Category Archives: Franchising

Work At Home – Turn Your Hobby Into A Home Business

When you want to start your own home based business, it can be hard to decide what sort of business would suit you. If you have never had a business of your own before, how can you tell what you might succeed at? It can be easier if you start by considering your existing skills and interests. Could you turn your hobby into a business? Here are ten popular possibilities.

Cookery

If you can reliably produce delicious cakes and pastries, you could start a baking business with very little initial outlay. You probably already own all the basic tools. If your talent runs to making jams or pickles or bottling fruit, you will find your wares very popular at farmers’ markets and fetes. If you live in the vicinity of offices or factories, a sandwich service offers a simple way to make money. The key to success with this business is being reliable; people will become regular customers if they know you will always be there to provide lunch whatever the weather.

Interior Decorating/Design

If you are good at painting and decorating, you can earn good money with your skills. This might not be practical if you are caring for young children, but if you have a flair for home decorating, perhaps you could offer an interior design service. A variation on this idea is offering a garden design service.

Gardening

If you enjoy gardening, you could raise seeds and cuttings and offer them for sale. Growing small plants does not need much space. If you have plenty of ground space, you could also grow some vegetables for sale. You could also produce seasonal gifts such as spring bulb arrangements for Mothering Sunday and Christmas table centrepieces.

Crafts

If you enjoy craftwork, creating gift baskets for special occasions can be very satisfying. Gift baskets are highly popular and can be made to suit just about any occasion. Candle making is another popular source of home based income. The modern environmentally friendly soy based candles are ideal for manufacturing at home. They don’t have any smelly messy ingredients and it is easy to produce lovely scented candles that can be sold online or at craft fairs, fetes and markets.

Sewing

If you are handy with needle and thread, there are all sorts of possibilities. For example, you could make wedding dresses, offer a garment alteration service, make soft furnishings to order and produce soft toys.

Photography

If you enjoy photography, your hobby can easily be turned into a lucrative home based business. Photographic equipment is no longer horribly expensive and this is a business that does not take up masses of space or create a mess in your home. Wedding photography in particular offers a very satisfying career.

Antiques and Collectibles

If you know something about antiques and collectibles or are interested and prepared to learn, the buying and selling of these items can be a great source of fun and profit. Car boot sales and antiques fairs are good places to find saleable items at reasonable prices and to sell your own finds. You can also sell things through online auctions such as eBay.

Growth Of The Franchise Industry In The Philippines

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What made the franchise industry of the Philippines successful? According to the PFA or the Philippine Franchise Association, the franchise industry of the Philippines had significantly grown in the last few years, from 50 franchises to more than a thousand franchises today. And according to them, the reason for its rapid growth is because of small franchise business in the Philippines such as food-cart and food-stall businesses.

Popular Small Franchise Businesses
Unlike in the past in which most franchise businesses are large businesses, such as convenient stores and fast-food restaurants, most franchise businesses today are small ones, such as food-cart and food-stall businesses.

Because of its relatively smaller size and far lesser expensive franchising costs, many Filipinos were able to franchise a business for their own, giving them the same opportunity that wealthier Filipinos have had with franchise businesses.

In addition to its lesser expensive franchise cost, small Franchising business Philippines such as food-cart and food-stall businesses became popular in the Philippines because it doesn”t usually require its franchisees to have acquired years of experience in a managerial position or have finished an MBA course, which are usually the case for larger franchise businesses.

According to the PFA, it was because of the simplicity of these small types of franchise businesses that made the franchise industry successful in the Philippine market, particularly in today”s modern trends in which franchise businesses had become a popular trend for many Filipino businessmen and women. This had also led to the significant growth of the franchise industry in the Philippines.

The Franchise Industry of the Philippines
The Philippines had received a number of recognitions due to the rapid growth of the franchise industry in the country.

The rapid growth of the franchise industry, according to the PFA, had led to the creation of thousands of enterprises and generation of hundreds of thousands of jobs, making franchising an important tool in the country”s economic growth, which gave had also given the industry entry to the international market, which led to the recognition of Filipino business concepts world-wide.

According to the PFA, the Philippines was also recognized as the “franchise hub of Asia” when it comes to the development of franchise concepts.

According to many business experts, it was because of these recognitions that made franchising the preferred business method for more and more entrepreneurs, both for old and new entrepreneur.

Important Aspects Of A Franchising Contract

Franchising is a popular business model world wide and over 21 million jobs in the Us are generated by franchising which is a approximately USD 2.3 trillion industry.

In any venture or business the foundation to security and success is the contract or agreement. While a franchising business will run on organizational ability, commitment and passion the peace of mind will come from having a contract that protects you legally and takes care of your interests.

A franchising contract lays down the rules and is binding for both the franchisor and the franchisee (you). It is advisable to get efficient legal counsel during the buy/sell process of a franchise. An experienced lawyer will help ensure that the contract covers all important aspects of the venture.

The most important/ crucial things are:

1. The purchase agreement must define clearly the franchising package; the services; and the price.

2. The license part must cover: the rights of the franchise; the obligations of the franchisor; the responsibilities of the franchisee; the trade restrictions; the termination conditions and so on.

3. Ensure that the agreement permits you to use patents and trade marks, any secret methods/ formulae, recipes, copyrighted materials, identified suppliers and so on.

4. Understand the franchisee promises. There will be restrictions pertaining to operations, advertising, training, insurance, corporate image, look and feel and so on. Be clear that you will be able to toe the line. If you have any questions clarify them before signing the contract.

5. The contract must define clearly what the franchise package will include. It would cover aspects like equipment, inventory, training, accounting procedures, collaterals and so on.

