Business Opportunities Weblog

Founded in 1996, Emerald City Smoothie has opened up the doors to the health conscious looking for a smoothie that not only tastes good, but is also a healthy treat. They are also a great business opportunity for those looking to bring a product of this sort to their own areas. With over 60 stores currently available nationwide, they are also looking to open 60 more locations very soon.

From the experienced retired executive to the first timer in business, their franchises are opening up opportunities for everyone. In the right location, it would not be hard for a new start up to break even on their investment in a short period. Especially with the booming health craze amongst those looking to lose weight and stay healthy.

Customers are able to benefit from the many great offerings they have. Whether it is someone looking to lose a few pounds or something interested in bulking up, they can help their customers find the right smoothie mix for them. As a franchisee, you would have the benefit of knowing you are contributing to a growing need in caring for yourself. ECS has also won the “best of” smoothie category in a Seattle poll.

Continue reading Emerald City Smoothie

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If you have ever wished for a way to plan a good meal without having to shop for each ingredient individually, then you are most likely to visit your local Entrees Made Easy. Going in the kitchen with one of their employees you will be able to assemble the things you need to put together to create one of their pre-selected meals. The process takes around one to two hours at the cost of just $3.50 for each serving. Of course, customers without that much time also have the ability to set up their order online and their local kitchen will assemble the meal for you and deliver it to your door.

Those who are especially into the idea, and have a business mind, might find themselves interested in their franchise opportunity.

Continue reading Entrees Made Easy

Whom most benefits from a business that will come to you? How about office workers? Maybe factory workers? Espresso To Go Mobile Café recognizes that and they do something about it. Using a special vehicle to go from place to place, a franchisee is able to offer their customers coffee that will come straight to them.

There are no minimum or maximum work hours in a day for a franchisee of this business. You set your own schedule and you will be able to create a customer base that will bring you back time, and time again. Of course, this does not limit you to offices or factories. You could easily serve events such as wedding receptions or parties. The potential is nearly unlimited.

The most recognizable parts of owning one of these franchises is the vehicle. The custom-built vehicle comes equipped with a variety of things, some of which include:

Continue reading Espresso To Go Mobile Café

Associated Press:

Adrienne Radtke plans to keep riding her bike to work even if gas prices drop.

Steve Pizzini got rid of his Cadillac Escalade in favor of a 16-year-old Acura and doesn’t expect to have another gas-guzzler.

“I had a paradigm shift,” said Pizzini, a financial analyst. “I spent the money on a nice car. But to me, it’s not worth it. I don’t think I will go that route again.”

Every economic downturn changes shoppers in some way. But this time, experts say the new behavior — fueled by higher gas and food prices, tightening credit and a slumping housing market — are the most dramatic and widespread that they have seen since the mid-1970s.

So retailers, marketers and investors are all trying to figure out which habits shoppers will keep and which will they drop when the economy recovers. Will the people who switched to store-brand ice cream go back to Breyers or Edy’s? Will shoppers return to department stores or keep looking for labels at T.J. Maxx?

“We are looking at stuff that reminds me of the 1970s,” said Patricia Edwards of investment manager Wentworth Hauser and Violich. “Americans have seen a huge amount of their balance sheet evaporate. The effects will be more lingering.”

According to a survey released by market research company Nielsen Co., which tracks consumer habits, about two-thirds, or 63 percent, of consumers are cutting spending due to rising gas prices, up 18 percentage points from a year ago.

According to the study, which queried nearly 50,000 consumers by e-mail during the first week of June, 78 percent of them are combining shopping trips and 52 percent are eating out less often. Consumers are also cutting more coupons, doing more of their shopping at supercenters and buying less expensive brands, the survey found.

At the Alexandria Shoe Repair and Leather Service in Virginia, sales have increased 18 percent since February.

“I am seeing a younger crowd who lives in the disposable world,” said owner Barbara Steube. “They are learning an economics lesson. They will see the benefit of the savings and how much money they walk away with when they fix their shoes.”

Photo by Jacquelyn Martin.

Julie Hogan and her husband were born entrepreneurs. They wanted to work for themselves and did so successfully. Later when they decided to retire from their business they sold it off, until they got the itch for something new.

Now they are the owners of 4 children-based businesses including Rock n’ Roll Baby Wear, Asian Baby Style, Funky Punky Baby, and Sterling and Pearls. Each business as unique as the next. Although they all have something to do with children, they still bring something to the business world that is hard to find elsewhere.

The jewelry offered through her website is baby and child safe, a good thing since the jewelry is made for them! With all the talk there has been of lead in toys and fake children’s jewelry, Sterling and Pearls offers great looking jewelry that is safe and affordable. She is also giving one of our readers a chance to see that for themselves.

Giveaway

Do you like the child’s bracelet shown here? You have a chance to win it for the little girl in your life. To enter you will need to send an email to bizop.giveaway@gmail.com with the subject, “Sterling and Pearls“. Within the email, make sure to mention which size of bracelet you would like to win: 5.5″, 6″ or 7″.

The giveaway starts today and ends on August 3rd at 11:59pm. All giveaway rules apply. Only qualifying entries will be counted.

Continue reading The Baby Business Is Big For Husband/Wife Team

CNBC:

How Do I Know if I’m a Workaholic?

1. Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?

2. Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can’t?

3. Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?

4. Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?

5. Do you work more than 40 hours a week?

6. Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?

7. Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?

8. Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?

9. Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won’t otherwise get done?

10. Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?

If you answer “yes” to three or more of these questions you may be a workaholic.

Photo by hbrinkman.

Using strange vehicles that are fun for the whole family, Wheel Fun Rentals is a franchise which offers people the chance to get in on the fun. These would be a great option for areas that create a large amount of tourism. Especially family-friendly tourist areas.

Wheel Fun gives people the chance to rent a uniquely styled vehicle which can be cycled around. The franchisee is given a fully developed system, a great location that has been investigated to check for effectiveness and a large territory that is exclusive to you.

Some of the other benefits they boast about with their franchise includes training that continues on through the life of the franchise agreement. Any questions will be answered and one-week training session before opening is also included.

Continue reading Wheel Fun Rentals

It is doubtful that hamburger joints will ever go out of style, but consumers thrive on creativity and this restaurant chain has fun written all over it. At Cheeburger Cheeburger you can literally invent your own taste, that’s right…take the plunge and dive into any of their 5 signature sauces. Thirsty? Build your own soda, egg cream or ice cream float. Wanna talk burgers? Well believe it or not, you cannot order a hamburger because there are none on the menu! You can, however, order a Cheeburger without the cheese, if that’s what you want, no extra charge. How hungry are you? Pick the burger to match your appetite, even up to 20 ounces! (If you finish it, they will take your picture and hang it on the wall!) Having a party? Order a birthday cake and invite the whole clan! This burger joint is seriously, all about the fun.

Doesn’t this sound like an incredible business opportunity? You bet your 20 ouncer it is! Cheeburger Cheeburger is on the verge of a national expansion because customers are demanding it. Vacationers and travelers are asking for them to open in towns across America. Maybe you have missed a few golden opportunities in the past, but you do not want to miss this one. Cheeburger Cheeburger touts that it is NOT a fast food chain, they offer HUGE portions, everything is made from scratch and customers can choose from 25 FREE burger toppings. They can invent their own Cheeburger, chicken sandwich, grilled cheese, shake, malt or fountain drink. Is this place for real? Well, it is certainly a small company with big experience, and if you don’t have a Cheeburger Cheeburger in your neighborhood, maybe you should stop by their website and check it out for yourself.

Niagra Falls Review:

When the mob takes you for a ride, don’t expect to be home any time soon.

When Michael Rizzo, founder of Mob Tours, takes you for a ride, it takes about 90 minutes and some of the highlights along the way include former hideouts, hangouts and homes of Niagara Falls, N.Y.’s best-known criminals.

Some of the history he talks about on the tour relates to former mafia don Stefano Magaddino and his brothers, Gaspare and Nino, who ruled Western New York with iron fists.

