Today, there are immense opportunities when it comes to buying a franchise business. Becoming a franchisee of any business entails a lot of homework and background checks that must be done. Every franchisor would paint a rosy picture of the potential and business opportunities he provides but it is the sole responsibility of the franchisee to undertake his own research and market checks, to satisfy himself.
As a franchisee, what are the precautions you can take when buying a franchise?
There’s always risk associated with every business. However, one needs to evaluate the risks and weigh the rewards and arrive at an informed decision.
Here are a few pointers to help you:
What is the business model of the company? Do a quick check with other franchisees of the company to understand the realities on the ground.Is the company financially stable and a profit making one?
What is the investment you have to make in the operation? Will the company offset some of the infrastructure expense in setting up the franchisee operation?
Evaluate the risks associated with the business. What is the competitive scenario? Are there many brands offering similar products or services?
What is the time frame for returns on your investment? Be prepared to absorb shocks of a depressed market condition or new competition entering the market.
Will the company provide marketing and promotional support to efficiently run the business and create sufficient pull?
Are the terms of agreement for earning potential lucrative in the long run?
Will the company provide special training on their products and services for your staff? What about software packages required to run the business – is it at your cost or the company?
Franchisee operations can often run into bad weather. Ascertain the exit clauses and conditions in advance. What about selling off your franchisee operation at a future date – does the company permit this?
In the last few years, one Franchise Business that has made a mark for itself and grown exponentially with a robust franchisee network in place is ItzCash. With a strong franchisee network of 180,000+ ItzCash Points and 50,000+ ItzCash World Outlets spread across 3000+ Tier I & II cities, this Franchise business has laid a firm foundation for future growth.
What’s more the ItzCash Franchise operation provides unique solutions for the franchisee which gives them income earning avenues across more than 5000 services on both the online and mobile platforms - like Rail Booking, Air Booking, Hotel Booking, Insurance, Mobile Payments /Recharge, Subscription and many more.
ItzCash also provides training programs and undertakes marketing and promotional activities on a regular basis to drive business at the franchisee level. Their Relationship Managers service Franchisees on a daily basis to ensure smooth and efficient operations.
So before you leap into a franchisee business operation, make sure you evaluate, understand and then choose.
Cash cards can be used anywhere. But where is anywhere?
Cash cards have risen from being mere alternatives for ATM cards to a special money transfer technique that users love and appreciate. Unlike other payment techniques, cash cards handle money with higher security standards and allow users to take advantage of the many rewards that come bundled with the service.
However, users still have many questions regarding the cash card payment method and the usage criteria. It is found that many users who are prying over to shift to prepaid cash cards are not entirely aware about the usage.
So tell me, “Do you know where you can use your cash cards?”
Most of the many who are puzzled by this question don’t have even the slightest clue of ‘how’ and ‘where’ they can start to enjoy the benefits of cash cards. But the same issue raises a concern when we are talking about people who are seriously considering to try out the service. So, here is a simple list of ‘HOW’ and ‘WHERE’ you can use your prepaid cash cards.
We will start with the most basic of questions and then get into the nitty-gritty’s of the subject to understand the usage criteria in a better light.
Where can I use a cash card?
You can start using your cash card immediately for essential services payments like Rail E-Ticketing, Air E-Tickets booking, Utility Bill Payments, and for payments to service providers that have tied up with your designated cash card provider. If you have a prepaid cash card in your possession, you can enjoy the additional benefits of Mobile Recharge, Mobile Post-Paid Bill Payments, DTH Subscription Renewals, and Government Services like Property Tax, Water Bill Payments etc.
How do you use it?
There are different ways and protocols to follow when you have to initiate a transaction. But most cash card providers in India provide a secured mobile service via a downloadable app or extend their services through a dedicated outdoor outlet that are spread across the country.
You will be given a unique PIN number that serves as your authentication code at cash card provider outlets and ATM PIN at supported bank ATM machines. After specifying the withdrawal amount, the transaction will go through preset security checks to authenticate the transaction process and then the withdrawal will be completed.
