Franchise Profile: OneClick Cleaners

OneClick Cleaners has the only online fully functional, full service website allowing customers to sign up online, enter cleaning preferences, set schedules and pickups all from the home or office.

 

The OneClick Cleaners™ Quick Start Program offers more start-up support than any other dry cleaning franchise, as a portion of the initial franchise fee will go towards equipment, supplies and start-up marketing & advertising material for your business. With OneClick Cleaners™ you can provide dry cleaning and laundry services, tailoring, shoe repair as well as other service-related conveniences for single & multifamily homes, apartment complexes, office buildings, retail centers, schools or any other institutions that require service on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. The first day you go out is the first day you start making money!

 

 

OneClick’s Quick Start Program will Jumpstart your Business!

Quick Start franchise owners will be assigned a professional start up coach to work one-on-one with you and develop a customized marketing plan for your area; specialized market impact groups to encourage business development and best practices; and reduced overall start-up costs.

 

Quick Start franchise owners benefit from..

  • Limited time reduced franchise fee
  • Low minimum down payment
  • Start-up equipment, supplies & marketing materials
  • In-house direct financing available
  • A professional start-up coach for the first year
  • A customized marketing & advertising plan

 

To learn more about this franchise opportunity and how to get started, please visit the following link: http://www.franchisebuy.com/franchise/OneClick-Cleaners. Fill out the form provided to submit information and request a meeting with OneClick’s franchise developer.

Franchise Profile: Online Trading Academy

Tens of millions of people have seen their retirement derailed by the financial turmoil of the past decade. Online Trading Academy has a proven record of helping these people get back on track by teaching the tools of the professional trader/investor in stocks, futures, currencies and more.

 

Online Trading Academy teaches adult students to trade and invest at a professional level using modern online tools. Their business model was born in 1997 when they operated their own large trading floor; the training provided to new traders was so effective that they eventually switched their focus to education vs. active trading.

 

 

Their first Financial Education Center was company-owned, but they quickly realized that the model could be easily replicated with appropriate support and the first Online Trading Academy franchise opened in 2005. Today they have 32 franchises around the world in addition to the original Center. They also have a large and rapidly growing family of 150,000 current and former students who have invested an average of $10,000 per student in their training.

 

Exclusive franchise territories are still available in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, Australia and Asia. Please submit you information on their entry form for more information: http://franchisebuy.com/franchise/Online-Trading-Academy.

 

 

Why Online Trading Academy?

As an Online Trading Academy franchisee, you can empower people with tools to build their personal wealth and retirement security while also improving their quality of life. Many of their students have been trading for years with moderate success and find that the principles and practices they learn at Online Trading Academy help them take their results to a new level. Others are newly retired or have recently left their jobs and enjoy the flexibility of being able to trade on their own schedule, whether it’s several hours a day or just a few minutes a month.

 

The enthusiasm that Online Trading Academy students feel comes directly from the quality of the teaching materials and their learn-by-doing educational model that has been tested over time. They are very different from the hotel ballroom investment seminars and from the proprietary systems that students may have experienced in the past, and their steady growth and revenues prove it works. Join Online Trading Academy as a franchise owner, and adopt their proven methods as your new business model!

AMEX Excludes Franchises From Small Business Saturday

“With every dollar we spend, we cast a vote.”

 

My economics teacher used to repeat this whenever the question of spending came up. If only it really were that simple. She was right, though, in that with every purchase we make (and don’t make) we vote businesses on and off of America’s economic island. The holiday season is a retailer’s chance at surviving the tribal council.

 

As I’m sure many of you in the franchise industry have heard, American Express (AMEX) excluded franchises from participating in Small Business Saturday this past weekend on November 26, 2011. While many are understandably upset about the exclusion of their business from AMEX’s economic initiative, the situation opens the door to several important questions, including but not limited to where franchising fits into America’s spending psyche.

 

Many blogs, articles and forums have focused how this happened and how it can be remedied next year. I’m personally more interested in why it happened. If the franchise industry can figure out what inspired AMEX to exclude an entire industry, in which many businesses in my opinion qualify as small businesses, perhaps the thought process behind the decision can be resolved as opposed to simply the situation.

 

First and foremost, while the success of fast food franchises has certainly helped the industry as a whole, it hasn’t helped the industry’s reputation as a small business job creator. The general public most likely doesn’t understand what franchising truly entails. The term “franchise” often conjures images of McDonald’s golden arches, not mom and pop independently owned businesses.

 

The term “franchise” should first make us think of an agreement rather than a fast food restaurant. For those who don’t know, the franchise agreement is made between two parties: the franchisor and the franchisee. The franchisor lends his trademark or trade and accompanying business model to the franchisee who in turn compensates the franchisor with a royalty fee, and often an initial fee, for the right to do business under the franchisor’s name and use of the business model. In some cases, but not all, the franchisor takes responsibility for creating marketing materials and implementing marketing strategies to further the success of the franchise. That being said, marketing isn’t free and may factor into the franchise’s royalty fee.

 

Aside from the extraneous fees, franchises aren’t so different from small businesses. They are are owned and operated by the same kinds of people as small businesses. They serve and employ the same local residents. Lately, they’ve been facing the same economic challenges. It’s understandable why so many franchisees and franchisors are upset.

 

We’re all, consumers and businesses alike, pinching pennies right now. There certainly isn’t much profligate spending happening this holiday season. The Wall Street Journal hinted that only 29 percent of small businesses are able to give year end bonuses this year. As I said before, every dollar we do or do not spend really matters.

 

From what I’ve read and heard, marketing has been another issue within the franchise exclusion situation with AMEX. AMEX’s Small Business Saturday offered $25 dollar credits to shoppers who shopped at qualifying establishments, those independently owned and operated businesses that don’t have the budget for national marketing campaigns. These credits didn’t extend to those who supported chains or franchises during Small Business Saturday.

 

Then again, it’s an understandable mistake. For those of us who are part of the franchise industry that may be difficult to digest. While we recognize the hard work and long hours franchisors and franchisees put into their respective roles, many outsiders can’t see beyond the brands and logos we have pushed to make mainstream.

 

It is my hope that next year AMEX helps the franchise industry’s small business owners financially by including them in Small Business Saturday. I also hope AMEX helps the franchise industry’s reputation by putting a Main Street face on mainstream logos, so everyone, including industry veterans, remembers who’s behind the cash registers and counters.