By: Co-Editor, RB:

Typically, a franchisor makes its money selling franchises and then receiving additional fees from franchisees for training, advisory services and products. While many franchisors (such as McDonald’s) take great pride in the repeat success of its franchisees, others have sold the franchises to anyone and everyone who would take it regardless of the likelihood of success. They reap short term benefits and their franchisees ultimately fail.

Moe’s Southwest Grill is taking a different approach. Moe’s believes that franchise owners should also understand both the industry and what the entry-level jobs within the company are like. In other words, you might be a terrific businessman, but if you don’t what it’s like to get behind the counter, are you really cut out for the industry?

Moe’s Southwest Grill is a fast-casual concept featuring fresh southwest fare in a fun and engaging atmosphere with over 400 locations in 34 states and in Canada. At Moe’s, each meal is prepared right before your eyes and is accompanied by free chips and salsa, including the Homewrecker burrito, the Billy Barou nachos, and the Close Talker salad. Founded in 2000, Atlanta-based Moe’s Southwest Grill was named a Top Ten Growth Chain by Restaurant Hospitality in 2007 and is a Gold Award winner of the 2008 Consumer’s Choice in Chains Awards.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

As people use of the Internet becomes more sophisticate, one thing seems clear, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. People seem to respond better to video than almost any other tool on the Internet.

Another example of this would be VideoMD.com.

VideoMD.com is a video-sharing site for physicians and health practitioners to help them educate their patients better. The Miami based company also has a featured video library for general web searches for health information. Based in Miami, Florida, the site also allows patients/people to create communities in the video blogging section.

While there are other excellent comprehensive medical information sites such as WebMD.com or the Mayo Clinic website (http://www.mayoclinic.com/). The site is based on the premise that video is the best resource to help people understand medical issues.

The video content on the site comes from not just physicians but health care providers. For example, the video featured below is also on the Johnson and Johnson Health Channel on YouTube.com.

VideoMD was created by physicians, for physicians and their patients. As stated, the mission is to strengthen the relationship between doctors and their patients. Not only will patients be more satisfied by having their own doctor educate them about their ailment, physicians can better educate patients without adding more work to an already busy schedule. Whether a physician just wants to introduce patients to their practice or discuss the most complex procedures, VideoMD provides a forum which is tailored for each and every doctor and patient. VideoMD proves that with modern video capabilities on the Internet, combined with an array of search-able content features, video is the best resource to give patients information that they need in an easy and understandable format.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

There are a whole host of “Home Theater Consultants” in my neighborhood. They come to your home and help you set up your home theater from start to finish including the purchase of equipment. Magnolia Audio Video stores, for example, operate primarily on the West Coast but they are also operate out of in select Best Buy stores.

Now comes a Galveston, Texas based startup that is putting its own spin on this service. ElementMyPc.com or Element, launched in January of this year, is a new innovative operating system for Home Theater or Media Center Personal Computers, featuring an unique across the room ten-foot interface that is designed to be connected to your HDTV for a digital media and internet experience within the comforts of your own living room or lounge area.

Element comes stacked with the software you need to manage your music, videos, photos, and more. They also include a number of applications that provide many of the same functions as your desktop pc, from web browsing to instant messaging and playing games.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

Today, I will discuss a site that can be an extreme help to our readers and small businesses and startups everywhere. The site is called docstoc.com.

Docstoc.com is the premier online community and marketplace to find and share professional documents. Docstoc provides the platform to upload and share documents, and serves as a vast repository of free and for purchase legal, business, financial, technical, and educational documents that can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded.

Docstoc, Inc was founded by Jason Nazar and Alon Shwartz. Its product was subsequently launched to the public in November 2007. It is backed by the venture capital firm Rustic Canyon. They founders also received funding from the co-founders/investors in MySpace, LowerMyBills.com, Mp3.com, PriceGrabber and Baidu. The company is located in Santa Monica, California.

