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Lil’ Angels Photography was started in 1996 by a fashion photographer, a school picture photographer, and a photo processing lab owner who pooled together their ideas and resources to develop the company from scratch. In the beginning, Lil’ Angels focus was primarily on high quality child care center photography and the franchise has since branched out to offer sports, family and school photography in addition.

According to the company’s Director of Franchises, Mike Sondag, quality and support are what separate the Lil’ Angels franchise from other photography opportunities. “Our franchisees provide professional, studio-quality portraits at school picture prices,” says Sondag. “We take ‘picture day’ very seriously and as we bring our state-of-the-art set-up on site to preschools and child care centers, our goal is to lift the burden off the school staff and let our team of professionals handle everything.”

Lil’ Angels franchise owners are local to the areas they serve and have a personal stake in the company and the product that they deliver. Franchisees are offered protected territories that are their own private area to shoot. “We believe that it is extremely important for the franchisor to believe in the franchise and be there for its franchise owners,” says Sondag. “The good thing about Lil’ Angels is that it only takes 40 to 50 good-sized child care centers in your area to have your franchise prosper, and our franchisees usually start having cash come in to the business quickly.”

Sondag believes good candidates for Lil’ Angels franchisees are sales-oriented people who enjoy working with people and want to own their own business. “Our franchise owners can make good money in the business, and they love working with children and child care staff,” explains Sondag. Lil’ Angels Photography has repeatedly been ranked in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500® which is based on objective, quantifiable measures of franchise success.

To assist new franchisees when starting out, Lil’ Angels offers a six month grace period before any sales quota is enforced giving the business time to get up and running. Included in the franchise fees are the promotional start-up kit, Lil’ Angels School and field training in addition to ongoing support. Lil’ Angels has also begun offering a new financial assistance program for 2010 that includes 36 or 48 month loans with prime rate plus 2% interest rates and a down payment of $15,000. Franchisees receive a 90-day grace period before their first payment is due.

Sondag believes the first year is certianly the toughest for any franchisee. “We do everything we can to support our franchisees during the start-up phase and get them going,” explains Sondag. ” As far as advice, I emphasize to our franchisees the importance of planning and organization, but above all else to get out and make sales calls. Never stop making sales calls to keep a stream of new business coming in.”

Lil’ Angels Photography currently has 85 franchise locations with a goal to be approaching 125 franchises across the U.S. in the next five to 10 years. The Lil’ Angels leadership team has over 100 years of combined experience in the photography industry and they are eager to share their expertise with franchise owners.

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About the Author:
Suzanne Musial
Public Relations/Marketing Associate
Franchise Gator
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It’s difficult to get a successful business owner to recognize when change might be appropriate and beneficial. The feeling among unit owners of large franchise chains is that the franchisor doesn’t provide more than they have to. And what they feel they have to provide is Brand Support because, after all, the brand is the boss. But in a strapped economy where even the big guys are having a tough time selling new business units to keep that brand alive and growing, what can the franchisor do to improve not only their unit sales, but the overall health of the entire system? Get some back-office support for the zees.

Possibly the strongest point in the argument for franchisors facilitating accounting and financial management assistance to the franchisee centers on Item 19 of the FTC and state Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD)/Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC). Item 19 is the Earnings Claim, which are estimates or historical figures detailing sales, expenses, and income a prospective franchisee might realize as the owner of a particular franchise.

The Earnings Claim is often considered to be the single most important factor in buying a franchise. As with purchasing any business, it is critical to have a realistic and supportable projection of sales, expenses, and profits earned. Particularly in a case where a potential new franchisee has no experience running a business, or no applied experience in that particular type of business, the earnings claim becomes the only guidance available. Unfortunately, the only source for this information is the franchisor itself, which often introduces doubt as to the veracity of the data. It is difficult to determine which could raise more doubt about the sincerity of the franchisor: using unverifiable data, or not providing an earnings claim at all.

When a franchisor elects to provide services to their franchisees, such as back-office accounting support or financial management oversight, then the opportunity to obtain data for the earnings claim, performance benchmarking, and royalties verification become realistic goals. Further, the ability to verify and substantiate the data can prove invaluable in a tough franchise market where buyers want good, verifiable information, and Item 19 helps sell units.

Offering accounting support to small business owners isn’t a new concept, but the technology to facilitate a truly seamless relationship has only become available in recent years. As Internet and Web-based application services emerged on the market, businesses flocked to them in order to gain the benefits of anytime, anywhere access to applications and data. However, the poor performance and lack of features left some business users without the tools they needed to handle all their requirements efficiently, so many returned to manual or local PC-based systems.

The online application technology model adapts the trusted and proven system to a collaborative, online working model. The online application technology model allows the businesses to continue use of applications with the functionality required to support the business, but improves the IT environment by managing and securing the systems within a secure facility, and utilizes the resources of the service provider to facilitate the ongoing management and support of the systems. Owners are able to retain their investments in software applications and processes, while introducing new efficiencies and flexibility in their working model. The evident benefits are the ability to access information from any location, to have multiple locations work seamlessly together, and to allow outside accountants or other service providers to work seamlessly in the organization.

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About the Author:
Joanie Mann is Executive Vice President of InsynQ, an Intuit-licensed Commercial Host for QuickBooks, and has over 30 years experience in advanced network integration, IT management consulting, information systems management, telephony integration, and business process automation. For the past 10 years the specific focus has been on Internet technologies, the delivery of software as a service, and the development of comprehensive online services and solutions for business – with a specific focus on finance and accounting.
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