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Health insurance is at the forefront of American’s minds, especially since it’s an election year. With politicians actively trying to solve the problem of health care in this country, it’s important to consider how it affects you as a franchisee or small business owner.

Recently, the bipartisan Small Business “CHOICE” Act of 2008 was introduced to help small businesses offer affordable health insurance to their employees. The long version of the name is the Small Business Cooperative for Healthcare Options to Improve Coverage for Employees (CHOICE) and is designed to allow small businesses to form health insurance cooperatives. These cooperatives would act as risk pools, providing insurance against high-cost claims. The bill involves providing a tax credit as an incentive to join a cooperative.

The Small Business “CHOICE” Act seeks to address two important problems facing small businesses:

1. The high cost of providing insurance for its employees
2. The unpredictability of premium increases

By giving small business owners incentive for wellness programs and increasing the number of businesses that can offer affordable, comprehensive health insurance for employees, the bill essentially gives employers flexibility to choose the right plan for their employees. The bill also encourages small business purchasing groups to form, giving the private insurance market a boost.

International Franchise Association Vice President of Government Relations David French commented that, “… this legislation is a positive step forward in addressing the challenges facing franchised small business owners in providing health care coverage to employees.”

The IFA is planning on supporting this bill so that it will pass. Since health insurance has become such a pivotal issue, it will be interesting to watch this bill make its way through Congress in the coming months.

The bill was introduced by House Small Business Committee Chair Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA).

It’s clear that franchising has been expanding rapidly in the past several years, especially from 2001 to 2005. This growth has been phenomenal, happening at a faster pace than other business sectors! That’s good news in what many are calling a downturn in the economy…

According to a study released by the International Franchise Association Educational Foundation, which was prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the franchise sector has outpaced overall economic growth in three ways: rate of growth of output, payroll and jobs. Employment has grown three times higher for franchises than for the economy itself!

With 18% expansion during those five years, franchising added 140,000+ businesses and 1.2 million jobs to the economy. That means franchising provides more jobs than the manufacturing and financial sectors!

With franchises purchasing various goods and services from non-franchised businesses, these spillover effects mean franchising has provided a total of 21 million jobs and $660.9 billion of payroll in 2005, with output produced because of franchises growing to more than $2.3 trillion in 2005.

This study shows how important franchising is to the economy, and what an important role it plays in our economy. With an ever increasing payroll and direct economic output, franchising is expanding the economy and providing employment to millions.

Join one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy by investing in a lucrative and rewarding franchise opportunity today. Review Franchise Direct’s directory of franchise opportunities and Franchise Direct’s Top Franchises to find the best fit for you.

If you currently operate a franchise or business opportunity and are looking for new ways to improve your business sales or productivity, why not try adapting some of these changes to your workplace and see if it helps to Boost your Franchise Business…

1. Reduce Costs- Reduce your Carbon Footprint

Perhaps one of the quickest ways you can reduce your maintenance costs is to introduce some “greener” elements to your business structure. How? Simply, by ensuring all lights, computers, fax machines, plugs etc are plugged out and switched off before you finish work for the day or the weekend. This will cut your costs dramatically- up to 95% according to Energy Conservation and Management Division, San Diego and also save on electricity replacements.

2. Happy Employees- Increase in Business Production

If you’re employees are happy and satisfied then production levels remain high and you retain your best employees for longer. This reduces the cost of employee turnover and increases staff morale. So how can you increase employee happiness?

Simple! You can introduce a number of benefits that employees will appreciate. If you assign a “birthday day off” for all employees, allowing them to take a holiday off for their birthday, which will result in higher work morale, according to author Sandi Valentine “101 Ways Your Business Can Change The World“.

Other work employee benefits include:

(a) Create a Child Care Center in your workplace;

(b) Provide Physical activity gym passes or discounts to increase staff morale;

(c) Award an Employee of the Month with local shopping vouchers or sports vouchers;

(d) Create a Monthly work Newsletter with news of upcoming events and new initiatives for the company.

While you may think some of these additional employee benefits will increase your business costs, it will actually reduce your costs incurred by- employee “sick days”, day’s off not accounted for, and reduced work productivity- in the long term.

3. “All Publicity is Good Publicity”

If you organise local community events- such as a Local “Bingo” Night or a “Community Sports Day” or local book club, a local volunteer mentoring program, kids mentoring program; help with your local community theatre etc- you can greatly increase the benefits you will provide for your local community and the wider community in general, but you will also increase your business profile. You will invariably attract media attention for your support of local projects and in turn drive customer traffic to your door! All publicity is good publicity…

4. Build a Website- A Recipe for Increased Sales…

If your franchise business does not already have a website, then you should consider investing in building one for your company’s profile. A business website does not have to cost much money and can be relatively simple. In the world of increased technology, more people are buying services and products online than ever before. As a result, it would be beneficial if your customers could find information about you simply by the click of a button.

Finally, you should tap into local and employee resources- people love to know more about you and your company’s vision for the future, so involving more people for FREE just by talking to them about new ideas will increase your business productivity. Be creative about the measures you introduce and you will reap the benefits in the long term…

Apply these principles above and watch your franchise business grow!

Franchise Reporter

Recently the Small Business Administration (SBA) in association with FranNet have introduced a free franchise on-line seminar to guide potential franchisees in choosing the right franchise or business opportunity for them.

The cool thing about this free seminar, is that you get the opportunity to take a personal assessment test to see if you are suited to franchising and after completion of the seminar you receive a “certificate of completion“.

You can complete the seminar training in your own time and you are under no presssure to compelete the course there and then. You can save your details and return to the course at a time that is convenient for you…

These free seminars cover the main aspects of franchising and it only takes about ten minutes to listen to each a section:

1. What is Franchising?

2. Is Franchisig Right for You?

3. How to choose the Right Franchise?

The course also covers franchising options, strategies for growth, and pitfalls to avoid. Course participants will be able to better understand franchising and decide if it is the best small business option for them.

For more info, please visit SBA’s website and let me know how you get on in your online franchise course!

Franchise Reporter

Bob Schaffer decided that he didnt want to retire after working 35 year’s in a corporate company but instead to run his own business. But he also didnt want to be in business by himself- so he chose to invest in a franchise opportunity. Investing in a franchise opportunity provided Bob with the training, support and proven business model that an independent business start-up would not have.

So why did Bob choose to invest in SeaMaster Cruises travel franchise?

Bob chose to invest in SeaMaster Cruises franchise because of its manageable business model, the “integrity and quality” of the people behind SeaMaster Cruises, the marketing and technological tools, his two weeks intensive training and the regular “coffee chats” he would have with the support team at head office made Bob decicde to take the plunge and invest…

Sounds too good to be true? Find out for yourself and view Bob’s full interview by clicking on the video player below…