Casual Articles - Business

Inspiration for the Entrepreneur
The new entrepreneur is the internet entrepreneur. Plain and simple. After the eve of the bubble burst, the internet is once again the place to be. With words like Adsense, affiliate marketing and CPM internet entrepreneurs and webmasters alike flock to get a piece of the pie. And from those many there are a handful few big guys (or girls). These few have mastered their arena and serve as an example for the rest of us. Yes, we would never say no to a six-figure MONTHLY residual income, but those of us who are truly entrepreneurs see it as a guarantee. We know that if they can do it, so can we. One of these big guys is Lee Dodd of forumtrends.com. Listen, Learn and Enjoy.Name: Lee DoddAge: 27What do you do?: I run an online media company that operates a large network of websites and online communities.Your Business Name: Z

nal, Inc. Unfortunately Car Wash Guys International did not have the royalty stream to service the franchisees properly and grow correctly so it was closed and all the franchisees in good standing were allowed a no franchise fee entry into the new system to be fair. Those that were not near current status on royalties were terminated prior to closing.

Contracts That Work - Limitations of Liability
Limitations of Liability Thomas J. Hall, JD It’s a provision found in almost every commercial contract: “Vendor shall be liable only for direct damages, in an amount not to exceed $X. In no event will vendor be liable for indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages or for lost profits.” Although the actual words may vary, the meaning is the same: • The most vendor will pay is $X; • For certain claims, vendor has NO liability. Such provisions raise a number of issues: • They are unfair. Vendor’s liability is capped, but customer’s is not. In other words, vendor knows his or her own maximum liability under the contract, while customer’s liability is unlimited. • Vendor’s maximum liability - $X – may be inadequate. For example, “X” may be “no more than customer paid under this contract” or “no more

Here is an interesting case study of a company, which franchised mobile car wash units. It started with the humblest of beginnings indeed. I can say that with complete knowledge because this is a company I started at age 12 years old. It was not until I was nearly 32 years old that we franchised my business. This franchise was great in concept but franchisees would not follow the system enough, they deviated from the plan in most cases. The franchisees that stayed with the plan did very well, the ones who did not, did okay, but could have done better.

Since this was our first try at franchising, we made the franchise documents too lenient and therefore it was hard to enforce standards. The customers were blown away by the idea of getting their car washed anywhere at anytime by phone call or e-commerce B2C. They love us, it is better than being the Fed Ex or UPS guy. If someone has not played sports or been involved in competitive events sometime in their life; we will not sell them a franchise. We want the Olympic style attitude. Because of this the Competition hates us, but only because I am so competitive since I was involved in sports and politics myself. Also in 1991 a car wash owner tried to run me out of business by lobbying to local politicians and lodging complaints to code enforcement, EPA, and County environmental control boards. This was the new environmental age and I was learning quickly about politics and business the hard way. Most Industry leaders representing our competition are clashing with us due to our drive, electronic Blitz marketing and bright yellow HERE I AM mobile car wash trucks.

At one point I had 53 Independent contractors in 39 cities washing cars. Kind of like a mini-franchise system. It was hard work. Soon I realized I was going to have to franchise this business. So we did in 1996-97. Upgraded everything, painted trucks yellow and allowed independent contractors to transfer in. Some did, most did not. Why should they sign anything they were already making money and it was all on a hand shake. I didn't blame them.

As the franchise grew we started allowing those franchisees who bought multiple trucks to have additional areas to expand into, giving us better marketing power to sing up bigger accounts in many areas. It worked. Then came e-commerce, upgrades and we took everything we learned and kept upgrading, unfortunately soon the original franchisees did not look anything like the newer franchisees; different equipment, training, marketing, CDROMS, business plan, new web site. And we needed to divide and conquer each market sector individually. We were washing golf cart, shopping carts, wheelchairs, ski lifts, silos, buses, trucks, cars and we got into a situation were there was too much work, and a challenge to hold onto routes and consistency.

We decided to upgrade the system. Since I had always owned the trade name myself we started another company WashGuy.com to divide up the markets and franchised all our ideas to allow maximum use of all my contacts, and the associates I had gathered and their skills. Then we would franchise each brand name by itself and let all the franchisees of all the systems work together trade leads and operate in harmony washing their specialty niche. The New Car Wash Guys; www.carwashguys.com would be part of WashGuy.com, which was going to acquire the franchise Car Wash Guys International, Inc. Unfortunately Car Wash Guys International did not have the royalty stream to service the franchisees properly and grow correctly so it was closed and all the franchisees in good standing were allowed a no franchise fee entry into the new system to be fair. Those that were not near current status on royalties were terminated prior to closing.

Why Not Earn Money From Your Talents Mom?
I come across talented Moms all the time. Moms who sew baby slings, nursing clothing, cloth diapers.... Moms who make their own herbal skin care, healing balms, and the like. (I’m pretty envious of women who are crafty like this!)Or maybe they are really good at designing their home school curriculum or writing interesting lesson plans. I know Moms with large families of grown children who could make a million bucks if they wrote a book with their parenting success secrets!Sometimes I will ask these women if they’ve ever thought about taking their interest or hobby to the Internet to earn some income with it. I usually get responses like: “I don’t know the first thing about how to build a website.” or “I wouldn’t have any idea how to market my business online.”Yet, you may have a ton of knowledge in your head that could

the Fed Ex or UPS guy. If someone has not played sports or been involved in competitive events sometime in their life; we will not sell them a franchise. We want the Olympic style attitude. Because of this the Competition hates us, but only because I am so competitive since I was involved in sports and politics myself. Also in 1991 a car wash owner tried to run me out of business by lobbying to local politicians and lodging complaints to code enforcement, EPA, and County environmental control boards. This was the new environmental age and I was learning quickly about politics and business the hard way. Most Industry leaders representing our competition are clashing with us due to our drive, electronic Blitz marketing and bright yellow HERE I AM mobile car wash trucks.

