Behold the value of being a small business owner.

Your business will pay for things that you use yourself in your daily life that you previously had to pay for out of personal funds.

A vehicle is one of the biggest household expenses for individuals.

Woo-hoo! I get to buy a vehicle and someone else pays for it!

Well, that someone else is still you, but this time you’re going to use proceeds from your business to pay for it.

The business would pay for the car itself. Maybe even a new truck.

Instead of giving yourself a raise and buying a truck with after-tax dollars, have the business buy the truck. The business will deduct the expenses from its taxable income and only pay taxes on the amount of income remaining after the car expense was deducted from total revenue earned.

If the business buys a $30,000 car, you’ve saved payroll taxes on that $30,000! So you don’t have to have higher taxable wages in order to make the truck payment, so you can pay yourself a lower salary and pay even lower personal income tax. Small business owners do this every day.

What’s the catch?

You actually have to be using the vehicle for business use. It can’t buy you a luxury vehicle that is not used in the conduct of the business.

Also, if there is a portion of the vehicle use that is clearly not business related, then you can’t get the tax savings for that usage. Keep a mileage journal. You will need to report the value of the personal use of the vehicle on your personal taxes as income.

And since this is not a tax or legal blog, you should discuss this concept of business vehicle usage with your tax and legal advisors.

Top 5 Benefits for having the business buy the vehicle
1) You’d probably have a company logo or identification of the business on it. Instantly, it’s advertising!

So, not only do you get to drive a vehicle that someone else (your business) is paying for, every time you drive it, more people learn about your business and you make even more sales!

2) If you can pick up your own raw materials in your company truck, you could save on shipping costs and lower your cost of goods. This means you would have less cost in manufacturing your product or service.

If you have a lower cost than your competitors, you could sell your services for less than your competitors and generate even more business! Or you could sell at the same retail price and pocket the savings yourself.

3) If you can do more deliveries because you use your business vehicles, you can make your customers happier than your competitors, and they’ll continue to buy from you.

4) You’ll look better. If you have a nicer, newer business vehicle, your customers may view your business. Molly Maid franchise company leases vehicles for their cleaning staff. Why? Because the representatives of Molly Maid will look better when they pull their car up in front of a home in an exclusive neighborhood, the car has advertising logos on it which promotes calls from other potential customers, and the cleaning staff has a new, reliable vehicle to get to appointments reliably.

5) Dude, it’s a free car? How many more reasons do you need?!

What type of car would you buy for your business?

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For those who don’t know what Starbucks is, Starbucks is a coffee shop business that sells coffee, prepared coffee drinks, tea and other prepared foods.

Ironically, Starbucks does not offer franchises. Starbucks company owns all the locations.

Let’s talk about why Starbucks seems to be everywhere.

Starbucks currently has a global network of more than 17,000 stores.

Starbucks sells its products through its chain of retail stores as well as through approved retailers such as grocery stores and even small locations within bigger locations such as within bookstores.

So here are a few of the notable locations…

They’re online of course at http://www.starbucks.com/

They’re on  , , , and .

They’re on Market Street in San Francisco!

They’re in Dubai!

They’re in Hong Kong!

…and Hamburg!

They’re in Hoboken!

…and Harvard!

They’re in Istanbul!

…and even in your kitchen! (if you own one of their super Verismo machines)

They’re in Buenos Aires!

…and the local fair!

They’re at the airport!

…and on your iPhone!

They’re in Korea!

…and Dorchester!

I wish I could open my own Starbucks franchise. I wonder if they’d consider franchising here…

Dang!!!

Passion.

Passion to succeed. Passion to be the best. Passion to be all that one can be. Passion to serve others and provide them a memorable experience.

Jon Taffer exudes passion. Not hyperbole, not mean-spiritedness, not aggressiveness or other emotions that he gets accused of emoting.

It’s passion.

According to Michael Gerber of The E-Myth fame, entrepreneurs begin their role as owner with what he calls an entrepreneurial spasm.

