V.L. Thompson's Blog, page 19

How Kat Cole Went from Hooters Girl to President of Cinnabon by Age 32

Article by Catherine Clifford from Entrepreneur.com

 

When Kat Cole traveled to Egypt with the international director of Cinnabon last year and the call-to-prayer came on over the speakers, she stopped and said, “That is so beautiful.” The Egyptian franchisee she was with turned around, looked at her and said, “What?” Cole repeated herself. Stunned, the franchisee continued: “I have never, ever heard an American say that in my 40 years of doing business with Americans.” Cole was shocked. No matter what your beliefs about religion, the chant, says Cole, is melodic and gorgeous. Cole’s relationship with the Egyptian businessman instantly changed. “All of a sudden, it was like I was family.”

That moment encapsulates a lot about what is at the center of Cole’s belief system about people and about how to do business: Focus on the positive, even across a wide experiential or cultural background. By focusing on the good in a situation or in a person, Cole says she sees possibility where 99 percent of human beings do not. That’s true in Africa, where she spends time doing humanitarian work. And it’s also her philosophy in the boardroom, where she leads expansion projects in countries that find it taboo for women to be doing business at all, and where she – a former Hooters girl – often manages men much older than she is.

“That’s always been my thing: I can see the possible in people and situations where other people can’t. And because I can see it, I can help other people see it,” says Cole. Her strategy of looking for the good in people has been consistently affirmed throughout her career, as in Egypt, with the Cinnabon franchisee. “When I see people, everyone, every human, I understand that I am in the presence of greatness. Maybe potential greatness, or greatness unpolished, or greatness unfound, but every person has the ability.”

Cole’s belief system has carried her far. She started selling beer and chicken wings at Hooters in Jacksonville, Fla., her second job, when she was still in high school. Her mother was raising three kids alone on an administrative-support role salary, so Cole was also working at the mall at the time. Cole was the first of her family to go to college and started working on engineering coursework at the University of North Florida, but dropped out – much to her mother’s dismay – because Hooters was sending her all over the world to open franchise locations. But Cole couldn’t get enough of the international business experience. It was all so new and thrilling. When she was asked, at 19, to go to Australia on her first assignment, not only had Cole never been out of the country, she had never been on a plane. Her only trip out of Jacksonville until that point was to Savannah, Ga., on a girls trip in high school.

Cole was taking in close to $45,000 a year as a Hooters girl when she accepted her first corporate job with the company in Atlanta, which only paid $22,000. The pay cut was worth it to Cole to get her foot in the door. She rose through the corporate ranks so quickly that that by the time she was 26, Cole was an executive vice president. Mind you, this all is without a bachelor’s degree.

Cole was impatient with the college coursework but knew she needed to get an MBA to continue climbing corporate ladders. She applied and was accepted to Georgia State’s executive MBA program, without ever going back to finish her bachelor’s degree. While an exceptionally rare option, some MBA programs will allow experienced students to enroll even if they have not finished college. To be admitted, Cole sought out letters of recommendations from 10 CEOs, including Ted Turner, founder of CNN.

Three years ago, Cole, now 35, accepted the role as president of Cinnabon, the sweet-indulgence franchise with 1,100 stores in 56 countries and which is approaching $1 billion in annual sales. Cinnabon is owned by Focus Brands, the umbrella company that also owns Carvel ice cream, Schlotzkey’s sandwich shop, Auntie Anne’s pretzel company and Moe’s Southwest Grill. In her time at Cinnabon, Cole has advanced the company’s licensing programs with other franchises, including Cinnabon Delights at Taco Bell, Minibons at more than 700 Burger Kings and International Delight creamer that tastes like the company’s famous cinnamon buns.

Cole’s rise from Hooters Girl to president of a multinational company in under two decades is the kind of story that elicits impressed eyebrow raises at cocktail parties. While Cole isn’t the stereotypical entrepreneur, she is an entrepreneur in her own right – an entrepreneur of her own career.

