Startup Addict Musings

Fastest Growing Franchises for 2010

Startup Addict — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:01:37 +0000

The top 10 fastest growing franchises in 2010 according to entrepreneur Six of the top ten are commercial cleaning services. Moral of the story is if you have to get your hands dirty at least get commercial rates for it.

In the current economic climate and the world of hard to get loans, franchises may be a way to get your start up off the ground. Franchisers are offering amazing deals by waiving fees or making loans themselves for qualified people. Also check out additional information in the franchising world

1. Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l. Inc. - Commercial cleaning
Startup Cost: $3,145 - $50,405

2. Subway Submarine - sandwiches & salads
Startup Cost: $84,300 - $258,300

3. Stratus Building Solutions - Commercial cleaning
Startup Cost:$3,450 - $57,750

4. Dunkin’ Donuts - Coffee, doughnuts, baked goods
Startup Cost: $537,750 - $1,765,300

5. Anago Cleaning Systems - Commercial cleaning
Startup Cost: $8,543 - $55,306

6. McDonald’s - Hamburgers, chicken, salads
Startup Cost: $995,900 - $1,842,700

7. CleanNet USA Inc. - Commercial cleaning
Startup Cost:$5,425 - $91,150

8. Bonus Building Care - Commercial cleaning
Startup Cost:$9,000 - $15,000

9. Liberty Tax Service - Income-tax preparation
Startup Cost:$56,800 - $69,900

10. Vanguard Cleaning Systems - Commercial cleaning
Startup Cost:$8,125 - $38,100

DimDim web conferencing rock!

Startup Addict — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:26:01 +0000

The web conferencing open source software competes directly with webex and offers amazing value for the small business with the version 5 release. This is a completely browser based web conferencing system with nothing to download. According to their mission statement:

Dimdim offers a browser based web conferencing service based on the open source platform. Users can download the open source code and install it to their servers. Attendees are not required to download any software to host or attend a meeting. Dimdim allows presenters to share their desktops, show slides, as well as talk, listen, chat, and broadcast via webcam.

There is a free version for up to 20 users for the lifetime, which in itself will give startups and small businesses a leg up in affordable collaboration and communication tools. When your business starts to a scale you can upgrade to the professional versions with ease. Don’t forget to consider all free and effective tools previously discussed like Google Wave and Jing

The platform is built on opensource software and has received close to $10 Million in series A and series B funding. If you’re looking to cut travel costs or find a cheap web conferencing solution DimDim is worth a look.

Still need more take a look…

Monster acquires Yahoo Hot Jobs

Startup Addict — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:47:16 +0000

Monster cobbles up Hot Jobs from yahoo for $225 million. Yahoo continues to unload declining or non-core assets to flush up its’ financial position. Yahoo appears to be focusing on a content portal only play and leaving certain verticals like search, jobs etc… to players link Microsoft and Monster. The Hot Jobs acquisition comes on the heels of the 6sense launch by Monster that is more in the way of semantic search and an effort to bolster market share against gaining indeed.

According to a Monster press release this is why it’s such a good idea:

• Increased traffic to your jobs: Monster will become Yahoo!’s provider of career and job content on the Yahoo! homepage in the United States and Canada. This is not just a generic portal deal – people with a demonstrated interest in jobs and careers will be sent to Monster from Yahoo!. In fact, with an increase in qualified candidates, we expect that job response, our metric for apply per post, will increase significantly.
• Broader industry seeker mix: HotJobs brings new strengths to Monster in the form of healthcare, retail, finance and insurance seekers that complement Monster’s traditional strengths. As a Monster customer, you will be able to put your message in front of Monster’s and Yahoo!’s vast combined reach of career-minded candidates.
• Additional market presence: We will be able to leverage HotJobs’s strong reach in markets such as Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
• Increased local presence: This acquisition expands our newspaper partnership network to approximately 1,000 weekly and daily newspapers, giving you local reach in all 50 states.

Free terms of service builder

Startup Addict — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:51:14 +0000

A free terms of service and privacy policy builder service recently launched courtesy of Legal River. The company provides a marketplace that matches lawyers and small businesses. The terms of service builder and privacy policy builder are great tools for the bootstrapped startup. In my experience a custom TOS can run anywhere from $1500 - $5000 in the startup stage. This is a smart marketing move for Legal River by getting their brand in front of hundreds of startups as well as generating quality inbound links for themselves (legal river links in footer).

StartupAddict is affiliated with a home construction forum currently in beta and you can find an example of the generated terms of service and privacy policy from Legal River there.

In a world of exorbitant legal fees and ad-hoc charges it’s nice to know Legal River is providing the Lending Tree approach of having lawyers compete for small business legal services. A startup can post an anonymous project and have numerous quotes to compare from lawyers on price, scope of work and credentials.

5 guerrilla marketing techniques you didn’t think of

Startup Addict — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:27:06 +0000

1. Custom Candy - particularly customizing m&m candy. Write a caption that relates to your business or market a funny word that relates to your mission

2. Custom postage stamps - Zazzle and USPS give businesses the ability to upload their logo and marketing messages to be a cluster buster in the direct mail and snail mail marketing channel.

3. Mobile Billboards - Get a least five vehicles in the same city through friends, family (people you pay off) to wrap logos and marketing decals on cars.

4. Print Custom calender - Out of all the products you can give away from pens to mugs this continues to be a top performer when it comes to people actually using it and your message and brand staying on point ALL YEAR LONG. Even in the digital age we still use calenders in various locations at work and home.

5. Sponsor an Event - But be frugal. Think of this as offline social media marketing. Thousands of events, groups and trade shows occur every year for just about every business vertical you can think of. Selecting the right event to sponsor is not only smart targeting but can segway into speaking events for you as well. This guerrilla marketing marketing technique continues to be under utilized.

As with any guerrilla marketing campaign these top 5 techniques should be carefully considered in an overall marketing mix for your business.

US Debt Limit made simple

Startup Addict — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:59:28 +0000

The US Debt Limit made simple sums up in 5 minutes what this country has done since 1917 in regards to higher spending, raising debt and adding special interest programs. I usually try not get too political on Startup Addict Musings. However, this Debt Limit made simple video is a sobering message any American should watch regardless of what side of the aisle you sit politically.

Planon mobile handheld printer and scanner

Startup Addict — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:28:04 +0000

Road Warrior takes on a whole new meaning with the Planon handheld portable scanner and printer for mobile professionals. For under a $700 bucks you can truly have a mobile office on the road. Imagine having mission-critical documents (like a real estate contract) sent to your blackberry and you can print immediately to your Planon handheld printer. Other mobile printing applications could include:

· Dispatch / work orders

· Repair estimates

· Collection receipts

· Maps to customers

· Quotes and invoices

· Satisfaction surveys

The $299 Printstik model PS905ME is a step up from the basic Planon portable printer and gets you into the blue tooth category which is essential for the traveling executive. This will allow you to break the tether and nest of wires. We all like to travel mean and lean these days.

Continuing on with our example, you have received and printed out your critical real estate contract and a buyer just signed, time to present to your seller ASAP. Enter the docupen x series scanner starting at $369 and has color at 600dpi. This allows you to scan and send the contract no problem. You should also consider shelling out another $70 dollars to get some level of text recognition or Professional level OCR Software for the pesky documents you need to change or manipulate.

All in all, Planon handheld devices offer the road warrior plenty of features to be a clutch player in business deals on the go.

Here is also a full list of other reviews

Small wind energy for your home

Startup Addict — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:09:22 +0000

Residential small wind energy is finally getting cheaper with the help of Honeywell’s wind turbine by Earthtronics.It sounds great so I put it to the test at my residence in New Hampshire. First, I went to the NREL website to run a wind speed and wind class simulation for my specific location. The small wind energy simulation resulted in the following:

64.04 KW/hr is the average power my residence generates per month with a wind class of 2 which equated to 4.9725 m/s wind speed per month. The utility rates are about .15 cents per KW in the area which means I’m saving just under $10 bucks a month or a $120 a year (roughly). That would probably be the average of my monthly utility. I can’t say spending $4500 bucks before rebate incentives is worth 1 free month a year at the current electricity rates.

In New Hampshire the incentives for small wind renewable energy is not as beneficial as the rest of the country which can range from 30% - 60% in rebates on equipment and installation cost. If you’re curious about incentives in your state check the Database of State Incentives for green and energy initiatives. If you are lucky enough to apply 50% or greater rebates within your state to the honeywell small wind purchase and have greater wind class speed than 2 you have a viable supplement to your energy needs.

There is still room in the market place for small wind energy products priced in the $1000 to $2000 dollar range for residential solutions for blokes like me and you. Combine the price point with some rebates and you have a real product and a huge market. Go get’em entrepreneurs!

Google Real Time Search…live

Startup Addict — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:16:01 +0000

Reading about Google real time search, it’s amazing watch it here LIVE

Press Release Distribution for free

Startup Addict — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:58:26 +0000

We all need a little PR to get the word out about our business achievements. Below is a compilation of free press release distribution online that should meet any company’s PR budget. Although the site are great for guerrilla marketing and startups, you should consider bumping up to the premium level on a service you find valuable. Most premium level PR accounts will permanently archive your press release after the distribution to search engines, giving you precious back links to your website. It will also allow you to enjoy the long tail traffic for years to come.

1. 24-7PressRelease.com – Free release distribution

2. ClickPress.com – Distributes to Google News and Topix.net.

3. Express-Press-Release.com – Free release distribution

4. Free-Press-Release.com – press release distribution for free

5. Free-Press-Release-Center.info – Distributes release, plus web page and keyword link.

6. TheOpenPress.com –Free distribution for plain formatted releases.

7. PR.com – distribute your press releases with login and company profile.

8. PRBuzz.com – Free distribution to search engines, news sites, and blogs.

9. Press-Base.com – Submit release for free with front page promotion

10. PRLeap.com – Free distribution to newswires, search engines, and RSS feeds.

The last tip I will leave you with is make sure you write quality press releases and follow best practices. If you are unfamiliar with press release formats many of the sites above have resources and sample press releases for free.