Franchise for rising fuel costs.

While on vacation this week I had a flashback to a great interview I had last week with John Cunningham Jr., the President of Vehicle Tracking Solutions. John has a franchise that becomes more and more relevant the higher gas and insurance rates climb.

Back to the vacation, I was in the pool with my son and he struck up a friendship with a fellow gymnast. The young girl said they were also on vacation at the resort and she said, “We live 10 miles away, gas prices.” My boy responded, “Yea we were going to see the mouse, but instead we decide to hang out here too, gas prices!” The way these two 10 year old kids added the "gas prices" trailer was like the line from Atlas Shrugged, with everyone saying unconsciously, “Who is John Galt?”

“What are you going to do?”

You want to investigate any business that provides services which save a corporate controller’s cash from these rising costs. Vehicle Tracking Solutions currently has 10,000+ vehicles it provides real-time market intelligence back to fleet managers to save fuel and lower insurance premiums.

In 7 minutes we did not have the time to dive into the technological advantages of their system versus off the self solutions. Go to www.vehicletrackingsolutions.com to see for yourself why this is growing so quickly. I really like this franchise for four very big reasons.

•Experienced operators: A large base of current users
•Long runway: They just started franchising this year
•Unique offer: No royalty fees and low start up.
•Management: John loves this business.

To listen to the audio click here:

What’s in a name?

Changing your name is not new. In many religious circles, receiving a new name is symbolic of a change of heart, a new direction for someone. It has been going on a long time. Why do celebrities change their names? I don’t think it is a change of heart, they change their name because they want to be remembered.

I guess Tiger Woods sounds better than Eldrick Woods. Bono is much cooler than Paul Hewson and even Larry the Cable Guy has a catchier brand effect than Daniel Lawrence Whitney. Those are their real names. When we hear them for the first time it seems so obvious why they changed their names.

Is your company name easy to remember?

Does your name have a link to what you are doing?

Is it catchy?

One of the biggest myths I believe in building a Franchise is “It’s too late to change our name.” Gordon Sumner was playing music for a long time before he changed his name to Sting. Thanks Gordon! It flies in the face of conventional wisdom but some of us like Sean John Combs or should I say; Diddy,P Diddy,Puff Daddy,Sean Puffy Combs… have made a franchise out of name changing.

So what’s behind Franchise Whale?

Big ideas and a mature blue whale are both extremely rare. When you see one, you are overwhelmed by the enormity of it. The simplicity, grace a beauty. I personally have never had the chance to see one of these ocean Goliaths yet. Few of us ever will. When I do, I am sure I will not stop talking about it. Imagine, they have a tail the span of a 747 wing. Their heart is the size of a car, and they have blood vessels a human can swim through! That is why I am also drawn to the big idea, they have the same qualities, overwhelmingly unforgettable when you see one.

If you want a quick romp through a site where people are passionate about names. Jump out to www.namedevelopment.com. Their blog is also a fun read. Very informative, focused and current.

Big ideas, blue whales and big names. Think about your name; is it too safe, average and easy to forget? It’s never too late to change.

How to stand out in a crowded market

Last week we talked about the niche of servicing people who like to risk death now and then. You might say, “That is easy because they are offering something rare to start with, I have a very common business that is very price sensitive.”

So for an industry that is built on customers shopping for the best price, how do you stand out in a very crowded field and show the market you have clearly superior products and services?

I had a great chat with Bob Kodner the CEO of The Crack Team. They fix foundation cracks in your basement. Talk about a commodity. What I got out of our short interview was a massive dose of great marketing lessons and the power of not taking yourself too serious. With one program they implemented, they had a jump in new leads at 80%+ in the first 12 months!

Their branding is so compelling, I am not surprised they are growing their franchise and I suspect, they are probably the premium player in their respective markets. They really love concrete. Great marketing and branding only works if your product is real. I must say, that Mr. Happy Crack seems to have found a really nice neighborhood to raise the kids. If you are interested in joining the Crack Team franchise neighborhood, check out:

http://www.thecrackteam.com/

If you want to hear more about Mr. Happy Crack and his hectic celebrity filled days, check out:

http://www.mrhappycrack.com/

Listen to 7 minute interview as Bob and I discuss marketing, entrepreneurial tips and of course crack repair.

Why brides prefer June and other business traditions.

