FuwaFuwaUsagi's blog
Soliciting commentary on patented process
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Sat, 2008/08/23 - 11:00.Ol' FuwaFuwaUsagi is having a hard time getting his hands around a patented process, in particular in terms of a consumable.
free vetting...
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Mon, 2008/03/24 - 18:35.Gang:
I wish to test out my “quick screen” franchise vetting process.
This vetting process is intended to serve only as an initial screen of a franchise. The “quick screen” acts as a filtering mechanism, discarding franchise offerings based on proprietary qualitative factors allowing the prospective franchisee to conduct their research and due diligence efforts more effectively.
NNN Leases
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Sat, 2008/03/22 - 17:54.Can anyone tell me when triple net leases came into vogue? 20 years ago I never ran across one, now they seem all the rage. Can anyone tell me when this escalation occurred?
401k plans etc
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Tue, 2008/03/18 - 14:27.*** Disclaimer ***
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice nor is it specific financial advice.
*****************
I have noticed a number of disturbing comments regarding the financial havoc wrought by a franchise gone awry.
On of the more puzzling comments I have heard of late is that the zee has lost their 401K. Given the way these posts are written I suspect they do no tmean the very modern Individual 401K plans.
This leads me to believe that somehow zees are losing their 401K plans.
Worksheet to Evaluate Whether to Buy a Franchise
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Thu, 2008/02/21 - 14:31.
This spreadsheet analysis was created at the bequest of Michael Webster and Mr. Blue MauMau in order to benefit members of this community. In particular Mr. Blue MauMau spent hours correcting my fumbling attempts at presenting this in html, so give him a round of applause.
For our legal experts...
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Sat, 2008/01/26 - 15:26.Gang:
I am curious about labor law. The last time I investigated this (maybe 15 years ago) Federal laws involving labor did not apply to businesses of less than a certain number of employees (I think it was 50).
And many States had additional labor laws and had their own number of employees threshold.
The last I knew, in IL, it was 15 employees. Interestingly when I called Michael's babe's office, Attorney General Lisa Madigan they refused to answer the question, nor would the IL department of labor.
Anyway, there is a point of this rambling. How does this work with franchisees and franchisors? I would think that a zee would simply be bound by the number of employees he has, without regard to the number of total employees in the franchise system as a whole, and I think the zor would be bound by the number of captive employees he has.
Does anyone know?
The Wheels on the Bus…
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Tue, 2007/09/18 - 15:57.In a large Midwestern town characterized as a full fledged city and not a suburb there exists a series of shopping centers and strip malls, all contiguous to one another. Due to the presence of a demographic shift to illegal aliens from Latin countries the large “branded” anchor stores have left the area to relocate outside the community to locations more demographically aligned with their historic line of merchandise and profit margins. So the once the mighty drivers of commerce in the area, the large branded chain stores are gone, in their stead are an endless procession of small discount retail franchise service businesses, thrift stores, unbranded low end grocery stores, and low end food franchises.
What is an investment?
Submitted by FuwaFuwaUsagi on Wed, 2007/09/05 - 13:38.In the business community the term investment takes on a particular meaning.
For one, the word “investment” is associated with monetary matters. Within monetary matters there are two overt forms of investment:
* Capital goods
* Capital investment
“Capital goods” consists of the land, building, machines, equipment, and the working capital that is needed to run an enterprise for the intention of making a profit.
“Capital investment” means you front money as a debenture and/or for a equity stake in the enterprise.
So in summary you either invest in the “things” that make a business possible or you invest by “funding” in which you receive a percentage of ownership or act as a debtor.
The next factor is an “investment” needs to have a reasonable expectation of earning a profit for the investment period AND the profit has to be commensurate with the risk assumed AND the risk has to be appropriate for the “investor”.
So we can see there are four components to an investment:
1) the investment (either in capital goods or as a capital investment)
2) expectation of a profit
3) expected profit must be commensurate with the risk ensued
4) the risk has to be appropriate for the risk taker