Dynamic Sorority Fund Raising Idea Revealed
If you are in college and need to raise money for an upcoming event you may find that a little creativity can go a long ways to raising big dollars for your sorority. When you have the advantage of several sorority members you can plan some great fundraising events. This article will help you discover a creative sorority fund raising idea that is sure to be a winner.The best way to get your sorority fund raising ideas of the ground is to think of a theme. Once you have created a theme then you can plan many types of sorority fund raising events around the same theme. The reason that you want a theme is to convey your message better and raise more money.Now It Is Time to Be CreativeThe first thing you need to realize with any fund raiser is that the idea behind most donors is -- they want to help your cause. They like helping you

Kind of like a mini-franchise system. It was hard work. Soon I realized I was going to have to franchise this business. So we did in 1996-97. Upgraded everything, painted trucks yellow and allowed independent contractors to transfer in. Some did, most did not. Why should they sign anything they were already making money and it was all on a hand shake. I didn't blame them.

Controlling The Costs Of Your Catering Business
Costing is one of the most important parts of running a successful, profitable catering business. How can you best control your costs? Here are a few tips:Food CostsControlling your food costs will be one of the keys to your success. If you spend too much on your food and don't plan well enough so that you have charged enough to cover your costs and include a profit, then you're going to be in trouble. One of the best ways to control costs for your catering business is by keeping exquisite records and use a catering costing software program. A costing program can effectively track your inventory, identify shrinkage problems, track your receiving, automate your purchasing and audit your pricing. A food costing program can save you a whole lot of money in the long run.InventoryA costing program can also reduce the amount of

nd we needed to divide and conquer each market sector individually. We were washing golf cart, shopping carts, wheelchairs, ski lifts, silos, buses, trucks, cars and we got into a situation were there was too much work, and a challenge to hold onto routes and consistency.

Employee Training: Ten Tips For Making It Really Effective
Whether you are a supervisor, a manager or a trainer, you have an interest in ensuring that training delivered to employees is effective. So often, employees return from the latest mandated training session and it’s back to “business as usual”. In many cases, the training is either irrelevant to the organization’s real needs or there is too little connection made between the training and the workplace.In these instances, it matters not whether the training is superbly and professionally presented. The disconnect between the training and the workplace just spells wasted resources, mounting frustration and a growing cynicism about the benefits of training. You can turn around the wastage and worsening morale through following these ten pointers on getting the maximum impact from your training. Make sure that the initial training

WashGuy.com agreed to take on the burden of keeping up those franchisor requirements in the previous Car Wash Guys International agreement even though it would be a loss. It would give the new franchise system a head start with franchisee numbers and make it easier to secure group discounts on products, and entice lending institutions to go with lower rates and better terms and prevent us from ever having to use sleazy leasing companies, with exorbitant rates causing a poor ROI for team members and slower growth rate for new trucks and to add to the franchisees arsenals. I did not charge a royalty, I charge per unit, so the more trucks the more royalties to grow the franchise. The only way for me to make more is if the franchisees have so much business they need more trucks to do the work. I win only if they win. If they lose, I lose worse; indeed a great incentive to work together and communicate. I even co-authored a book in which this was my main theme; “Franchising 101” Dearborne Publications.

This was a great franchise and growing fast. Our customers are anyone one that owns a car. There are on average 1.7 cars for every man woman and child in this country and so my potential exposure to this market is 5 times that of the cable TV Industry and twice that of cellular phones. Average car wash is $10 X 50 weeks a year. So of all my markets this is the most challenging of all. It will take twenty years to conquer. What I need is a 40-60 million dollar financed competitor to go and set up the major markets with mobile car washing so I can take all those customers away with superior service and more efficient operations thus lower prices. I need this competitor to teach my future customers how to do business with me and then I will slice and dice city by city as Car Wash Guys earn our destiny.

I started washing cars because I ran out of local airports to wash at since I had a 35% market penetration at all the near by airports and needed more to wash. Plus I got my drivers license. This was when I was 16. Boy I will tell you being a franchisor is the toughest business in the World and if you want to do it, you are nuts. I work 17 hours a day 7 days a week, no days off in 15 years. I can remember one three-year period I have skipped every third night of sleep, and follow up with a ten-hour crash. You have to give up everything to be a franchisor. For many Entrepreneurs this is simply part of the game, but for most they cannot deal with it. I understand that, accept it and challenge myself since there are no market leaders of any significance in my markets. We designed and attempted to build an LPG car wash truck to help the environment and worked on an aircushions hover system with electric motor. It did not work, it seems as an entrepreneur you are always doing stuff, some works, some doesn’t but you are always pushing the envelope, God Bless the entrepreneurs, I hope you enjoyed today’s case study as it is a chapter of my life as well as lessons learned in franchising. Think on this.

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Companies make sweepstakes available to consumers by three means: direct mail, telephone and the ever growing in popularity online method.

Want The BEST Chinese Wholesale Sources at up to 90 percent off Retail to Compete with the Top Sellers and Make HUGE Profits of over $10,865 per week!? Wholesale Directory Sources and Information on Suppliers.

How well do you know your community? As business owners it is essential that we know our communities intimately. Have you ever made the effort to learn more about your town; Do you even know where to look. Lets discuss some ways to gather intel for your community based marketing efforts.

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