From jumping on a plane to Australia to launch a Hooters franchise at 19 to taking getting her MBA without having a bachelor’s degree, Cole always finds a way to see the possibilities in every situation. Seeing the good in people and situations is how she runs her career and her businesses. “The domino effect of every human interaction, it goes somewhere. And so if you can be a part of seeing what’s possible and helping other people see what’s possible or just helping them lean in a more positive than negative in any given moment, the trajectory that you put the whole world on, is pretty phenomenal,” she says.

In addition to pushing people to the see the positive and the possible, here is Cole’s advice for other like-minded, entrepreneurial, young go-getters.

 

Read full article on Entrepreneur.com

10 Popular Home-Based Franchises

Article by Christina Galoozis from NIFB.com

Thinking of buying a franchise? We picked 10 of the most popular home-based franchises that are easiest to get started.

Jani-King

Web site: www.janiking.com/franchise

Required investment: $11,400 to $35,050

Jani-King is the world’s largest commercial cleaning franchisor, and has been named the No. 1 home-based business by Entrepreneur magazine for the last five years based on the company’s financial stability, size, growth rate and start-up costs. The franchise provides 30 hours of training and self-study to new franchisees.

Jazzercise

Web site: www.jazzercise.com/become_franchise.htm

Required investment: $2,980 to $75,500

A Jazzercise franchise offers workout programs that combine jazz dance, resistance training, Pilates, yoga and kickboxing. The international franchise business hosts a network of 7,800 instructors teaching more than 32,000 classes weekly. The number of franchises grew by 228 units from 2008 to 2009, despite the tough economic climate.

Matco Tools

Web site: www.matcotools.com/franchise

Required investment: $79,926 to $187,556

Matco Tools was named “Best in Category – Automotive Franchises” by FranchiseBusiness REVIEW (based on a 2009 Franchisee Satisfaction Survey). The company also ranked in the top 10 home-based franchises in Entrepreneur’s “Franchise 500”—a ranking that incorporates financial strength and stability as well as factors affecting franchisee start-up—for the last five years. Franchisees sell, distribute and service automotive equipment, tools and toolboxes out of their trucks.

Computer Troubleshooters

Web site: us.comptroub.com

Required investment: $26,800 – $37,500

Named “Best in Category – Technology” by FranchiseBusiness REVIEW (based on a 2010 Franchisee Satisfaction Survey), Computer Troubleshooters franchisees service small businesses, offering hardware repair, networking, software consulting, diagnostics, Web site development, and security consulting.

Cruise Planners

Web site: www.cruiseplannersfranchise.com

Required investment: $1,595 to $19,290

Cruise Planners is a travel agency specializing in planning cruises. With low start-up costs and a supportive team of trainers, this franchise touts themselves as a “business in a box.” New franchisees receive a six-day orientation in Fort Lauderdale and ongoing instruction in the form of an annual convention, exclusive seminars at sea and live and on-demand webinars.

Home Helpers

Web site: www.homehelpers.cc

Required investment: $46,150 to $84,800

In-home healthcare is a field that is expected to grow as the baby boomer generation ages. Entrepreneur ranked Home Helpers the No. 15 in Top Home-based Businesses in 2009. Home Helpers serves new mothers, those recuperating from illness or injury and those facing lifelong physical and developmental challenges.

Read full article on NIFB.com

What to Do When You Feel Stuck

Article by Sean Bess from RelevantMagazine.com

After graduating college, a friend of mine was offered two jobs. Both with good pay, in great locations, doing what he loved.

After making an extensive pros and cons list for each and praying about the decision, he still wasn’t sure how to move forward. “How do I know what God wants me to do?” he asked. “What if I choose the wrong thing?”

Whether it’s in our career path, church or even relationships, we have all felt that paralyzing fear of not knowing what our next step should be. Faced with several different paths, we find ourselves sitting in the roundabout, contemplating the roads but too scared to actually turn down any of them.

When we find ourselves immobilized by indecision it would serve us well to recognize the value of simply doing something.

