There is definite change occurring in Real Estate brokerage including mergers, acquisitions, sellouts, roll-ins, conversions and plenty of closings of Real Estate offices. My job is to have my thumb on the pulse of these changes; any hint of someone making a move initiates a call from me to see if they have what it takes to be part of EXIT Realty. You see, I sell franchises, but I am not a franchise salesperson. I treat my career as a relationship building experience; selecting those franchise prospects that will take a leap of faith and invest in EXIT, so I can invest in supporting them in our system. And, I always ask myself this question, “Why would someone join EXIT Realty”? The answer is simple to me and after reading this, it will be simple to you. We have lasted through this turbulent time in our industry because of the strong foundation our CEO and Founder, Steve Morris, built back in 1996 when EXIT Realty was formed. I am convinced we will become the most productively successful Real Estate Company on Earth.

I am going to share ten (10) differences between EXIT Realty and the other choices. But, before you read them, consider this: you can travel the Dixie Highway from Michigan to Florida in a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Lexus or Cadillac. Some are more comfortable, some more efficient, but all good choices for getting you down the road. Then, you have the choice of a Helicopter to achieve the same result. Which makes better sense to you? EXIT Realty is your helicopter. Carefully consider what I am about to share with you and see if they hold the same value to you as they do for us.

Top 10 differences between EXIT Realty and the others

1. Our Unique Operating System (The EXIT Formula). It is simple and it works. It provides additional income streams to agents and their families including retirement and death benefits. Over $175 Million has been paid out to date and it is not contingent on the profitability of the company. It welds agents into a brokerage and allows them to build a business within a business through the power of vesting the agent with the broker. True mentorship.

2. No Service Fees (%). EXIT Realty does charge a minimal Transaction Fee, but it is off the agents portion of the commission, not a 5-10% fee off the top like others. Simply put, you net more at EXIT Realty.

3. Protected Territories. We sell protected territories to allow you the elbow room to grow when you feel it is appropriate, and to have an asset, something of value with your Franchise Agreement.

4. International Single-Call Franchise Support System. Not only do we offer full-time direct Franchise Support staff available to our Franchisees, we also provide full-time agent support services lines as well. We are here for you, live, when you need it.

5. MEMO and EXITtrac. Proprietary software systems to not only operate your franchise, but to track and maintain the agents sponsored into the company so you can see past, current and pending activity. Our software systems are among the best in the industry and available to make it easier for you to run your office.

6. Trend Setters. EXIT Realty recognizes that a high percentage of leadership in corporations are shifting to women. Our U.S. and Canadian Presidents are both highly skilled and experienced women that have both been identified as outstanding women in leadership.

7. Green Initiative. EXIT Realty recently introduced our company-wide “Teal is the New Green” initiative in support of the green movement across the country. In November, we were the Cover Story in RisMedia’s Real Estate Magazine announcing this trend setting move to stay ahead of the curve.

8. Available CEO/Founder and Leadership. When is the last time you spoke to your CEO or upper-level management? How available are they when you need them? EXIT Realty is committed to service and support, as well as being available to our people who have made the investment in our company. We are here for you.

9. Technology Tools. Everyone has technology and tools, but, do they have the right technology and tools? Do they have a technology specialist available to answer your questions at your fingertips? We do. We know how important technology is today to compete and we have some innovative and exclusive tools just for our people.

10. Mindset Training. EXIT Realty believes that good agents are born, great agents are trained. While other companies are cutting back, EXIT is forging ahead, keeping the focus ontraining agents to better service the clients and be more productive for our franchisees. It simply makes good sense.

Based on the feedback I receive while interviewing franchise prospects, I would say we have 10 reasons why you should consider EXIT Realty. These are important, relevant, and imperative to staying competitive today in Real Estate. As a broker, you deserve the best system and support available and owe it to yourself to look further into EXIT Realty to see if it makes sense to you and your situation.

Contact Craig Witt, EXIT Realty Michigan and Illinois for more information. Or, click here to see for yourself.

Craig Witt
877-669-3948
cwitt@miexit.com
exitrealty.com

Umm—there’s probably no delicate way to put this, but are your clothes feeling a little snug after the holidays? While you work on your New Year’s resolutions, let the Dry Cleaning Station in Atlanta work on your clothes. Our expert tailors can quickly and discreetly let out your work pants and suits to accommodate your love (and regret) of those tempting holiday treats.

With your resolution to be mindful of your waist and budget in 2010, altering your clothing is a smart and inexpensive way to reign in expenses and still get good use out of your winter wardrobe.

Do you have a jacket that seems a little dated? Let us take the shoulder pads out, cinch the waist, or replace the buttons for an updated look. Did you discover last year’s winter coat or some fun retro clothing while you were hiding presents or digging out holiday decor? We can breathe new life into musty, dusty, dingy and forgotten pieces.

Do you have leather, fur, or suede that caught a drink spill or did your favorite and fun “pleather” (plastic leather) piece spend a little too much time next to a smoker? Our careful dry cleaning process can clean natural and manufactured materials, removing both stains and odors so you can get more wear out of them.

We are just a phone call away for all your clothing care needs from regular laundering, dry cleaning, clothing preservation or restoration, alterations, and hemming. Our pick-up and delivery system around metro Atlanta offers you fast and convenient service at great prices.

Did your clothing “shrink” this holiday season? We are happy to let them out (and in again!) when you are ready.

