Once again, Subway tops Franchise 500

Subway has been on top of this list now for fifteen years. This list is the best franchises around to own. I used to have a few clients that own Subway franchises and it is indeed an awesome business to own. I actually loooked into it myself as a possible business venture and found that it was a relatively easy set up. They have done an excellent job at brigning new sandwhiches and other products to the market. Their list of breads and sauces has grown a ton since they vaulted to the top of this list. I remember when all they had was white and wheat. Now I think they ave about 8 different breads you can get and I LOVE the Southwest sauce.


1. Subway
2. Dunkin' Donuts
3. Jackson Hewitt Tax Service
4. 7-Eleven
5. The UPS Store/Mail Boxes Etc.
6. Domino's Pizza
7. Jiffy Lube
8. Sonic Drive In Restaurants
9. McDonald's
10. Papa John's

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Ringtones

You aren’t still using the default ringtones that come with your cell phone are you? Don’t you want a ring tone that helps you express who you really are instead of a standard ringer? The ones I have on my cell phone are so generic and most of them are really annoying actually with high pitched ringing that makes people want to strangle me. Then I decided to get some cell phone ringtones that really made my phone sound like a concert instead of the old standards.

Keep people up to date with what is hot in the music world by having a ring tone to one of the new big time hits. With the amount of music available these days, people just don’t have the time to hear it all. You can keep people informed and spark up conversations anywhere with a great tune on your phone. I’ve had many people come up to me and ask who the singer of the ring tone was that I had. In fact I’ve actually gotten a few dates from such conversations. I don’t think anyone could argue that getting a date just from a conversation about a ring tone is a bad thing, can they?

Some ringtones you can get (This is a small sample. There are hundreds more):

“Jessica Simpson, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Outkast, Christina Aguilera, 2 Live Crew, 3D Remedy, Adrianaaa, Ali G, Ambassador, Angry Girlfriend, Answer USA, Antonio, Armand Van Helden, Badly Drawn Boy, Basement Jaxx, Batista, Bettyboop, Big Nate, Big Nate featuring Todd Bangz, Big Show, Bikini Kill, Blackstar, Booker T, Born Again, Bucwheed,”

Protecting Your Business’s Name

Online everyone tends to try and rip eachother off with their site names. Even though you have the domain the title of the site can be used by practically anyone.

What about your actual business name? Have you ever had your name copied by another business? You come up with a great name, but most don't take any step to protect that name and sometimes lose business because someone else is using your name and possibly using it better for something that doesn't even relate to YOUR business. Take a looka t this article to find some ways that you can in fact protect your business name from getting copied by someone else.

You’ve invested serious time and effort coming up with a unique name for your business, and you want to be sure you’ve done everything you can to protect it. But are there legal steps you can take to do that?

Absolutely. If yours is the first business to use the name, you can protect it so that no one else can use it without your prior permission. And the proper way to protect a business name from use by others is to register it as a trade name.

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New Jersey Mold

Got Mold? The nasty stuff is hard to get rid of and a professional is going to be your best bet to remedy the situation. Advanced Mold Dog is a NJ Mold Remediation company that will do that duty for you in the New Jersey area. Find a New Jersey Mold Inspector to give you advice on your situation and get an estimate easily through their website.

Free financial planning with no strings attached

This article really talks about how financial planners tend to do free seminars all over the place. I know from experience that I always did them free of charge. I would share all types of information that was typically catered to the groups I spoke in front of with hopes that I could pick up a few clients out of a large crowd. This was really the most effective method for growing fast.

With that in mind you should be able to find seminars everywhere free of charge to help you learn various aspects of finance. Just check the parpers and you can find a discussion there many times telling you that Joe Advisor is going to be talking about this or that and many times you can get some free mutual fund products or even a dinner. Who knows. They may even teach you something you don't know.

I used these seminars to talk about specific things that related to parents, charities, etc. My speeches typically weren't product focused so to say for a particular company, but I did throw ideas out there of what investment vehicles could be most effective.

