banking - Fastest Growing Franchises

I used to be obsessed with the idea of starting my own business. My grandfather, you see, was a successful small business man. He followed the classic American story. He came over here with nothing, worked hard, and started up his own shop. I had always dreamed of doing this. Unfortunately, starting an independent small business can be difficult. That is why I joined up with one of the fastest growing franchises. I was a little nervous about this idea at first. The fastest growing franchise this month, after all, can be old news by next month. If you start a franchise business, you are responsible for the cost of your shop, but you are not in charge of its success or failure. What the company as a whole does can affect your chance to succeed. Then I realized that every business involves risks. I figured that if I joined with one of the fastest growing franchises, I would have some advantages that I wouldn't have starting my own small business. I would have the name recognition, the reputation, and the support of the national office. That is why I started a fast food franchise instead of my own restaurant. One of the things that all of the fastest growing franchises have in common is a hands-off approach. The national office regulates quality control, advertises the product, and make sure that all of the franchises stay in line. The rest is up to you. If you run one of the fastest growing franchises, hiring decisions, pricing decisions, and even local advertising, are all up to you. You can determine your hours, determine your employees pay, and make many other business decisions. This is why the fastest growing franchises do so well. They allow personal ingenuity. Once I found this out about the fastest growing franchises, all of my doubts disappeared. One of the reasons that I didn't want to start a Jamba Juice franchise, or a Dunkin Donuts franchise, was because I felt that I would have no power as a businessman. I did not want all of my decisions dictated from the central office. I did not realize that franchises allow so much freedom. Now that I know that joining one of the fastest growing franchises allows me to be my own boss, I am much happier about the whole thing. It really is greats to own my own business. For more information on how to find the Best Business Online try visiting Small Business Start located at http://Small-Business-Start.com where you will find valuable information on internet marketing, making money and other information. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dominic_Ferrara banking - Understanding Large-Scale Commercial Mortgage Financing Part-02 Continuing our discussion from (part 01) of this mini series covering large-scale commercial mortgage financing (If you have not read part one you should do so). It is helpful to have a general idea how mortgage lenders view commercial income producing properties for financing. When considering projects for financing in excess of one million dollars, lenders are not so concerned with the principles initially. Rather, they are more concerned about the operating economics of the property. Lenders (mortgage brokers and mortgage bankers) will want to see a detailed rent-roll (leases), with pro forma projections, income statements and copies of income taxes for the last two years and maybe some pictures of the project. This is enough preliminary information for a lender to pre-qualify the project for further consideration. Once the determination that operating economics work, the lender will look to the quality of the tenants and the length of the leases. Mortgage banking firms like to see rent rolls having long-term leases (equal to or greater than the term of the proposed financing). Ideally, the project will have at least one or more anchor tenants (Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, or multiple smaller strong tenants like McDonalds, Radio shack, and the like). The stronger the tenant, the longer the leases, the more likely they will be interested in the financing. The bottom line to permanent commercial mortgage financing is that grade-A projects with grade-A tenants and grade-A principals will get the most favorable rate and loan terms from life companies for properties requiring financing in excess of a million dollars. While it is possible to get life financing for projects around the million-dollar range, the truth of the matter is Life companies tend to like deals from about 2 million and up. Once the determination to pursue financing has been preliminarily made, mortgage brokers and bankers will request a host of information from the principal including resumes, financial statements, tax records, etc. If the principal's are a partnership or corporations the request for information becomes more detailed. In essence, you should be prepared to give a full accounting of your financial picture (audited by a CPA at some point along the spectrum). Formal loan applications are comprehensive legal documents covering a whole spectrum of concerns to both the borrower and lender and will require you to have legal review before acceptance and signature. The application fees you can expect to pay for the loan are typically around one percent (1%) of the amount of financing you are seeking. Example, if you want to borrow 2.5 million, you can expect to pay around $25,000.00 when you sign the application. From this application fee, an MAI appraisal will be ordered (unless it is a separate fee to the borrower). Because of the financial and legal details associated with commercial mortgage financing are complex, you are strongly urged to have both legal and financial counsel representing you. Most people who are in this league of financing are already well represented but I set forth this statement for those of you who are relatively new to the game. It's big league. This is why I cautioned people in part one of this mini series to avoid paying up-front fees to mortgage brokers. Often times these people are crooked and swindle people out of money and add another layer of fee-costs to an already expensive project. Stay tuned, I will be discussing ways to protect your self when dealing with mortgage brokers in my next article. To your success! Do you like this tip? You haven't seen anything yet! Check out our Smart Books Business products by clicking the link below. We have business kits, books and ebooks to help you get smart-fast. Check us out.... We'll save you a TON of time and money. Copyright ? 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved