November 24, 2009

Phat Pasty Signs Five Franchises Through Govt Scheme

The Franchise Magazine: Surf-themed pasty company Phat Pasty has revealed it has signed five franchise agreements in the North East under the government-backed ‘Be Franchising’ initiative. The company serves more than 350 business from its Milton Keynes head office through a fleet of VW-camper-style ‘Phat Vans’, offering freshly baked Cornish pasties, breakfast items and home-made […]

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Are Biz Migrants The New Hope For Australian Franchising?

Franchise Site

SmartCompany.com.au: With many Australian franchise systems commenting on a lack of suitable franchise applicants domestically, and the economy still growing despite the impact of the Global Financial Crisis overseas, business migrants are attracted to Australia and buying franchises to meet their visa requirements. Migrants from around the world are increasingly attracted to franchising as a

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Hot Item At Potbelly: Franchises

Franchise Site

Crain’s Chicago Business: Potbelly Sandwich Works LLC is recruiting franchisees for the first time as the Chicago-based sandwich chain aims to expand into more than 40 cities â€” marking the company’s first major strategy shift since hiring a new CEO last year. Adding franchisees is a significant move for the closely held restaurant operator. Potbelly’s

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Turning Up The Glitz

Ideas

Unnerved by forecasts of grim holiday sales, malls are pulling out all the stops to try and get shoppers in the door. The Los Angeles Times reports at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles, aerialists twirl 80 feet off the ground as escalator riders gawk. The mall has bumped it’s holiday marketing spending up one

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Card Connection Franchisee Wins Top Award For Fifth Time

Franchise Site

Franchise Key: Last month, Card Connection, a leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, announced that Joe Sweeny, its franchisee for the West of Ireland, has been named the winner of its Franchisee of the Year award for the fifth time, for achieving the highest level of sales of greeting cards across the company’s team of

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Will Advertising Spell The End Of Twitter?

Ideas

MySpace was doomed when the social network became overrun with obnoxious ads. On the heels of newspaper articles alerting users that their friends tweets could actually be an ad, Valleywag predicts Twitter is following in MySpace’s footsteps. The problem, argues Valleywag, isn’t advertorial content, but the fact that the tweets in question look like endorsements

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Doctors Express Hopes To Franchise Urgent Care

Ideas

At his Doctors Express center in Towson, Md., Dr. Scott Burger has spent the last three years tending to the community’s night-time fevers and weekend hurts. USA Today reports the former emergency room physician wants to take the center’s model nationwide, doing for urgent health care what, say, Papa John’s did for pizza – making

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Best Inventions of 2009: The YikeBike

Inventions

TIME’s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year, we’ll feature some of the ones we find interesting. It’s like getting your first Big Wheel all over again – and you don’t even have to pedal. An innovative bicycle-design concept derived from the old-fashioned penny-farthing, the YikeBike is a folding electric

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Rooftop Wind Turbines

Ideas

RidgeBlade is a wind-power system that can be fitted to buildings with minimum visual impact and maximum energy conversion potential, reports trendspotter Springwise. This micro-generation system employs discreetly housed cylindrical turbines positioned horizontally along the apex of a sloping roof. The slope of the roof naturally channels wind into the turbine chamber, meaning RidgeBlade can

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Survey Indicates Joblessness Will Soon Bottom Out

Ideas

The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) released a study which shows that net employment losses are expected to rebound in the first quarter of 2010, the Associated Press reports. The survey predicts that employers will start adding to their payrolls shortly after that. But don’t expect them to ramp up fast enough to replace

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