June is here and the caterers, wedding halls and event planners rejoice. Do you think they all conspired to make June “the month” so they could take July off? I know in different markets many brides or should I say the bride’s Fathers, pay a hefty premium just to say “I do.” June is not popular because of the temperature or rainfall figures. May, September and October are actually much better months to throw the bouquet in most markets without breaking a sweat or putting on a rain coat.

When did this all get started and what can I learn from this to grow my franchise or expand my licensing business?

I found three reasons that explain the trend and they go back thousands of years.

The Roman Goddess of Marriage is Juno. Maybe a bright Roman started a wedding franchise and then started the Juno rumor. Tradition goes, if you were hitched during the month of June, it was good luck. Many Romans honored her by tying the knot during her month and it has stuck ever since. I wonder if the Roman’s had better luck then we do staying together.

According to Associate Content, many couples timed their first pregnancy so it would not interfere with the harvest. I guess hauling potatoes and throwing around sacks of wheat during the 2nd trimester was not looked down on back then.

The site superweddings.com has an entirely different take. During the 1400s and 1500s people took their annual baths in May so June would be the obvious best time to get married. I hope they are wrong on this one. The idea of an annual bath is probably the best form of birth control ever devised. Yikes! Makes paying a June premium seem like a privilege. Whatever the reason, it just shows us tradition is a difficult thing to change.

Who would have thought three wise men giving gifts two thousand years ago could turn Christmas into a retailers dream practically all over the world. I remember living in Singapore years ago and Orchard Road at Christmas time makes Rockefeller Center look like a community rec center. They really go nuts on the “Golden Mile.”

What tradition can you create in your business to keep customers coming back in ever increasing predictable patterns?

Can you create a tradition with your employees to give them something to work toward? How about an annual tail gate party to kick off the football season? The budget depends on what they do all Summer. Don’t do the expected. The more creative and bizarre the tradition the easier it will be to remember and the bigger the impact. You will have employees recruiting for you not talking about anything that you actually do at work but about your fantastic traditions. Traditions are easy to remember and share. How else can you explain why brides prefer June after thousands of years?

I would love to hear some creative ideas or quirky traditions that you may have witnessed or dreamed up yourself for your business.

All retail is not created equal

If you want a recession proof franchise, getting one that trades in necessities and not discretionary spending is a good place to start.

I would consider my vision a necessity. I believe most people would agree with me. Do you believe most of the elderly prefer to wear frames, contacts or elect for surgery? Right again! The frames match the black dress socks and the sandals right? I just took my kids for a walk around Fountain Hills Park yesterday and I was sporting the dress socks and shorts as well. I told my wife I needed a chick repellent, do to the fact I am happily married. I am 43, also a frame guy, so call me a trend setter, but at some point function overrides fashion as we get older and these things tend to trend for a long time. We are talking about big trends here. If you want to do some franchise research in this space, just check in with your parents and ask them if their eyewear bill is trending higher or lower as they get older.

I caught up with Sam Herskowitz, President of Sterling Optical and talked about the growing senior population and the effect on his bottom line. The retail optical space continues to consolidate around bigger brands and the Sterling Optical is seeking more independent operators that want to align with a national franchised name and keep their independence at the same time. With 20 more franchised locations slated for 2008 and system wide sale up 5% year over year, this could be a very good retail spot to be in over the next 20 years.

Listen in:

Website:
http://www.sterlingoptical.com/

Milk, Eggs and Video games.

When everyone was screaming slow down, nobody noticed the video game industry was at the day spa having a rub. April saw a 47% year over year increase to 1.23 Billion for the industry with year to date numbers looking to be a blow out 2008!

“People say that if consumers are down to their last $50, the last three things they’ll buy are milk, eggs and video games.” – Colin Sebastian, industry analyst with Lazard Capital Markets.

I caught up with Jim Belanger the President of Gamer Doc to find out why the industry just keeps sucking in money. During our interview he brought up so many great points it made me wonder if I should open a store. The market still has gigantic pools of demand untapped as consul and software developers take the market more main stream and bring multi generational players into the mix. I know from first hand, I would never dream I would be hanging out with my boys going into war with them from the comfort of our own couch. It is cool to hang out with Dad, that is priceless.

OK before they cue the music and I go MasterCard commercial on you, please listen to the Franchise Whale interview with Jim. Get your disclosures and buckle up. If you saw his idea for the franchise retail game store of the future like I did, you might agree that a theme park for gamers looks more fun than slumming in coach and doing weekends for your Boss. It may be time to break out and have some fun.

Listen in 8 minutes:

Go See them:
http://gamerdoc.com/

Harrison Ford's sour stomach makes sweet music.

I noticed that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opened at Cannes over the weekend.The thing I noticed was the film did not get booed. The fickle French actually tolerated a low art, high action film. I wrote a blog last year about the commonalities between accidents, business and film making. One of my favorite scenes was caused because Harrison was very sick, too sick to do the scene. Here is a reprint, hope you find some inspiration when you have a bad day in the trenches.

Franchising and Hollywood have at least one thing in common; sometimes the best scenes are created by accident. As a kid I remember watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was the first “Big Film” for me. Jaws was fresh on my mind every time I jumped into our pool the summer of seventy five, but Raiders was the first film that made me feel movie making had changed forever, it was just a giant film to me, absolute monster. The one scene that made such a huge impression on me was actually very simple. Amidst the special effects and rich location shots, the one very low budget scene where Indy calmly shoots the worked up swordsman was unforgettable to me. You may be surprised to know that scene was an accident, more about that in a moment.

Starbucks is also an accident of sorts. In 1971 the company was founded by a passionate trio who extolled the virtues of fine coffee making. A decade later they had four modest stores in Seattle. One early morning in 1981, Howard Schultz, the VP of an east coast houseware company noticed that a special Swedish drip coffee maker they imported was being sold by those four small Seattle stores in greater quantities than Macy’s moved in all fifty states! A plane ride later and a few restless nights, he was convinced that the market was ready for gourmet coffee on a grand scale. Who knew that tracking coffee maker sales could lead to a net worth of over 1 billion dollars! What if he did not get on that plane, what if he switched companies without investigating Starbucks, was it all an accident? Back to Harrison Ford.

Raiders was a Paramount film, directed by Steven Spielberg. The “Swordsman” scene was going on day two as told by Michael Eisner, who heard the story first hand from Spielberg. I heard the story from a friend who was at a motivational conference where he heard Eisner discussing how small things can lead to great things, still with me? My friend told me that Eisner was having a very difficult time discussing the stomach problems of Harrison Ford to his motivational groupies who had paid to hear him speak. As Eisner retold the story, on the final day of the swordsman shoot, Harrison had a major stomach problem and he was very busy running to the washroom between takes. The scene called for Harrison to get into a very elaborate fight scene with the swordsman. Short on time and very short on enthusiasm from his star Harrison Ford, Spielberg says to the prop man, “Give Harrison a gun and just shoot the guy”. Cut, print next! Franchisor tip* Make the most of your accidents, some of your big breakouts can happen when your plan takes an unexpected turn. Great moviemakers and Franchisors go with what they have to work with. If you are short on time and over budget, try the unexpected and move on.

Top 50 Franchise Blogs 2008

A little bit of self congratulation-fluctuation never hurt. You may have seen Evan on the tube or his website espousing the latest motivational tools and inspirational biographies about corporate titans. With 250,000+ visitors per month to his site and a mean salsa competitor on the hardwood, we may have a lot to learn.

We knew his moves were golden when we noticed Franchise Whale was featured in his,

“Top 50 franchise blogs of 2008.”

Evan, our story “How to buy a franchise with your IRA without interest or penalties”, is not even the pick of the litter! Our own hot air aside, this is a very nice collection of franchise blogs. We reviewed the list of the top 50 franchise blogs and it is very click worthy. Any entrepreneur, franchising CEO or small business titan that would like to learn something fresh about franchising, you need to bookmark this.

Publish your songs on iTunes with a click of a mouse.

I had a great chat with Jeff Price, the CEO of Tunecore. It was out of desperation for a client that drove me to find Jeff and the ultimate music distribution solution. To me it was absolute insanity to charge music artists a percentage of their royalties just for distributing their content.

It seemed the market has not caught up with reality. Distributing the content should be a low fixed fee per song for storage and distribution to the online stores. Marketing and selling an artist’s songs should be a separate fee as a percentage of sales.

Jeff, a record producer of 20+ years also saw the label/artist fee relationship had not evolved as quickly as the digital delivery model had. In short, fees were too high for the new reality in the music industry. Over 400,000 songs delivered for Tunecore clients to date, I see a very bright future for this clean digital music franchise.

