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    What Are the Best Franchise Business Opportunities?
    There are many would-be entrepreneurs who never start their own business because of the risks involved. With any business start-up there is a risk of failure; choosing a well designed franchise business greatly reduces that risk. The best franchise business opportunities are those with a proven track record of helping novice entrepreneurs start and stabilize an exact copy of an already proven business plan. After all, if you already knew what you were doing, you wouldn't need a franchise. If you already knew what you were doing, you would probably be starting your own franchise business - - and selling franchises to others.Some franchising experts say that the best way to judge the quality of a franchise business opportunity is through the size of the franchise fee. Not in the simplistic sense of "a good one costs more", or in another simplistic sense of "the cheaper the better". Ignoring for the moment that the word "franchise" comes from the French word for "free", they say that the franchising fee gives you a look into the motives of the franchisor. Are they trying to make a quick buck by selling thousands of expensive
    t your idea may not work, you saved yourself a lot more money than you invested.

    If your passion leads to a career move, where you imagine yourself working with your passion, but for someone else, go to a career counselor of renown in your area. If it requires a new business start-up, talk with a business strategist or marketing expert.

    Don’t spend a lot of money on marketing or marketing tools! That may sound a bit odd for a business strategist to admonish, but I have seen clients spend excessively on logos and brochures and expensive business cards, when as yet, they did not even have a plan. Dear Reader, you need a plan! For the time being, you could simply order some free business cards. People really do not care about your card at this point. They care about what you have to offer, and you need to test this a lot at first. So why spend a lot of money in advertising materials when you are not sure as of yet just what you will advertise?

    MAKE A PLAN This is where the expert can really help. You need to establish a plan that includes a lot of testing (which will be tip #10) to determine what course is best to follow. The plan stays really loose for the first several months and up to a year in some cases. It involves being flexible, trying something and changing it, or changing a few things about it and trying it some more. Following your dream does not mean you are u

    Ways to Determine the Value of a Business
    Determining the value of a business you are considering purchasing is a tricky subject. Most owners think their businesses are worth far more than they are. And in the end the true value of anything is determined by what a willing seller is willing to sell it for and a willing buyer is willing to buy it for.Step one would be to acquire the use of West’s Business Brokerage Handbook and skim through the rules of thumb sections. If you are looking, for instance, at a dry cleaning business Tom West, the author, describes the nationwide average values of dry cleaning businesses using either the gross sales percentage method—usually from .75 to 1.5 times the annual gross sales; or the cash flow method, which is usually 2.5 times the net income plus discretionary spending the owner benefits from. Value of real estate included is added to this figure. As you can see there can be a wide variation.Of course, nothing really beats a true business valuation, or third party independent appraisal of the value of the business. A business broker who is also a certified business intermediary can probably arrange for a valuat
    Have you seen some of the books and self-help programs available over the past few years that promise if you can simply do what you love, that the money will follow?

    Well, like you, I am into that! Here is a short list of things I love to do:

    • Eat Gelato
    • Make Love
    • Play in Playground – no not with children, I mean I like to swing on the swings and stuff!
    • Travel to exotic places and get massages
    • Okay, let us take those 5 items and connect them with money to follow.

      Eating Gelato a lot could land me a job as a spokesperson for a famous gelato-maker, or I could simply become HUGE.

      Making love, well, I hear there is a profession involving the sexual trade and I could make bundle (quick someone hide my photo from the reader!), but there is some legal issues and I could wind up having more sex than I care to mention – behind bars!

      Playing in the playground! Okay, someone could photograph me and I could sell the photos to “Growing Older Is a Return Journey into Childhood” Magazine – but then that could damage my chances of finding my night and shining amour. Hmm, what to do?

      Traveling and massage – now there is a business in that for sure. I need a few thousand dollars, a tanning salon, and a companion I can stand to be in the jungle with, and I am good to go!

      Playing the Piano – here is a tidy piece of cash. However, I need to get started now, and hope to heaven I live long enough to get good enough to be hired. Hold on, I found middle “C” already; I think I just might have a chance!

      It is great to say we need to love what we do, and do what we love. But in the meantime, and there is a MEAN TIME involved in the process, we need to make enough cash to keep us alive.

      Here are my top 11 ways to turn your dream into a paycheck without going broke.

      Make a list of things you love. Be sure you have more than one idea. Have 20 things you love and explore for a while. You might be very surprised at yourself if you did not stop until you wrote down 20 things you loved. The best idea may be number 19. The reason is that we have default brain waves that take us to the same thoughts over and over, unless we pursue beyond. Write 40 things you love to do. Keep writing. Take a week to do this exercise, do not be rushed!

      Choose your top 5 or 10 ideas. Feel the ideas, imagine the ideas, and talk about them. When you know your top 10 narrow your list to these. (Yes, it is a written list you can look at)

      Go and actually do each one of your top 10.

      This is where it gets really interesting! Let’s say you love to give shoulder massages. Great! So you determine that if you are going to follow your passion it means you will become a massage therapist and work with hunks all day long. Well, before you take out the student loans and kiss your job goodbye, why not decide that for 1 month you will give at least 10 shoulder massages (10 minutes each) a week to friends and family? (They will love you for this!) Think of all the personal enjoyment you will receive from doing what you love!

      Make notes of how you “feel” in the process. Did the idea stay fresh? Did you still love it after week 3? Could you imagine yourself doing this for 3 years, and 30 hours a week? If so, brilliant. If not, go to the next one on your top ten list.

      KEY- don’t get discouraged! You simply found out more about what you want and don’t want to do. Your jewel awaits!

      Take your time. By now, a month or more has passed. You have been “experimenting’ with your varied passions. Don’t cheat yourself. Take time for the experiments: this time is crucial to your future paycheck!

      Decide to take 2 or 3 ideas to the next level. If you find that none of them really turned out to be what you thought they might be, simply start making a new list and redo #3.

      Don’t quit your job! It is too soon. (I am throwing this in for free, we won’t actually count it as a tip!)

      Meet with your mastermind group. Anyone going into a business needs to be a member of a group of people who work together as each other’s sounding boards on a regular basis. (If you want to know more on this subject there is a good wealth of material written and on audio. You can contact me and I will send you in the right direction if you like.) Tell them about your passion, your experiments, and ask them to brainstorm with you on applications. If you don’t have a group yet, call 3 of your friends together and meet with them over coffee. The dynamics of the group will create energy for ideas you might never think of alone.

      There is a prevailing guideline here: No idea is a bad one and no one is penalized for suggesting anything! Remember, even if the idea is not THE idea for your millions,it could be a stepping-stone along the way to a better idea, and you need the stones!

      Call in an expert! The reason everyone in the world does not do what they love doing or creates businesses they love doing is because they don’t really know what they are doing! Don’t be offended by that statement. All of us need others to share their expertise with us about something. We just don’t know it all. You can save yourself a world of disappointment by embracing the wisdom learned by others before you spend all kinds of time learning it for yourself, and loosing money and time in the process!

      Will it cost you some money? Probably. But you will be investing in what you really want to do in a way that moves you forward. If you discover in the process that your idea may not work, you saved yourself a lot more money than you invested.

      If your passion leads to a career move, where you imagine yourself working with your passion, but for someone else, go to a career counselor of renown in your area. If it requires a new business start-up, talk with a business strategist or marketing expert.

      Don’t spend a lot of money on marketing or marketing tools! That may sound a bit odd for a business strategist to admonish, but I have seen clients spend excessively on logos and brochures and expensive business cards, when as yet, they did not even have a plan. Dear Reader, you need a plan! For the time being, you could simply order some free business cards. People really do not care about your card at this point. They care about what you have to offer, and you need to test this a lot at first. So why spend a lot of money in advertising materials when you are not sure as of yet just what you will advertise?

