high barriers to entry are often too costly for brand new firms to enter. Industries with low barriers to entry, are relatively cheap for new firms to go in.

The threat of recent entrants rises because the barrier to entry is reduced inside a marketplace. As more firms enter a market, you will notice rivalry increase, and profitability will fall (theoretically) enough where there is no incentive for brand new firms to enter the.

Here are a few common barriers to entry:

Patents – patented technology can be a huge barrier preventing other firms from joining the market.
High price of entry – the greater it’ll cost you to get going in an industry, the higher the barrier to entry.
Brand loyalty – when brand loyalty is strong within an industry, it can be hard and expensive for enter the market with a new product.

Substitute Products

This is probably probably the most overlooked, and therefore most damaging, component of strategic making decisions. It’s imperative that business owners (us) not just take a look at exactly what the company’s direct competition is doing, but the other types of products people could buy instead.

When switching costs (the costs a person incurs to switch to a new product) are low the threat of substitutes is high. As is the situation when dealing with new entrants, companies may aggressively price their products to keep people from switching. When the threat of substitutes is high, profit margins will tend to be low.

Buyer Power

There’s two types of buyer power. The very first is associated with the customer’s price sensitivity. If each brand of a product is comparable to all the others, then the buyer will base the purchase decision mainly on price. This can increase the competitive rivalry, resulting in lower prices, and lower profitability.

The other type of buyer power pertains to negotiating power. Larger buyers generally have more leverage using the firm, and may negotiate lower prices. When there are many small buyers of the product, other things remaining equal, the organization offering the product will have higher prices and higher margins. Conversely, if your company sells to a couple large buyers, those buyers may have significant leverage to barter better pricing.

Some factors affecting buyer power are:

Size of buyer – larger buyers may have more power over suppliers.
Number of buyers – when there are a few buyers, they’ll tend to have more control of suppliers. The Department of Defense is definitely an illustration of a single buyer with a lot of control of suppliers.
Purchase quantity – When a customer purchases a sizable amount suppliers output, it will exercise more power over the supplier.

Supplier Power

Buyer power compares the relative power a company’s customers has regarding this. When multiple suppliers are producing a commoditized product, the company can make its purchase decision based mainly on price, which tends to lower costs. On the other hand, if your single supplier is producing something the company should have, the company will have little leverage to barter a better price.

Size plays a factor here as well. When the company is a lot larger than its suppliers, and purchases in big amounts, then the supplier will have very little capacity to negotiate. Using Wal-Mart as an example, we discover that suppliers have no power because Wal-Mart purchases such vast amounts.

Several factors that determine supplier power include:

Supplier concentration – The fewer the number of suppliers for a given product, the greater power they’re going to have over the company.
Switching costs – suppliers become more powerful because the cost to alter to another supplier increases.
Uniqueness of product – companies that produce products specifically for a business will have more power than commodity suppliers.

It’s important to analyze these five forces as well as their affect on companies you want to purchase. The Porter Five Forces Analysis will give you a great reason behind the profitability of an industry, and the firms there. If you want to know why a business is able, or unable, to make a decent profit, this is the first analysis you want to do.

Understanding the Bargaining Power of Your Suppliers

October 21st, 2011

Porter’s five forces is considered by academics and people because the established standard framework for analysing the competitive forces which are driving the amount of profitability of your industry.

One of these five forces may be the bargaining power of the suppliers. You will find that strong suppliers can help to eliminate the amount of profitability inside your industry.

In this article become familiar with how you can analyse the bargaining power of suppliers inside your industry.

Why analyse the Bargaining Power of Your Suppliers?
An analysis of the bargaining power of suppliers is finished to recognize just how much power your suppliers have in your business relationship.

If you have a powerful supplier you will find that there is a large amount of influence over your profitability, as they may choose to raise prices, reduce quality or reduce service without anxiety about consequence.

As the bargaining power of your suppliers increases the profitability inside your industry tends to decrease. However, supplier power can differ from year to year and also at different stages of the economic cycle.

How do you Analyse the Bargaining Power of your Suppliers?

You can complete this stage of the analysis relatively easily, by answering a number of generic analysis questions regarding the nature of your relationship with your suppliers. The common analysis questions that you’re likely to ask are as follows

Are your supplier’s products generic commodity items or could they be able to differentiate many? To answer this question you need to consider if you will find any valued, unique and tangible product differences which exist only inside your supplier’s products. A supplier whose service or product is unique or has special attributes that you want restricts what you can do to change to another supplier.
Will you incur any costs to change to another supplier? When answering this question consider maintenance spares, unique tools required and the costs of creating a brand new contract suffered by you to definitely change to another or a new supplier. Opt for your time and effort investment and the risk of the unknown that comes with a brand new supplier. You will find that any cost related to changing supplier generally reduces the frequency that the businesses can change suppliers.
Can you substitute your supplier’s products for an alternative product that your supplier does not provide? When answering this question also consider the switching costs of the alternative product.
How many suppliers are there when compared to number of buyers? When answering this you can normally consider the share of the market from the top four suppliers for your industry. The greater the marketplace share from the top four suppliers, the higher their power. However, you also have to consider how many suppliers you will find in total when compared with buyers. If you will find much more buyers than suppliers then your supplier has the marketing power, because the ratio approaches 1:1 the buyer power increases. For those who have more suppliers than buyers then your buyer has the ability.
How important may be the volume of sales to your supplier? When answering this question think about the importance of your purchases towards the supplier, can they scale back production if you shift your purchases to another supplier. If demand for an item is less than the suppliers for your industries total capacity and it is hard to reduce production then your higher volume buyers may have the bargaining power. If demand exceeds production capacity then the suppliers for your industry will have an increased bargaining power. Note: Watch out for economic changes which will shift the bargaining power between supplier and buyer.
What area of your annual expenses do you spend with each supplier? When answering this consider the value to become derived from entering into price negotiations with each supplier. You will notice that the best value originates from directing your negotiation effort towards the suppliers who represent the largest spend for your industry. Some companies insist on getting into competitive tender for just about any group of product on the set value, say $100,000.
How important is your supplier’s product for your product or service? When answering this think about the role of the suppliers product on the price of your products (or service) and also the role of your suppliers product on the market differentiation of the product. When answering this consider if your company is successful due to a quality that’s inherent in your supplier’s product, if so your supplier may have the negotiating power.
Is there a threat of forward integration? When answering this determine that there is a risk that certain of the suppliers to your industry will choose to be a competitor of yours, either by establishing a business like yours or buying one of the competitors. Now, you’ll have all of the information that you need to complete an research into the bargaining power of the suppliers for your industry.