How does it work?

TuneCore has arrangements with leading digital music retailers that let us place your music in their online stores and subscription services. You get 100% of the money that your music earns from digital distribution and you keep 100% of the rights to your music.

What’s it cost?

TuneCore charges $0.99 per track, $0.99 per store per album, and $19.98 per album per year storage and maintenance. If you want demographic sales reports, it’s a couple bucks extra. That is it. No hidden fees and no hooks. I love this concept and will actually be using the service myself for a project we are doing. Please check out www.tunecore.com and listen to the audio interview.

16 minute audio (Yes It is that good!)

How to make money selling fast healthy food.

Fast healthy food! We found it and you can hear their story as Matt Phipps the CEO fills you in from the big idea to franchising in some very cool locations. The idea was so big a BMW dealer insisted on bringing the Blendz brand inside of their dealership. The 800 sqft store was a hit! In a market full of choices but short on taste and nutrition, this fast food franchise has tapped into a massive hidden market I believe.

Filling demand is easier and cheaper than creating demand. With a CEO willing to look horizontally to tap existing pools of clients built by other brands, I think this franchise concept is as tasty as the soup menu.

• Azteca Chicken & Rice
• Old-Fashioned Chicken Noodle
• Chicken Tortilla
• Creamy Chicken & Dumpling
• Italian-Style Wedding (w/Meatballs)
• Italian Minestrone Tortellini
• Italian Vegetarian Noodle
• Minestrone w/Chicken & Beef
• Garden Vegetable Medley
• Wild Mushroom & Barley
• Heart of Artichoke Bisque
• Tomato Bisque
• Vegetarian Chili w/Beans
• Pacific Northwest Clam Chowder

I had their Portobello Panini with grilled onions and tomato bisque, tops! Check out www.blendz.com and give Matt a call to see if his franchising recipe is right for you.
10 Minute Interview:

How to make money helping your Mother In Law

Very soon you will have a decision to make, some of you have already been faced with it. We have 80 million people between the ages of 63-43 and surprisingly 17 states have over 30% of their population in boomers. The percentage is not a surprise it is the states, they are all “cold” states. Alaska, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Wyoming, Washington, New Jersey, Montana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Are boomers not migrating south for the winter? Is this pent-up supply just getting ready to fly the coup? If they move or not you will still be faced with one of two choices you younger boomers and old Gen X er’s must deal with.

The nights running around your house in your boxers watching Sports Center could be over soon if your wife has a say. Or you could tell your wife your Mother In Law is on her own then you will have a new bedroom called “the couch” you insensitive clod!

Either way it is a lose/lose proposition. Of course you could just spend the big bucks and have her put up in a home with full time care but you will need to sell your plasma and the rest of your toys just for the first month’s rent. Living a life as a monk staring at the empty walls in your boxers is not a pretty picture. It is a real problem you are facing even if you do not want to admit it now.

Think ahead, plan now. If you have that decision coming up you are not alone. Now is the time to capitalize on the seismic shift we are facing, be a hero with your wife and make some serious money in the process taking care of the needs of your fellow sports loving brethren!

Mark Armstrong has the answer. Mark is the CEO of ComForcare Senior Services. He probably has one of the only “feel good” type of businesses that you would love running and make a very good living at the same time solving other guys problems like this.

Mark was a former Accountant watching other entrepreneurs make it big when he decided it was time to strike out on his own. That was 20 years ago and now he has one of the fastest growing non medical in home care franchising systems in America. Go to www.comforcare.com and you will be shocked how much territory you can develop for under $75,000.

Listen to our interview with Mark:

If you are still not convinced of the big shift ahead, check out our story:

http://franchisewhale.com/2008/04/demographics-and-stock-market.html

Death ,taxes and rising fuel costs

When you are ranked in the top 10 best places to work in your country for a company of your size it is difficult to top that. Why not extend the good buzz beyond your borders and franchise your brand internationally. I had a great chat with 4refuel.com, CEO Jack Lee.

4refuel is a classic example of not just listening to your customer, but actually giving them what they want. When I asked Jack to tell me in 30 seconds what you do for the corporate fuel market that is your unique edge, he said “we save our customers time.”