      MAKE A PLAN This is where the expert can really help. You need to establish a plan that includes a lot of testing (which will be tip #10) to determine what course is best to follow. The plan stays really loose for the first several months and up to a year in some cases. It involves being flexible, trying something and changing it, or changing a few things about it and trying it some more. Following your dream does not mean you are un

      10 Things You Should Know to Get the Ultimate Printing Services
      Many, perhaps, shy away from the sometimes complicated processes involved in printing. It seems that this branch of knowledge, which has taken its roots way, way back in history, is too much of a mystery that only a few dare know and comprehend. Even in this day in age, not too many people know about the wheels that turn to produce our daily newspapers, monthly glossies and even the handy-dandy business card.So what exactly do you need to know about printing? How will you identify and maximize the best printing services there are?It doesn’t take too much effort to get your print designs from here to there, in other words, from soft copy to print form. There are, however, certain concepts you’ll come across whenever you venture into the world of printing. There are too some qualities you should look for when choosing the right printer to do the job.1. Online Printers make your printing jobs easier. Online printers offers an array of services to get your printing project done, without you ever having to get up from your computer seat. From business cards to large format posters, most online printers exhibit th
      tidy piece of cash. However, I need to get started now, and hope to heaven I live long enough to get good enough to be hired. Hold on, I found middle “C” already; I think I just might have a chance!

      It is great to say we need to love what we do, and do what we love. But in the meantime, and there is a MEAN TIME involved in the process, we need to make enough cash to keep us alive.

      Here are my top 11 ways to turn your dream into a paycheck without going broke.

      Make a list of things you love. Be sure you have more than one idea. Have 20 things you love and explore for a while. You might be very surprised at yourself if you did not stop until you wrote down 20 things you loved. The best idea may be number 19. The reason is that we have default brain waves that take us to the same thoughts over and over, unless we pursue beyond. Write 40 things you love to do. Keep writing. Take a week to do this exercise, do not be rushed!

      Choose your top 5 or 10 ideas. Feel the ideas, imagine the ideas, and talk about them. When you know your top 10 narrow your list to these. (Yes, it is a written list you can look at)

      Go and actually do each one of your top 10.

      This is where it gets really interesting! Let’s say you love to give shoulder massages. Great! So you determine that if you are going to follow your passion it means you will become a massage therapist and work with hunks all day long. Well, before you take out the student loans and kiss your job goodbye, why not decide that for 1 month you will give at least 10 shoulder massages (10 minutes each) a week to friends and family? (They will love you for this!) Think of all the personal enjoyment you will receive from doing what you love!

      Make notes of how you “feel” in the process. Did the idea stay fresh? Did you still love it after week 3? Could you imagine yourself doing this for 3 years, and 30 hours a week? If so, brilliant. If not, go to the next one on your top ten list.

      KEY- don’t get discouraged! You simply found out more about what you want and don’t want to do. Your jewel awaits!

      Take your time. By now, a month or more has passed. You have been “experimenting’ with your varied passions. Don’t cheat yourself. Take time for the experiments: this time is crucial to your future paycheck!

      Decide to take 2 or 3 ideas to the next level. If you find that none of them really turned out to be what you thought they might be, simply start making a new list and redo #3.

      Don’t quit your job! It is too soon. (I am throwing this in for free, we won’t actually count it as a tip!)

      Meet with your mastermind group. Anyone going into a business needs to be a member of a group of people who work together as each other’s sounding boards on a regular basis. (If you want to know more on this subject there is a good wealth of material written and on audio. You can contact me and I will send you in the right direction if you like.) Tell them about your passion, your experiments, and ask them to brainstorm with you on applications. If you don’t have a group yet, call 3 of your friends together and meet with them over coffee. The dynamics of the group will create energy for ideas you might never think of alone.

      There is a prevailing guideline here: No idea is a bad one and no one is penalized for suggesting anything! Remember, even if the idea is not THE idea for your millions,it could be a stepping-stone along the way to a better idea, and you need the stones!

      Call in an expert! The reason everyone in the world does not do what they love doing or creates businesses they love doing is because they don’t really know what they are doing! Don’t be offended by that statement. All of us need others to share their expertise with us about something. We just don’t know it all. You can save yourself a world of disappointment by embracing the wisdom learned by others before you spend all kinds of time learning it for yourself, and loosing money and time in the process!

      Will it cost you some money? Probably. But you will be investing in what you really want to do in a way that moves you forward. If you discover in the process that your idea may not work, you saved yourself a lot more money than you invested.

      If your passion leads to a career move, where you imagine yourself working with your passion, but for someone else, go to a career counselor of renown in your area. If it requires a new business start-up, talk with a business strategist or marketing expert.

      Don’t spend a lot of money on marketing or marketing tools! That may sound a bit odd for a business strategist to admonish, but I have seen clients spend excessively on logos and brochures and expensive business cards, when as yet, they did not even have a plan. Dear Reader, you need a plan! For the time being, you could simply order some free business cards. People really do not care about your card at this point. They care about what you have to offer, and you need to test this a lot at first. So why spend a lot of money in advertising materials when you are not sure as of yet just what you will advertise?

      MAKE A PLAN This is where the expert can really help. You need to establish a plan that includes a lot of testing (which will be tip #10) to determine what course is best to follow. The plan stays really loose for the first several months and up to a year in some cases. It involves being flexible, trying something and changing it, or changing a few things about it and trying it some more. Following your dream does not mean you are u

      Marketing With Plastic Business Cards
      Business cards have been used both as a common form of advertising and as a means of exchanging contact information between business people and the public. More recently, with the introduction and increased popularity of plastic business cards, businesses have discovered a newer, durable and longer lasting way to make a memorable impression.There has been a significant increase in the use of plastic business cards. The once-common business card has now evolved into a visually striking and powerful marketing medium.Plastic business cards also provide a permanence and durability that effectively brand a company’s identity and message in new and exciting ways. The use of color, combined with a variety of clear and tinted formats, allows for a very creative approach to many different types of messaging, branding and image building.A business card that looks and feels like a credit card is perceived as having a high value, increasing the chances that the card will be kept by the customer. It is also more unlikely that the card will be discarded.Value-based offers via plastic cards are especially powerful w
      ge therapist and work with hunks all day long. Well, before you take out the student loans and kiss your job goodbye, why not decide that for 1 month you will give at least 10 shoulder massages (10 minutes each) a week to friends and family? (They will love you for this!) Think of all the personal enjoyment you will receive from doing what you love!

      Make notes of how you “feel” in the process. Did the idea stay fresh? Did you still love it after week 3? Could you imagine yourself doing this for 3 years, and 30 hours a week? If so, brilliant. If not, go to the next one on your top ten list.

      KEY- don’t get discouraged! You simply found out more about what you want and don’t want to do. Your jewel awaits!

      Take your time. By now, a month or more has passed. You have been “experimenting’ with your varied passions. Don’t cheat yourself. Take time for the experiments: this time is crucial to your future paycheck!

      Decide to take 2 or 3 ideas to the next level. If you find that none of them really turned out to be what you thought they might be, simply start making a new list and redo #3.

      Don’t quit your job! It is too soon. (I am throwing this in for free, we won’t actually count it as a tip!)

      Meet with your mastermind group. Anyone going into a business needs to be a member of a group of people who work together as each other’s sounding boards on a regular basis. (If you want to know more on this subject there is a good wealth of material written and on audio. You can contact me and I will send you in the right direction if you like.) Tell them about your passion, your experiments, and ask them to brainstorm with you on applications. If you don’t have a group yet, call 3 of your friends together and meet with them over coffee. The dynamics of the group will create energy for ideas you might never think of alone.

      There is a prevailing guideline here: No idea is a bad one and no one is penalized for suggesting anything! Remember, even if the idea is not THE idea for your millions,it could be a stepping-stone along the way to a better idea, and you need the stones!