One thing to remember when you attend these seminars is that the information is general. This means that it may not apply to your particular situation based ont eh examples used. When you invest you aren't like everyone else so you need to figure out what suits you best. That is why using a professional is typically the easiest way to go about it, but if you have the time on your hands to do your own research you can save yourself some unneccessary fees.

Americans could all benefit from financial advice, but most don't want or can't afford to pay for it. But free assistance from financial planners -- who ordinarily may charge $150 or more per hour -- is available to just about anyone.
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Compare Credit Cards

When you are in the need to find a new credit card there are many options out there and the only way you can find out for sure what it is that will suit you best is to compare credit cards. Doing it online is simply the easiest way and there are many resources available to you.

Getting into trouble by overspending on cards leaves you possibly looking for a way to transfer your debt to a lower interest rate so you can control your debt. You can typically find new cards that offer 0% balance transfers which is a great way to help you chip away at the balance you have accumulated with out the added interest.

Many other features are available in cards today and my favorite is probably the cash back credit cards. Getting even 1% back from purchases is a huge reward. You have to love getting a bit of a discount on every purchase.

Oracle to Buy Hyperion for $3.3 Billion

Oracle has always been big on trying to be the big kid on the block. If you remember at one point they actually were one of the biggest companies int he world based on stock price, but have fallen off since. They are looking to make another push to gain some sort of superiority in this market.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Business software maker Oracle Corp. will buy Hyperion Solutions Corp. for $3.3 billion in cash, renewing a shopping spree aimed at toppling rival SAP AG.
The deal announced Thursday will give Oracle an arsenal of Hyperion products that are widely used by SAP's customers. Hyperion's tools, known as "business intelligence" software, help chief financial officers and other top corporate executives track their company's performance.

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Florida Vacation Rentals

I miss going to Florida for Spring Break blowouts so much. Not that I can't go to Florida with out the bash. Florida is one of my favorite places in America and I may end up living there someday with high probability. Until I do I must find a place to stay when I go there.

Finding florida vacation rentals is so easy with the internet. I'm sure you notice from time to time how much the internet plays a part of my life so you shouldn't be suprised that I find my lodging online either when I go on vacation. I am planning on finding an Orlando vacation rental soon because I want to go and boo Darko Milicic of the Orlando Magic. The ex Piston #2 pcik that was a bust here and a whiner. That site has great properties to stay in so that I don't have to find myself a hotel. I like to have a full run of the house even on vacation so finding rental properties is a great resource for me.

Prosecutors crack insider-trading ring

Wow...been a long time since I've seen one of these stories pop up. Being an ex Series 7 License holder i know all about this kind of thing. To an extent all brokers have and use inside information if they have any sort of relationship with fund managers and companies. This doesn't mean that most act on any sort of inside tips they get. The majority of us were very ethical. Seeing this kind of thing just reminds me of how greedy the players in this industry are.

You can use your knowledge to make a buck here and there, but when you basically spit int he face of the SEC you are going to get your ass handed to you. Like the article says this wasn't a boiler room scam either. These are big firm stock jockies and they got busted. $15 Million in fraudulant activity isn't going to sit well with anyone. The power of greed in this industry is incredible really. The competition of brokers is very shady at times. To get the big whales some feel it is neccessary to break the law to give them an advantage. Clients willing to go along with it aren't immune to the law either. Remember MArtha Stewart? Of course you do. If she can go to jail for this kind of thing just about anyone can.

NEW YORK - Investigators have broken up what they call one of the biggest Wall Street insider-trading rings since the 1980s — a sweeping, $15 million scandal that involved power brokers at some of the nation's top financial firms and two lawyers. read more...

Rainbow Sandals

I need to check out some new sandals soon. My Birks are getting kind of on the old side. Not that I can't wear them anymore, but it has been a few years. Those things literally last forever though. I think I am going to look into rainbow sandals this time. They seem to have a very comfortable feel as well and are slip ons like I like. I'm not a fan of the strap. Pretty much defeats the purpose of having sandals to me I guess. Some day I'll live where it is always warm so i can wear sandals all year round.

Japan's Inflation Slows to Zero, May Turn Negative

Japan has always been an interesting story of economics. At least in my short lifetime. They continue to struggle to achive the kind of growth they had back in the 80s with the boom in the economy then and it doesn't appear that any respite is in the future. 7 years of slumping prices are still holding the prices down and diminishing growth.

Japan had zero inflation in January, underscoring the nation's struggle to overcome seven years of slumping prices.

Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food, were unchanged from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo, matching the median estimate of 39 economists. It's the first time prices failed to rise since May, and followed a 0.1 percent gain in December.

Wages fell the most in more than two years, a separate report showed, damping prospects for accelerating inflation and higher interest rates in the world's second-largest economy. The Bank of Japan raised rates for the second time in six years last week and Governor Toshihiko Fukui said further increases will be gradual.

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Flowers on a rough day are the best

I've always been a proponent of sending flowers from an online store to my lady. There are just those mornings where you know she isn't in the best of moods and I love to just send her some flowers at work so that she can get a bit of a bright spot and be doded on by the other ladies in the office. The best place to get Chicago flower delivery also offers some of the best gift ideas as well. You can get bouqets, chocolates, teddy bears (I like sending those too), gift baskets, and balloons online at Digital Flowers easily and quickly delivered.

Sony, Immersion Settle Lawsuit Over Vibration Technology

I've been interested in hearing what this was all about. Sony had added the Rumble feature to their game controllers on the Playstations and had been sued for stealing the technology from Immersion for $289 Mil in damages dsaying that they broke 2 patent laws.

Today it was announced that the 2 will be working together to bring the function back to the Playstation products. This means that the ne Playstation 3 controllers could have the feature added soon. Boy am I glad I haven't bought one yet. I can only assume that this function will be addecd to the wireless bluetooth controllers and come with the system now. Great news for all those that were upset that the feature wouldn't be on the new controllers. The feature isn't neccessary obviously, but I know it adds to the overall game experience in many cases and helps make an extra warning system available to games in tight situations on games as well as feel the heart pumping effect in horror games.

Vonage VoIP Forum

Vonage forum is your source to all things Vonage and VoIP. All the details about this ingenious wireless option can be viewed there with customer reviews as well as more information to contact them about your wireless needs. Vonage is an international phone service that will likely save you up to 50% off your current phone bill.

Economy Grows Slower Than Expected in 4Q

The housing market is getting crushed and fell the most it has in 13 years in January. The economy is not looking any better and the numbers just do not compute with me that showed we actaully had decent growth. The numbers coming out now suggest the economy was as sluggish as I'd imagined and observed.

The new reading on gross domestic product showed the economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace -- a considerably weaker rate than the government first estimated. It initially had reported the expansion in the last three months of 2006 to be at a 3.5 percent pace. The principal reason for the new, significantly lower estimate: Businesses tightened their belts amid fallout from the troubled housing and automative sectors.

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Forex Trading

FXInfo.com is set up extremely well to teach others about Forex trading and has some great forex training available. The site is so in depth that even if you didn't know what Forex was you would be able to learn about it in depth very quickly. They are looking to revamp the design a bit, but the information there is top notch. It can help anyone understand the ins and outs of this investment category and give them the tools to succeed in the Forex trading markets. The Forex trading makrkets are extremely liquid and are open 24 hours a day so you can make transactions online within seconds.

Paper airline tickets on verge of extinction

About time. I can't believe it even took this long. I buy most of my tickets online anyways so i just show up and hope that they didn't screw something up before I got there. I'm not really exagerating either because I've had it happen more than a few times. Luckily it was during the week and it was easily fixed.

CHICAGO - Paper airline tickets, once the industry standard, are on the fast track to oblivion.

If the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has its way, airlines will issue only electronic tickets by the end of 2007, sending paper tickets the way of other rapidly disappearing industry services such as in-flight meals and free pillows.

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Web Development Community with Perks

Dream.In.Code is a programming and web development community site that offers visitors free access to code snippets, tutorials, and forums. Members can ask programming experts questions in many programming languages including: C/C++, Java, Visual Basic, PHP, ASP, .NET, ColdFusion, and more. People are there to help and love to troubleshoot with you.