In a crowded market with many options to refuel your fleet, building a franchising company based on saving you time is a great edge. You can have all the money and information in the world but if you do not have the time, you cannot seize new opportunities. Time really is the most precious commodity we could give busy buying managers. Go to www.4refuel.com and check out the technology they have rolled out to the corporate re-fuel market. Prospective franchisees do not need any fuel or technical backgrounds. Sales and client services are the key ingredients to make this work for you.

If you believe fuel costs will continue to rise, managers will continue to be short on time, invest some time now on their site; it may save you some in the end.

Play 7 minute interview now!

How to cure jetlag and make a billion dollars.

Those great moments of clarity when the timing, idea, product and marketing seem to distill upon your mind like spring dew are few and far between. When they happen, drop everything and start writing! Next don’t lose your notes! When Howard Schultz jumped on a plane to go see who was behind a little coffee shop called Starbucks, he had no idea what he would find. He sold house wares, what did he know about coffee! He was dying to know how two coffee shops in Seattle could outsell the entire Macy’s account of a special coffee machine.

I am sure he had no idea that he would one day sit on top of the largest coffee franchise in the world some day. His gut told him, I smell the smoke; I need to go see how big this fire is.

In 1982 Dietrich Mateschitz found himself in steamy Thailand nursing a major jetlag. Asia is full of little shops with strange potions in even stranger bottles. He probably jumped out of a tuk-tuk at the first site of a store that looked remotely close to a pharmacy and somehow communicated his German clock has not reset to Bangkok yet. Maybe he was watching a kick boxing fight and noticed two Red Bull logos on all the shorts and banners and thought, “why am I watching this, I should be sleeping, and what is up with those Red Bulls?’

The details are unclear, but he knocked back a can and BANG, the big idea hit him.

Dietrich was the Marketing Director for a German toothpaste company and licensing and marketing was already in his blood. His big idea, let’s license this drink, change it to western taste buds, soup up the branding and see how much we can make selling to truck drivers, travelers anyone who needed a quick boost.

Do you think in 1982 he could see himself on the Forbes 400 2008 biggest swingers in the world list?

#260 all self made! Check out his photo. Like a good race horse, boxer, actor…Billionaires and future billionaires have a certain look, the vibe.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Dietrich-Mateschitz_DGAD.html

No this is not a lesson on how to start a billionaire face franchise. Our friend Dietrich however, followed a proven formula to get fabulously rich and here is the lesson we can learn from him.

Step #1 Do something, anything.

Move around, travel, read, talk to people, do something for someone without any expectation of a return. That creates the ingredients. Great ideas are like good soup. You throw in a lot of great stuff but you need to let it simmer, it takes a while. Killer home runs start with fresh ingredients.

Step #2 Keep an open mind.

What does a marketing guy at a tooth paste company know about creating a global beverage empire? Ask Howard Schultz the same thing about coffee. Ask Ray Kroc when he was selling milkshake machines door to door, did he ever think he would control the biggest hamburger franchise in the world. They all had a common winning trait. A fertile open child like mind to anything new and creative. When you hear negative people that never offer a better solution, just tune them out and eliminate them from your social circles if possible. Anyone can criticize, but without offering a better solution, they are just a pain in the butt and they will never help you get to billionaire row.

Step#3 Play the long game.

With a massive 70% market share for energy drinks you would think that it was ok to kick back. Dietrich has what all billionaires have, vision. They can see 4 or 5 moves ahead. A brilliant move he made was to link Red Bull with sports early in the game.

Great marketing is a mile deep and an inch wide

While every beverage company was playing the short game brewing up new caffeine in a can ideas glutting the market, Dietrich was busy buying up sports franchises. Investing today's earnings on yesterday's business worked great during the industrial production phase 100+ years ago. Today old thinkers will always get crushed by nimble visionaries who take today's cashflow and invest in future businesses. When the competition comes, the winners have already moved the brand to a new and larger stage, leaving the copy cats holding a bag of thin margin, profit sucking vampires.

Step #4 “Don’t get safe, get creative.

The natural tendency when we are ahead is to protect the lead. Yea that worked for Memphis Monday night for the big game right? You are up by three points with 20 seconds left. Foul the guy! Don’t let him go down and drain a three, force him to a one on one! I know fouling when you are ahead and time is running out might seem counter intuitive but going against the grain, fading the herd is often the winning idea. Safe in marketing is a fast track to the poor house. Safe might work in the short run but it is a guaranteed loser in the long run. History is full of dead safe companies you have never heard of.

