Well, just like anything else, not all franchises are created equal.  Some require larger investments than others, some have lower franchise fees, and some are not good investments at all.  But, how do you know which ones are the best franchises to invest in?  Where do you start your search?

Right here of course. 

Seriously, when I am looking for a franchise to invest in, I look for two different things.  I go to my favorite search engine and look for the "top franchise opportunities", see what is available, and see what others are saying.  All you have to do is use a little common sense: if there are lots of good reviews of a specific franchise, it could be worth checking out – and same goes with bad reviews.  This basic qualifying (before crunching numbers) is a good way to find potential candidates for your investment.

The other term I like to look for is "fastest growing franchises".  Now, I search for this in particular, because quite often, these franchises have fewer saturated markets, letting you get in on some good territories.  I tend to be careful in this regard to ensure that the franchise is not extremely new – I want to invest in proven franchises – not ones that are too new to predict the outcome of my investment.

Lastly, I try to look for franchises that interest me.  For example, I had considered investing in a Starbucks franchise, but after some research, I found that franchises in Starbucks were not for sale.  Look into investing in franchises of your favorite restaurant, store, or hotel, for good potential investments.  Usually if you have some interest in what you are selling or offering, your business will do better.

If you are looking for a good franchise opportunity, the Internet can be a great resource.  Try out some of the searches that we have suggested, or just look up those companies that you would like to invest in.  Take your time, do your due diligence, and you should end up with a good franchise to invest in.

Everything has a beginning and everything has an end.  Today I want to talk a bit about the beginning of a job hunt, with the obvious conclusion of getting the job.

So, at the start of the job hunt, you are trying to get a job interview (the middle of the hunt) by having an amazing resume.  Most people do not know how to write a resume properly, and the result of this is very few (if any) job interviews.

Instead of just using some sort of resume builder, where you fill in the blanks to make a resume, a tried and tested system or format should be used to maximize your chance of success.

Some effort should be made to learn how to make a resume instead of just "winging it".  You can find many tutorials online or books at the library that discuss how to write a resume step-by-step.

You will find that if you take the time to learn the proper way to make a resume, you will have more interviews, and a better chance of getting a job.

Looking through the mail today, there was the usual junk.  Flyers for stores, some deal on used cars, and one piece that was interesting.  The interesting piece of mail was about credit and bill consolidation help.  Why is this interesting?

Well, you see, my in-laws have had a big money problem for some time now.  Unfortunately my father-in-law has been in construction all his life and his body is starting to give out on him.  It is so bad that he is unable to work full days anymore – and their finances have been suffering.

Quite often, you can hear them having fights when you are over to visit, or talking to them on the phone.  Sadly, their burden of debt is affecting their marriage, and I fear if they don’t figure something out, it will be the end of their marriage too.

Reading the flyer I found out that they have a debt negotiation program – where they negotiate to reduce your debt and monthly payments.  I think for my in-laws, they will be especially happy that they offer credit card negotiation services as their cards are all at the limit.

So, next time I see them, I’ll have to give them the flyer.  They have been talking about going bankrupt, but dad is too proud to do that – maybe the solutions presented in the flyer will help them out.

It is getting to be that time of year where most of us are making our Christmas lists.  I know that over the past few years, my Christmas list has slowly been changing as my interests change.  This year is no different.  I have asked for some home office furniture.

Now, you might think that my request is a little weird – who would want some mesh office chairs for a present?  Well, I do.  The reason that I have made these requests is that I own a home business – and I could use these gifts to setup an office in my house.

I have also asked for other office furniture such as a desk and file cabinets.  We just recently freed up some space for my office, so I need to fill it up.

So, hopefully Santa will be good to me this year and bring me the presents that I asked for – I have been a good boy after all…

While looking online today for some eulogy samples, I came across some valuable tools (or things you can add to your writing) for writing eulogies.  I thought I would share them here for those of you who are unfortunate enough to have to write one (what I mean is that it is bad that someone died that was close to you – sorry for your loss).

The first resource I came across was a lot of funeral poems.  Now, you can use this poetry to help "spice up" your eulogy, or add to the mood of the room.  Quite a few of them are so beautiful, that it would bring a tear to your eye, or a smile to your face, even in these times of mourning.  Probably in most cases, you would only include one poem in your reading, but for others you may include more than one.  There is a large selection of online resources for poems – check them out.

The second resource I found was eulogy quotes.  Now, these would be used to add some meaning, or reflection on what you had said – or are about to say.  Most of these quotes would be regarding death and are written by famous authors.  These would be a good addition especially if the deceased was fond of books or was an educated person.  Again, these cover a broad range of moods and philosophies, so you should be able to incorporate one into your speech.

It is sad that it takes the death of a person before we will say kind words about them in front of a crowd – but make your eulogy count.  By adding poems and quotes, you can add that added component that will help everyone remember the deceased and their incredible journey through life.