Dream.In.Code offers some perks to membership that most forums don’t even consider. They now offers visitors free programming magazines including Dr. Dobbs and Queue, as well as free t-shirts to any member with 500+ posts. Members can also participate in a monthly drawing for a 1GB Thumb Drive.

February 28th is their 6 year anniversary and we will be celebrating all March long with contests, prizes, and fun! With 20,000 members the community is a great resource for web designers to get answers for code that they are stuck on, or just get some cool new programming tips.

Spot the Latest Trends

One of the biggest ways to make it big is to catch on to an idea that is going to be really big before it actually is big. Computers, Internet, Ebay, Operating systems, and I guess you could even say blogging now. Learning about it and being a part of it before it really becomes an everyday thing can always lead to vast fortunes if you understand it now rather than later when everyone else is already on the bandwagon.

How do you catch onto trends early? This article helps to answer those questions and makes some interesting points. They delve into recognizing trends rather than just fads. Set your own trends. The ability to observe and forsee an idea's potential is the basis of something big. You have to have a mind for it. You have to pay attention to how things are and try and figure out what direction they are going in while you formulate an idea that is going to take advantage of that trend.

Read Spot Business Idea in Trends for a more in depth look on this.

Free Online Dating

There aren't enough things that are free in this world. Finding a free online dating was never one of them either, but now you can sign up and find dates online for absolutely free. The features there are as in depth as any pay site, but this one just happens to be free. You can view perspective mates right away as you go to the site and find the one that is right for you. No credit card will ever be required because it is free, like I already said a few times...lol

Go to the site and start browsing your choice of an ideal mate. Find them with in 1 mile of where you live! Over 50 pages of singles to go through so you better get a move on.

Blogger sued over topless Aniston photo

Good old Perez Hilton. Apparently he got a hold some photos from scenes that were cut from the movie “The Break-Up,” and posted them on his blog. Now Aniston is suing him and asking for the material to be siezed as it was stolen and copyright infringement. How he got them is unknown.

Aniston also sued another blogger in 2005 because he had allegedly taken photos of her at her home using "invasive, intrusive" measures. The blogger, Peter Brandt, said that he had taken the photos on a public street 300 yards away. That suit has been settled and details were not disclosed.

Home Improvement Time

Looks like I have a nice, I guess you can't say nice, but important home improvement project to take on this week. Seems my spring on my garage door decided to snap and I need to get it fixed. I had already planned to do a bunch of shelving in my garage this week, but since I have to do this now that is going to have to wait. I think I may look into getting a new door actually. This thing is starting to get a bit beat up and that fall with no spring didn't help any. Working on garages always seems to take a bit less priority than other household projects, but I have to get this done and it can't wait. There is nothing more annoying than having to manually lift your garage door by hand.

EditMe-Edit Your Web

A very interesting opportunity came up today that I'd like to share with you. This is about a company that was started by an internet developer from Boston named Matt Wiseley. His idea was to build the very first WSYIWIG (What You See IS What You Get) wiki solution. What is all that? Well wiki you can see from the link, but the concept behind the company called EditMe is that it allows you to create web pages with so much ease that just anyone with a computer can do it. Yup. Anyone. Everything is customizable from the browser and can be moved around with out having to type in a bunch of code to get the look you want. It allows you to have multiple users who can edit the content of a wiki, personal web site, company intranet, collaboration site, or even a blog.

The creators of Edit me just want people to realize that anyone can do this. Anyone can make a difference and create something from scratch with hard work and a bit of intelligence. He is now quitting his day job to run this company exclusively with a close friend. It was done with out investment capital and they never have to worry about turning it into a big money windfall for investors. They work it for themselves and for the customers. Check it out. The testimonials tell you all you really need to know.

Why 'Me-Too' Startups Can Succeed

I have been reading a bit about what this article is talking about the last few days with a lot of interest. Mostly because I saw the idea that Wiki was going to be launching a search engine this year and that they spent a lot of time speaking on the idea that Google can't be on top forever. This article actually uses Google as the example of why "Me Too" start ups can actually succeed. It doesn't mean that every kind of start up like this will even if they have built the better mouse trap. It still takes a lot of effort to get the word out and to get people behind it and realize that they did indeed create a better version of what they are hoping to replace. Google did it and right now they own the search engine world in the eyes of most.

I'm interested to see what Wiki can accomplish in this regard as well. Of course this is all big business with big backers that are jumping in this arena. Wiki is already established as the People's Encyclopedia and if I'm not mistaken is in the top 20 most visited sites on the world wide web.

The view of the article you are about to read has this premise:

“Yes, there are competitors, but nobody has built a product yet that users really like…”

To me that is the thought process of every man that has ever wanted to improve upon an already existing idea.

Read the article that inspired me on this and Digg It and Uptick it on Reddit:
Why "Me Too" Startups Can Succeed

LemonFree.com Used Cars

Selling a car isn't always easy. How do you get the word out? Most of the time that can be pretty expensive to advertise in the local papers. Other times you just have it sitting out in your front yard and hope the right person just happens to drive by. Why not put your listing online for free? LemonFree.com allows you to list Used Cars online at no charge. Your listing costs you nothing all the way through the sale.

Buyers can quickly search through the databasde with a few clicks and have searches targeted to Make, Model, and State. Finding a Chevrolet Silverado is easy and quick. Find any make or model in seconds and even contact the seller through LEmonFree's private messaging system so you don't even have to quit your search and leave the site.

25 Startups to Watch

Some interesting concepts on this list. Lookin ghtrough them all it appears that many of the startu ps he portrays are related to blogging. Yes, we are getting this big. Many of us now use our blogs to make money, but the market is so big that companies are popping up all over to take advantage of the mass numbers of us in the blogshpere.

25 Start Ups to Watch

PayPerPost talking big news

Well I logged into my account tonight and happened to see this offer. Apparently there is an announcement coming in the next couple of months that they want us to speculate on. Of course this id something that they like to do. Build up a big announcement and then unleash it on us with little notice. We may know something is coming, but may not know many details about it so we are left to speculate.

The last big news was segmentation and it took quite a few by suprise. For me it was good news although it did have some rollout bugs that took a bit to get ironed out. It showed me that they are trying to be the leaders in this market rather than just sitting back and letting the competition run carbon copy businesses and steal away valuable business.

Hard to guess what the next announcement could be as the last one pretty much laid down the law for how things will be in the future. The last one was great for advertisers, and really it was great too for serious bloggers that want to make some serious money writing on their blogs.

Only thing I can possibly think of is that this announcement will give posties more options like Wordpress allowing bloggers to actually do PPP on the free hosted blogs in the coming months. We have been banned for doing so and only able to use Wordpress on our hosted domains. Considering that I do use Wordpress that way I can safely say it is about the best blogging software out there. Almost every one of us that has a hosted domain uses Wordpress so I can only imagine how nice it would be to be able to use the Wordpress free service as well.

Dollar Falls as Reports May Show Housing Slump Slowing Economy

I gotta tell you that I haven't really been optimistic that the economy is improving all that much over the past couple of years. I guess living in Michigan kind of shelters us from seeing actual growth since people are flocking out of here just to find decent work at a salary that is remotely acceptable for our skills. Though the cost of living is low here the quality of life is certainly not desirable. You would be hard pressed to give a way a house to get out of here right now. It's certainly a buyer's market that's for sure. You just have to wonder if it is even worth making that investment here right now considering that there doesn't appear to be any promise in industry.

The dollar fell to the lowest in almost two months against the euro on speculation reports will show a housing slump is slowing growth in the U.S. economy.

The U.S. dollar declined against 14 of the 16 most-active currencies before reports this week that may show fourth-quarter growth was less than previously estimated, new home sales fell and durable goods orders dropped. The difference in yield between benchmark 10-year U.S. and German debt last week narrowed to the least in almost two years.

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