Author: Sebastien

Categories
Franchising

The Small Business Franchise Act

Originally introduced in 1998 and passed in 1999, the Small Business Franchise Act (SBFA) is has put into place certain safeguards designed to eliminate fraud and other activities that might exploit franchisee investors. Common opinion holds that the SBFA was introduced in order to give franchisees additional bargaining power against franchisors.
Michigan congressman John Conyers, Jr. stated that “Protecting the rights of franchisees is ultimately about protecting the rights of small businesses.”

The proof is in the details:

1) The bill reinforces existing prohibitions. The SBFA is a reminder that perpetuating fraud within the franchisor-franchisee relationship is prohibited.

2) The bill mandates good behavior and faith. Unsurprisingly, not everyone follows the rules in the world of franchising. The SBFA looks out for small franchisees by requiring all parties to act honestly with each other and observe reasonable standards of fair dealing in the industry.

Continue reading “The Small Business Franchise Act”
Categories
Random

Grow before you go!

Growstaching has become increasingly popular within the last few months, especially among minorities. Considered by some as an art, considered by others as a sport, I simply call it a “spart”. Growstaching is much more than a spart though. It’s a way of life that requires full commitment! It is a great way to improve self esteem and self confidence, while giving you a certain “je ne sais quoi”….

For those of you who don’t know, my cousin and I are growstaching (growing a mustache) for our trip to El Salvador in a couple weeks.

At day 15 of my quest for the perfect mustache, I have to say that I feel much more comfortable with it now… People are still looking at me funny. I was called “ese” by some Mexican dude, so I guess the stache is getting some respect…

Follow the Mustache Diaries on Flickr!

Categories
Random Tech

4 original USB sticks

The Sushi USB Stick

The Barbie USB Stick

The USB Shrimp Stick

The USB Thumb

Categories
Tech

Google Android Latest Demo. It kicks ass!

So I’ve always been what you could call an iPhone whore. I love the thing and I am probably the biggest advertiser for the iPhone after Apple itself…

I’ve also been following Android, Google’s OS for mobile. While I had not been impressed before by Android’s features, I have to admit that the latest demo kicks ass!

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video is probably worth 10,000… So here are some videos of the latest Android version.

Basic features:

Google Streetview with built-in compass: pretty amazing!

Go to AndroidCommunity.com for more demos of the latest Google Android.

Categories
News Random

Hacker steals $50,000 a few cents at a time

When opening an online brokering account it is common practice for companies such as E-trade and Schwab to send a tiny payment – ranging from only a few cents to a couple of dollars – to verify that the user has access to the bank account listed. Services such as Google Checkout and Paypal use a similar tactic to verify credit and debit cards linked to accounts.

According to court documents, Californian Michael Largent used an automated script to open 58,000 such accounts, collecting many thousands of these small payments into a few personal bank accounts.

Largent also performed the same trick with Google’s Checkout service, cashing more than $8,000 alone from the service.

When his bank contacted him about the thousands of small payments, Largent explained that he had read the terms of service of the sites he was targeting, and believed he was doing nothing wrong, claiming that he needed the money to pay off debts.

Categories
News Opinions Random

Maps Explaining Why Americans Know Less About the World

Speaking at the TED Conference, Alisa Miller (CEO of Public Radio International) explains why Americans know less and less about the rest of the world. Along the way, she uses some eye-popping graphs to put things in perspective.

Categories
News Random

Obey Sample Sales

Obey is having a sample sale this week:

Date:
Friday, May 30th (9am – 7pm)
Saturday, May31st (8am – 3pm)

Location:
3500 W. Carriage Dr.
Santa Ana CA, 92704

Last time we went, we had to wait 2.5 hours in line! I still can’t believe I waited that long without ending up on the news for murder…

This year my friend Sean, ex Obey employee, is getting us in day earlier. Thanks, buddy!

Categories
Art Random

42 Original Business Cards Designs

Reenconded lists 42 awesome business cards designs. They are the most original biz cards I’ve ever seen.

Here are just a few samples. Go to Reencoded to see all of them.

Categories
iPhone

Google Earth (or similar) for the iPhone

Earthcape developed a native version of Google Earth for your favorite phone/mp3 player/email/map/internet device (talking about the iPhone here!).

The demo (see video below) is of a mobile application in development that puts virtual earth software on the iPhone. The app runs locally on the phone, so you will have to download updated geo-spatial information over WiFi or 3G, which would take a ton of bandwidth and effect performance.

TechCrunch reports that:

What you see in the video is not Google Earth, although it looks very similar. Earthscape has created its own virtual earth program that it describes as a social geobrowser. As with Google Earth, it allows you to tag places with text, photos, restaurant reviews, and Wikipedia articles. It also lets you see different image overlays of the same spot during different seasons and different times in history.

The software is available only in private beta (sign up here).

Categories
SEO

6 Tools To Find The Right Keywords

Targeting the right keywords for your website is critical. There are many keywords generators available and MakeUseOf.com listed the 6 best tools available to research specific keywords.

  1. Google Keyword Tool
  2. WordTracker Free Edition
  3. Google Suggest
  4. SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
  5. Good Keywords
  6. Keyword Discovery