The Franchise King Blog

Dog Training Franchise Is Looking For Agile Canine Talent

 
(Winston. The Franchise King's Royal Guard Dog)

The Zoom Room Dog Agility Training Center and exclusive sponsor West Paw Design announce the "America's Best Dog Trick" Contest - the first nationwide dog trick contest to celebrate positive-reinforcement dog training methods. Dog owners are invited to submit their videos before the January 15 deadline. The winner will receive $1,000 plus a collection of Zogoflex toys.

Open to any American resident, dog owners will submit a short video of their best dog trick via the Zoom Room Fan Page on Facebook. Initially, anyone may vote for the Best Dog Trick. The top five dog tricks will then face a panel of judges from the Zoom Room and West Paw to determine the winner.

The first place winner will receive $1,000 plus a collection of Zogoflex toys, including a Hurley, a Huck, a Bumi, a Zisc and a Tux. Second place will receive $250 plus the collection of Zogoflex toys from West Paw. The other three finalists will each receive Honorable Mention, as well as a Bumi, a Hurley and a Zisc.

Only freshly-recorded dog trick videos are eligible; in other words, nothing rehashed from YouTube or elsewhere. In order to demonstrate that the video is fresh, all entrants are required to begin the video by addressing the camera and saying something to the effect of, "Hello, Zoom Room, my name is _______, this is my dog _________, and we made this trick using only positive training."

The contest begins on November 20, 2009. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010. Voting for favorite dog tricks will close on January 31, 2010. The winners will be announced on February 8, 2010.

Details can be found on the Zoom Room web site.

Jenny, Jenny, The Franchise Slouch

      How could this happen?

Sean Kelly, a 20+ year franchise marketing veteran-this is a guy who has helped launched several franchise brands...just wrote an interesting article about the new owner of a printing franchise, of the store-front variety.

This one is for those of you who may be tempted to take those famous franchise industry buzzwords, "A Turn-Key Operation" way too seriously.

State Small Business Rankings; Do YOU Live In A Small Business-Friendly State?

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council out of Oakton,Virginia has just released it's latest rankings report on your state-and how small business friendly it really is.

From their website;

The “Small Business Survival Index” is the most comprehensive measure of which states are truly friendly to small business, and which are not in terms of public policy decisions. The factors included in the Index – taxes, various regulatory costs, government spending, property rights, health care and energy costs, and much more – matter a great deal to the competitiveness of each state and to the well being of small business.

In terms of their policy environments, the Top-Ten entrepreneur-friendly states under the “Small Business Survival Index 2009” are: 1) South Dakota, 2) Nevada, 3) Texas, 4) Wyoming, 5) Washington, 6) Florida, 7) South Carolina, 8) Colorado, 9) Alabama, and 10) Virginia. In contrast, the Bottom-Ten include: 42) Hawaii, 43) Minnesota, 44) Massachusetts, 45) Rhode Island, 46) Maine, 47) Vermont, 48) New York, 49) California, 50) New Jersey and 51) District of Columbia.

I'll just bet you'd like to see more details, plus all the other states rankings.

Go here

Is it time to start a franchise in your state?

Profitable Franchise Owners Posess Proper Personality Profiles

They follow procedures. They follow rules. They put their egos off to the side. They just want to win. To them, winning means being profitable. It also may mean things like;

• Having more freedom than a job offers
• Being in more control than what a job offers
• The possibility of building equity in something
• Having a legacy to pass on to their children

In order to have a shot at those four things, these folks had to take a hard look at themselves. They had to find out if they had the right franchise personality. This franchise thing is not for everybody. As a matter of fact, it's probably not for most of you.

Win A TCBY Franchise!

The Country's Best Yogurt®

(I didn't know that is what TCBY stood for.) Some re-branding? Anyway...all you have to do is make a 2 minute video explaining why you deserve to win a TCBY franchise. 

Good luck! Here are the rules.

This Young Franchisor Is Attempting To Change An Old Business Model

 
Executive search. You've probably been called by a "headhunter," once or twice, and sometimes these can be great opportunities to learn about new positions that are available. 

The executive search business can be a tough. It's obviously cyclical. But Sherry Hribar, the President of  Chagrin Falls, Ohio based SelectLinx, wants to change things around a little bit. She feels that more of a human resources based approach can work wonders...And her franchise-SelectLinx, may be just the ticket...

Australian Franchise Market Loves Cookies

Mrs. Fields Cookies, that is. It seems that Mrs. Fields Cookies franchisees are quite the happy bakers, down under.

From Franchise.Net.Au ;

One of the recently opened stores is located at Sydney International  Airport. "It has been very successful as has the other recent store opening at Castle Towers," said Mrs Fields Australian managing director, Andrew Benefield.

A major highlight for 2009 was Mrs Fields' second ranking in Top Franchise's category of 'Top 10 Overall Best Franchises'. Franchisees rank franchises in several criteria include franchise support, rewards, lifestyle and passion for the enterprise.

Speaking of passion, I had the chance to meet Debbie Field's, the founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies, at a local small business conference last year. She really charmed the cookies off of me. Here's a really short snippet of her speech during the 2008 COSE Small Business Conference. Enjoy!