The City of Des Moines utility franchise tax trial begins today.  The following is a summary of the procedural aspects of the case and what is at stake.

Initially, the Des Moines had been sued in District Court by Lisa Kragnes seeking to declare the utility franchise fee found on MidAmerican Energy bills illegal. Kragnes won in district

The bailout is not universally popular with Main Street America but the International Franchise Association says a bailout is needed because our credit crisis "threatens to derail the future growth of franchised businesses because it undermines the health of credit markets as well as equity markets."

There is no doubt Wall Street is hoping against all hope

The Midwest Small Business Conference is now set for October 10 & 11, 2008 at the Des Moines Marriott.  This event is rescheduled from the previous announcement on this blog because the original date conflicted with the Iowa-Iowa State football game. (Conference organizers learned that not even business gets in the way of football).  Fortunately the conference was able to

I am honored to be included among the Alltop franchising news selections.  Some exciting things have been happening for me on the franchising front including developing the franchise disclosure document and franchise agreement for a new local franchisor, the opening of a client’s new Max Muscle franchise location just on Thursday and the completion of a franchise

A recent article from the Wall St. Journal online discusses something I thought I would never see from a franchisor: A money back guarantee

Others are not convinced and warn to investigate the details carefully in the Franchise Disclosure Document.  

Thanks to Joel Libava for pointing out the article.  Joel is a franchise consultant from Cleveland,Ohio that

Twice a month I blog for IowaBiz which was acquired by the Des Moines Business Record this summer.  Since that time it appears the bloggers have stepped up their game.  The posts have been informative and entertaining.  I encourage you to take a look.

My post today for IowaBiz centers on the trend of hiring