A just realeased article by Real Estate Trends names Keller Williams Realty the number one franchise for brand recognition. Here’s some of the article highlights:

Real Estate Franchises: Most Recognizable Brands for 2009

The Top 10 real estate franchises, most recognized by the real estate industry as quality national brands are:

Keller Williams Realty Ranked as Top Real Estate Franchise by Industry Leader and Entrepreneur Magazine 

AUSTIN, TEXAS (December 21, 2009) — Keller Williams Realty joined the ranks of the top franchises in the world last week, when the company was ranked as the No. 1 real estate franchise on the 31^st Annual Franchise 500 list by Entrepreneur magazine. 

During the same week, the company was also voted the Most Recognizable Brand of Real Estate Franchises for 2009 in an industry-wide survey for the Swanepoel TRENDS Report.    “The Swanepoel TRENDS Report is a respected source for the real estate industry and beyond, as is Entrepreneur magazine, and we are excited to see our agents honored in this way for all of their hard work,” said Mark Willis, CEO, Keller Williams Realty.  “We certainly wouldn’t have been included on either list without the dedication and resolve of our agents.” 

According to the ranking in Entrepreneur magazine, the most important criteria to determine the top franchises included financial strength and stability, as well as growth rate and size of the franchise system. The magazine also looked at the number of years the company has been in business and the length of time it’s been franchising, in addition to start-up costs and financial data.  

Additionally, Keller Williams Realty made an impressive showing on the overall list, placing higher than any other real estate franchise.

For more information on Keller Williams Realty, please contact us at 561-245-4000 or info@kwboca.com

The National Food Service Security Council (NFSSC), a trade association for loss prevention and risk management professionals in the casual-dining and quick-service restaurant chain industry, announced it is expanding membership categories to include qualified franchisees and vendor companies.

“For the first time ever NFSSC is opening its membership doors to franchisee operators and vendor companies serving the multi-unit food service industry,” says Cliff Stepp, director of assets protection at Yum! NFSSC has always been about education and networking within the restaurant industry’s corporate professional loss prevention structure. Now we have the unique ability to add even more elements to that equation.”

Click here to register with NFSSCC today!

Dengan harga bahan bakar yang lebih tinggi kita mulai melihat heck of a lot kurang lalu lintas. Hal ini sangat baik bagi paru-paru kita dan planet klaim lingkungan dan tidak peduli apa yang Anda pikirkan tentang Pemanasan Global masuk akal untuk tidak mencemari udara. Banyak orang yang memutuskan untuk naik sepeda untuk menghemat bahan bakar dan menghemat uang dan mengapa tidak Anda juga dapat membantu Anda pinggang tinggal di-bentuk dan mungkin menyimpan uang pada perawatan kesehatan juga

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Oke jadi bagaimana informasi atau berita yang jelas membantu Anda Yah berpikir tentang hal ini untuk kedua jika bersepeda yang baru amp quot dalam hal amp quot dan Anda berada di pasar waralaba mengapa tidak mempertimbangkan waralaba toko sepeda Itu benar menjual sepeda kepada semua konsumen yang ingin menghemat uang Membuat uang oleh orang-orang menabung uang terdengar seperti menang / menang situasi.

Tentu saja Anda harus melakukan due diligence sebelum Anda membeli waralaba menawarkan dan Anda harus memahami persyaratan pembayaran royalti dan persyaratan pembelian yang diperlukan untuk mempertahankan waralaba yaitu berapa banyak sepeda yang harus Anda beli untuk menahan Anda perjanjian franchise atau kontrak dealer dalam mempengaruhi

In our latest installment of Aught Lang Syne, NPI is going to look at the best and worst trends in our culture from this decade. John S will tackle movies and TV, while Tim will explain sports and, of course, fashion.

TELEVISION

The Best Trend in Television: The Demise of Laugh Tracks

The slow, steady, not-yet-completed demise of the laugh track is probably the best overall trend of the decade in television. In the 1990s and the early part of the Aughts, nearly every big, successful sitcom was accompanied by a laugh track: Seinfeld, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, Becker, The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc. Currently, though, most new sitcoms air without laugh tracks. Even among existing shows, the comedies that are critically praised tend to be canned laughless. The entirety of NBC’s Thursday night lineup—the traditional home of the most popular sitcoms—is laugh track-free. ABC comedies Modern Family, Scrubs, and Cougar Town are also not accompanied by disembodied laughter. None of HBO’s comedies—Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, Extras—have laugh tracks, either.

There are, of course, some holdouts: FOX’s only two non-animated comedies—Brothers and ‘Til Death—do have laugh tracks, but neither has much of an audience. CBS, though, has five sitcoms with laugh tracks (Gary Unmarried, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Accidentally on Purpose, and How I Met Your Mother), and all have some degree of success. In general, though, the trend is certainly waning.

The arguments against the laugh track are obvious. If they aren’t to you, then go read Chuck Klosterman’s essay “‘Ha Ha,’ He Said, ‘Ha Ha.’,” from his latest book, in which he calls the laugh track what it is: The sound of dead people laughing. More important, though, is that the trend away from laugh tracks is part of the trend away from traditional, multi-camera sitcoms, and towards the more original, innovative ways of filming comedy. This isn’t to say that all traditional sitcoms are bad—How I Met Your Mother, for example, is a good show—but that the trend away from laugh tracks represents the breaking of the sitcom mold. The new, original sitcoms that we’ve seen this decade—Curb, Arrested Development, The Office—simply would not work with canned laughter.

