Sean Kelly over at FranchisePick.com commented on my current story about a PizzaWorld franchisee in our area that folded. Sean includes the video from the PizzaWorld franchise site, showing how enthusiastic these people were about the franchise.

If you’re considering buying a pizza franchise, do your homework. Spend time reading the magazines Sean mentions: Pizza This day and PMQ (Pizza Marketing Quarterly). Both have great tips for marketing and promoting a business (even a non-pizza business).

For example, PMQ has an “Ask the Experts” section, where you can email experts in various pizza subjects, and articles on running your business.  Even if you don’t have a pizza place, you might find some good tips on running a franchise or a restaurant or other retail or service business.  We’ll take our information where we can get it.

Tags: Franchise Pick, Pizza Marketing Quarterly, Pizza This day, PizzaWorld

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Filed under: Estates

Usually I’m not a fan of current homes in developments but this one in the Tanglewood area of Houston is rather charming, perhaps because of the current owner’s use of modern art. The Tanglewood community is perhaps ideal known for being home to George H. W. Bush and has seen a boom in which many of the original homes in the neighborhoods have been replaced by newer modern homes like this one. This one was built in 2001 and has four bedrooms. It won me over with the elegant exterior, slate floors in some rooms, a brick wine room, plenty of built in shelfs and a lot that includes a tranquil pool area. It is listed at $4.8 million.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living huge with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

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Continue reading Tanglewood Texas, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), PepsiCo (PEP), Employees, Small business, Recession

The banking crisis might be over, at least for now. Paulson’s $700 billion plan has given big banks and brokerages a opportunity to re-balance their balance sheets. Whether they will lend that out is another matter.

But, bankiing is not the largest crisis facing the country as the recession takes hold. Jobs are. Unemployment was 6.1% in September, but if the 1973 and 1981 recessions are any guide, the number could for to 9%. That would put hundreds of thousand more people out of work.

According to Reuters, “Nearly half the U.S. workers polled in a survey released on Tuesday said they were worried their jobs are at risk amid the current economic crisis.” The poll was down by Workplace Options.

Americans have watched massive cuts in the auto and airline industries. That is moving to the financial sector as earnings there fall and mergers allow for lay-offs. But, that’s not the end of it by any means. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) recently said it was slicing almost 25,000 people. Yesterday, Pepsi (NYSE:PEP) stated that weak earnings would cause it to cut 3,300 people, and Daimler announced that slow truck sales would make it fire workers in Canada and the US.

The reality is that as more and more companies post poor earnings, more and more people will loss their jobs. Small businesses are the largest employers in the US. Most can’t get access to capital because of the credit crunch. That means more people out of work.

The recession is growing. Some economists believe it could last four or five quarters. Joblessness in the US is about to skyrocket.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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I finished a survey on BizChicksRule this day, and one of the questions stopped me in my tracks. Here it is:

Which of the following do you use regularly or within the last 30 days:

• GPS Unit
• Digital camera
• Blu-ray player
• Blackberry/Smartphone/iPhone
• iPod or MP3 player
• Other mobile/cell phone without email functionaity
• LCD or plasma television
• Video game console
• Digital video recorder/camcorder
• Desktop computer
• DVD player
• Laptop/notebook personal

I hate to tell you how many of these I checked: 8 out of 12!  That’s 75 percent of all this high-tech stuff.  So, do you think I’m too “wired”?  After all, when we grew up, we’d tiny of this stuff.  I remember being thrilled when we got our first color television - that was about as “high tech” as we got back then.

This day, I’m checking out the  new BlackBerry BOLD and thinking, “I probably should get that. I could really use one of those.” Or the BlackBerry Pearl FLIP…how about that one? Or the STORM (see photo)?

I already have a BlackBerry, which I use for checking email when I’m traveling.  It also has a neat GPS ability, although my husband complains that he doesn’t like the sound on the directions.  (Picky, picky.)

Wait a minute!  What in the world do I need that thing for?   Isn’t it neat the way the look of these new devices makes us want them?  What is it about the size and shape of this stuff that causes us to think we have to have it?

We (Baby Boomers, all of us) have created what I call the “Big Mac” Mentality - We want it and we want it NOW.  We don’t want to wait for anything, and we want it OUR WAY…supersized.  That might be what has caused some of our problems with the credit crunch - too much credit card debt for too many things.  Time to cut back.  What do you think?

Tags: , baby boomers, Huge Mac, Blackberry, GPS, RIM

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