6. Be clear about what the initial services umbrella covers. These may include site selection assistance, marketing services, setting up on signage, look and feel of interiors and so on.

7. Arrive at an agreement about termination policies. Define the terms clearly. Understand the laws and regulations that apply. Define the minimum advance notice period. The termination clauses should be fair for both you and the franchisor.

8. Make sure the contract includes a assignment/death clause. In event of death a representative or dependant should be allowed to keep the business going.

Before signing a contract it is important to read through a draft contract with an experience lawyer. Know what clauses are negotiable. Determine clearly what your responsibilities will be and find out about what kind of hand holding is on offer. Many franchisors offer help until the franchisee is well settled and understands the ropes. Be sure to examine aspects like business background, litigation history, bankruptcy and insolvency information, and financial statements. Familiarize your self with franchising laws and regulations that apply to your state.

Begin a franchising business smartly and on the right foot understand the pros and cons clearly.

Typical Defects of Ductile Iron Castings

The following typical defects of ductile iron castings are based on the experiences of process engineers from Dandong Foundry in China. We hope these information could be helpful for other iron foundries and casting buyers.

1. abnormal and degraded nodularizing

If the ductile iron castings have defects of abnormal and degraded nodularizing, the fracture surfaces will show the grey color with the small black particles. There will be large amount of flaky graphite in the microstructure.
It is mainly because the too much sulphur in melted iron, or other anti-nodularizing elements. So, we suggest to use the low sulphur coal, or use the desulphite treatment. If necessary, please try to add more nodularizing agents.

2. shrinkage holes and porosity

Shrinkage holes show the concaved surfaces, and the inside surfaces of shrinkage holes are very rough. Shrinkage porosity shows many dendritic small holes.
These defects are because of low content of carbon and silicon, too much sulphur.
Using hard molding, such as resin sand casting process. Increasing the content of Si and C.

3. graphite floatation

This defect is usually happen at the end of castings, especially at the gating head. You could see many graphite balls gathering together.
This defect is because of high content of carbon and silicon, and too much residues of nodularzing agents.
The solving method is reducing the content of C and Si, and control the nodularzing agents.

4. inverse chill

This defect will show the clear white blocks on the surfaces of fractures. Some are just like the white shiny needles.
The reason is the too quick cooling for some positions, or insufficient nodularizing.
So, the foundries need to control the usage of nodularizing agents, not too much. At the same time, enhance the temperature of pouring.

5. slag inclusion

Slag inclusion will show the inclusion with dark color and different shapes on the surfaces of fractures. From macrostructures, you could see the obvious inclusion.
One reason is because of too much sulphur in the melted iron. Another reason is too much magnesium residues.
So, iron foundry needs to reduce the content of sulphur in the pig iron, and try to reduce the residues of magnesium, and set the more gating heads at the positions of easy slag inclusion.

6. deformation and cracks

When the shrinkage stress becomes higher than resistance to deformation, then there will be deformation or even cracks to ductile iron castings. The hot cracks are brown, and cold cracks are light yellow.
The main reasons are low content of carbon, insufficient nodularizing and too quick cooling.
So, you need to increase the content of carbon and silicon, reduce the content of sulphur and improve the nodularizing.

This article was from Dandong Foundry. For the whole article, please check Dandong Foundry Blog.

Finding Your Home Business Opportunity

For some people, it is for health issues (for yourself or a loved one); for others it is a necessity to stay at home with kids or loved ones; others find the expense and travel time prohibitive (especially with the cost of gasoline these days this one is getting more and more common). What do these and millions of other people have in common? Each find themselves in situations, most beyond their control, which keep them from working a full time job outside the home. The other thing they have in common is that each and every one is potentially capable of turning this home-bound time into profits and a full time income. Finding a home business opportunity that fits you, your preferences, and your unique needs is within your grasp. The internet makes this possible, and from the comfort of your home or home office.

The number of new business ventures on the internet is at an all time high. However, as with traditional businesses, unfortunately, more fail than succeed. Nonetheless, clearly for many making money from a home based business online has been a dream come true. The range and spectrum of possibilities and topic areas is only limited by ones imagination. Products of every variety and sort from books, flowers, gifts, to internet marketing related services are all available and waiting for you to explore and develop.

A major concern of newbies into the arena of home business is resisting the urge to invest or pay money to every get rich quick program and opportunity that comes along. Do your research. Look for references and recommendations from others who have been through a startup preferably in your chosen field of endeavor. Ideally, find and read every bit of free or low cost information and ebook you can find about the topic areas you are interested in. There is a ton of freebie information and forum exchanges available that will at least get you past the initial learning curve of getting your self set up for making money online. There are some websites, such as InternetMarketingUSA.com who even create a website for you, completely free, providing training and instruction all as a part of a plug-in-profits business opportunity.

Like me, many web entrepreneurs prefer to focus of residual income products (that is products that generate income and revenues in smaller initial amounts, but continue to bring in revenues over time). Others prefer to focus of specific products developed by themselves or others for sales revenues and profits. As a personal preference, I prefer a healthy balance of both product and residual business opportunities for sustained revenue growth.

With the continuing phenomenon of Google, many people are making millions with pay-per-click (PPC) programs such as Google and Yahoo business advertising. It is quite common to find business ads on any given webpage. They resemble billboards on any given site. Not only are they gaining revenues in the form of advertising dollars, they bring in potential buyers for traffic hungry sales website. At the same time they also earn revenues for the website where the ads were located. This is a multi-level income situation that benefits everyone especially Google who continues to achieve record profits.