The Worst Trend in Television: The Demise of Opening Credits

Where have all the credit sequences gone? I’m not entirely sure who to blame for this one, but it seems that every new drama that airs on TV foregoes a traditional credit sequences for a simple title card. I believe it was 24 who dumped them first, but Lost, Heroes, FlashForward, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and The Mentalist are all current network dramas that have ditched any extended opening sequence.

Now, I get why they do it; it saves time. It made sense for 24 to ditch credits (although they did have a brief “Jack Bauer Voiceover Introduction” during the first season), since each hour of the show covered an hour of “real time.” Each episode had to squeeze as much action into to the allotted time as possible.

What’s so dispiriting, though, is how quickly this trend caught on. Every show realized it could gain slightly more time by eliminating credits. It almost became a way for shows to signal that they had a big story to tell*—it seems that the only shows on TV with credits now are sitcoms and procedurals.

*Correlated with this trend is the trend of doing “previously on” before every episode; this used to be reserved for special two-part episodes, before serialization became the norm. This trend is neither good nor bad.

So what’s so bad about this trend? Well, for one, it now means that the credits extend into the actual show, often pretty much until the first commercial break. Even more upsetting, though, is that opening credits are now a lost art. It was ten years ago, now, that The Sopranos premiered, with an utterly transfixing opening. This credit sequence is over 90 seconds long, but I almost never skip through it on the DVD or DVR. Even intros that aren’t as blindingly cool as The Sopranos’ can be integral to setting the tone of the show. Dexter’s theme, for example, is a playful blend of the mundane and the macabre, just like the show itself.

This trend is also related to network television’s trend of scheduling shows to end at 10:07 or 9:03, instead of the hour; in the current television climate, networks need to squeeze in as much advertising time as possible. Only shows on basic or premium cable can really afford credits now. Luckily, though, the best trend of the next decade is probably going to be the end of networks altogether.

MOVIES

The Best Trend in Movies: The Superfluity of Theaters

We’ll cover this more in-depth later in the month, but it really hasn’t been such a great decade for movies. More important than any creative or artistic trend, then, has been the trend in how people watch movies in the Aughts, namely that movie theaters are now entirely superfluous.

Now, I don’t want to dismiss the sanctity of the theater experience, or importance of your local movie theater to your childhood: Some movies ought to be watched in big groups, with big screens. And having a personal attachment to a local theater is fine.

But come on. First of all, it seems like 95% of all theaters now are owned by Loews—not exactly a local flavor. More importantly, though, no movie theaters, even huge multiplexes, can hold every movie. In the past then, movie distributors have essentially controlled what movies people see, particularly in the more remote parts of the country, which may only have one or two local screens.

By the end of the Aughts, though, pretty much anyone can watch pretty much any movie, more or less as soon as it comes out. The proliferation of Netflix and other online rental companies, as well as the ease with which films can be downloaded, both legally and illegally (not that NPI condones piracy), mean that viewers are no longer beholden to the movie theaters’ decisions on which films to show.

There is, also, the convenience factor. Home watching has a myriad of benefits in this respect: You can watch any time, you can pause at any point, you can rewind if you fall asleep, you don’t have to wear pants, you can watch in bed, etc. DVDs, DVR and OnDemand have also benefited TV, but they haven’t fundamentally altered it like they have with movies: People always watched TV at home.

Of course, movie theaters are still important—few people want to watch Live Free or Die Hard on a 13’’ computer screen. And in the coming decade, standard movie theaters may be as common as drive-thrus are now (Raise your hand if you’re reading this and you’ve ever been to a drive-thru. Or even seen one. That’s what I thought.). But right now, at the end of the decade, we have the best of both worlds. If I want to watch Home Alone 2 right now, I’m probably about six clicks away. But if I want to watch Sherlock Holmes on a big screen (you know, so I can capture the full impact of the action and explosions, the way (Sir) Arthur Conan Doyle intended), then I can go to my local Loews.

The Worst Trend in Movies: The End of Original Plots

When I was a kid, I used to wonder what would happen when movies ran out of plots. I figured that there were only a finite number of stories to tell, and eventually people would just have to stop making movies.

Of course, I was a kid, so I didn’t think about sequels, remakes, and parodies. Sequels, of course, aren’t new, and arguably the greatest movie of all time was a sequel. What’s really been different during the Aughts has been the proliferation of franchises. It seems like every blockbuster is made with the potential of a sequel in mind. Superhero franchises abounded during the decade, but there were also sequels to Transformers, Charlie’s Angels, Shrek (two), Saw (five), Final Destination (three), Bad Boys, The Matrix (two), Pirates of the Caribbean (two), Pitch Black, Austin Powers, Mission: Impossible, etc. And that’s not even counting the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Twilight franchises—since those were based on books—even though those were really one story spread over several films.

It’s not that sequels are inherently bad (I, for one, cannot wait until Paul Blart 2), but that the fact that films are now planned with sequels affects their plots: Oh wait, we can’t wrap up all those loose ends; we’ve gotta save some stuff in case this movie does well at the box office. And the fact that franchises are now how studios make most of their money means that they look for things they can franchise when they release blockbusters. A popular book series? A new toy craze? A Disney ride? You can bet you’ll see some movies based on it.

