Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake

I have for a long time been fanatically supportive of purchasing franchises as a start-up business. For me, buying a franchise is the easiest and surest way of taking the big plunge into entrepreneurship. Sure, you leverage on someone else’s marketing and branding, but at least it saves you the trouble, the dollars, and puts your focus back on sales and operations. It makes the starting process a lot easier, safer, AND CHEAPER. Here is an article from Donald J. Trumps’ online University: Trump University, which begs to differ from my view point. I thought it should make for an interesting debate; I invite everyone’s thoughts on this.

Posted by Raghav Somani

Richard Parker: Jeff Elgin’s recent article in Entrepreneur, “Top 10 Reasons for Buying a Franchise,” takes my breath away. Sure, there is logic behind some of the reasons he spells out for buying a franchise – you’re also buying a recognized brand, he writes, plus receiving promises of training and advertising. But I have heard them all before and my experience tells me that buying a non-franchised business is a vastly wiser business decision every time. Further, reality dictates that not all franchisors come close to living up to the representations they make when “selling” you the concept.

In fact, I put together a list of my own – called “Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Is a Disastrous Mistake.” (Notice, I stipulated, a new franchise. In a moment, you will find out why.)
And here are my reasons:

1. The failure rate of franchises is greater than most people realize – far greater. If you ask the friendly franchise salespeople to document failure data, you will see their eyes glaze over.

2. Opening up a new franchise location is only slightly better than a start-up. You have absolutely no assurances that it will be successful. And when you are buying a franchise a lot of the decision about your location is not yours, but the franchise company’s.

3. Not everyone is suited to operate a franchise. Do you have entrepreneurial fire? Do you dislike being told what to do? Do you want freedom with your marketing plan? If so, owning a franchise is not for you.

The Secret behind Obama’s Nomination: Social Networking

Posted by Aditya Maru

Here are two articles which argue that Obama has made excellent use of social networking sites, cellphones and emails to directly connect with the American voters. By doing this, he has gone from being an obsure Illinois senator to probably becoming the next President of the United States.

Wall-Street Journal’s article:The Secret Behind Obama’s Nomination: Social Networking

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/08/28/the-secret-behind-obamas-nomination-social-networking/?mod=mod

Technology Review’s article: How Obama Really Did it

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21222/page1/

Biotech Reigns At Wharton’s Business Plan Contest

Posted Raghav Somani

A decade ago, when the Wharton Business Plan Competition (BPC) began, the Internet dominated discussions about entrepreneurship. That, of course, was before the bubble burst and many dot-coms were revealed to be, in the words of New Yorker writer John Cassidy, little more than dot- cons.

These days, the Internet remains a critical enabler of commerce, but no one pretends that staking out a little real estate on the Web will ensure business success. Instead, student entrepreneurs who compete in the Wharton BPC have recently turned their attention to another promising arena: health care–specifically biotechnology, that combination of medicine, basic science and engineering that has unraveled the human genome and, if it lives up to its promise, could deliver a raft of new treatments for a variety of diseases.

Five of the eight finalists at this year’s Venture Finals–the culminating event in the year-long business-plan competition–offered up ideas for businesses that could help people live longer or less painful lives. They ranged from one as simple as creating better padding for the junctures between prostheses and amputees’ residual limbs to one as complex as using nanoparticles–infinitesimally small specks of matter–to better diagnose and treat cancer.

 Other health-related ideas included a gel that would replace damaged knee cartilage, a drug to prevent a common form of blindness, processes for embedding pipes with bacteria killers and a medical device to stop tumor growth. Rounding out this year’s finalists were software that would aid in patent applications and a process for tinting windows with a pulse of electricity.

The Wharton BPC, open to any team that includes a University of Pennsylvania student, lasts much of the academic year. In the fall, hundreds of teams present briefs of business ideas. By the late spring, that group is winnowed down to 25 semi-finalists, who prepare full-fledged business plans. The eight finalists are selected based on these plans.

At the Venture Finals on April 30, a panel of four judges evaluated the finalists, listening to a 10-minute presentation from each, before subjecting each to 10 minutes of interrogation. The judges, all investment professionals and Wharton alumni, came from Cardinal Partners, Weston Presidio, Schering-Plough (nyse: SGP – news - people ) and Felicis Ventures.

Cool Cell Phone Applications

Making applications for cell-phone is becoming big business now. Whether it be creating applications for Apple’s touch-screen iPhone or Google’s new Android Operating System, developers the world over have tremendous opportunities to make money. Also, with the cell phone moving from just being a phone towards being an essential tool for modern day life, it represents a new territory for entrepreneurs to exploit.

Posted by Aditya Maru

So here, we share some links to some interesting articles about applications for cell phones.

Android Developers Challenge Winners
Google is coming up with a new Operating System for cell phones. So for it, they held a competition for developers to come up with cool applications. Here is the link that provides info about the winners of the competition. Some of the applications are truly breakthroughs.
http://phandroid.com/2008/05/10/adc-round-1-winners/

Compare Everywhere- Shop Smarter Using Your Phone
The following is the link to one of the coolest Android Applications. It’s software which allows you to:

·         Scan any barcode on a product and instantly search dozens of online and local stores, finding out if that “sale price” really is a good deal.

·         Read product reviews, listen to music clips, and watch movie trailers with a single tap.

·         Easily connect with stores in your area using driving directions or a phone call.

·         Quickly build shopping lists, wish lists, and share them with friends.

Here is the link that gives more info. The Demo is truly amazing.
http://scan.jsharkey.org/