Essential Elements for SP Marketplace Franchise Success

Basic Small Business Requirements:

  • Business Entity Structure (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, Partnership, etc.)
  • Business Tax Identification Number - U.S.
  • Business Address
  • Business Phone Number
  • Business Website
  • Business Bank Account
  • Merchant Account (credit cards)
  • Business Insurance
  • Basic Funding Strategy
  • Microsoft Partnership

Office Requirements:

  • Office Space
  • Office Furniture (desks, chairs, tables, filing cabinets, etc.)
  • Computers (must be capable of smoothly sharing video/audio and running MS Office)
  • Business Class Internet Service (must be enough bandwidth for smoothly sharing video/audio and running Office 365 and SharePoint Online)
  • Phone system
  • Other computer hardware (keyboards, monitors, printers, headsets, etc.)

Software Requirements:

  • At least one complete Office 365 account
  • Access to MS Office products (if no E3 account)
  • Access to a paid subscription of Lynda.com (for training purposes)
  • A web presenter service (join.me, WebEx, gotomeeting, Lync, etc.)
  • A customer service system to track customers from new leads throughout fulfillment and ongoing customer service
  • Access to website creation software

Website Requirements:

  • An appropriate public facing website that professionally presents your company’s offering and the SP Marketplace products.
  • Use the SP Marketplace website content as a guide for your own company’s website
  • Feel free to repost any blog articles or videos found on the SP Marketplace website
  • A system to capture and track form submissions on the website

Skills and Knowledge:

  • Know how to use typical MS Office products
  • SharePoint and Office 365 knowledge from our training curriculum
  • Ability to demonstrate the products to customers (learned from watching our live demos)

Personnel (if you choose to hire-on):

  • Adherence to any labor laws in your region
  • Human Resources system to keep track of employee data
  • Ability to compensate employees
  • Specific information on what to look for in candidates:
  • We have found that the ideal candidates can be found from a local junior college CIS degree program. They must know MS Office. Other MS products and SharePoint knowledge is a benefit. People who have been gamers or heavily into gaming seem to do well. Knowledge of java or HTML also is good. If they are or have been programmers using .net, C+ etc. they will likely fail do to preconceived notions they will try and applied to SharePoint apps.
  • Expected compensation for an entry-level, competent employee: $12 - $15 per hour

Social/Community:

  • Create business profiles on social media sites (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube)
  • Join SharePoint and Office 365 user groups on those sites
  • Find SharePoint and Office 365 community sites and create a presence on those