Sequels themselves wouldn’t be that bad, but they have been accompanied by remakes of old TV shows and old movies—some of which weren’t particularly good or memorable the first time around. When Hollywood does decide to remake something memorable, they generally find a way to alienate its most loyal fans or at least leave people wondering what the point was. Like sequels, remakes are not inherently bad, but more often than not, they are a symptom of a lack of creativity, and not a new look at an old idea.

Hollywood even seems to be making jokes about its own lack of ideas: Scary Movie, Not Another Teen Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Superhero Movie, and Meet the Spartans were all released this decade as “spoofs” of tired genres, only to become a tired genre itself. The first two probably qualify as legitimate, if not exactly groundbreaking, satires, but the last five are more like a loose thread of pop culture cags and catchphrases. These movies, from the depraved minds of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, are to humor what Hitler was to the Jews. Josh Levin of Slate probably put it the best in his review of Meet the Spartans:

This was the worst movie I’ve ever seen, so bad that I hesitate to label it a “movie” and thus reflect shame upon the entire medium of film. Friedberg and Seltzer do not practice the same craft as P.T. Anderson, David Cronenberg, Michael Bay, Kevin Costner, the Zucker Brothers, the Wayans Brothers, Uwe Boll, any dad who takes shaky home movies on a camping trip, or a bear who turns on a video camera by accident while trying to eat it. They are not filmmakers. They are evildoers, charlatans, symbols of Western civilization’s decline under the weight of too many pop culture references.

Somehow, these movies, combined with their affiliated sequels of course, have combined for revenues of $1.24 billion (that’s right, billion) during the Aughts. For movies in the Aughts, a lack of ideas often translates to success.

SPORTS

Best Trend in Sports: The Widespread Acceptance of Instant Replay

I suppose it’s the skeptic in me that made picking out a “best trend in sports” a lot harder than picking out a worst; we tend to overlook the things that slowly improve the way we experience life, and in this case, sports.

I really wanted to go with the introduction of the first-down line, but that happened in 1998.* My second choice—the adoption of instant replay in the NFL—occurred before the 1999 season. So we’ve got to go with a bit of a cop-out here and focus on the acceptance of instant replay in the sporting world.

*Can you imagine watching a football game these days without the first-down line AND the Fox Box? The field would look so bare!

Remember when replay was adopted in the NFL? Remember how it was against popular opinion? Remember how when officials ruled that Vinny Testaverde had gotten the ball across the goal line when it was just his helmet, most people were like, “Well, sucks to be a Seahawks fan”?* Remember how most people harrumphed at the idea of reinstituting the late-80s version of replay, how they said that it would just slow down the game and that human error was an important part of sports and that the world was unfair so you should just deal with it? How ridiculous does that all sound now?

*A truth, of course, especially in 1999, but an irrelevant one.

A decade later, the tenor of the debate has shifted dramatically. Now, we argue about how Major League Baseball and FIFA, in their respective neglect toward instant replay, have done their fans a disservice. Far from crying about time delays, we’re debating how to eliminate umpires altogether.

This is how well the Instant Replay Experiment has worked in the NFL. And not to sound too much like a technophile, but this is a very good thing. The people who believe that human error is an important thing in sports should familiarize themselves with the term “necessary evil.” Human error is never a good thing.

—We can’t really condemn Tiger Woods, honey. I mean, every marriage needs a little human error.

—Malpractice suit? Come on, Bill, it was just a little human error—part of medicine, that’s all.

—You know, I felt that way about the recession, too, Abe, but then I realized that Wall Street just had some human error. It happens.

Instant replay doesn’t eliminate human error from sports, but it limits it. And that might be the best thing that’s happened in sports this last decade.

Worst Trend in Sports: Monochrome Uniforms

Now, this is the section where I’m encouraged, if even obliged, to get a little preachy. And I can go so many different ways here: I can attack steroid usage, but that was really a product of earlier times. I can talk about officiating scandal in the NBA, but that’s not really a “trend,” is it? I can go on about how football players are dying from football-related trauma, but that, too, has been happening for decades.

So I’m gonna go with an issue that really strikes at the heart of how I enjoy my American football. I’m gonna go with monochrome uniforms.

I don’t think I should have to defend why monochrome uniforms are a travesty to the aesthetically inclined. I acknowledge that my attention to uniforms is unusual—especially for a male who also cares deeply about the intricacies of sports—but seriously, how can it not infuriate you to see professional football teams don monochrome monstrosities week in and week out? Football is the one sport—again, we’re not counting hockey or soccer here*—where teams can easily integrate multiple colors into a coherent uniform. Perhaps it’s just tradition, but sporting a jersey and pants of complementary but not matching colors works a hell of a lot better on the football field than it does on the baseball diamond or, God help us, the basketball court.

*Less for athletic purposes than for uniform ones. Hockey uniforms are so strangely configured—shorts, really?—as to be irrelevant in uniform discussion. Soccer uniforms place more focus on ads than on team, which, in my book, is enough for soccer to be expelled from “sporthood.”

Most people consider the birth of monochrome uniforms to be 2002, when the Seattle Seahawks, upon moving from the AFC to the NFC, ditched their traditional royal blue and kelly green color scheme for one of navy and “storm” blue, completing the transformation with blue helmets, blue jerseys, blue pants, and blue socks. The Seahawks were indeed the first team in the modern NFL to make a monochrome look the norm; they’ve probably worn their blue jerseys with white pants, but I can’t find any evidence of it on Google.

