Did you know that more than 20 million veterans have shown an interest in starting a franchise? This number is expected to grow in 2012 with many veterans having returned home for the first time in months. Franchisors are excited to help veterans interested in franchising, the chance to become an independent business owner. More than 400 franchisors are currently part of the International Franchise Association’s VetFran Initiative. The VetFran Initiative helps veterans become franchisees through incentives and discounts on fees or royalties.

Running a franchised business can be extremely stressful. There are people asking you questions all day and on top of that, you’ve got to get all the paperwork, HR, marketing, etc finished before you go home. How can someone be productive, while still finishing everything? Easy…stay on task, but that’s easier said than done. Here are 3 sure fire ways to help you be more productive during business hours.

Don’t constantly check Emails or Social Networks

If you want to get things done during the day, don’t constantly check your email or Facebook. Set aside time each day to go through your emails, maybe once in the morning, lunch, and evening. This will keep you from getting off task every ten minutes to sift through emails. As far as social networks go, set up your tweets or status updates ahead of time with apps like TweetDeck or Hootsuite. These web apps allow you to organize your social networks ahead of time and also allow you to keep track of mentions.

Set Your Agenda Weekly and Daily

One of the most basic principles of becoming organized and productive in business, is to create a schedule. A great practice is set up an agenda for each week on Monday mornings. This agenda would include meetings and project deadlines.

Each day before doing any work, set aside 10 minutes to write down your daily agenda, based on importance. Set your schedule in 60-90 minute intervals. This allows time for breaks or snacks. Constantly working for hours on end can cause a burnout and make you feel tired.

Don’t Multi-task

Switching back and forth from one task to another can cause distractions. Focus your attention on one thing at a time. This goes allow with the fact that you should create a schedule. There should be an allotted time in your day for everything that has to be done, whether that’s budgeting or interview a new hire. So stop multi-tasking throughout the day and make room for everything one at a time.

Almost all franchisors will provide you with some form of marketing material and/or training. But if the franchisor does not provide this, there are easy and cheap ways to market your business.

Cleaning and Maintenance franchise opportunities can be extremely rewarding. If you open a franchise in this industry, you’ll almost always reap the benefits of repeat customers and great profits. There are many different opportunities available to choose from, including: Sears, Merry Maids, Sure Step and EcoMaids. Take for example, Von Schrader Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning (video below). Von Schrader offers theses things to their franchisees:  low-costs, no franchise fees, free marketing aids, and a risk-free money back guarantee.

Pros to owning a Cleaning/Maintenance franchise:

• Training and Support- Almost all franchises in this industry provide some type of support and training, whether its instructional DVDs and workbooks, or training you how to use the machines.
• Supplies- Cleaning franchises will usually have a list of vendors to use or vendors they use. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of what you should buy. This also allows to take advantage of group discounts that may be in place for certain distributors. But some companies may not allow you to use anyone