Psychologists refer to those who are reluctant to make decisions for fear they may be wrong as “maximizers.” Maximizers are characterized as those who restlessly examine all of their options and exhaustively weigh out the pros and cons. Odds are, you have a little maximizer in you, especially if you’re a twentysomething.According to Susan Berg, a Ph.D. and self-proclaimed twentysomethings expert, “the staggering array of choices before them causes many twentysomethings to be immobilized by indecision. They may be afraid to take smaller, progressive steps or any action at all that may not directly lead to their lofty goals. Their parents have told them they can do anything, have anything, be anything, but if they can’t get there right away, many falter.”

We feel pulled toward greatness but overwhelmed by our options, so we become immobilized by indecision. For those of us struggling with this kind of crippling indecision, the question becomes: What do we do about it?

Augustine said, “Love God and do what you want,” which may be tantamount to, “You love God? Then do something. For heaven’s sake, just do something.” When we find ourselves immobilized by indecision, it would serve us well to recognize the value of simply doing something.

Read full article at RelevantMagazine.com

What to Do When You Feel Stuck

Article from relevantmagazine.com by Sean Bess

After graduating college, a friend of mine was offered two jobs. Both with good pay, in great locations, doing what he loved.

After making an extensive pros and cons list for each and praying about the decision, he still wasn’t sure how to move forward. “How do I know what God wants me to do?” he asked. “What if I choose the wrong thing?”

Whether it’s in our career path, church or even relationships, we have all felt that paralyzing fear of not knowing what our next step should be. Faced with several different paths, we find ourselves sitting in the roundabout, contemplating the roads but too scared to actually turn down any of them.

WHEN WE FIND OURSELVES IMMOBILIZED BY INDECISION IT WOULD SERVE US WELL TO RECOGNIZE THE VALUE OF SIMPLY DOING SOMETHING.

Psychologists refer to those who are reluctant to make decisions for fear they may be wrong as “maximizers.” Maximizers are characterized as those who restlessly examine all of their options and exhaustively weigh out the pros and cons. Odds are, you have a little maximizer in you, especially if you’re a twentysomething.

According to Susan Berg, a Ph.D. and self-proclaimed twentysomethings expert, “the staggering array of choices before them causes many twentysomethings to be immobilized by indecision. They may be afraid to take smaller, progressive steps or any action at all that may not directly lead to their lofty goals. Their parents have told them they can do anything, have anything, be anything, but if they can’t get there right away, many falter.”

We feel pulled toward greatness but overwhelmed by our options, so we become immobilized by indecision. For those of us struggling with this kind of crippling indecision, the question becomes: What do we do about it?

Augustine said, “Love God and do what you want,” which may be tantamount to, “You love God? Then do something. For heaven’s sake, just do something.” When we find ourselves immobilized by indecision, it would serve us well to recognize the value of simply doing something.

It reminds me of the survival shows all over television these days. The hosts’ advice is always the same. Do something. Whether collecting wood and trying to start a fire or searching for food and clean drinking water, they always advise the survivor to stay active. This is a principle that would certainly benefit indecisive twentysomethings.

In our younger years, we didn’t struggle with this kind crippling indecision. We simply said “yes” or “no” to things—although more often than not it was probably “yes.” As kids, we were discovering the world every day, and as a result, we radiated enthusiasm. To borrow from G.K. Chesterton, we still had “the appetite on infancy.” According to Chesterton, God still has this appetite, but we “have sinned and grown old.” We used to hold the bugs in our hands. We used to put blades of grass into our mouths and chew like cattle. Why? Because the appetite of infancy demanded it.

Maybe God wants us to regain some of the spontaneity that accompanies infancy. Maybe He want us to go out and do something impulsive, even if it means getting in over our heads. Better to live impulsively with the love of God than to live immobilized by the fear of making the wrong decision.

In Acts 3, Peter heals a man who had been lame from birth. The lame man was begging for money but Peter looked at him and said, “‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.”

Peter was clearly in over his head in this story. He allowed himself to get into a situation that would have failed without God. Imagine if he had grabbed the lame man by the arm and lifted him up, only to let go and watch the still lame man fall back to the ground.

The tragedy is that many of us are so indecisive, had we been in Peter’s shoes we would have stood around debating with ourselves until the lame man was carried home at the end of the day.