But I’m going to go further back and, somewhat unfairly, blame the Denver Broncos. In 1997, the Broncos introduced their now famous “Modern” uniforms:* a new, more aggressive logo with a navy jersey, white pants, and thick orange stripe—more like a very slight parabola—along the side. The Broncos themselves did not take the monochrome route until fairly recently, and they still only do it occasionally. But Denver’s template was imitated ad nauseam throughout college football, often by teams with lighter accent colors, such as yellow or silver, that didn’t stand out on white pants, thus leading to a monochrome look at schools such as California, West Virginia, Boise State,** and Washington State. The Denver Broncos thus unwittingly introduced the concept of the monochrome, and the Seattle Seahawks cemented it in professional football.

*This is how they are identified on Madden video games.

**Boise State does not have the “lighter accent color” problem the other schools on this list do. I postulate that the Broncos went monochrome to completely blend into their smurf turf. I’m not kidding.

In the last seven years, over half of the NFL’s teams have sported a monochrome look at least once, and several have done it frequently. The Buffalo Bills also went monochrome in 2002 and have sported the NFL’s worst uniforms ever since. Both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens—younger franchises that had appeared to carve out a distinct niche with more feminine colors—went all-black, as did the New Orleans Saints.* The Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, and Minnesota Vikings all updated their uniforms this decade to more stylish, stripe-infused looks that generally work well, except when they go monochrome. The two teams that should be paying homage to the best uniforms in NFL history—the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans—are the only two in the league** that have gone monochrome with two different colors, which is especially upsetting since their “normal” uniforms look so much better. Of course, this is a bit of a theme here: Teams with respectable uniforms need to slum for a week or two in the Whitechapel of ugly monochromes. The Rams—whose navy and gold update at the beginning of the decade made for perhaps the best look in football—decided to screw contrast (before bizarrely deciding to wear white pants all the time for the last two years, which in my opinion is almost as bad). The Eagles and Patriots have each dabbled in monochrome, although thankfully only once apiece; the Jets have done it more than they’d like to admit.

*Note how all of these uniforms are worsened even more by the dreaded “leotard effect,” wherein a team’s socks match the color of their pants, making it difficult to tell where the pants end and the socks begin. Since the Jaguars and Ravens have black helmets, as well, their all-black uniforms look especially hideous.

**It’s possible the Dolphins have worn all-orange in addition to all-teal. I seem to remember this happening, but can’t find any proof online, which is probably a good thing.

The nadirs of the Monochrome Movement came when two of the league’s most traditional franchises—and two of its best dressed—each jumped the monochrome shark: the Redskins have done it twice in the last two years, and the Bears took the bait in 2002 and again in 2006.

Pretty much the only teams to resist going monochrome are the ones that can’t because they don’t wear primary colored pants (the Steelers wear yellow pants, the Bucs pewter, etc.). Or maybe these teams are the last ones with a sense of propriety. And that’s why I’m prouder than ever to root for the Giants, who have never lived up to their nickname of “Big Blue” on the field.

FASHION

Best Fashion Trend: Stylish Glasses*

*Throughout this section, “stylish” generally means “black, relatively thick-rimmed.”

Look, I wanted to write about the worst fashion trend, so I had to come up with a best one, too. And I know I’m not qualified to write about fashion: I like T-shirts, jeans, and track jackets. And I don’t even wear glasses.

But there was a time when people who needed glasses were resigned to the fact that they were going to look terrible. Remember She’s All That and how Rachel Leigh Cook was ugly and unwanted and all, and then Freddie Prinze, Jr. took off her glasses and we realized, Wait, Rachel Leigh Cook is actually attractive? That’s how we used to feel about glasses.

And that’s not true anymore. Now, you take a girl (or guy, but I’m gonna stick with girl for my purposes) that looks good without glasses, add stylish glasses, and she looks even better. Why? Because glasses still connote intelligence along with the added element of attainability, which means that attractive girl just transformed into an intelligent attractive girl that’s back in your league.

Who doesn’t love a librarian?

Worst Trend in Fashion: Everything That’s Happened with Hats

And I mean everything.

You have to understand where I’m coming from here: When I was a kid who went to a Catholic school where hats were strongly prohibited,* I couldn’t wait until I got older and started doing things socially—you know, having one of those social lives—so I’d have an outlet for all the hat-wearing I wanted to do.

*Even on dress down days you had to pay extra to wear a hat.**

**Are “dress down days” known nationally? Do kids who went to public school understand the concept? If not, here goes: On a roughly monthly basis, we were allowed to pay money to wear regular clothing. That money went to charity. Forgetting when it was a “dress down day” was a humiliating oversight that lingered for days—the athletic analogue would be airballing a free throw.

But by the time I reached that point in life, nobody wore hats like they used to. I’m not talking about wearing hats backwards, which is fine even if having a forehead like a billboard prevents me from indulging in the movement, or sideways, which nobody ever really thought was cool. I’m talking about two particular changes in how hats were worn. The first is that people no longer pulled hats down so that the apex of the brim was roughly parallel to the ground. Instead, you quit about halfway through putting a hat on, and just left the brim pointing upward on about a 45-degree angle. Everyone I knew at college did this when they wore a hat. But this prevents the hat from performing at least two of its three main functions, which are 1. to block the sun; 2. to block rain; 3. to look cool. In my book, it violates all three.

