The Business Herald

RSS feeds are great and I love Google Reader for collecting my all-time favorite blogs, but I also appreciate and enjoy reading those precious few Newsletters that I subscribe to from my E-Mail In-Box. There are only a hand full that I genuinely look forward to receiving and I’ve listed 4 below(in no particular order).  Although they each have different publishing schedules, they all have one thing in common… they contain great content that will inspire, inform and get you pumped about Business & Entrepreneurship:

Newsletter Title: SpringWise Newsletter
Website: www.springwise.com
Publishing Schedule: Weekly
What I Like About This Newsletter: This is probably my all-time favorite newsletter. In fact, their site is jam packed with ideas and inspiration for business ideas.

Newsletter Title: Startup Nation Weekly Publishing Schedule: Weekly
Website: www.startupnation.com
What I Like About This Newsletter: This newsletter always included helpful articles and with the creators and founders of Startup Nation being very involved with their Startup Nation Community, they’re constantly adding more features and resources to their lively site.

5Newsletter Title: Duct Tape Marketing Newsletter

Website: www.ducttapemarketing.com
Publishing Schedule: None
What I Like About This Newsletter: Although there is a little "Ad Overkill", this newsletter usually has at least 1-2 good articles. Sometimes you’ll find some free downloads.

 Sidenote: Although IMHO I think the self promotion is a little on the saturated side, it must be very effective.  Otherwise, I doubt this guru would be doing it.

Newsletter Title: Agenda Inc. Newsletter

Publishing Schedule: Weekly(sometimes a little late)
Website: news.agendainc.com
What I Like About This Newsletter: It’s all about the business of Branding in this newsletter.  This newsletter keeps you up-to-snuff on anything related to branding. From news and inspiration to opinions and gossip, you’ll find it all here.

Question: What does UFOC stand for and what exactly is it? 

Answer: According to Wikipedia…

UFOC is an abbreviation for "Uniform Franchise Offering Circular", a legal document used in the franchising process in the United States.

Franchisors must give a UFOC to franchisees at least 10 business days before any contract is signed and before any money changes hands. It contains extensive information about a franchisor, which is intended to give potential franchisees enough information to make educated decisions about their investments. The information is divided into 23 categories:

• The Franchisor, its Predecessors and Affiliates
• Identity and Business Experience of Key Persons
• Litigation History
• Bankruptcy
• Initial Franchise Fee
• Other Fees and Expenses
• Franchisee’s Initial Investment
• Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services
• Obligations of the Franchisee
• Financing Arrangements
• Obligations of the Franchisor
• Territory
• Trademarks
• Patents and Copyrights
• Obligation of the Franchisee to Participate in the Actual Operation of the Franchise Business
• Restrictions on Goods and Services Offered by the Franchisee
• Renewal, Termination, Repurchase, Modification and/or Transfer of the Franchise Agreement
• Public Figures
• Earnings Claims
• List of Franchise Outlets
• Financial Statements
• Contracts
• Acknowledgment of Receipt 

Also, Franchise Profiles International has an instruction page on a UFOC explaining the responsibilities of both the Franchisor and Franchisee.

As I was getting my daily TechCrunch fix, I found this interesting and exciting post. Congratulations and good luck to Brian Wilson, a former Army Officer.  This Military Veteran was able to launch Zolve.com, a promising looking web application for realtors… while deployed to Baghdad, Iraq.

Sidenote: For those who are thinking to yourselves, "They have this much time on their hands?!" 

I commend this gentlemen for taking the little time he did have to himself to use it in a productive manner rather than sitting alone in corner in a deep depression.  Each person out there has their own way of making it through the days.  This is definitely a great way!  I only wish we had this good of an internet setup when I was out there.

For years, I’ve been a subscriber to Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine and Business 2.0 Magazine(no longer published).  Sometimes I get a great issue and other times I get a boring issue, so it’s really a hit or miss in my opinion. I’m more interested in reading articles and stories about people who started with practically nothing or How-To articles from those who have "been there, done that", not the politics or opinions about business.  If that’s what you prefer than there are definitely other magazines that cover those topics and issues very effectively(save that topic for another day), but if you’re like me I think you’ll appreciate the Millionaire Blueprints Magazine. The magazine has been around since Spring 2005, but I never really noticed it until about a year ago.  I didn’t actually picked it up and read it until about July of this year and I have to say it’s a great magazine for aspiring and budding Entrepreneurs.

The covers could use some design improvements, but besides that it’s practically jam packed with success stories from real Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneurs. What I believe truly makes this magazine unique from the typical others are:

In-Depth Articles: The articles are more like interviews and most are a few pages long in a Q&A format.

Resources Pages: After each 5-7 page article/interview, there are detailed Resources pages with descriptions and url’s that were mentioned in the interviews and the resources that were used by the Entrepreneur through his/her venture. VERY HELPFUL!

BLueprints To A Business: Each issue features a "Blueprint" to start a particular business.  From beginning to end, the do’s/dont’s and all the details, they manage to cover them fairly well in only a few pages.  Then of course the Resources pages follow right along. 

Far Less Advertising: I counted less than 20 full-page ad pages throughout the current issue.  The rest of the magazine is pure reading information and inspiration.

Millionaire Blueprints Jr.: They’ve recently launched a version of their magazine for the Kid Entrepreneur and I’m sure it’s going to be very successful. This reminds me of an idea I had a few years ago to develop a Young Entrepreneur Expo(maybe I should reconsider).

Millionaire Blueprints Teen: Coming Soon!