Hello world, WOW!! I need to thank everyone who is being visiting my blog. It's been an exciting experience for me to share what I have been learning with you guys and I believe it might have a positive impact in people's lives. The blog is a project in partial fulfillment of an Entrepreneurship course that I am taking  this year. At the beginning I found it rather boring not sharing Entertainment news like most people do but later i found a good reason to do this aside from been an obligation to grades. We keep asking ourselves why there are so many poor people in our world today and the answer is either a question of unemployment or illiteracy  It became very imperative to continue and dedicate more to the blog because the solution to what as become a major problem in the world can be found in the field of Entrepreneurship  The field on the other hand does not require any special skills or a certificate to become a successful entrepreneur. 

Although we have come to the end of the course and I must say, my work here as been done. But for self fulfillment  I will continue to learn about how to develop businesses and share with the world. Thank you all for your time.

DEFINITION OF FRANCHISE

It is a business arrangement where the owner (Franchisor) of an already established trade mark, trade name or copyright has given others (a buyer , Franchisee) the license to operate under their organization.

DEFINITION OF FRANCHISE CONTD.

Franchise is a process that occurs when the franchisor licenses its trade name (the brand, such as Merry Maids or Burger King) and its operating methods (its system of doing business) to a person or group (the franchisee), who in turn agrees to operate according to the terms of the contract (the franchise agreement).

cite:  McCrea, Bridget. "Affordable Franchises." Black Enterprise 32.2 (2001): 88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.

FRANCHISEE AND FRANCHISOR

Franchisee is a  individual or a group of people who acquire  a license to run the Franchise  as a small business but at the same time a dependent on the Franchisor.

Franchisor is the owner and seller of a franchise who give other people license to operate with his trade name to promote his company and make more profit.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FRANCHISE

v  Franchises have similar logos, designs and facilities.

v  The same company name.

v  Different owners but each operate their own outlet as a small business and remain connected to the original business owner (Franchisor).

ADVANTAGES OF FRANCHISING

v  Training and guidance: The franchisor usually provides the franchisee with training and guidance on how to run the business. They stand a better a chance as to other small business owners who might experience failure due to inexperience.

v   Brand name Appeal: People tend to patronize well known brands than newer ones. The franchisee therefore enjoys patronage of an already established brand name.

v   Financial Assistance: The franchisee gets financial assistance from the franchisor if needed. As it important for small business owners to raise funds for there business, the franchisor helps them financially especially when the business is new.

Hello world, in our continuous quest to legitimate wealth, have we ever taught of how creative or innovative everybody could be? It is very important to be creative and innovative in all our endeavors in our different works of life. For identification of opportunities is the central domain of entrepreneurs. The question of how, when, why keeps popping up in their mind. That is an avenue for perfection or moderation in whatever arises; creativity and innovation. As I am sure most people will define the term creativity and innovation as synonyms just like I used to. They are two different terms aiming at the same output.

Creativity is defined as the generation of ideas that results in improved efficiency and effectiveness of a system. Creativity in other words, is having the mental prowess to cook up solutions to problems that arise within a system.

Innovation on the other hand can be defined as the process by which Entrepreneurs convert opportunities into marketable solutions. Creativity must have happened for innovation to happen by converting ideas and opportunities into marketable solutions and business venture.

Sources of Innovation

Trends: Entrepreneurs are known for thinking outside the box. Most entrepreneurs get creative with what most of the population see as a problem. They identify the problem and find away to turn it into a marketable good. It takes a lot of thinking outside the box and moving in the opposite direction to be creative sometimes.” Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." --Albert Einstein

Unexpected Occurrences: These are ideas or opportunities that arise from unanticipated or unplanned event. A lot of tactical solutions are needed when some unexpected occurrence happens and those solutions could be very marketable.

Incongruities: There are so many innovations that can come from what people think it’s impossible or not realistic. The ability to differentiate between expectations and reality. In the United States, FedEx is a good example. When Fred Smith proposed to run an overnight postal service, people taught if it was a good and profitable idea, the U.S. post office would be doing it. He started FedEx which turned out to be a success and he was right by the way.

Process Needs: The need for certain ventures call for innovative ideas and they are often refered to as pains that occur in Market places.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET CHANGES

Continual shifts in the marketplace are caused by developments such as consumer attitudes, advancements in technology, and industry growth. Industries and markets always undergo changes in structure, design, or definition. An example can be found in the health care industry—hospital care has undergone radical changes, and home health care and preventive medicine have replaced hospitalization and surgery as primary focus areas. The entrepreneur needs to be aware of and seize these emerging opportunities.

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES

These arise from trend changes in population, age, education, occupations, geographic loca- tions, and similar factors. Demographic shifts are important and often provide new entre- preneurial opportunities. For example, as the average population age in Florida and Arizona has increased (due largely to the influx of retirees), land development, recreational, and health care industries all have profited.

PERCEPTUAL CHANGES

These are changes that occur in people’s interpretation of facts and concepts. Perceptual changes are intangible but meaningful. Perception can cause major shifts in ideas to take place. The current fitness craze, caused by the perceived need to be healthy and physically fit, has created a demand for both health foods and health facilities throughout the country. Another example is people’s desire to better use their personal time. As a result, the travel industry has capitalized on consumers’ current need to “see the world” while they are young and healthy, and time-share condominiums and travel clubs have increased.

