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The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) has issued an authoritative paper on the things the federal government needs to be doing to stimulate women-owned small businesses. The NWBC says that a number of female small-business owners are experiencing difficulties in the present economic climate, and cite health care as a particular area of concern. It also outlines a number of steps that the government needs to take in order to protect female entrepreneurs.

The NWBC call for a wide range of tax reforms- everything from an increase in tax incentives for women-owned businesses and US-based manufacturing businesses to the cancellation of the inheritance tax.

Health care continues to be a contentious issue for entrepreneurs and, after polling its members, the NWBC urges President Obama to empower women business owners with more options on this front.

Overwhelmingly, women business owners want to be able to provide this benefit, but the lack of affordable options makes it impossible for many. While there was a predictably wide range of opinions on the topic of health care reform, most participants agreed that expanding the options for affordable coverage and improving the portability of coverage were important goals.

From reading the paper, it seems one general problem that female entrepreneurs are facing is a lack of information. The paper quotes an NASE study that says that in a January survey of members, only 18% of respondents were aware of the Small Business Development Centers, and only 10% were aware of Women’s Business Centers. So there is help out there, but the government needs to do a better job publicizing its pre-existing programs.

The Internet continues to rage with debate over the merits of what President Obama is – or isn’t – doing to protect small-business people and entrepreneurs. Have a read over the NWBC document here.

What else do women entrepreneurs need to stay on their feet? Some bloggers are saying it might be time for women to be more selfish.

Franchising is a robust and expanding employment sector, according to IFA president Matthew Shay. Mr Shay sat down with Franchise Direct for an exclusive interview at the IFA annual convention in San Diego last month. In this video, he shares his thoughts on the state of franchising and its many diverse business opportunities.

According to Mr Shay, franchising makes up “an increasingly large part of the US economy”. Mr Shay says that, according to his organization’s estimates, “over 20 million Americans” are employed by franchising. This number constitutes over 10% of the total economic output of the US economy and makes franchising the largest employment sector in America other than the federal government.

Anyone considering investing in a small business will also find a lot of interesting insight into why franchising works. Mr Shay explains the historic achievements of franchised businesses at recessionary times, while outlining franchising’s tried-and-true blueprint towards business success.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be featuring other exclusive interviews from the IFA convention, so bookmark the Franchise Direct Franchise Blog for a greater insight into the franchising industry.

These are interesting times for franchising. In spite of the recession, figures continue to pour in saying a number of franchise industries are performing very well despite the economic downturn. The latest good news comes from Franchise Times magazine, who have just released their Fast 55, a study of franchises and franchise industries performing far better than expectations.

The Franchise Times study singles out three franchise industries that are performing the best at the moment: childcare franchises, finance franchises and fitness franchises. All three of these sectors historically perform well during a downturn, and it’s worth noting that old trends are repeating themselves. We’ve seen franchising thrive during recessions in the past, and early indicators show that this recession may be no different.

If you’re looking for a franchise for sale or considering a franchise opportunity, explore all of the info, which was tabulated by FranData, here.

That said, if you’re an entrepreneur feeling the recession blues, the new website RecessionWire is preparing for the upturn in the economy by providing entrepreneurs with advice and information on how to beat the downturn. RecessionWire is founded by three journalists who lost work when the economy tanked and should be essential reading in these tough times.

Many people have turned to the franchise business model to start a new career, and former professional athletes are no different. Away from the limelight of the playing field, a variety of athletes, many of them former football players, have done quite well in franchising. There’s even an organization called Franchise Athletes, who try to find franchise opportunities for players. So, with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile our own list of the athletes who’ve scored with franchising- we call it our Franchising All-Stars

Lorenzo Neal: The Fresno State grad has played for six professional football teams and started in Super Bowl 34, but has recently turned to franchising. He’s an investor in Athletic Nation, a no-frills gym where out of work pros can receive intensive personal training.

Lee Woodall: Woodall has a Superbowl ring and a Pro-Bowl appearance on his resume, but one of his greatest career distinctions came off the football field. In 2008, Woodall was named as the first franchise consultant at the Roni Deutch Tax Center.

Nate Wayne: Wayne’s gutsy performances on Monday Night Football earned him the nickname ‘Mr Monday Night’ but these days, he should be known as ‘Mr Franchising’. The retired linebacker owns a Cold Stone Creamery franchise in Atlanta.

Orlando Brown: This huge lineman is probably most famous for being on the receiving end of  a referee’s flag, when he was blinded in one eye in what was of one of the strangest plays in NFL history. Brown was not deterred and now owns a Fatburger franchise in Elkridge, Maryland.

Raheem Black: The Philadelphia native may ply his trade in Indianapolis, but he is keen to give back to his home city. This week, Black opened the first Wingstop restaurant in Philadelphia and currently planning to open two more of the popular wings franchise in the City of Brotherly Love.

Honorable mention:

Franco Harris: Perhaps the most well-known pro-footballer to turn to franchising. The Pittsburgh Steelers great is most famous for his role in the Immaculate Reception, but did you know he owned a handful of Wendy’s franchises in the early-1980s?

Franchisees and franchisors have been spending so much time of late looking to protect their business, it’s easy to forget the importance of keeping an eye out an out for signs that business is on the up. Perhaps Ben Bernanke was being optimistic when he said he expects the economy to come around by 2010, but that shouldn’t stop entrepreneurs from being attentive to promising indicators.

Writing for Business Week, technology expert Gene Marks offers a few common sense pointers that will give entrepreneurs a pretty good sense that the economy is beginning to veer back towards better times. He says to study commodity prices and interest rates, as well as consumer attitudes:

Experts and pundits can do all the analysis they want but the reason why the auto, real estate, financial services, manufacturing, and just about every other industry has slowed or declined is because people are…duh…spending less. So here’s another point of genius that most small business owners know: When people feel more secure, they’ll start spending more. Everything trickles up, and down, from the consumer. Whether they’re in Cleveland or Qingdao. And no matter what our business is, we’ll be affected.

Finally, Gene says to keep an eye on the media’s handling of the recession story. Once those grim recession stories begin to give way to media coverage of people who’ve beaten the economic downturn, you can be sure the nation’s economic mood has radically altered.

The media will have a big impact deciding when our country emerges from this recession. Go to Google Trends and search for both “Recession” and “Recovery.” When the number of times “Recovery” is mentioned exceeds the number of times the word “Recession” is mentioned, that means the media has now become bored with the “Recession” and instead wants to talk about the “Recovery.” The talk of our economic “Recovery” will then become the new news story.

Keep these things in mind over the next months and you may be able to perfectly synchronize your leap into franchising with the renaissance of the American economy.