An entrepreneurial spasm is where the trades person gets angry enough at his boss or desirous enough of a chance to make it big, that he (or she) risks it all and enters the world of business as the owner of a new company.

The company does whatever the entrepreneur has expertise in.

And the entrepreneur is happy, or at least thinks he’s happy now, because he’s now the boss.

But somewhere along the way, the passion fades. The new reality is that the white-hot spotlight that the entrepreneur eagerly sought early on has become a nuisance. A burden. An almost overwhelming challenge.

The issue is one of personal growth.

The tactically expert entrepreneur is often forced into learning about people management, marketing, bookkeeping and accounting, and the endless number of ways that competitors, employees and/or clients can screw you.

And they become disillusioned.

Here’s what the entrepreneur needs. The entrepreneur needs to become reaquainted with his initial passion for the business.

Like a marriage that benefits from romantic getaways, the business owner needs to stop and rekindle his passion for making people happy enough with his product or service that they hired him in the first place.

Jon Taffer exemplifies someone who is in-touch with his passion to provide the noble service of barkeeper.

He really, really enjoys making bar patrons happy.

And he has little patience for those in the business who have lost their passion for their customers.

There are many tactical things that a business owner can learn from Jon Taffer, but none as important as re-connecting with one’s passion.

Bar Rescue is merely a recent glimpse into the tempestuous world of a bar/restaurant that is about to go out of business.

As a show viewer, you get to vicariously observe a perfect storm of conflicted passions.

Like a hair straightening product sprayed into the mane of a woman with curly hair who has decided that she wants to have straight hair, Taffer appears on the scene with one purpose.

To straighten things out. By things, I believe that means all invested persons in the business, and I believe that means 100% of the employees and owners, to get on the same page, to read from the same script, to row in the direction that the owner, the captain, has chosen.

The hysteria that is addicting to observe is actually watching a business owner hit bottom, then summon enough confidence to rise up to a new-found challenge. Long forgotton but still-there passions for running a business and leading a team to put in a respectable effort each and every day return.

Everyone loves an underdog. It’s David vs. Goliath re-enacted on-screen.

Taffer has been providing consulting services to the bar/restaurant industry for 30 years.

Bar Rescue may be mind candy, voyeuristic in nature, scoffed at as reality television, but it is witnessing the alignment and development of passions that make it addictive.

These passions are deep inside of each of us.

As business owner, operator or even merely an employee, we have an obligation to engage at the highest level of passion.

Or to suffer the consequences, which typically is the perpetual floundering of and sometimes the ultimate closure of the business if the whole team can’t execute.

In a free market, the winners are the business owners with passion.

Keep that in mind as you select your next business or even as you walk into work tomorrow.

Watch an episode of Bar Rescue and see what it’s like to operate at a high level again.

Then, as Jon Taffer says, “Then go DO IT!”

The franchise is opening more than 233 locations in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Hurricane Grill & Wings has experienced double-digit growth over the past year, which is enabling the company to take such aggressive expansion measures.

“Robust expansion in 2011 aligns with our national growth plan, and we are extremely pleased with the caliber of accomplished and ambitious individuals who have joined the Hurricane family,” said Martin O’Dowd, president of Hurricane Grill & Wings. “We are fortunate to have attracted dedicated management, operators and team members who are passionate about expanding our award-winning brand to new cities.”

Hurricane Grill & Wings is best known for its savory chicken wings in more than 40 regions throughout the United States. The company has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing food franchises by several publications, ranging from Forbes to World Franchising Network.

Wingstop will hold an open house on March 1 and 2 for prospective franchisees where they will be able to discuss opportunities with company executives. The brand also plans to offer incentives to new franchisees in North Carolina to help expedite its expansion into the area.

“Our North Carolina restaurants have a very loyal fan following with a lot of potential for expansion,” said David Vernon, vice president of franchise sales for Wingstop. “That, coupled with the simple operating platform of cooked-to-order wings and fresh-cut fries makes Wingstop an ideal concept for entrepreneurs and multi-unit operators in the Charlotte area.”