KNOWLEDGE-BASED CONCEPTS

These are the basis for the creation or development of something brand new. Inventions are knowledge based; they are the product of new thinking, new methods, and new knowledge. Such innovations often require the longest time period between initiation and market implementation because of the need for testing and modification. For example, today’s cell phone technology has advanced to include not just phone service but cameras, Internet access, and music. This has revolutionized the way we use different technologies today.

Types of Innovation

Four basic types of innovation exist. These extend from the totally new to modifications of existing products or services. Following are the four types, in order of originality:

• Invention: the creation of a new product, service, or process often one that is novel or untried. Such concepts tend to be “revolutionary.”

• Extension: the expansion of a product, service, or process already in existence. Such concepts make a different application of a current idea.

• Duplication: the replication of an already existing product, service, or process. The duplication effort, however, is not simply copying but adding the entrepreneur’s own creative touch to enhance or improve the concept and beat the competition.

• Synthesis: the combination of existing concepts and factors into a new formulation. This involves taking a number of ideas or items already invented and finding a way that they can form a new application.

                                            Social Entrepreneurs                                   

We should take time to discuss the different type of entrepreneurs. They range from serial entrepreneurs who are innovators and get themselves into several different businesses. The social entrepreneurs who I will be talking about in this writing .

Social entrepreneurship is a new form of entrepreneurship that exhibits characteristics of nonprofits, governments, and businesses. It applies traditional (private-sector) entrepreneurship’s focus on innovation, risk taking, and large-scale transformation to social problem solving. The social entrepreneurship process begins with a perceived social opportunity that is translated into an enterprise concept; resources are then ascertained and acquired to exe- cute the enterprise’s goals. This new movement has garnered attention in a number of ways in recent years.

The term social entrepreneur has come to mean a person (or small group of individuals) who founds and/or leads an organization or initiative engaged in social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs sometimes are referred to as “public entrepreneurs,” “civic entrepreneurs,” or “social innovators.”

•             Adoption of a mission to create and sustain social value (beyond personal value)

 •            Recognition and relentless pursuit of opportunities for social value

 •            Engagement in continuous innovation and learning

•             Action beyond the limited resources at hand

•             Heightened sense of accountability

Social entrepreneurs are change agents; they create large-scale change using pattern- breaking ideas, they address the root causes of social problems, and they possess the ambition to create systemic change by introducing a new idea and persuading others to adopt it. These types of transformative changes can be national or global. They also can be highly localized but no less powerful in their impact. Most often, social entrepreneurs who create transformative changes combine innovative practices, a deep knowledge of their social issue area, and cutting-edge research to achieve their goals. For entrepreneurs working in the social realm, innovation is not a one-time event rather, it is a lifetime pursuit.

                                                     CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Definition of Entrepreneurship:

Corporate entrepreneurship is the process of profitably creating innovation within an organizational setting. Corporate entrepreneurship is the involvement of the employees of a firm in inventions and Innovations of new ideas towards the development of the organization. The term corporate entrepreneurship can also be described as intrapreneuship.

Reasons Why A Company Should Encourage Intrapreneuship:

Corporate entreprenship is very important in every organization and every organization should encourage this concept for the following reasons;

1. To enable the company or organisation compete with new sophisticated competitors. The presence of intrapreneurs who consistently innovate, create and develop new ideas for the company allows the company to engage in healthy competition with similar companies in the industry.

2. People have a sense of distrust in the traditional corporate management. It is therefore important for a company to encourage intrapreneurship so that interpreneurs can build a new working model that will be comfortable and suitable for all staffs of the firm and all those in charge of decision making can take the responsibility for their actions solely.

3. Some of the best and brightest people leave their organisations to become small business entrepreneurs. When a company does not encourage intrapreneurship, their staffs become tired of the routine and inability to be creative and make decisions on their own. They tend to opt out of the job and create or start their own small business. It is therefore important for a company to encourage intrapreneurship in order to retain the best and capable hands that are working for them.

How An Organization Can Encourage Intrapreneuship:

MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

This is the extent to which the management structure itself encourages employees to believe that innovation is, in fact, part of the role set for all organization members. Some of the specific conditions that reflect management support include quick adoption of employee ideas, recognition of people who bring ideas forward, support for small experimental projects, and seed money to get projects off the ground.

AUTONOMY/WORK DISCRETION

Workers have discretion to the extent that they are able to make decisions about performing their own work in the way they believe is most effective. Organizations should allow employees to make decisions about their work process and should avoid criticizing them for making mistakes when innovating.

REWARDS/REINFORCEMENT

Rewards and reinforcement enhance the motivation of individuals to engage in innovative behavior. Organizations must be characterized by providing rewards contingent on performance, providing challenges, increasing responsibilities, and making the ideas of innovative people known to others in the organizational hierarchy.

TIME AVAILABILITY

The fostering of new and innovative ideas requires that individuals have time to incubate these ideas. Organizations must moderate the workload of people, avoid putting time constraints on all aspects of a person’s job, and allow people to work with others on long-term problem solving.

ORGANIZATIONAL BOUNDARIES

These boundaries, real and imagined, prevent people from looking at problems outside their own jobs. People must be encouraged to look at the organization from a broad perspective. Organizations should avoid having standard operating procedures for all major parts of jobs, and should reduce dependence on narrow job descriptions and rigid performance standards.