Additional articles:

“Why most advertising and investment ideas are wrong.”

http://franchisewhale.com/2007/12/why-most-advertising-and-investment.html

“Who knew cavemen could sell insurance.”

http://franchisewhale.com/2007/12/who-knew-cavemen-could-sell-insurance.html

OK, hit the road, keep an open mind, think five chess moves ahead and get creative! When you get on the 400 list, please thank the Whale, I know I will.

Virtual office solves big problem for in-home care market.

The elderly care market is probably one of the most predictable patterns we will see play out over the next decade. I love the space! I had a great chat with Michael Newman the CEO of Always Best Care Senior Services who has some innovative solutions to a very personalized service.

In the next decade a massive shift from discretionary spending to medical and in-home care spending will take place in the USA. The tidal wave will accelerate each year until 2023! If you ever wanted to go back in time and use your knowledge for good, now is your chance. Good news, no flux capacitor, you don’t need to be a scientist or DeLorean mechanic. You can start today by looking ahead a decade, not back.

Just go to www.abc-seniors.com

The CEO Michael Newman founded the company with some very refreshing ideas in mind. Check out the 11 minute interview and do your homework. If you believe like I do that the demographics never lie, ABC's virtual office is probably the closest thing you will ever find to owning your own time machine for under $100,000.

Demographics and the stock market.

In 1987 I had the incredible luck of hearing from my manager that I passed the securities examination. He told me the results on Monday the 19^th day of October. For you younger readers (I can't believe I typed that) in one day, the Dow Jones went down 22.6%! This was a very big day.

At the time it was blamed on too much portfolio insurance. I know, how can too much insurance make things fall apart? Wall Street always has a nice answer to each major catastrophe. I think they love putting a name and reason on each big crash to give us that feeling that it was all expected, no worries. This round it is too many subprime loans, underwritten and bought by the wrong people. I can’t wait to hear the next excuse in 2010, but more on that in a moment.

One thing I learned at Lehman, all crashes are caused by the big boys running for the exit at the same time and trying to slam the slow guys fingers in the door. This round, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase made it to the door first, Bear Stearns was a little too old and fat. The good news, Wall Street is not going away, the bad news, we are.

Out of all the clutter I have read by over educated economists that are long on theory and short on real experience, Harry Dent’s work really stands out. He is a Harvard chap, we don’t hold that against him, but he has cut his teeth as a fund manager and has a elegantly simple answer that is eerily correct over the past 50 years.

The stock market is controlled by demographics.

I know not earth shattering breaking news for some, overly simple you might say. I love simple. Here is the theory. We go through economic cycles as individuals from the moment we pop out of the womb to the time they stick us in a pine box. Studies have shown that between the age of 46 and 50 we peak in our spending patterns. His theory was, if I project ahead 48 years and overlay the stock market on the birth cycle, it should correspond.

More consumption= more production= higher stock prices.

Check out the chart on the top (Click the chart to see a large version). Do you see that giant red top like a bloody roller coaster? That is 2010. That is when the herd of baby boomers will have passed their prime economic spending and each year after that we take a long slow painful decline for 12 years until Gen-X enters their prime spending. Twelve years!? It will make the crash of 1987 look like a speed bump.

This not only has corresponded with each blip in births for the last 50 years it makes total sense. Our economy is a scary 80% consumer spending now and 20% savings and manufacturing. If the spending slows down, prices will go down. As we start out we don’t spend much until we get to high school. In college the cash starts getting consumed even as we live like a monk. Next we get our first jobs and need fancier clothes, eat out more, need a car. Next I am getting married; need a house, bigger car, more spending…when we get to about 48, things turn over. We pull our horns in and realize we will not live forever and we take less risk, spend less and prepare for the day we need to live off of equity, not add to it. (See chart).

If Harry is right, by 2010 you better have a solid 10 year plan.

So where do we go for opportunity in all of this. The answer might surprise you. Friday I will dive into how we can capitalize on getting into the right demographic markets internationally and what are the hot franchise opportunities domestically after 2010. Next week, I will be interviewing some CEO’s that are running businesses that will thrive while most sectors will be in triage for the next decade.