The second trend is that the people who did pull their brims down to the roughly parallel to the ground area no longer curved the brim at all. They kept it flat, as evidenced by Joba Chamberlain. This not only looks ridiculous—as evidenced by Joba Chamberlain—but it’s very uncomfortable. Flattening the brim applies extra pressure to the front of the head.

And then, this whole style was aggravated by the fact that it became trendy to leave the New Era sticker on top of the brim. Now, for the life of me, I can’t understand who’s looking for that in a hat. The only way I can conceptualize the genesis of this trend is that someone bought a new hat, forgot to take the sticker off, wore it to some social occasion, had his faux pas pointed out by friends hoping to mock him, and then shrugged it off by explaining it was all on purpose—which I admit is a far smarter way to handle the situation than I could have instinctively come up with.*

*And I know this because one day, I bought a new pair of jeans, forgot to take the size sticker off, wore them to school on a dress down day, and had my faux pas pointed out by a friend who used it to mock me for like a week.

There’s no rational reason for leaving the sticker on the hat, just like there’s no rational reason to leave the sticker that repeats over and over again your waist size and length on your jeans. It’s  mindful conformity to an arbitrary standard of what is cool right now that makes no statement whatsoever about fashion, culture, or society. And it’s moronic.

All I want is to wear a hat like a normal human being. But first, I need normal human beings to start wearing a hat like I do.

The Second-Best and Second-Worst Trend in Fashion: The Rise of the Ironic/Culturally Allusive T-shirt

I love wearing T-shirts that I find funny, but there are few things that upset me more than someone else wearing a T-shirt that I know they think is funny but which actually isn’t funny.

MISCELLANEOUS

Worst Miscellaneous Trend: The Decline of American Gum

There was a time when someone asking me if I wanted a piece of gum could make my day. Gum—yet another prohibited substance of a Catholic schoolboy’s upbringing—was a way of tasting a candy-like substance without all of the negative health benefits of actually digesting candy. And even as I matured from Fruit Stripe and Bubble Tape to Big League Chew and Bubble Yum to Bubblicious and finally Doublemint, I enjoyed gum for both its taste and its being an outlet for my nervous energy. It does, after all, taste better than a toothpick.

Over the course of the Aughts, though, the quality of gum in this country plummeted. Traditional brands like Doublemint and Juicyfruit and Big Red were no longer good enough; gum had to do something else besides taste good and be an outlet for nervous energy. It had to give you alarmingly fresh breath or whiten your teeth or, according to most gum advertising campaigns, have some sort of sex appeal. This has led to gum like Dentyne Ice and Orbit and Trident White and Stride and Eclipse and 5; in other words, this has led to gum that appears to care much more about nifty packaging* than how it actually tastes; in fewer words, this has led to gum that sucks. Have you ever had a piece of Orbit and enjoyed the experience? For how long? Five seconds? The best thing about Orbit is that it loses its flavor almost immediately; the worst thing is that it has an aftertaste with more endurance than Messalina.

*Seriously, Cobalt? Cobalt is an element! It’s on the periodic table. How can it be a flavor of gum? And a good one at that?**

**Other flavors of 5 include Elixir, Solstice, Zing, Flare, and Rain. 5’s policy on nomenclature is apparently to use common nouns, basic interjections or meteorological events.

Doublemint? That’s a gum you could take some pride in. You know what flavor Doublemint comes in? It doesn’t even name one. It doesn’t care if it doesn’t whiten my teeth or only freshens my breath a moderate amount or rips out my molar fillings; it only cares about tasting good for more than 15 seconds.

Are you wondering what the hottest franchising trends are?  Much of the recent success in that area is traceable to two demographic trends: Americans are getting older and feeling pressed for time.  Doesn’t sound too bright, but it means booming business in franchising circles.

Now I am by no means a Franchise Guru.  I’ve never owned one, worked for one, or even considered one and for good reasons.

First, when I started my publishing and publicity business I wasn’t flush financially enough to pay the “freight” on a franchise. Secondly, it seems too much like working for another corporate business to me.  Things are done their way or no way, and you work for two – you and the piece the company takes.  That doesn’t mean that it can’t be your cup of tea, because many entrepreneurs love franchises.

I’m not going to expound as a franchise expert, but rather I’ll give you the facts about the hottest ones to look at if you like franchises.  Despite the status of the economy it seems the most stunning growth in franchises in 2004 has been in the senior-care segment.  Seven senior-care companies ranked in the top 500 in Entrepreneur magazine have grown a total of 370 units in one year, and almost 39% in the past year.

Experts say that despite the large increases, this market hasn’t peaked yet.  By 2010, 39 million Americans will be 65 or older, and that’s almost 20% of the North American population.  About 30% of non-institutionalized seniors live alone, per the Dept. of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging.  Many of them need extra help at home or companionship.

As the nation ages and boomers turn 60, this segment of the population will grow.  “Elder care will replace child care as the number one social issue,” predicts Jeff Huber, vice president of Home Instead Senior Care – a franchise that grew from 356 to 448 units this past year.

The next hottest area is kids.  Parents want their kids to have fun and be well-educated and will spend money to ensure this in good times and in bad.  Children’s products and services segment of franchises have grown steadily over the year and become one of the top 5 overall categories in term of unit size in 2004.

What’s changed?  Spending on children is now being fueled not only by baby-boomers, but by Generation X – a group that has $736 billion in spending power.  Another change in the market in the past 25 years is the increase in dual-career families.  According to some in the industry, this is an ideal time to enter the education sector of franchises for kids.

Kids’ fitness programs are also growing.  Caryn Burnier, franchise sales director with Stretch-N-Grow International, says they have added 50 units last year.  “We expect to see more children enrolled in fitness programs in the coming year,” says Jerry Perch, vice president of sales/marketing for the 92-unit Kinderdance International Inc. franchise.

Last, but not least, the tech industry is rebounding from its nose-dive in the past.  This is because there is an increased dependence by people and businesses on their technology.  People need advice on what to buy and what not to buy, and what is the proper solution to their particular need.

Computer Moms International Corp., a training and support provider, has seen a shift in its client base since it started 10 years ago.  The greatest demand for services from the Computer Moms group has shifted to the business market, and the group added 30 franchises last year.  The experts claim that the demand for quality full-service training and tech support is vast now and expected to become greater.

Following on the heels of those three areas are franchises in the area of Home Improvement, Fitness, Income Tax Preparation, Business Consulting, Specialty Ice Cream, and Coffee.  So, if you’re in the market for a franchise type business pay heed to the up-and-coming hot leaders and let somebody else go for the 7-Elevens.

I love to see everyone’s preparation for the holidays. Lights glisten, trees sparkle…and sequins fall off your favorite dress. Your regular clothing becomes dusted with specks of glitter from your holiday sweater, and your daughter’s crushed velvet dress is, well, truly “crushed” from storage.

Did I mention I equally love to help people in their holiday preparations?

Occasion-wear with all of its embellishment is outside of what you likely experience with your everyday wardrobes unless you’re spending time on the set of Dancing with the Stars. Manufacturers of holiday wear seem to create flashy pieces with little regard to functionality, and that leaves the garment’s owners in a bind.

Here are a few tips from the Dry Cleaning Station of Atlanta to help you preserve and protect your holiday wear.

When you are shopping for the perfect outfit, ask the retailer to protect your garment when you purchase it. Either keep it on a hanger with a plastic garment bag over it, or have it folded gently in their store box. When you get home, hang your clothing immediately, using padded hangers and clips to preserve the shape of the fabric. Roll sweaters or delicate fabrics that may stretch between layers of tissue paper.

Inspect your clothing. Check for loose buttons or appliques and reinforce them with fabric glue or a needle and thread. Protect your garment’s appliques from snagging other clothing by placing it on the end of your clothes bar with the embellishments facing the wall or covered with a garment bag.

When your shirt or dress shimmers with glitter, it is a good idea to keep it covered until you are ready to wear it. Shake it out over a trash container to remove loose glitter and put it on just before you walk out the door. Wear a coat with a smooth lining over glittery outfits. The smooth lining helps prevent glitter from imbedding itself into the lining of your outerwear and transferring onto clothing you wear in the future.

Finally, let your dry cleaner know about any stains you experience and hang onto those extra buttons or threads that come with your garment. We want to see you get a lot of wear out of your holiday clothes, and you can trust The Dry Cleaning Station to keep them looking their best!

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

SLIFE – MARKETING

Centre de Formation Rémunérateur

Bonjour

Slife Marketing est une école en Ligne, qui vous permet depuis votre domicile, de bénéficier de formation à la pointe de la technologie, pour vous permettre de progresser rapidement dans le domaine du Marketing De Réseau ( MDR ) sur Internet.

Vous pourrez ainsi accéder à des vidéos, des e-books, et des conférences en ligne, sur les différents sujets attenant à votre métier :

. Référencement
Publicité
Réseau Intranet
Internet
Gestion et organisation socio-professionnelle
Construction de site
Logiciels bureautique et graphismes
Développement personnel sur la psychologie
Conseils en affiliation

Deux façons d être membres chez Slife Marketing

Membre gratuit vous bénéficiez de vidéos de formation, de conférences en salle pour vous aider à appréhender dans sa globalité le marketing de réseau.

Membre VIP vous apportera une formation complète sur des supports e-books, vidéos et salle de conférence, pour apprendre à maîtriser tout les domaines de votre métier.

En tant que VIP notre équipe pourra le cas échéant se tenir à votre disposition pour vous apporter un soutien plus personnalisé.

Slife Marketing est un système d’affiliation le plus rémunérateur sur le Net .

En tant que Membre Gratuit vous pourrez toucher 5 % de Commission avec un filleul devenant VIP. (donc 1,25 € sur tout vos membres directes)

Et en tant que VIP vous toucherez 40 % de redevance sur l’abonnement de votre Filleul soit 10 € pour chaque Direct.

Avec 3 VIP seulement vous êtes autofinancé et sur les niveaux en dessous vous toucherez 5 % soit 1,25 €.

Avec ce système c’est 65 % de redevances qui vous sont reversées en tant que membre VIP .

L’inscription est Totalement Gratuite

Cliquez sur la Bannière ci-dessous pour vous y inscrire.

ADOPTER LA SLIFE ATTITUDE ! …!

Sylvain

Photo: Daniel Wildman | Stock.xchng

When the dragons start their interrogation of entrepreneurs, one of the most essential questions they ask is “How do you make a profit?” In other words: How is it a business? How do you make your money in this setup? What is your business model?