      Call in an expert! The reason everyone in the world does not do what they love doing or creates businesses they love doing is because they don’t really know what they are doing! Don’t be offended by that statement. All of us need others to share their expertise with us about something. We just don’t know it all. You can save yourself a world of disappointment by embracing the wisdom learned by others before you spend all kinds of time learning it for yourself, and loosing money and time in the process!

      Will it cost you some money? Probably. But you will be investing in what you really want to do in a way that moves you forward. If you discover in the process that your idea may not work, you saved yourself a lot more money than you invested.

      If your passion leads to a career move, where you imagine yourself working with your passion, but for someone else, go to a career counselor of renown in your area. If it requires a new business start-up, talk with a business strategist or marketing expert.

      Don’t spend a lot of money on marketing or marketing tools! That may sound a bit odd for a business strategist to admonish, but I have seen clients spend excessively on logos and brochures and expensive business cards, when as yet, they did not even have a plan. Dear Reader, you need a plan! For the time being, you could simply order some free business cards. People really do not care about your card at this point. They care about what you have to offer, and you need to test this a lot at first. So why spend a lot of money in advertising materials when you are not sure as of yet just what you will advertise?

      MAKE A PLAN This is where the expert can really help. You need to establish a plan that includes a lot of testing (which will be tip #10) to determine what course is best to follow. The plan stays really loose for the first several months and up to a year in some cases. It involves being flexible, trying something and changing it, or changing a few things about it and trying it some more. Following your dream does not mean you are u

      Networking Interview Questions
      Here are the basic interview questions for the network administrators, system administrators and IT manager posts. These questions provide the basic information about the network communication technology, network topologies, network troubleshooting techniques, network devices and the basic overview of the LAN - WAN communication model.What is DHCP?DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Technology. The basic purpose of the DHCP is to assign the IP addresses and the other network configuration such as DNS, Gateway and other network settings to the client computers. DHCP reduces the administrative task of manually assigning the IP addresses to the large number of the computers in a network.What is DNS and how it works?DNS stands for Domain name system and it translates (converts) the host name into the IP address and IP address into to the host name. Every domain and the computer on the internet is assigned a unique IP address. The communication on the internet and in the network is based on the IP addresses. IP addresses are in this format 10.1.1.100, 22
      a regular basis. (If you want to know more on this subject there is a good wealth of material written and on audio. You can contact me and I will send you in the right direction if you like.) Tell them about your passion, your experiments, and ask them to brainstorm with you on applications. If you don’t have a group yet, call 3 of your friends together and meet with them over coffee. The dynamics of the group will create energy for ideas you might never think of alone.

      There is a prevailing guideline here: No idea is a bad one and no one is penalized for suggesting anything! Remember, even if the idea is not THE idea for your millions,it could be a stepping-stone along the way to a better idea, and you need the stones!

      Call in an expert! The reason everyone in the world does not do what they love doing or creates businesses they love doing is because they don’t really know what they are doing! Don’t be offended by that statement. All of us need others to share their expertise with us about something. We just don’t know it all. You can save yourself a world of disappointment by embracing the wisdom learned by others before you spend all kinds of time learning it for yourself, and loosing money and time in the process!

      Will it cost you some money? Probably. But you will be investing in what you really want to do in a way that moves you forward. If you discover in the process that your idea may not work, you saved yourself a lot more money than you invested.

      If your passion leads to a career move, where you imagine yourself working with your passion, but for someone else, go to a career counselor of renown in your area. If it requires a new business start-up, talk with a business strategist or marketing expert.

      Don’t spend a lot of money on marketing or marketing tools! That may sound a bit odd for a business strategist to admonish, but I have seen clients spend excessively on logos and brochures and expensive business cards, when as yet, they did not even have a plan. Dear Reader, you need a plan! For the time being, you could simply order some free business cards. People really do not care about your card at this point. They care about what you have to offer, and you need to test this a lot at first. So why spend a lot of money in advertising materials when you are not sure as of yet just what you will advertise?