Buckle up, it is going to be a bumpy ride!

Big Franchise idea hanging around your house

I have always been a traveler at Christmas time. I love the idea of avoiding the malls, lines, stress and slip out of town for 10 days to some place new and exotic with my family. It is simple, relaxing and the kids trade adventure over stuff by a big margin. One thing we do miss and apparently my neighbors miss from us is Christmas lights. I don’t do them, I really am not scrooge, I just never wanted to pay for something I really would not see and hated the idea of putting them up each year myself.

All the CEO interviews on the Whale are about big franchise ideas that I would use myself.

Imagine selling a product that is patented, it can only be sold by you in your area and everyone wants it.

As a franchisee you would have the comfort of knowing the franchisor is backed by a 100 employee company that has been around for a long time.

This is a perfect storm of opportunity.

Listen in as we talk with Jerry Handsaker the CEO of Innovative Lighting Inc. about his fantastic franchise concept. For more information jump www.channelbrite.com.

Listen to the audio here:

Make money being a Guitar Hero!

CEO of Play-N-Trade Roger Lloyd talks marketing, growth and new initiatives with Franchise Whale. Roger shares valuable insights into what it takes to be a Play-N-Trade Franchisee and chats about the national Guitar Hero contest sponsored by Play-N-Trade.

I know I beat simplicity to death on some of our stories. You can never over simplify a web message in my opinion. As a company grows, their website tends to be like a very robust garden with a generous portion of weeds as well. It takes a lot of work to clean up the overgrowth. Roger’s team has made some big improvements in the simplicity department on their new website. Check out the changes at playntrade.com, they have pulled an acre of weeds out of their site. You will see what I mean.

Play Now.

Local franchisee solves big financing problems for small companies.

I had a chat with Brian Birnbaum, the CEO of Liquid Capital. They have been providing receivable financing for the past eight years and have a very interesting franchise model. Low start up costs for franchisee, global reach and I have never heard of anyone franchising in this space before.

The market for receivable financing is a 1 trillion dollar market worldwide. The client that needs the money is usually miles or continents apart from their vendors or suppliers that have their inventory or products. From a credit risk stand point how can they bridge the gap and still have a funding alternative if I am not a fortune 1,000 company?

You see, if you have size, global banks line up to give you a variety of solutions. The real opportunity is the inefficient market of the small business operator. They have slipped through the financing cracks of the major banks and wire house funding companies because they are too small and expensive to service.

Liquid Capital realized if they could get a local Franchisee that could operate without an office, process the risk centrally and provide receivable financing to the Franchisee to market locally, They could put together a bunch of small niche local needs into one giant global factoring company.

Liquid Capital intends to become the Starbucks of receivable financing and they are well on their way. Listen as Brian explains how the market works. What they do for the franchisees and what services the franchisee can provide their clients. Go to liquidcapitalcorp.com to learn more.

Play it now!

CEO Hand and Stone Massage Spa interview

John Marco the CEO of Hand and Stone Massage had a big idea. He was a physical therapist for 23 years when he realized creating a national branded chain of massage day spas would be a hit. He noticed a new trend emerging. When people received a massage as a gift, they told everyone about it. When someone received a fruit basket or other corporate gift, they never talked about it. The word of mouth nature of a spa treatment could be explosive. To him it had to be “available and affordable.” Listen in has John takes you through how he opened his first store in 2004 and why innovation is key to a great spa business experience.

http://handandstone.com/

Interview with COO of Play-N-Trade on Franchise Whale

If you wanted to create a recipe for a massive gamer franchise, what ingredients would you put together?

• A dash of customer common sense, “Try before you buy.”

• Executives with experience at the most successful retail story of all time, Starbucks!

• Executives that launched a million title game, Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

Throw in some experience at Pepsi and you have one very experienced team to run your great franchise concept. Right?

Imagine how cool it would be to have all of that in one guy in your COO office.

I had a great chat with Tom McMahon, the new COO of Play-N-Trade. He has a broad base of experience to draw on, hands on gamer branding and a real down to earth approach about building the fabric of a franchising company. If you have been on this blog for a while, you will know I am a big fan of Play-N-Trade’s simple approach to gaming and franchising. Listen to the entire interview. Tom will give you some very specific tips for any entrepreneur, even if gaming is not your thing.

www.playntrade.com

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