When operating online, the same pin can be used as the ATM pin when filling the payment details on the application form. However, when you are accessing your funds via the provider’s downloadable app, you will have to follow the given instructions to comply with the security checks.
For any website that does not have your cash card provider in the listed payment option:
• Select the payment option
• Provide card details like:
• Cardholder Name
• Card Number
• Expiry Date
• CVV number
• Verified by MasterCard/VISA IPIN
• Click OK
And then ,the transaction will be processed.
Can I transfer money with my cash card?
You can use most of the cash cards that are currently in the market to send money to a third party. For instance, if you want to send money to someone in another city, you can do so by following a few simple steps of notification that can provide enough proof to authenticate the transaction from both ends. All the necessary information will be requested to you at the provider’s outdoor outlets. While only the big providers function via outlets, you can take advantage of cashless money transfer by mobile app and authentication on most cash cards.
With mobile technology, you will need to feed in your friend’s mobile number and the amount (you permit him to withdraw) on the mobile app. The bank involved in the transaction will send him a temporary password to him and a different set of password to you with short time validity. He can then go to the bank’s ATM and withdraw money. Your friend does not need to have a banking account at all.
What is the maximum without amount for my prepaid cash card?
Just like ATM cards, the maximum amount for cash cards is set by the service providers and usually doesn’t exceed Rs. 10,000 at any given point of time. You can enquire about the specifics at the time of application.
Where can I reload my prepaid cash card?
You can reload the card at your nearest service provider outlet or visit the web portal and to do the same through net-banking.
Can I use my cash card outside of India?
No. Mostly, prepaid cash card providers restrict international use and limit it to be used within India only.
So you are looking to start a business of your own but don’t know where to put your efforts?
As far as business success goes, I don’t think I will need to convince you much when I say that more than half of start-ups fail to make their mark on the business landscape. And this fact is not restricted to a certain state or country. This distasteful truth is observed in every corner of the world.
My advice? Why not build your success on someone else’s efforts?
What I mean to convey with the above statement is the power and benefits of undertaking a franchisee business that can grow into a healthy, successful business over time. Franchisee business is one of the most successful ways to set up a robust business model that promises growth. It is simple, economically non-hazardous and a completely legal way to buy your way in with an outsider’s ticket.
Sorry for the bad pun, but it kind of sums up what I am aiming for. Considering the competitive state of the business market and understanding the horde of difficulties commonly experienced when setting up a business, franchisee business seems a safe haven for entrepreneurs who are ready to look beyond the local market trends and play on a bigger and better playground.
I know saying that straight up without giving any facts doesn’t make much sense but I am ready to give you a list of benefits that will justify my point and give you a better idea about the entire concept of franchising. So, here it goes...
ADVANTAGES
It’s a win-win situation: Franchise business profits both, the buyer and the seller; in this case, the franchisor and the franchisee. Associating with a well-established brand’s product or service brings esteem to the franchisee and in turn provides the franchisor an opportunity to grow business.
Independence: Franchise business allows the franchisee to engage in a business that offers the independence of owning a small business that is supported and constantly benefited by the supporting bigger business network.
Assistance and Training: Let’s face it. When setting up your own business, no one teaches you how it is done and where the cracks lie on the road. But the same cannot be said with franchise branching. Here, the bigger business helps the franchisee to learn the basics of business and also assists him to adapt to the business ethics with special training. Employee selection and initial management, site development, lease negotiation, builders and shop fitters are some other areas where you can expect help.
Open access to growth and research data: Franchisee business model clearly states that the bigger business will allow open access to group/national market research, along with advertising and merchandising assistance to the new franchise owners to ensure growth and efficient use of business’ available resources.
While no business model ensures guaranteed success, franchisee business follows an open code of conduct to grow business physically and economically with the collective effort of people with varying potentials.
So, tell me. Are you still looking for a place to start?