Docstoc also provides technology through various APIs and Widgets to help facilitate the sharing and promotion of documents across the web. The site has popularized the use of embedding documents throughout the blogosphere and mainstream media.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

In the famous Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld the maitre’d continually barks out the patrons names as their table becomes available. The cast waits for hours for their table before finally giving up. Just when they leave the restaurant the maitre’d yells “Seinfeld, Four!”

I thought of that episode while checking out a new website Textaurant.com. The Seinfeld episode demonstrates how quaint we used to be about dealing with dining options and wait times. The first advancement I remember is when restaurants began to use beepers so they could beep you when your table was ready. But the range was limited and you had to be ready right away so you could not wander off too far anyway.

Other restaurants have used the Internet and technology to deal with wait times. The Shake Shack, which is a wildly popular burger stand in Madison Square Park in New York City, uses a “Shack Cam” so patrons can monitor the wait online.

Textaurant.com offers a more comprehensive twist. It is a Massachusetts based company that acts as a web-based waiting list and as a management application for busy restaurants that consistently have their patrons waiting for tables.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

When Dan and Jean Ehrlich, global touring musicians, got sick of the convenience store snack foods full of artificial ingredients they ate while on the road, they knew there had to be a better alternative. Dan and Jean decided to take things into their own hands by starting Rock-n-Roll Gourmet, creating “natural snack foods with a rock-n-roll attitude.”

Launched in June of 2009, its flagship brand, Hippie Chips, as well as other products, are already available in regional Whole Foods Markets and Safeway stores, natural food and convenience stores, and sold in public schools and college campuses.

Rock-n-Roll Gourmet’s mission was to make a totally natural, low fat, and tastily addicting potato chip. They also wanted to create a fun rock and roll image through their colorful music themed packaging, which they also use to promote new bands and artists.

Rock-n-Roll Gourmet’s mission was to make a totally natural, low fat, and tastily addicting potato chip. They also wanted to create a fun rock and roll image through their colorful music themed packaging, which they also use to promote new bands and artists.

Rock-n-Roll Gourmet is now the featured snack at the Woodstock Museum.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

In the 1982 movie Ron Howard movie Night Shift, Michael Keaton (before Batman) gave a career launching performance playing Billy Blazejowski, a wacky would be entrepreneur who comes up with the idea of running a brothel out of a morgue.

One of his other big ideas is to mix mayonnaise into tuna cans or (improbably) as his character posits “Why not feed mayonnaise directly to the tuna? I should call StarKist.”. I thought of this when I heard about ShaveMate. It seems the founders must have said to themselves “Why not put shaving cream directly in the razor?” Unlike Keaton’s character’s far-fetched ides, ShaveMate is an idea that not only makes sense, it actually works.

Florida residents, Louis and Peter Tomassetti came up with what they term a ‘why didn’t I think of that’ product-ShaveMate (Titan 6 for men and Diva 6 for women). It is the first and only razor that comes with shaving cream right inside the handle.

The way it works is that you just push the bottom of the handle to dispense the shaving cream. This obviously makes the product ideal for travel. The Tomassetti brother’s invention is apparently a huge hit and has already been picked up by major national drug stores such as Walgreens and Target.com.

According to a company press release, ShaveMate is the first nationally branded razors ever to include six precisely positioned in-line blades in one razor head. The new six blade head is designed to pivot smoothly and effortlessly to keep the blades flat against the skin. Though Diva (for woman) and Titan (for men) contain this six-blade technology, the advanced razor head is slimmer than other razor heads with fewer blades—allowing consumers to shave even in hard-to-reach areas.

According to a company press release, ShaveMate is the first nationally branded razors ever to include six precisely positioned in-line blades in one razor head. The new six blade head is designed to pivot smoothly and effortlessly to keep the blades flat against the skin. Though Diva (for woman) and Titan (for men) contain this six-blade technology, the advanced razor head is slimmer than other razor heads with fewer blades—allowing consumers to shave even in hard-to-reach areas.
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