Monday, March 28, 2011

AARP Report Says Franchises Hold Advantages for Jobless Senior Corporate Executives


Unemployed executives may want to pass on looking for another job and instead turn towards investigating a franchise opportunity, according to a recent article published by AARP. With firms such as San Antonio-based Personal Business Advisors, LLC helping with the transition from job or unemployment, making the switch to your own business could not be easier.

According to AARP, 50-plus aged senior corporate executives collecting unemployment or simply working a dead end job can find the road to create a business easier by opening a franchise business instead of launching a business from scratch. The primary reason is that senior corporate executives working a job will find the transition to a “business in a box” easier because they are joining part of an already established national or regional brand. Franchise businesses also feature built-in branding and business strategies from a corporate overseer – much like these “accidental entrepreneurs” experience when working a job. The simplification of the process makes it easier for corporate executives to transition from a corporate job or sudden unemployment to the job satisfaction of owning their own franchise business.

 According to the International Franchise Association in Washington DC, franchise businesses are the strength of the small business sector – nearly 18 million jobs and $1.2 trillion in gross domestic product can be attributed to franchise businesses. If unemployed corporate executives transitioned their extensive knowledge and experience to franchised businesses, the impact to the national economy and the lifestyle of the new business owners would be amazing.

Best of all, franchise opportunities offered by Personal Business Advisors, LLC for corporate executives over age 50 come in all types. There are now nearly 1 million different franchise business opportunities from tax preparation and small business consulting to automotive repair and the traditional sandwich shops. Franchise business owners instantly enjoy the benefit of becoming part of a larger national chain. The opportunities are endless for corporate senior executives to launch their own franchise business in the field that matches their passion instead of simply working a full time job.

Experts say the franchise market is expanding by two percent per year and that rate is expected to increase as the corporate senior executive Baby Boomers transition from jobs or collecting unemployment to launching new franchise businesses.

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The Upside-Down Job Market

Today, Grandpa is more likely to work than a teenager.

The biggest changes in family life sometimes happen gradually. New employment data suggest one such seismic change is upon us: Job-holding patterns between the generations have turned upside down.

In the past, Grandma and Grandpa tended to retire to a life of leisure in their sixties, while teenagers were expected to work. As recently as 2000, boys ages 16 and 17 were far more likely to hold paying jobs than their grandparents ages 65 to 69.

But just a decade later, that picture has turned upside down: Grandpa is twice as likely to be working as Junior. Based on new research by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, Boston, 34% of senior men ages 60 to 69 hold paying jobs, compared with fewer than 15% of teenage males age 16 and 17. In the year 2000, the comparable employment numbers were 29% for senior men, and 34% for boys in their mid-teens.
While the picture is similar for females, adolescent girls are employed at a higher rate, of 16.9%, compared with 25.3% for women in their late 60s, says Andrew Sum, an economics professor at Northeastern and director of the center. In 2000, 35% of girls ages 16 and 17 were working, compared with just 19% of their grandmothers.

Today many job seeking teens are being told, “Don’t even bother to apply,” because some employers have hundreds of applications for the hourly jobs once dominated by teen workers, Dr. Sum says. Many adolescents have become discouraged and dropped out of the workforce. The problem is most pronounced in areas where kids are most in need of a paycheck, among lower-income families in big cities. In New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., fewer than 10% of high school students age 16 to 19 hold jobs.

In addition to Grandma and Grandpa taking the burger-flipping, car-washing and retailing jobs once dominated by teens, increasingly restrictive state labor laws have helped push minors under 18 out of the labor force. And teens from affluent families are spending more time in school or working in unpaid internships, part of the trend toward a later launch into adulthood.

The trend poses a dilemma for parents who want or need their teenagers to work, and it has been tough on kids too. I learned a lot from the back-office clerical work and camp counseling I did as a kid, but today’s teens may not get those experiences.

The trend has big implications for seniors too, of course. A new book entitled “The Big Shift,” by Mark Freedman, founder of Civic Ventures, which encourages older Americans to pursue new careers late in life, goes so far as to suggest naming an entirely new life stage, perhaps called the “encore years.”

Readers, have employment patterns in your family turned upside down? Do you have a senior member working in his or her sixties or seventies, an unemployed teenager, or both? 


What has been the impact? Is this shift a good thing, freeing teens and seniors alike to pursue diverse opportunities? Or could it prevent young people from developing a work ethic?

By Sue Shellenbarger


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Sunday, March 13, 2011

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4 Great Benefits That Will Change Your Perception of a Home Based Business

 The world is not exactly how you view it - beautiful, easy and simple. More often than not, it's the total opposite. If you're experiencing life's sucker punches and finds it a challenge to make both ends meet through your regular office work, this might be the perfect time to change the path of your career. How are you going to do it? Simple! Consider a home based business. If this sounds new to you, now is the time to test the water, take the plunge, and discover the many benefits of working from home:
You own everything - your time included!
This is one of the greatest things of working from home as your time becomes flexible that you need not follow specific standard working hours. Everything depends on your own pace, time and availability. Starting up a home based business can pave the way for you to enjoy your time whilst earning as you need not burn your seat from hours of working. You can always choose to loosen up for a while especially when the need calls for it.
You hold the title of being boss - of your own self!
Yes, you read it right - your own boss! Gone were the days of always following a cruel superior's orders, overboard company policies and dealing with other difficult authorities. Now, as you make your own home based business, you likewise freed yourself from the shadows of monster-like people who boss around and give relentless commands. When you work from home, you somehow eliminate if not lessen dealing with this kind of people and be your own boss.
You become King or Queen of both worlds - your household and career life!
Yet, to an elevated degree! You may be working from home with a home based business with almost all of your time meant for work, but still, you remain to be king or queen of both worlds. Picture this: When you work at an office, you give your household less importance because most of your time is spent at your workplace. Unlike when you work at home full time, you both get to focus on two major things in your life - your household and career.
You create better relationship with the family - something money cannot compensate!
The biggest problem of busy people is time. They find it difficult to juggle between their professional careers and their family life. Given this, they somehow create barriers in their family relationship. They slowly become paying guests at their own house. The only connection left is the roof above their heads. If you've been like this for so many years, now is the time to consider working from home. This provides you better opportunity to mingle and communicate with the family more often.
In A Nutshell
A home based business is indeed worth a try. By all means, you won't lose anything. Instead, you gained a fallback. If you think that your regular work isn't doing enough for your finances, trying this new venture will certainly change how you view working from home.

by Steve Duval

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

How to Work From Home With a Small Budget

Unfortunately, all too many people who wish to work from home think that they will not be able to be successful because they have too small of a budget to work with. This is simply not true. Read on to learn about some simple things you can do to work from home with a small budget.
Since a problem for many people working from home who have a small budget is that they often feel like they can not run a successful business because they can not hire on the right people to help, it has proven to be an immense aid to people to take advantage of the latest online learning resources. There are plenty of free webinars (web based seminars), online tutorials and ebooks that make it convenient to learn new business skills that will help you to build a bigger and better business in less time and for less money, without having to hire on new people.
You can take this approach a step further by actually bartering for services. Instead of feeling like you can not move your business forward because you lack certain skill sets or knowledge in specialized fields, you can barter with people who do specialize in those areas. Make a list of your top talents and then reach out to people and offer to trade your services or products for the services you need in order to best grow your business.
Finally, one of the best methods that people have been able to take advantage of while working with a small business budget is taking advantage of free trials. From finding services that offer a free one month trial to try out their marketing package to businesses that allow you to try out a business tool of theirs for a free trial period, there are plenty of these free offers that you can use to jump start your business. You can then simply quit the program after the free trial period is over and before they start billing you. At the very least, these free trials will help to save on your overall expenditures since you'll be getting the first month or so for free.
You can work part time building your new home business online until you see it taking off. You aren't giving up your bill paying regular job to jump in without any income. Starting a home business online means you have a continuously growing market as more and more people come online everyday.

By Chadwick Farrell

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How To Run a Greener Business

As increasingly wild and unpredictable weather patterns wreak havoc all over the world, more and more people are taking in interest in climate change and mankind's impact upon the environment. This not only means that running a greener company is environmentally responsible, but also that it makes sound business sense. There are many ways that you can reduce the environmental impact of your organisations activities, from eliminating unnecessary travel to using a greener booklet printing company. The key is to take an organised and comprehensive approach. These ideas will get you moving in the right direction.
Minimise unnecessary travel
Travel is a significant cause of environmental pollution and business is major contributor in this area. Analyse your travel habits and those of your staff. Is it all really necessary? Sometimes of course you need to meet with someone face to face, but often people do it simply out of habit or convention. Where possible, make use of alternative means of sharing ideas, such as virtual conferencing and save the travel for when it is absolutely vital.
Consider work from home arrangements
Travel while at work is of course only part of the story. Every day huge amounts of energy are used, and pollution created, as all your staff commute to and from the office. Increasingly people are seeking out flexible work arrangements such as working from home, either part or full time. If you are open to such ideas, not only will you improve company morale by helping your employees to find a better work/life balance, but you will also be reducing the impact your business has on the environment. It is a win-win situation.
Encourage your staff to contribute
If your new greener approach to business is going to be successful, you will need to have your staff on board, as they are the ones who will have to implement the new regime. It is a good idea, therefore, to encourage your employees to contribute ideas and to take ownership of the scheme. Being an environmentally friendly organisation is something to be proud of and if your staff feel that they are responsible for the success of this new approach, they are far more likely to get behind it.
Tackle printing
Paper and ink are used in huge quantities in business, so how you deal with them is pivotal to the success of your environmental initiative. As well as considering how you deal with in house paper usage and printing, it is important also to consider materials that are produced for you externally. Choosing a company that has green options for things like booklet and business card printing shows your commitment and will enhance your environmental credentials.
Create and implement an environmental policy
There are many different ways to reduce the environmental impact of your business and it can be very easy to concentrate on some and completely forget about others. A systematic approach is a good idea therefore. Creating and implementing an environmental policy that covers all aspects of your business and its operations will ensure that you don't leave any obvious gaps and that every employee knows their responsibilities.

By Bob R Stevenson

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Writing a Business Plan for Your Home Business

Are you writing a business plan for you home business? Do you really need one?
Why writing a business plan for a home business? A home business like any other needs a road map to a new destination. If you do not use one, you will end up lost before you get to your destination.
Every business no matter how small it is, must a have a business plan. You may not need a "formal" business plan document but you definitely need a "business plan" for you home business.
A formal business plan is a very long detail document with about 80-100 pages. A home business may not need this kind of elaborate plan, but writing a business plan is not an option. It is critical for your business.
Writing a business plan for your home business plan is just your "strategic planning." You want to cover at least four major elements: 1) Your home business description and elements, 2) Your marketing plan, 3) Your financial plan, 4)) Your operations plan
1) Your Home Business Description and Elements: This element covers what kind of business you are doing. Regardless of your home business of choice, at the very minimum, you need to have the following:
  • Why: What is your main purpose of having home business? If it is just money, you may want to reconsider. Any business has to be driven by some sort of desire besides the financial rewards. This desire will give you the self-motivation that you need to do it; otherwise, you are setting yourself up to fail.
  • What: What is your home business? What is your product or service? What is your focus?
  • When: When do you plan to do it? Do you plan to work every day for 2-3 hours or 10 hours a day? Did you notice I said every day?
  • Where: The location is probably your home, but where in your home. Do you have a designated space for it? Can you have everything you need available in this space?
  • How: how you are going to execute? Is your business a one-person show? Do you need an assistant or a particular tool? Who is involved in your business?
2) Your Home Business-Marketing Plan: When writing a business plan, marketing is crucial. At the beginning, you can do many things. In addition, there are many that you do not know and you are not familiar with, however, at the very least, plan what you know.
  • Do you need a website or a blog?
  • How do you plan to get clients? Do you need word of mouth referrals? Do you need friend's referrals or other local business referrals?
  • What is your market? Who is your target audience? Age, gender, and location, are important elements.
  • What are you customer needs? What problem are you trying to solve for them?
  • Who is your competition? How can you be better than they can?
3) Your Financial Plan: Although there are many home businesses that do not need a lot of money to start, you do need some capital to start and some to maintain. Do you know how much that is? Can you afford to start a business? Are you banking in your business to produce and maintain itself right away? If the latter is the case, you may want to reconsider. It will be a shame to put many hours of work and count in income you are not sure is going to come.
4) Your Operations Plan: This is your initial description on you plan of action
  • List your priorities
  • List your short-term items and have a dateline
  • List your long-term items and have a dateline
  • List your daily actions
  • Schedule your daily actions and your priorities
Although many home businesses have started with nothing in place, most have fail for not having something in place from the start. Writing a business plan does not guarantee success but it does guarantee you clarity in what you want to do and how to accomplish it.
This plan is necessary to utilize during your road trip. You adjust as you go. You correct and continue. It may be in just 5 pieces of paper, but if you did your homework, may be that is all you need to start and become successful.

By Monica Beltran

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Ideas for Promoting Your Home Business

Starting a home based business is exciting and it can be very rewarding. It can also be very frustrating. Once you have developed your product or service and set the business up, it can be difficult to know how to make contact with customers. This is especially difficult without the money that major corporations can spend on television and billboard advertising. There are a number of things you can do to promote your home business, however, that won't break the bank. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Network
Networking is extremely important as you develop your fledgling business. Every time you meet a new person, you have an opportunity to develop a client. This doesn't mean you should constantly talk business at every social event, but it does mean being prepared. So make sure you are receptive to any potential opening and carry your business cards at all times. Don't try making business cards yourself. Professional quality business card printing is not very expensive and it may be a cliché but it is certainly true that you only get one chance to make a first impression.
Website
These days consumers expect to be able to check out your business on the internet, so having your own website is very important. It doesn't have to be flashy but it does need to be well designed and functional. Keep it simple and of high quality and it will probably end up being one of your most important business tools. Depending on the nature of you operation, you may well also use your website for transactions as well, so it is likely to become a central part of your business.
Social networking
Conventional advertising, such as television and billboards, is expensive and consequently it is out of reach as far as most home businesses are concerned. Fortunately though there is a new kid on the block. In recent years social networking tools, such as facebook, youtube and twitter have been used as marketing tools with increasingly great affect. This is ideal for the home business owner as it can provide great exposure for minimal cost. So, if you're not already social networking, it's time to start.
Branding
Branding is just as important for the home business owner as it is for multinational corporations. Having a consistent brand across your products demonstrates that you are a serious and cohesive business. Use your brand on your website, as well as all advertising, stationary and business cards. You can also create giveaway items such as pens, calendars and mouse mats. Make sure these include your logo and branding. The more people see it the more likely they are to turn to you automatically when they need the service that you provide.
Printed materials
With the advent of e-technology it can be easy to lose sight of the value of traditional print technologies. The truth is that the two work best hand in hand with each other. E-technologies allow for quick and easy distribution, but in the end people are still more likely to read and take notice of something that is printed on card or paper. So don't ignore flyer or booklet printing when drawing up your marketing budget. Flyers, brochures and booklets are a simple but effective way to get your message across.

By Bob R Stevenson

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