The brand currently has more than 475 locations serving customers throughout the United States and began franchising in 1994. Wingstop has traditionally been one of the biggest suppliers of chicken wings in the country for the Super Bowl, breaking several internal records during last year’s games.

Vend Natural has a business opportunity that can put you into the modern, trend-setting vending business lickety-split. More info here on the healthy vending business from Vend Natural.

The Olympics have been a terrific source of inspirational stories. Each and every athlete is successful, even if only because they showed up.

NFL football is starting. You know it’s Fall when you see shiny helmets and the “terrible towels” start to appear on your television screen.

Have kids returned to school in your area? Much of the nation is already back at it.

Many a parent has a quieter household this week than they did last week.

Enjoy your weekend. Down-time is important.

But if you have any questions or suggestions while you’re here, go ahead and leave a comment and we’ll respond as soon as possible.

Have a great weekend!

Creative Commons image attribution here

We just introduced a new feature on our franchise lead prospect data collection form on our network of websites which allows a franchise prospect to indicate a “desired appointment” time frame. We call it The Scheduler.

The concept is to facilitate communication between the you, the franchise prospect and the franchise organization. If the franchise organization knows when you are in the best position to conduct an initial discussion about the opportunity, both the franchise organization and the franchise prospect benefit.

Our goal is to increase the rate of connection between our clients, the franchisors and you, the would be franchisees.

The Desired Appointment Time is communicated to, and confirmed by, both parties.

We are super excited about The Scheduler, and since it’s launch on August 1, a third of our prospects have taken advantage of this new field.

Good luck with your search!

Franchise Search

Last night, the world watched the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on their NASA television channel announce the successful landing of an automobile-sized robot on the planet Mars.

The speakers at their celebratory announcement gathering came forward to speak and take questions from the press. Speakers included the Director of the program as well as lead engineers.

The emotion in the room was palpable even from my living room chair, thousands of miles away.

So what does NASA landing a robot on Mars have to do with entrepreneurship you ask?

Entrepreneurship is rooted in a simple concept, to find a need then fill that need.

This latest mission to Mars was focused on landing a rover with more research capabilities than its predecessors.

The scientific community wanted to know if there is the capacity for life as we know it on Mars, or if there is any evidence of previous life on Mars.

Named “Curiosity”, this newest chunk of Earth-constructed materials plunked on the surface of Mars has more capabilities to gather this information and send it back to researchers here on Earth.

This project started as virtually any other innovative business would.

The stated need was to get a more sophisticated rover to Mars and have it communicate back to scientists here on Earth.

A team was gathered to identify all the various challenges, gather and organize resources such as humans, computer processing power, and money and to execute a solution to address the stated objective.

These are the same steps that any individual would do in order to open a business.

First, the idea. Second, the proof of consumer demand. Third, the planning of necessary resources (humans, money). Fourth, acquiring resources. Fifth, executing the plan. Lastly, measuring results.

The United States as a country, NASA, the various contractors that contributed their individual pieces, parts, and knowledge, and the world that was watching last night all shared a success. A business success.

The assembled press throng applauded the myriad engineers as if they were rock stars. There were smiles, tears and high-fives amongst the gathered parties.

The emotional state of the room from which the NASA engineers faced the press and other interested parties was vibrant and similar to business grand openings and “1,000,000th customer” and contest winner announcements from more typical business organizations.

The spirit that was raised last night upon the successful landing of the Curiosity Mars rover displayed the raw emotions that can stem from business success.

Congratulations to the NASA team for showing us a great technical achievement as well as a terrific team and business success.

Bricks 4 Kidz® offers programs designed to teach children the basic principles of engineering, architechure and physics using LEGO® bricks.

Find out more about this successful and rewarding franchise today!

Bricks 4 Kidz – A Children’s Education Franchise