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:

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.

Hothand gives hot deals to university students.

If you want to sell to 18-24 year olds, which medium would you pick.

(1) Radio
(2) Yellow Pages
(3) Mobile phone

Bingo! With satellite radio and ipods, reaching Gen Y is a very dicey proposition over the airwaves. But we have all had that feeling after we go somewhere and realize “I left my phone!” I can honestly say I never thought, “I left my Yellow Pages!” We are real techno-inbreds if you think about it. The phone is a must have item, and it is used more than a toothbrush, we are sickos.

I had a great chat with Randy Jaramillo the CEO of Hothand Wireless. Hothand Wireless embraces wholeheartedly the fact that a mobile lifestyle is increasing morphing into a data lifestyle. 3G could finally make calling 411 seam way to “1980’s” shortly. Hothand Wireless just signed a monster exclusive agreement to stream sports and recreation info for NIRSA (That is an intramural collegiate association, not a cross between gun lovers and drag racers). This is a big deal, NIRSA currently has 600 campuses with more than 7 million students that can use NIRSA to get intramural and sports at their school.

What caught my eye, Hothand Wireless, deployed through NIRSA for UCLA students and also signed Subway as a advertiser over their network just last week. When you consider 600 schools and tens of thousands of Subway franchisees, this could be a very big idea to keep an eye on. Entrepreneurs, advertisers and schools jump out to hothand.com and see what Randy is up to now.

Listen to interview:

Go see Randy
www.hothand.com

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/

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:

300 pages in three minutes!

I am crazy for reading. I love it, I will have 3-4 books going at the same time typically all dog-eared with my notes in the columns and handmade indexes in the back. I was talking to a friend last week and he told me, “Not everyone loves to read, some people are like me and love to learn through the ears, not the eyes.”

This is so true, my wife has the nasal capacity of a bloodhound and it prompted me to write the article, “Honey, you smell like a Wendy’s jalapeno burger!” It illustrates how to market through different senses often overlooked.

We are testing a new forum called “300 pages in three minutes!” We will summarize a great business book in audio format highlighting the main points and lessons learned. You will vote with your mouse if this is a complete waste of time or a new addition to the Franchise Whale line up. The first installment (I hope of many to come), is titled “Richard Branson,losing my virginity” I loved this book. It highlights a dyslexic, awkward kid, terrified of public speaking that goes on the change the world and become a billionaire. Airline franchise, space travel, records, retail, boardroom coups…today he has 200 business units with 50,000 employees all started from a basement with a 8 dollar gift from his Mother for writing paper.

Enjoy!

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!

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.

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:

Honey do these pants make my butt look big?

For years life was easy on the outside of the dressing room for a guy. Wait for her to come out with the new jeans on and then blurt out with enthusiasm, “Your butt looks real small in those pants honey!” If you could keep a straight face, you might be out in an hour. Today the four horsemen of the Full Butt Hall of Fame, J-Lo, Beyonce, Shikira, and Jessica Biel, have really made it tricky to pull off the right answer.

Last week I was watching the Big Idea on CNBC and Donnie was wound up about a company that had a very elegant solution to this very problem. The test was my wife; she gave it two very big thumbs up!

$25 bucks, no surgery, no exercise, great butt.

Now don’t get too crazy guys sending a pair of Booty Pop Panties unannounced to your wife or girlfriend, it could backfire. You might be slumming the sofa at the dressing room again. Just send her a web link to bootypoppanties.com and tell her, “check out the before and after of this woman’s butt, you would never need anything like this.” Watch her reaction once she visits the site.

Consider this your own private focus group. You can learn a lot from this little experiment. I personally think this is a very big idea.

• Great name

• Registered trademarks

• Solid management

• Simple solution

• Growing market

• Inexpensive and fun.

This was a fun interview. Listen in as Susan Bloomstone, one of the Partners of Booty Pop Panties takes you from Big Idea to your wife’s behind in 9 minutes.

Play Now

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

Listen to Interview:

Buy a Franchise with your IRA without payments or penalties.

I learned something last year I never knew before about franchising. I know it came as a shock to my wife as well. I actually do not know everything! I did tell her about the study I read regarding that housework has a devastating effect on creativity. That anything repetitive will create mental ruts that are hard to drive a creative dune buggy out of. I impressed upon her mind that my creativity’s happiness is essential to her financial security, yea it did not work, but this will.

If you are hungry to take the plunge and buy a franchise or invest in someone else’s big idea, you can do it without taking out a loan or paying any penalties.

It is perfectly legal to use your IRA account to fund it. Yes the government rightly rationalizes, hey if the stock boys can blow a hole through your IRA the size of a dump truck full of money, why not let the actual owner of the cash give it a try on their own?

I had a fantastic interview with Rob Purnell, the Director of Shepherd Capital Partners, to enlighten us on the rules of self funding. This is actually an old law but because the brokers and investment bankers do not get their equity and bond lovin, you never hear about it! I have seen this happen again and again. If the establishment does not have a financial reason to tell you about these great tools, they will bury them in the backyard.

Rob is in the bay area, but he can consult anyone regardless of where they live about the rules. Go to shepherdcapitalpartners.com, and listen to the audio now by clicking the player below. The other option, you will find a podcast you can grab-n-go on the right side bar listed as "Franchise Financing" to listen at the gym.

Interview with CEO of EYESthere on Franchise Whale

How would you like to review 72 hours of security footage of your business in 5 minutes from a laptop on the beach?


If you believe business and personal security is a huge growth market like I do, listen to this CEO.

I had a great chat with Rick Rene the CEO of EYESthere. Listen in as Rick shows you simple solutions to a very complex problem, remote security monitoring. We also dive into the perfect franchisee profile, what markets are still available and what someone needs to do next to find out more. I was a little worried before I interviewed Rick when I heard he had an Accenture background. I feared he might be on the wrong side of the marketing track. As we talked about his entrepreneurial experiences and the way they simplify a very complex problem, my fears were overblown. You have a solid operations mix with marketing savvy in this CEO. I think you will find their mission statement refreshing as well.

The competition I see out there are selling complexity and they are wrong. I like this market and I like selling simplicity. Thanks for sharing Rick. Please jump out to eyesthere.com

and listen right now to this 6 minute interview.

Ron Simpson Founder of Play-N-Trade talks entrepreneurship with the Whale.

We have an entrepreneurial buffet for you. I find out why Ron’s contempt for tie wearing actually explains a lot about his personality as an entrepreneur. We get his take on all aspects of entrepreneurship, business building and hiring the right people to make your big vision a reality. Play-N-Trade has brought in some heavy weights into the executive office with a CEO, Brand Director and COO that are an unstoppable team in my opinion. I think these key hires are just right. I must quote the king of the oval boardroom Mario on this one.

“If everything's under control, you are going too slow.”

-Mario Andretti

You do not get named “Driver of the Century” by your peers by being timid. Likewise, if you want to grow a franchise, you need to be willing to accept the messy part of the creative process.

I really love this franchise. It has all the elements of a winner. Solid customer concept, wildly creative founder and a top experienced executive team that was brought in at the perfect time. You need to be willing to hold off on the key hires to allow the creative process to take root. Hire and scale to keep the place from blowing up, not to slow it down.

Drive on Play-N-Trade! I will see you at the checkered flag.

Grab Podcast Here:

Play right now: