From StartupNation.com:

You’ve decided to launch a franchise home business instead of starting up something from scratch. Congratulations on making this important choice!

Next comes a decision that could prove just as important to your success with a business opportunity: whether to buy a franchise that retails a product, like McDonalds, or provides a service, such as ServiceMaster cleaning franchises.

The two franchise business opportunity paths – product or service – differ dramatically:
Every franchise system has some common denominators, such as a concept owner, a fee structure, a royalty system, and a marketing and administrative program. But the nature and operations of a franchise business differ radically in pushing a product or a service.

“Retail franchises traditionally are opportunities that are driven by having a building, opening the door and waiting for people to walk in, whereas with a service business you’re typically heading out to do the business,” says Lori Kiser-Block, vice president of FranChoice, a Minneapolis-based company that helps entrepreneurs choose a franchise business.

Pros and cons of selling a product as your franchise business:
Most product-oriented franchise businesses sell some sort of food, so operating them is like running a small factory. Your up-front investment in the franchise business, and especially in local real estate for the store, will almost always run into the low six figures. The many day-to-day issues include maintaining proper inventories, ensuring quality, keeping up the grounds, and hiring and managing lower-skilled employees.

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If you are looking for ways to work at home on your computer and earn a REAL income, then we highly recommend the following service. Work-at-home-business.com has conducted years of research to help work at home seekers find legitimate methods for earning part-time or full-time income online. Our research concluded that the easiest way to make money online is with home based date entry work.

Work at Home Data Entry is the fastest growing business segment on the Internet.

Thousands of companies have realized that by outsourcing their Data Entry positions, they will save millions in costs associated with employees.

This is fantastic news for you.

You can easily do this and supplement your current income, or if you are like many of our members, easily surpass that income and then quit the dayjob!

This is no doubt the easiest way to make incredible amounts of money online, fast…

You’ll quickly realize that the best way to work at home with your computer is with home based data entry and you’ll see how it has built a better life for thousands of people across the globe!

Start Working at Home on Your Computer Today!

What does it take to be successful in this field? Ambition, personal drive, motivation, desire and perseverance are the forerunners. Without these, all the skills and experience in the world won’t enable you to succeed. However, combine those with your personal skills and experience, and you’ll have what it takes.
Also, take into account the following: Are you ambitious, constantly striving for more fulfillment in life? Are you not fully satisfied until you’ve done your absolute best? If so, working from home is for you. There are no limitations. The more you put into the business, the more you’ll get out of it. You control your paycheck. Only you can determine what follows that dollar sign on your tax return each year.

Are you a self-starter? You alone are the one who will make this business a success or failure. The amount of time and energy you invest will determine just how successful you are with your business. Are you motivated enough to make things happen? In the beginning stages, a business will require a tremendous amount of hard work and long hours, often without immediate results. You need to be willing to invest that time and await the results with confidence.

Are you creative? Can you think of a new idea and within days make it a reality? What a joy it is to tap that inner imagination and create a new idea for your business. Whether it’s an effective advertising piece or a dazzling brochure for your clients, you have the power to make it work.

Full Article: Home-Based Business – Is it Right For You?

From Entrepreneur.com:

Protect your business by getting familiar with some of the more creative scams entrepreneurs are falling prey to these days.

They contact you by phone, fax and e-mail. They’re ready with invoices for you to pay, services for you to order and PO boxes to collect your money. Modern scammers have thought of everything: The only thing that stands between them and your money is keen awareness on your part.

What types of scams are most popular these days? From overpayments that need a refund to inquiries about selling your business, the following “smart” approaches are luring even cautious entrepreneurs.

A “Heavy” Pre-Pay Shipping Scam
“As soon as the TTY operator told me the call was coming from Nigeria, while the woman had me on hold, I knew something was up,” notes Bruce Webber of Webber Floor Covering in Maple Heights, Ohio. Webber had received calls from TTY operators before, working on behalf of the hearing impaired. In this case, it was a call from a woman who wanted to order tile for a church in Alaska. But when she put him on hold for a few moments to try to send him an e-mail, Webber commented to the operator on the lengthy wait.

“I’m not sure if she did it on purpose or just let it slip…typically they don’t tell you where the caller is calling from, but she did” says Webber, who had read in a floor covering industry magazine that such scams were going on. The idea of using a TTY operator is to make the call untraceable and possibly to play on the sympathy of the victim, who believes he or she is helping someone with a hearing disability. When Webber told the operator he didn’t realize the call was from overseas, the caller overheard him and quickly got off the line. She never rang back.

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News from thenewsherald.com:

The letter begins: “It has come to our attention that you have been conducting a business at your home.”

And in that moment, thousands of individuals each year learn they are just as big as the Big Three when it comes to filing the right state tax forms.

Home-based businesses, one of the few growth sectors of Michigan’s economy, have now come under new scrutiny from cities, townships — and the state — looking to plug budget holes.

Armed with a wide range of formal and informal sources of information, local tax assessors are searching out these small businesses that might have been — unknowingly — violating state tax law.

The result: Unsuspecting sole proprietors — and even telecommuters — may now be filing their first-ever Michigan Personal Property Statement.

A statement that could lead to hundreds of dollars in property taxes being paid to their hometown, their county, their school district and the state.

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