“There are about a dozen locations that we go past, and we tell some stories about bookmaking and the history of Stefano Magaddino,” said Rizzo. “Everything is from the 1920s to the 1970s. We talk about prohibition, bootlegging, and we see some sites where there were some bombings, murders, bookmaking operations and where people lived.”

Rizzo, 43, a businessman, author and historian, came up with the idea about five years ago. He started research because there is so much history shared between the city of Niagara Falls, N.Y., criminal activity and the mob.

He put it aside for awhile, then last year decided to look into running a tour. Mob Tours opened in mid-June and will run weekends and holidays.

Photo by Mob Tours.

Union-Tribune:

Necessity wasn’t the mother of Sheldon Levinson’s invention. Nobody really needs a machine that makes bubbles.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing, or that the machine isn’t fun to play with, or that the process of turning Levinson’s idea into an actual product won’t make for good TV.

Levinson, who lives in San Carlos, is one of 12 inventors – and one of two local residents – featured on the second season of the reality series “Everyday Edisons.”

The series is a celebration of American ingenuity. Not the ingenuity of corporate R&D departments, but the ingenuity of the garage tinkerer who decides one day that there has to be a better way – a better alarm clock, a better bandage, a better skateboard, a better dog leash.

Levinson, 60, remembers being amazed as a child by foam he saw on a beach in New Jersey. The water had been whipped into froth by a hurricane.

“That image stayed with me for years,” he said.

As an adult, he saw bubbles in a fountain, and that mesmerized him, too. His father had been in the toy business, so he understood the value of play. He thought bubbles would be a great thing to play with.

Photo by K.C. Alfred.

Entrepreneur:

Seasonal business owners are often envied as having the ultimate gig: They work hard for the few months that form their peak season, then sail through the rest of the year with their feet up and a wad of cash in hand. Sound like the ultimate dream? Then it’s time for a reality check:

Running a seasonal business requires year-round work and tough self-discipline. Behind every successful seasonal business is an entrepreneur who’s willing to work twice as hard and twice as smart as the conventional business owner.

It’s imperative for seasonal business owners to be strict with their expenses, even when they’re raking in the dough during their peak season.

Blake Smith, 39, started the outdoor decorating business to generate income and retain his employees during his landscaping business’ slow season of November through February.

“Here I’ve got this seasonal landscaping business and all the resources in place [for Christmas decorating]–customers to sell it to, crews to do the installation and trailers, vehicles and other assets that would normally be idle that time of year,” Smith says. So it was a no-brainer for him to give it a shot.

What started as a complementary “side job” soon became more profitable than his full-time job, so Smith sold his landscaping business and started franchising Christmas Dcor in 1996. Since then, Christmas Dcor has grown to more than 375 locations and generates system-wide gross sales of $60 million.

Photo by allthingschristmas.

NetworkWorld:

Rick Boyd used to spend US$500 a month on gas and tolls commuting 48 miles a day between his home in Westchester County, N.Y., and his office in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.

Now Boyd doesn’t commute any more because his company, Chorus, which provides clinical and management software for community health centers, has gone virtual.

Chorus closed its Hasbrouck Heights headquarters in early June and its other office, in Stafford, Texas (outside of Houston), in early July. Now all of the company’s 35 employees and full-time consultants work at home, and for the most part, they love it.

Boyd, who is Chorus’s CIO, says the company decided to close its offices to save money and spare employees the hassle and rising cost of commuting and because it had the necessary technology to support such a move.

President and CEO A.J. Schreiber says Chorus can continue to serve customers while simultaneously saving $400,000 a year simply by closing its 15,000 square feet of office space.

Sure, breaking leases and telecom contracts is costing the company money, but the long-term savings far outweigh those short-term costs, says Schreiber. “We wouldn’t have done this if it would have had a negative impact on our ability to serve customers,” he adds.

Chorus’s transformation into a virtual company staffed with telecommuters hasn’t been flawless, but none of the hurdles the company has encountered at this point have proven insurmountable.

Through research, planning and some trial-and-error, the company addressed many of the cultural challenges associated with telecommuting and managing virtual workforces.

Read more.

Photo by Chorus.

Instigator Blog:

Work-life balance is a topic of constant debate. Can you achieve it? Does it exist? What’s it all mean?

It’s assumed that dads will exist more on the work side than the life side. There’s no question, we do.

Yet, I know more and more fathers unwilling to sacrifice the life-side of the equation. They want to be there for their families, they don’t want to be married to their work. It’s tough. Lots of expectations weigh on our shoulders.

So when asked the question, “How do you balance work and life?” I reflect on my current situation - starting Standout Jobs at the same time that I’m raising a young family. Here’s what I’ve got:

• You work hard.
• Really, really hard.
• Sometimes you win.
• Sometimes you don’t.
• You live on a roller coaster.
• Each day you go to battle.
• And hold on for dear life.
• But you love every minute of it.

And that’s the secret. That’s how you start a company and a family at the same time.

Photo by spekulator.

Del Rio News-Herald:

Five dollars a week just wasn’t enough allowance for 12-year-old Eduardo Lopez, so he started his own business.

Eddie’s OH’ Fudge, named after Ralphie Parker’s famous “Oh, fudge” line in A Christmas Story, was created in early January to supplement Lopez’s meager allowance.

But, there was a bigger purpose behind the business.

Lopez hopes to attend culinary arts school to realize his ultimate goal of opening a New York City restaurant and puts back a large portion of his profits into a bank account dedicated to his tuition.

Using a family recipe handed down from his grandmother, Lopez quickly gained a client base at Premier High School, where he attends seventh grade.

Lopez’s business, which boasts a product line of more than 10 types of fudge and confections, has gained him recognition from public television station KLRN, which awarded him $100 and has him in the running for the $500 grand prize.

“I told him if it’s going to be a business, it’s going to be a real business,” said his mother, Adrienne. “I take him to the store, but he picks out his own ingredients and pays for them.”

He also takes time to experiment with recipes until he feels he’s reached perfection.

Photo by movieposter.com.

NFIB:

There is no question that the Supreme Court’s decisions impact the small business. In fact, studies have shown that more than 40 percent of the court’s cases deal with issues that directly affect the business community. Those issues include employment, civil rights, insurance, workplace injury, environmental regulations and product liability issues.

Unfortunately, the 2007-2008 term is likely to receive mixed reviews from the business community. While the court provided small business with several important victories, many of its decisions in the area of employment law do not favor employers and will make it much harder for small business owners to defend themselves against allegations of discrimination.

Employers scored an important victory in Chamber v. Brown, when the court rejected California’s attempt to restrict employers’ communication with employees during a union drive. This decision will allow California small business owners the rights provided to them under the National Labor Relations Act, and serves as a warning to other state legislatures considering regulating employers’ speech.

The court’s 7-1 ruling in Meacham v. Knolls will make it easier for workers to pursue age discrimination lawsuits. The court determined that when older workers are disproportionately affected by employment decisions, the employer bears the burden of showing that reasons other than age discrimination were responsible for the outcome.

Read more.

Photo by film.dc.gov.

Entrepreneur:

Federal investigators from the Government Accountability Office have released reports indicating that millions of dollars intended for small businesses were misallocated due to a weak application process in a SBA program.

GAO investigators claim the SBA’s Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program, intended to boost small businesses in economically depressed areas with federal contracts, allowed wealthy, unqualified businesses to commit fraud and abuse the program.

GAO’s six-month investigation into HUBZone, created in 1997, reveals that SBA rarely makes site visits and doesn’t verify facts on applications it receives. According to GAO, it was able to obtain HUBZone certification for four false business firms it created to test the soundness of the application process.

The report states that since 2006, federal agencies gave more than $105 million to these firms that were acting as primary contractors on federal contracts.

Photo by SBA.

Odt.co.nz:

Geology graduate and digital entrepreneur James Stewart is selling his left leg on the internet — for a million dollars.

The 24-year-old Christchurch man says his leg has about 2000 square centimetres of skin, and he is selling advertising space on it for $500 a square centimetre.

One client has already bought space for an ad.

“It’s a fun and cool way of advertising,” Mr Stewart told international Forbes Business Magazine.

He estimates his leg has space to tattoo 200 advertisements on it and raise money to support his art website.

The idea was inspired by the Million Dollar homepage, the brainchild of Briton Alex Tew who raised $US1 million ($NZ1.34 million) by selling one million blank pixels on an internet homepage for $US1 each.

The art website is intended to be a free platform for New Zealand artists to sell their artwork, but he had blown all his money on setting up the website.

Image via MillionDollarLeg

Andy Sernovitz:

It’s good to support worthy causes. It’s also good word of mouth.

The key word in “non-profit organization” is “organization” — these are natural communities of highly connected people who talk to each other. If you provide genuine support to a good group, all of their members will know about it.

Pick a place where you can have an impact. No one will know about your donation to the Red Cross, everyone will know about what you do to help a local student group or community center.

Photo by oph.gov.au.

There are many ice cream alternatives available on the market. One of those top options would have to be Rita’s Water Ice. Her Italian ice comes with the backing of a very powerful brand name that is easily recognized by many who have tried or know people who have tried the product.

Having started in 1984, Rita’s has grown from one store in a big business category to owning what is the Italian ice industry in many different locations.

Any potential franchisee can see the benefits in owning one of these franchises. Not only packed with a powerful background and popularity in business, they offer other benefits that come with their opportunities:

• They’ll help you secure the real estate location needed to create your shop.
• Assistance will be given to help construct and design the store.
• A complex training system to help teach everything that you will need to know before opening your doors.
• As time goes on they offer ongoing support through own the franchise ownership.

Rita’s has been franchising since 1989. According to the IFA website the start-up cost can be around $50,000 to $75,000 but the total investment can reach closer to the $198,150 to $445,900 price range.

Nearly every household in America buys cereal as a staple, its quick, its easy, its delicious, it (can be) healthy, and there are thousands of varieties to choose from. Cereal is not just for breakfast anymore, its a snack, its any meal, its food on the go. Practically everyone eats cereal including kids, moms, dads, grandparents, college students and even BABIES! Now if you multiply the number of cereals on the market by the number of people who eat them do you come up with a fantastic restaurant idea? Kenneth Rader did, he noticed the popularity of cereal first hand while attending college. Students were eating it in class, in the dorms and while studying. His observation was that everyone had their own unique way of eating, packaging and mixing their cereal. So, Kenneth started brainstorming what would eventually become The Cereal Bowl concept.

Does this sound like a crazy franchise idea to you? Well, let’s do some more math. Over 90% of Americans eat cereal. It is the third most popular food product sold in the U.S. The Cereal Bowl has no kitchen, therefore over 80% of their square footage is profitable. They have high gross profit margins items, ability to make sales from open to close and low direct competition. Customers can enjoy The Cereal Bowl not only in the morning, but as a mid-afternoon snack or as a fun after-dinner dessert option. This up and coming franchise has been nationally recognized and featured in such recent press as Time Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine and a year-long feature story in the Miami Herald. Still not convinced? How about this. The Cereal Bowl has also received several awards in its first 12 months of operation, including Miami New Times “Best Restaurant for Kids”. Kenneth, you may have caught on to something here!

The Patriot Ledger:

Alex Eaves’ basement is stocked with T-shirts, skateboards, shopping bags and stickers, all emblazoned with socially conscious messages and designs.

Eaves has collected the merchandise in the five years since he founded Stay Vocal, a clothing and skateboard company that encourages social and environmental responsibility.

Intent on staying true to the messages he prints on his products, Eaves is changing the way he does business. No more stickers that get thrown away, no more skateboards made from new materials and no more T-shirts that go out of style and get tossed in the trash.

Instead, he will focus on ReUse, a line of clothing and products made from entirely recycled material.

Frustrated with the wasteful practices of even the most eco-friendly retail companies, Eaves set out to “change the way people shop and businesses run.”

Last month, Eaves won $20,000 in an online contest sponsored by Ideablob.com, an online community of socially conscious entrepreneurs sponsored by Advanta. The ReUse concept was chosen as a monthly winner by thousands of other entrepreneurs.

Eaves has also begun to create his own online community at Stayvocal.com, where visitors find activism forums, ideas for reusing and music and culture links.

Photo by Greg Derr.

Columbia Daily Tribune:

We’ve come to realize that inside most people is an entrepreneur - or at least the desire to create or do something that will solve a problem, change the way we live or at least make money.

That’s human nature.

It’s the old “Why didn’t I think of that?” phenomenon. There are lots of ideas, and, interestingly enough, the people who have them often didn’t start out with that idea in mind. It just happened.

That led me to think about some of the most famous innovations that we enjoy today and how they came about almost by accident.

Of course, one of the most famous is penicillin, which was the result of a 1928 laboratory experiment mistakenly left out on a table. It grew a fungus that later became the treatment for a wide range of life-threatening infections.

Post-It Notes had their beginning in a church choir. Spencer Silver, a researcher for the 3M Corp., had developed an adhesive that could be removed easily. His fellow church choir member, Arthur Fry, was frustrated that the book marks in his hymnal kept falling out. He applied some of Silver’s adhesive, and the miracle office staple was born.

And what baby boomer grew up without a Slinky? This happy accident originally was a spring on the desk of marine engineer Richard James. The spring got knocked off the desk and demonstrated, for the first time, its entertainment value as it tumbled repeatedly across the floor.

While it appears that these “Eureka!” moments came out of nowhere, the fact is that a great deal of work occurs both before and after the moment of discovery. The truth is that the more you work, study and attempt, the better you are able to see the opportunity when it does appear.

Photo by wired.com.

It does not matter if you have or do not have a loved one in the army, almost everyone wants to find a way to support our troops. Inspired by the people around her, Lyn Fleischman took a chance and created a very successful Etsy store. Her line of military themed bags, Absolutely Cute and Unique, offers the wives, girlfriends, and other family members a way to show their support in a fashionable way.

Lyn also donates 25% of her sales to Operation Home Front, giving us the opportunity to give a little something to help the military with our purchase.

What inspired your line of Absolutely Cute and Unique bags? Why Military-themed bags?

The Military women around me, they all want pretty things and they all want to support their men in uniform, so with that I made something they could wear on their arm to show the world.

I wanted to create something beautiful and special for someone supporting our Men and Women in uniform. I have been in a Military family for 24 years so it is something I hold dear to my heart.

On average, how long does it take for you to create one of your bags? How much do they cost?

Depending on the style it can take anywhere from 3-5 hours. They start out at $25.00 and go up to $50.00.

Continue reading Mom Finds An ‘Absolutely Cute’ Way To Support The Military

Someone who finds most of their time dedicated to the internet may find a business based around it would be the best option for them. Ridgegold Marketing Inc. is a web design business opportunity available for those with the money for the low minimum investment and the drive to work from home.

This business gives someone the chance to offer web development and design services to people who are looking to start up business websites of their own. Territories are available for those all over the US, Canada and even internationally.

Including training, Ridgegold will make sure anything needed to get started is included. They help you through defining your customer base, and finding the right execution strategy. Assistance is also given in defining the prices you should be offering for your services, and setting up template payment schedules.

Your own website, which will promote your services, is also professionally designed and developed for you. The domain name and hosting are included. It also includes 24/7 support, agreement forms, marketing material and even email accounts. The whole package comes together for a minimum investment of $4,999.

If beauty is an industry that inspires you and you’re around the Texas area, Salons by JC might be an interesting franchise opportunity to consider.

After opening their first store in 1998, Salons by JC has grown to a total of 6 franchises in Arlington, Dallas and San Antonio. Within the next 12 months that growth is about to jump up fast. They are now projecting a rise with 12 franchisees in 12 months.

Continue reading Salons by JC