Psalm 118:24 reads, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Take a minute and think about that statement. Really turn it over in your mind. God didn’t create the world, set it on autopilot and then walk away. He sets each day in motion. Borrowing again from G.K. Chesterton, it may even be that each morning God rises before the sun to make each and every daisy separately.

Read entire article on relevantmagazine.com

The post What to Do When You Feel Stuck is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts herethey are an awesome expert from the site listed above

Free Money: Top Grant Sources for Small Businesses

Article from nfib.com

Grants can help start or grow even a for-profit business. Here are the five entities most likely to give you their money.

Quick quiz: What’s better than money?

Answer: Free money–especially for a small business looking for a leg up. Grant money is typically associated with non-profits, but that’s not always the case. For-profit businesses can find grant money in a range of places, if they know where to look.

David Donner Chait was awarded a $50,000 grant by the State of Nebraska Innovation Fund for development of a core piece of software to drive Travefy, a website dedicated to planning group travel. He got another $5,000 grant from a state program to cover 60 percent of the cost of hiring a college intern. “These grants have been an essential ingredient in everything that has helped Travefy grow and succeed,” he says.

Read on to discover the top sources for grants to small businesses.

Uncle Sam

The Small Business Administration can tell you where to tap into government largesse. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance also offers an extensive rundown of federal grant programs. Both sources may be great starting points for those seeking to land one of the myriad grants handed out by federal agencies.

Community Development Corporations

How to Win a Grant

Get the ball rolling: Veneka Chagwedera leads a team at the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School incubator, which has supplied a $13,000 grant to launch an all-natural snack food, Nouri. “We were able to demonstrate that we had done the research, that we had already started the actual steps of taking our company to the next level. We talked to farmers’ markets and stores; we really spent a lot of time on the ground. It was very important for [grantmakers] to see that we were already gathering momentum.”

Put yourself in their shoes: To win his grant money, Chait asked himself: “What is their goal? What is their most important end? In our case, it was local job creation, the creation of good jobs within their economy,” he says. By showing he could build local jobs, Chait gave grantmakers just what they were looking for.

Dig deep: Those with the purse strings want more than just an outline of a proposal. “The more granular the information, the more you create milestones and benchmarks—that is what shows you have really thought it through,” Chait says. “I am talking about weekly milestones, every step of the way.”

These quasi-governmental non-profits exist to spur economic activity at the local level, usually in a specific town or city. They may offer grants to encourage affordable housing, education, youth leadership and solving poverty issues.

Many go a step further, making sometimes substantial grants to private enterprise with an aim toward spurring local employment. Consider Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn Community Development Corp., which recently offered a $25,000 grant to support small business. “I think it’s a testament to the community and how much the leadership really cares about the community here,” tavern owner Brian Ochs told the local media.

In a similar effort, the development corporation Ohio City Inc. last year awarded small businesses grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 to assist in opening or expanding a business in the Ohio City Market District, an area that is home to more than 150 small businesses.

Read entire article on nfib.com

The post Free Money: Top Grant Sources for Small Businesses is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts herethey are an awesome expert from the site listed above

Is Your Job Useless?

Article from thegospelcoalition.org by Elise Amyx

When I graduated college, I saw many of my Christian friends apply for campus ministry and rush to missions work in Africa for fear they would not find significance at a standard 9-to-5 desk job.

I watched plans to become dance teachers, chiropractors, and entrepreneurs dissolve as my peers gave up their dreams in order to pursue “full-time ministry.” They feared one day waking up and feeling they weren’t changing the world or advancing the kingdom of God. They were ready to do anything to avoid that gnawing feeling.

They aren’t alone. Today, three-quarters of Americans feel unfulfilled in their work — and job dissatisfaction may be an even greater struggle in the Christian community. What do we do, then, when we feel our work is useless?

Biblical Basis of Work

When thinking about our vocations, we should remember God created us to work. According to Genesis 2:15, work is not a curse, but a gift from God given to us before the fall. Work was—and still is—a tool for us to develop the creation and be salt and light in the world for the glory of God and his kingdom.