You may like to think of the Smartphone that you had your eyes on for several weeks, in your hands. But when you queued up for almost an hour to buy the phone, the stocks get exhausted? How do you like that thought? Too painful, isn’t it?
This is just one of the many cases to consider when you go shopping in traditional stores around you; others being serpentine queues, the time wasted in hunting for the right shop, and sometimes over-priced items. But imagine the same when you are looking to find the perfect gift for someone. It can really drive you nuts.
On the other hand, shopping online can help you get rid of all these above problems, and more. Shopping online comes with own set of perks and provides you with limitless ideas and options to surprise the person with perfect online gifts.
A list of advantages that comes to my mind, are as follows:-
Convenience: One of the best advantages of shopping online for gifts is that you can begin to do so, anytime of the day or night. Unlike traditional gift shops, online retailers accept orders 24x7. Without defined closing hours, shopping becomes an immersive experience and prevents you to make any decisions in haste. You can browse through the website anytime you want, according to your convenience. This helps, especially when you are searching for online gifts that might stretch into hours of digging.
Discounts: Ordering online almost always comes with a discount or some kind of an offer. Where Internet banking facilitates many offers, online gift cards provide special gratification to shoppers.
Compare anything: Now, this is the most exciting one. When in a store, you sometimes don’t get a chance to compare products from different brands. Some feel too lazy to compare stuff and readily pay what it demands while some find it a tad odd to compare a product and take it to another aisle to compare the rates in public. But when shopping online, you have the liberty to compare things extensively yet in a discreet manner. This works best when you have a limited budget.
Mobility: Shopping for online gifts is easy sure, but now with the smartphone boom, it is now easier than ever. Now you can select between a certain shade of greys for a dress or hunt for the cheapest socks on your Android smartphone and/or your iPad.
Reach: Another great advantage of shopping for gifts online is that you have access to an endless range of products, stocked in stores all across the world. Whether it is a one of kind handmade jewellery from Brazil or a rare art piece from France, you can deliver it online as you sit in the comfort of your home in India.
Business franchise – Expand Physically, Gain Financially
Businesses are set up with a perpetual motive to grow in the future. A business cannot exist that doesn’t aim to expand its functions across various different platforms, through various different mediums. Businessmen are always on a hunt to grab opportunities by the end of the rope and leverage its strength to climb up the hill.
One of the quickest ways to do this is by exploring different avenues of marketing your business to help it reach the people, in their homes. And this is exactly what a business franchise does for a business.
For those of you who don’t know what the word ‘franchise’ actually means, it can be perceived as an extension of your business in a new place from where business functions can be carried out. It is a literal expansion of business functions by setting up an operation center (like a shop, outlet etc) in a relatively new area to help the company’s products and services reach more people. This operation center is your business franchise.
Different business industries have been adapting to this clever business strategy to reap the immediate benefits that help carve a future for the business. Business franchises have not proved to be profitable to any particular set of business sector, but many.
The franchise business model can help any type of business grow manifolds and it benefits both, the business and the franchisee equally. So, if you are looking to invest in business via a successful Indian brand franchise, you can be assured about the monetary gains. But before you take the final, you need to make sure that what you get will be more than what you give.
There are many Indian business industries that have stepped into the business arena of franchise harbouring. It depends with whom you want to take the chance. To make sure you take the right decision, it is essential you research about the products and services of the business, its reputation, history, and its net market value. Address every query you have and seek out to find answers for the same. Only complete understanding and transparency will build the faith that is needed to ally with the business’ interests and goals.
To make sure that you gain nothing but profit from the business is by betting on a business that has spread its network across national and even international borders. However rare, there are a few businesses like ItzCash who are known for their business franchise model and remuneration procedure.
When investing in a business like ItzCash, you can enjoy many business benefits that make their business franchise unique for investing with a good market share and national reputation.
Corporate life has many facets that need to be taken care of, in order to extend the corporate relations within the professional world. There are some practices that people like to follow and are very popular amongst all. One of them is corporate gifting.
While widely popular and accepted tradition all across, it is also one of the most crucial. Gifting in a corporate setting is as much of a tradition, as maintaining a lasting and healthy relation with client, partner or an employee. Not one of them can be left out and everyone should feel content with their corporate gifts.
So choosing and deciding the perfect gift is a complicated thing for professionals who are busy 24x7 most of their time. Finding time to go gift-shopping or even finding some free time can be a daunting task to this bunch of people. So, how can one manage if he has to pick the most apt and practically a perfect corporate gift every time an occasion arrives?
While there are many options and steps to follow for choosing the right gift, we need to emphasize on a single fact that makes all the difference between choosing the perfect gift and the most inappropriate one; i.e. time. No one has the time to actually hunt a set of gifts and then decide to choose the best amongst them.
In the corporate world, time is literally understood as money, and wasting time is equivalent to wasting your money. So, what option remains that can result in a win-win situation for both sides? Well, I have just the answer – Prepaid gift cards.
Prepaid gift cards are one of the most sought after choices to go for when you need to fit the bill for corporate gifting. Corporate gift cards or prepaid gift cards can single-handedly serve all purposes without exhausting much of your time, effort or attention.
Corporate gift cards enable the receivers with money power that they can use to find or buy their perfect gift (or any desired thing). These prepaid gift cards not only give them the power of money, they give them the gift of choice.
Because money can be spent in unimaginable number of ways to fulfil a need, want or desire, corporate gift cards make for a perfect gift card in a corporate setting.
You can use them to gift your partners several times, thanking them for their continued support; use them to gift your clients, expressing your appreciation for their business ties; or use them to gift your employees, without letting your reputation or business ethics to boost their confidence, congratulate them or simply for being a good help.
It is always a twisted road to lead when you have to choose a gift for someone. You are in two minds whether to buy ‘this’ or instead opt for ‘that’. You cannot decide which one to go for. It always seems like an unending decision-making process; that too, after you have found something to pick from.
Finding something that fits your gifting style and requirement is a different story, altogether. On top of everything, I am considering this situation at times when you know WHOM to gift it personally. But what happens when you are expected to gift a less personal and more formal gift to someone... like a corporate gift?
Gifting and corporate are not exactly the most common two words that find a mention in a single sentence. But they surely make for a necessary etiquette to be followed in professionalism. And when we are taking the ball to the other side of the court, we need to revisit the rules chart and tick off a few important points, before dribbling the ball between the legs.
You cannot gift someone something personal or something too inappropriate, if you prefer to avoid awkward situations. You also don’t want your gift to be extensively common and obvious; it would often be ill-advised. But then what are your options? Well, let’s see...
You want your gift to be appropriately acceptable, relevant, novel and yet not too obvious. How about gifting a ‘choice’ with a prepaid gift card?
Prepaid gift cards make a viable choice for gifting employees, partners and business associates. Prepaid gift cards offer flexible availability of providing the money power for everything that the person desires. Also, many prepaid gift card providers in India give the customers a list of added benefits with special discounts and limited period offers on services. These just add up to the goody-list with a range of options to choose from.
To funnel down the idea of a prepaid gift card to suit the corporate environment, you can choose to opt for corporate gift cards that are specially designed to fulfill a specifically targeted requirement. Corporate gift cards act as a perfect alternative to incentives, rewards or commissions without a price-tag under it. Also, because corporate gift cards enable you with money power, you can rest assured about the satisfaction of the receiver of the gift. It is a win-win situation for both.
With the advancements in banking and the convenience that it currently provides, it is safe to say that it provides for every individual need. Everything from bill payments, to online shopping and cashless transfers, you can do everything with the traditional usage methods that banking services provide.
With traditional banking cards that enable these services, we get to enjoy ease of mobility and usage with ATM transactions and eBanking services. But what they do have a list of disadvantages to accompany the good features and sadly, they are more than a few.