I know that a lot of people that do wedding toast and speeches have some difficulty coming up with a good one.  Part of the problem is that they don’t know what to write, and most of them don’t know what format they should be using.

In fact I was in the same boat.  In a few short weeks, I needed to do one of those Maid of Honor toasts – and I had no idea how to do it.  I tried reading some books from the library to help me out, but none of them really helped me out.

I decided to check online to find some free resources to help with my little problem.  I did find some free wedding toasts that provided the outline I needed – a template for a successful speech.

So, I figure it will take me a couple of days to finish writing the toast and then I will need time to memorize it.  I hope that my best friend will appreciate both the words I say and the time it will take me to do it – I hope it will be a toast that she never forgets.

I was recently diagnosed with a severe back injury.  The only time I was not in agony was when I was sitting in my Lazy Boy recliner at home.  This was good, but there are no Lazy Boy recliners at work.

Having time off from work for my recovery, I took it upon myself to do some research to find to find things that would help me to be more comfortable when I go back to work.  I tried a number of different seat covers – but I had no luck.  Nothing seemed to be working, including myself, who was in just too much pain.

With one last hope, I ordered a Lazy Boy office chair.  I figured if it worked at home, maybe it would work down at the office.  And it did.  I was able to make it through a whole day of work my first day back thanks to the chair.

I think that anyone sitting at a desk all day, injured or not, should have one of these chairs.  Work just doesn’t seem like work anymore.

I can imagine that employers must see thousands of boring resumes every time they need to hire new employees.  I know that I have seen a bunch of bad ones pass through my hands at previous jobs – and it was rare to ever hold onto a good one.  That being said, I like to keep my resume updated – and I try to do it every three months – because you never know when a new job opportunity may present itself.

For the first few years that I was in the workforce, I did this updating myself.  It got to the point where it was a little too tedious for me to do it myself – so I hired a resume writer to do it for me.  This worked okay for awhile, but then she moved away.

Now, I had no one to keep my resume updated.  Luckily for me, my best friend recommended an online resume writer that could do what I needed for a nominal fee. All I do now is send an email every three months to them and they take care of it for me.

Next time you need a resume, try hiring a writer – it has worked well for me.

Now I know some of you readers out there are dead set against leasing.  You may have heard horror stories or received some free advice from someone that had a bad experience.  I encourage you to read this article to discover the benefits of leasing and to dispel whatever myths you may have about it.

First off, I am going to talk about financing.  This would be a loan or line of credit available to your business.  One common use of this product would be equipment financing to pay for equipment the company needs.  On one hand ownership has its’ privileges: you can do what you want with your equipment even sell it should you want to.  But with privileges comes responsibility: it breaks down you fix it, if it makes it to the end of its’ useful life, you need to replace it.  In most cases by the time you have finished paying off the loan, the money you would be saving on loan payments is being used to maintain the equipment – no real savings for the company.  Also, by reducing the amount of credit available to the company, it may be unable to continue daily operations effectively.

Consider our example from above, except look at equipment leasing instead of financing.  There are some distinctive differences between leasing and financing.  Most notable is that leasing does not affect the credit available to the business.  This frees the company to continue operating at full capacity, able to draw upon its’ credit as needed.  This usually allows the company to take advantage of opportunities that a company that uses financing cannot.  Also, in terms of maintenance, there is very little if any expense for the business – it is usually provided as part of the lease.

For short term equipment needs, you can also get an operating lease from a commercial leasing company and lease an asset for less than its’ expected life.  For example you could lease a hoist to use to paint the roof inside your warehouse for eight months instead of buying it.  In these cases you still benefit from the maintenance and insurance provided within the lease.

Feel a little better now about your understanding of leases.  They are not so bad, are they?  In fact, for most businesses, leases make good business sense.

I use the Internet for so many things.  If I need to know something, I look online.  If I want to buy something, I look online.  If I need a financial product such as a loan, mortgage or credit card… I now look online.

If you notice, I didn’t put that I used the Internet as a finance resource – that is until I learned that I could do that this week.  I decided this week that having a credit card could be useful in case of an emergency, so I made the decision to get one.  Unlike most people, I bank at a bank where there really isn’t a lot of branches where you can go in to talk to someone – most of my banking is done online.

So, I decided to check out the credit cards offered by my bank.  Sadly, there was only one option, and though it was a credit card that offered rewards points, what I was looking for was a cashback credit card.

Going to my favorite search engine I decided to look for other credit cards available to me.  I was shocked at the results.  There were thousands of websites dedicated to credit cards.  I decided to visit a few, and there was a couple that allowed me to compare credit cards side by side to see the differences.

I did manage to find a card that fit my criteria and applied for it online.  I am expecting it to show up in the next week.  I am so happy I decided to shop for my credit card online as it saved me a lot of time and also gave me a broader selection than my bank could offer.