As a result of the fall, however, our work will at times be frustrating and difficult. So work can often seem useless. But Christ came to restore all things, which means even the most boring job is redeemable.

All Work Is God’s Work

Though some work may seem useless, Christians understand that all work is God’s work. Our work only seems insignificant because we fail to grasp the big picture. This is what economists refer to as the “knowledge problem.” The knowledge problem means we can’t always see the big picture because knowledge is dispersed among many people; no one person knows everything. In the vocational sense, this means we may not understand how our work is part of a much larger economic dynamic. If we can’t easily see how our work contributes to the common good, we may understate the effect of what we do.

Some positions make it difficult for workers to see the end product, but that certainly does not mean that their work is insignificant. Just because a factory worker doesn’t receive the instant gratification of seeing the final product that he helped to create doesn’t change the reality that his effort contributed to that product.

Hugh Whelchel articulates this idea well when he writes,

The work of believers possesses a significance which goes far beyond the visible results of that work. . . . All human work, however lowly, is capable of glorifying God. Work is the potentially productive act of praise.

Read entire article on thegospelcoalition.org

The post Is Your Job Useless? is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts herethey are an awesome expert from the site listed above

5 Productivity Zappers to Avoid When Working From Home

Article from blog.psprint.com by Valerie Thompson

I love working from home! I feel so lucky that I can have a life that includes working in my pajamas! But working from home can be a blessing and a curse. It takes an incredible work ethic to make yourself do your work when other things try to grab your attention.

Here are five common productivity zappers, and what you can do to avoid them during working hours.

1. The refrigerator

This is a big one for me. I’m always hungry! But when I think about it, most of the time restlessness, stress and boredom can cause me to eat when I otherwise wouldn’t be in the mood. Working from home gives you easy access to food whenever you want it, and not only can eating take time away from your work, it can cause you to pack on the pounds.

Solution

Designate specific meal times and stick to them. It might also help to plan meals ahead of time as well. Having a great breakfast before starting to work in the morning will help to increase productivity and stamina. Once lunchtime rolls around, take a break from the computer and physically get up and make your lunch and eat it. Sit outside if the weather is nice, or catch up on the mid-day news on TV. But try not to mix food with work. You could get distracted and leave the food to get cold or stale. Or even worse, you could rush and eat it while working and catch a case of heartburn …

2. The phone

I really should re-read this blog after I post it ☺. The telephone is one of the easiest ways to get distracted. Most of my friends that have regular 9-to-5 jobs will call me on their lunch break just to talk. When I tell them that I’m working, with no hesitation they blow it off because I’m not at someone’s office like they are. This is a difficult dilemma to face, but one that can’t be corrected unless you are firm.

Solution

Don’t take non-emergency personal calls until your lunch break or after work. If someone just wants to talk, tell them you’ll be able to call them back after working hours. If it is an emergency, keep the phone conversation brief and have the person give you an update during your break. It might also help to text instead of calling. It gives you the ability to see what the person wants without having to have an entire conversation.

3. The TV

I won’t say that watching TV while working is unproductive. When it starts to be a problem is when the TV takes over your attention. If you’re working, you want to make sure that you are in tune with the design in front of you at the time. If your focus is on the TV, it can take away from your creative flow.

Solution

Don’t expect to really focus on work when your absolute favorite show is airing. If you just like to have the TV on while you work, make it a show that you don’t have to follow intensely. When your favorite show comes on (and if it’s your favorite you should know when it comes on!), write it into your schedule for the day, and make sure that your work is completed before hand.

 

Read entire article on blog.psprint.com

The post 5 Productivity Zappers to Avoid When Working From Home is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts hereValerie Thompson

BlackBerry Quietly Announces Its First Phablet — But Z30 Could Be Its Last Big Phone

Article from techcrunch.com by Natasha Lomas

BlackBerry has confirmed earlier rumours that it was flirting with building a phablet and quietly taken the wraps off its biggest phone yet: the all-touch BlackBerry Z30 packs a 5-inch Super AMOLED display, which puts it on the cusp of phablet territory and a step up on the the screen real estate offered by its previous all-touch flagship, the 4.2 inch Z10.

BlackBerry is describing the Z30 as the “fastest and most advanced” phone in its portfolio — with a 1.7 GHz processor plus quad-core graphics (vs the Z10′s dual-core 1.5 GHz chip), a 2880 mAh battery (the largest cell it’s ever put in a phone) and an improved antenna designed to boost reception in low-signal areas.

It’s not a huge BB10 OS portfolio, though, with the Z30 becoming just the fourth device in BlackBerry’s next-gen range — after the all-touch Z10, the QWERTY-packing Q10 and the mid-range Q5. Sales of BB10 devices have not been huge either — with the company shipping just 2.7 million BB10 handsets in Q1. Adding a phablet — a niche, flagship device — to its playbook at this point is not an obvious choice to try to amp up sales. Arguably an attractively priced mid-tier all-rounder with the potential to ship in very high volumes would have been a better bet.

Instead, BlackBerry appears to be going back to its businessy roots by aiming the Z30 at enterprise users.  ”The [Z30] is designed for people looking for a smartphone that excels at communications, messaging and productivity. Having apps like the full Documents To Go suite that comes preinstalled, together with its 5″ touch display, the BlackBerry Z30 smartphone gives you a best in class productivity experience on the go,” said Carlo Chiarello, Executive Vice President for Products at BlackBerry, in a statement.

As well as its big screen and beefy battery, the Z30 stands out from its fellows for being the first device running BlackBerry OS 10.2 — the latest version of the OS which won’t be pushed out to the Z10, Q10 and Q5 til mid-October at the earliest (carrier foot-dragging may well drag that timeframe out).

Updates in BB10.2 include a new Priority Hub feature which sounds a bit like Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature, by learning which conversations and people are important to you to foreground their messages and notifications, along with a new pan-app message preview feature that lets users view a message preview in any app and reply without leaving the app if they wish. The preview feature also extends to the lock screen where users can tap to view recent messages and notifications.

 

Read entire article on techcrunch.com

The post BlackBerry Quietly Announces Its First Phablet — But Z30 Could Be Its Last Big Phone is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts herethey are an awesome expert from the site listed above

Small Business Employment in Recessions and Expansions

Article from smallbiztrends.com by Scott Shane

Small business employment has grown more slowly than big business employment since the end of the Great Recession. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Conventional wisdom is that small business employment declines more in economic downturns, but rises more in economic expansions. Small companies, the argument goes, are more nimble, making their employment decisions more responsive to economic conditions.

The evidence was once consistent with this theory, but the pattern has broken down over the past two decades. Between 1977 and 1991 – but not since 1991 – small company employment grew faster than big business employment during economic expansions and shrank faster during economic contractions.

The earliest data available on this question come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Database, which provides annual figures on employment by firm size. Consistent with the “nimbleness hypothesis,” small businesses increased employment by 14.2 percent between 1977 and 1980 (a period of economic expansion), while large businesses increased employment by 11.8 percent. Between 1980 and 1982, when the economy experienced two recessions, small businesses shed 1.6 percent of their workforces, while big businesses added 1.2 percent to theirs’. Finally, in the long expansion from 1982 to 1990, small business employment grew faster than big business employment, rising 27.4 percent versus 20.8 percent for larger businesses.

The pattern continues through the 1990-1991 recession. Using more precise monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that are available from 1990 to 2011, I have constructed the table below, which shows small and large business employment growth for the different expansions and recessions. As the table reveals, small business employment fell more than big business employment during the 1990-1991 downturn (-2.03 percent versus -0.27 percent), consistent with conventional wisdom.

Read entire article on smallbiztrends.com

The post Small Business Employment in Recessions and Expansions is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts herethey are an awesome expert from the site listed above

How To Use Minority Certification To Gain Larger Contracts

Valerie Thompson explains how to use Minority Certification, such as MBE (Minority Business Enterprise), WBE (Women’s Business Enterprise) and DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) status to grow your business and how certification of qualified business can help gain easier access to government and contracts with larger corporations.

The post How To Use Minority Certification To Gain Larger Contracts is one of many from experts around the net. Read other interesting posts hereValerie Thompson