With disadvantages like the fact that the current bank cards can be easily duplicated and limits on validity and acceptance, make them susceptible to becoming obsolete in near future. But fortunately enough, before we come to see that day, we already have other better alternatives that can replace the traditional banking methods with more advanced and more secured ones that are future-proof and prove to be concrete in terms of customer service and benefits. One of those alternatives that are already gaining a foothold in finance and banking is e-wallet payment solutions.
E-wallet payment solutions offer a robust example that have the potential to provide what the current banking cards lack and hence can replace them. So, don’t you want to know how an e-wallet works?
Well, the electronic wallet or the e-wallet can be translated into an ordinary leather wallet that can be carried around everywhere and does almost the same job and more with a virtual payment account. These virtual payment accounts are refillable like any prepaid account and are directly linked with your e-wallet, providing it with a virtual thread that can be pulled off as and when needed with simply a text message.
Also, these e-wallets are highly secured with firewall technology and encrypted with multiple security logistics that takes care of the security and assurity of safer access and transactions. So, when you are to make a transaction or send money online, you need to access your e-wallet via your virtual payment account through a personalized pin that unlocks the system and helps you gain access of your funds. You get the status of your transaction and your account balance information instantly on your mobile device that confirms that the transaction has been made.
Apart from the easy use of eWallet payment solutions, the future of banking will also make use of unlimited access, maximum cash transaction limit, infinite lifetime and more. Simply by using an eWallet, your eBanking method gets an upgrade with un-crackable virtual payment account that cannot be duplicated. So, what are you waiting for? Go and get your eWallet now!
ItzCash is one of the pioneers in providing cashless solutions in India. You can also choose to avail their ItzCash eWallet that provide each and every benefit listed above with an ItzCash customer’s guarantee.
India is the only country where 40% of the entire population lack basic financial services. People are more conserved towards the modern methods of banking. Where some deny having a bank account, many confuse themselves with the myriad of regulatory rules that are followed stringently for payments and transactions. While the world adapted to banks and plastic money in the form of credit and debit cards, ItzCash became India’s first non-bank entity that brought something new to the table in the form of ItzCash cash card. ItzCash is now the leading cash card provider and a holistic payments solution company. To help people understand the concept of a cash card better, we ask the most basic of questions, “What is ItzCash Cash Card?”
ItzCash Cash Card is more than just a simple plastic card that enables remote banking methods, this prepaid card is enabled by Visa and MasterCard and associated with banking partners(IDBI bank and DCB bank) to provide a simple yet efficient payment solution for customers. These cash cards can be understood as a simple prepaid mobile recharge voucher that works on the principle of ‘Pay now and Use at your convenience’. It gives the convenience of a reliable payment method that can be carried anywhere without actually carrying any cash.
ItzCash being the pioneer cash card provider, one can use the cash card to fill as much as Rs. 5, 00,000 (as per Reserve Bank of India guidelines) on a reloadable via direct money deposit. Consumers can also load money onto their cards through ItzCash World Outlets that are spread all across the corners of Indian sub-regions by giving cash to the outlet operator to load onto the card.
Features of ItzGift Cash Card
ItzCash cash cards have a good number of features that make them a good option for cashless transactions. Some of them include:
Secured transactions: Cash cards involve secure procedures that make the transactions reliable and heavily secured. It is hard to make a transaction without the card.
Quick processing: Cash cards function similar to an ATM machine that can transact money with a single swipe on the machine.
Added discounts: Many brands tie up with cash card companies to come up with exclusive limited offers on products. These apply to only cash card users and no one else.
Convenient and hassle free gift option: A corporate cash card can be used as a gifting option for employees during gifting occasions. ItzGift cards from ItzCash carry the flag for a cashless gift card.
With the above features, ItzCash provides an easy entry-point to individuals who might not have traditional banking relationships, allowing them to pay for purchases and bills, shop online and by phone, or obtain cash at ATMs when they otherwise could not.