      MAKE A PLAN This is where the expert can really help. You need to establish a plan that includes a lot of testing (which will be tip #10) to determine what course is best to follow. The plan stays really loose for the first several months and up to a year in some cases. It involves being flexible, trying something and changing it, or changing a few things about it and trying it some more. Following your dream does not mean you are u

      The 7 C's of Personal Branding Success
      Everything you do is linked directly to your Personal Brand. As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we have a distinct advantage that larger companies do not. When it comes to our brands, we have the ability to get very personal.Larger companies strive to establish a relationship with their target audience by making their brand feel more personal or relatable. This is one of the reasons why spokespeople are such a commodity – larger companies piggy back off of the relationship an audience has with that spokesperson. Those experiences are then tied directly to their product or service thanks to the Personal Brand draw of their spokesperson.Take Tiger Woods for example. W hen he is hired by Nike to represent their latest ad campaign, the mere image of him stands for perseverance, determination and overall excellence. Nike benefits from those perceptions simply by having Tigers brand lined up with theirs.You don’t have to take such expensive measures, as a small business owner, because you have the ideal spokesperson to represent your brand – YOU!With that said, t
      t your idea may not work, you saved yourself a lot more money than you invested.

      If your passion leads to a career move, where you imagine yourself working with your passion, but for someone else, go to a career counselor of renown in your area. If it requires a new business start-up, talk with a business strategist or marketing expert.

      Don’t spend a lot of money on marketing or marketing tools! That may sound a bit odd for a business strategist to admonish, but I have seen clients spend excessively on logos and brochures and expensive business cards, when as yet, they did not even have a plan. Dear Reader, you need a plan! For the time being, you could simply order some free business cards. People really do not care about your card at this point. They care about what you have to offer, and you need to test this a lot at first. So why spend a lot of money in advertising materials when you are not sure as of yet just what you will advertise?

      MAKE A PLAN This is where the expert can really help. You need to establish a plan that includes a lot of testing (which will be tip #10) to determine what course is best to follow. The plan stays really loose for the first several months and up to a year in some cases. It involves being flexible, trying something and changing it, or changing a few things about it and trying it some more. Following your dream does not mean you are unconscious! It means you allow your imagination to feed you with inspiration and motivation. Then your dream becomes reality by conscious and responsible action.

      Go Beta Test everything. Test your assumptions. Test your skills. Test the market. Test the finances. Test the schools. Test the potential customers. Test what you test.

      Here is a practical application of testing: Let me tell you about Bob. Bob loves fishing tackle. He is not so fussy on fishing. He learned that after doing step #3. He went fishing everyday for 20 days for 2 hours and he found out he hated the rain, was infuriated by the mosquitoes and tired of soggy peanut butter and jam sandwiches. (You should know, Bob had always dreamed of making a living by taking men fishing…but soon found out, the boots for the outdoor life were not a good fit for him.)

      Still, Bob loved fishing gear. He could shop the catalogues online and offline for hours. When he felt stressed, just opening the fishing tackle box, and looking at the gear in fine detail made Bob feel like a new man.

      So Bob met with his pals; some of them fishing buds and some of them colleagues at work. He began to describe his passion and some of the refinements he had learned during the testing phases. Then he asked for feedback. Bob couldn’t write fast enough as his friends made suggestions of how he could use his passions, and in his case, begin by working part-time on the weekends in a fishing specialty store to really learn the ropes, and finally to take his dream into an online business. (He found an expert to help him.)

      The whole process was over 3 years. But guess what? Bob is doing what he loves, lives the life he dreamt of living, and makes enough money to write his generous paycheck and two part-time paychecks a month.

      You can do what you love to do, and you can make money doing it. Be strategic; honor your dream with a process that insures the highest possibility for success.

      Copyright 2005 Harmony Thiessen

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