StartupNation Blogs

The recent CIT Group news hit the franchise community late last week. One of the larger small business lenders announced, CIT Group announced it needed additional money from the government to stay affloat. The government denied their request but CIT was able to cut a deal with its creditors giving them a little more time [...]

I wonder if products have the same experience people do, that when they meet their match, they feel like they are “home?” I’ll bet the product manager of this doosey has earned his bonus:
Hillshire Farm ham and turkey + reusable Gladware
= Green, Money Saving, The-Big-Corporation-Proves-It-Can-Still-Listen-To-Customers

�
What partnerships could you consider in your business?
Example: B&B could supply guests with brunch [...]

When you consider your business model (which includes your marketing efforts), you generally concentrate on these core components:

Why will people pay you? (money, votes, donations)
What does it cost you to sell your item…margins?
What protects you from competition, price-feature battles?
How will you turn an agnostic audience into loyal customers?

Early on when transactions had no costs, doing [...]

I picked up a book in the airport recently: Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. It’s a fast read and has enough tabloid photos to keep you interested. Her come-sit-by-me-and-dish point of view is disarming and I genuinely enjoyed her tales, her vulnerability and her wit. More importantly, I respect what she is doing.

Wishful Drinking

Carrie Fisher [...]

I often get asked, “what is the hottest franchise?” or “what sort of business should I buy?” and my response is typically the same … Often is depends on your interests, skills, work ethic, location, and several other factors. But when pressed, I urge people to look at changing demographics, sites or other factors that [...]

The past 18 - 24 months have been tough on corporate America. I’m based in Charlotte (home of Bank of America and Wachovia/Wells Fargo) and many of my friends that work for the bank are always nervous. A lot of these people were also able to store up a nest egg and once they get [...]

As a way to to honor those men and women who have served in the U.S. military, the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, known as “VetFran,” was developed to help veterans of the armed forces transition to civilian life and go into business for themselves. VetFran is a voluntary effort of International Franchise Association member-companies that [...]

Jeff Elgin of FranChoice answered host Jenna Lee’s questions on “Franchising in 2009” on Fox Business Morning C-Suite Sit-Down. His message: Despite the economy, people can still find great opportunities in franchising.
Jeff Elgin of FranChoice on franchising

One of the hot topics in franchising (and marketing, in general) is social media, aka Web 2.0. During the franchise convention in San Diego last month I co-hosted a round table discussion titled, “Using the Web in the Sales Process” and probably 90% of the discussion focused on corporate blogs, integrating video into your marketing [...]

Last week we took a brief glimpse at Wall Street and some of the good, and bad, news filling the media. Franchising, currently suffering like many other sectors, has historically outperformed other industries during economic downturns and subsequent recoveries. A few interesting points:

While dozens of retailers and corporate owned chains are expected to fail, franchises [...]