The past seven seasons have, of course, brought a variety of entrepreneurs into the den, so we’ve had the privilege to see many business models falling under the scrutiny of the investors. Franchises, exclusive clubs, licensing, retail, and pyramid (!) schemes are just some of the many models presented before our fierce five. Very often, after a thorough dissection of them, the dragons are simply unconvinced that they could work, i.e., that they could make money.

It’s really very important to determine what the business model is from the outset. Just today, I was reviewing another DD episode, when I came upon a father-and-son team hoping to sell their ladder box invention. When Theo Paphitis asked them what their plan was (to make money, of course), the son answered, “We’ll sell lots of them”. Nice quick answer but very ambiguous. After all, every business IS supposed to sell something (product or service), but the how-to of it must be nailed down pat to leave no room for doubt as to its viability. That’s what a business model answers.

Again, flashback to my early days as an entrepreneur. It’s now cringe-worthy that in those times, I used to talk at length about the quality of CAN-DO! but very little about how it could be profitable. And, of course, these days, with publishing establishments falling by the wayside almost every week, I can’t just simply rely on selling the usual advert space, even if advertising is the recognised bloodline of magazine publishing. So one of the primary questions I’ve now learned to ask myself: What is my business model here? How do I intend to make money from this?

Very soon, a new thing will start with CAN-DO! (Teaser!) And even as I’m excited about its possibilities, I’m making sure that my entrepreneurial neck is steadily holding up my head. I have to focus on the fact that the new thing is not just an opportunity to be more creative. The bottom line question is “Is there a solid business model behind this new thing?”

I’ll end this point of reflection by sharing a link my assistant gave me today. It’s a short article in a Kenyan newspaper, detailing a “futuristic” business model, appropriate for e-commerce entities like CAN-DO! It’s something I’m currently marinating on as I figure out the new business model for our new thing in CAN-DO!

http://www.nation.co.ke/blogs/-/445642/687968/-/view/asBlogPost/-/wqumpp/-/index.html

Green Cabs and Wellington Combined are the two preferred suppliers for Telecom in Wellington from December. I’m surprised the chairman didn’t mention that it is now to be shared between the two.

Avec TVLowCost les marques prennent l’escalator

TVLowCost fête 5 ans de démocratisation de la TV !
En 5 ans, 700 spots ont été réalisés pour 130 clients dans 12 pays…
Qui a dit qu’il était impossible de réduire les coûts de la pub télé ?

Le 1er Octobre 2004, à l’instigation de Jean-Paul Tréguer, Rodolphe Muller, Chloé Biron, Marion Bouillaguet, Isabelle Le Dû et Jean-Marc Segati, l’agence TVLowCost ouvrait ses portes en créant le concept des “PACKS TV TOUT COMPRIS”. Pour la première fois, les annonceurs découvraient que pour 250 000 € tout compris ils pouvaient aller promouvoir leurs marques sur les grandes chaînes TV.
Pour un budget 4 à 5 fois inférieur à ce qu’ils croyaient devoir dépenser, ils avaient 100 spots TV sur TF1, F2, F3, F5, M6, C+, une SAGA de films réalisés, un pre-test consommateur et un baromètre IPSOS.
Le marché des agences traditionnelles “high-cost” a éclaté de rire en criant “impossible !”…
Les annonceurs, eux, sont venus en masse…et continuent de plébisciter l’agence qui fait prendre l’escalator à leurs marques… au moindre coût, bien sûr !

Iloubnan.info

Détrôné par Dubaï au fil des ans, Beyrouth compte redevenir une destination privilégiée pour le luxe au Moyen-Orient, avec l’implantation de grands noms tel Dior ou Louis Vuitton, et des “souks” modernes qui offriront le nec plus ultra du shopping.

 

In just three years, we have launched 23 franchises within the UK and this number is set to double in 2010.

We are delighted to welcome the two most recent babyballet franchisees into the network – Jennifer Berrett who will be launching babyballet in Southport and Formby; and Claire Robertson who will become the second babyballet franchisee in Scotland. She will be launching babyballet in West Edinburgh. They  completed their training at babyballet Head Office in Halifax last week and are both looking to set up their babyballet dance classes in the New Year.

With the new year being the busiest time of year for franchising, we have set up extra open days in December and January so that we can cater for all the franchise enquiries that have already started to flood in.

For more information on the babyballet franchise opportunity, please visit the website www.babyballet.co.uk in the first instance. There is an initial application process and the successful applicants will be invited to an open day at Head Office.

If you are looking for a new challenge or you feel it’s the right time to redirect your career,  a babyballet franchise could be the opportunity you are looking for.

Baby ballet is a pre-school children’s franchise which allows you to own, build and run your own business with the successful , fun and exciting babyballet brand behind you all the way. Don’t delay in registering your interest as all territories are exclusive.

All franchise enquiries to Kelly Humpleby (Tel: 01422 329471 / kelly@babyballet.co.uk )

We look forward to hearing from you!

Claire and all the team.

According to estimates, New Moon pulled in $72 million on Friday, blasting past the previous single day record of $67 million set by The Dark Knight.  Industry mavens suggest that New Moon is on track for a $125 million weekend.

This all proves that the Twilight Saga is a certifiable phenomenon.   It also shows that the right material, produced at a reasonable budget, can produce blockbuster results.  New Moon’s budget was only $37 million.