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Making the leap into entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging choices a person can make, and a global recession doesn’t make the decision any easier. Across America, there are many people continuing their 9 -5 grind, doing unfulfilling work simply to pay the bills, uncertain about the future with their employer and dreaming of owning their own business. Those people need a guide telling them how to break free from their cubicle chains. Luckily it exists in book form, and it has been written by author and blogger Pamela Slim.

We blogged recently about Escape From Cubicle Nation, which takes its title from Slim’s popular small business blog.  Her aim is to help people achieve business success on their own terms and create something personal out of their  skills and creativity. Her first book is a primer on how to attain that dream.

Slim admits her suspicions with corporate life from page one. Her main complaints are that the corporate world is unstable and its leadership is stubborn to change. Over time, Slim begins to create her portrait of “cubicle nation”: a place where creativity stifled, meaningless work is done over and over and workers spend most of their time responding to mountains of email. Slim calls on workers to escape the corporate system and go out on their own.

Escape From Cubicle Nation is a very handy resource for aspiring entrepreneurs. Slim outlines the realities of starting and owning a small business, and provides helpful insight about what needs to be done to get a business off the ground. She stresses the importance of consulting with other people. Slim says entrepreneurs should enlist a mentor for their new business as well as a High Council of Jedi Knights, who you can go to during pivotal moments in the life of your business.

The book has a streamlined lay-out reminiscent of other business books, but what makes Escape a vital read is Slim’s compelling story and her clear and concise writing style. Escape speaks to a real economic truth of the moment. Given the harsh economic realities of today, entrepreneurship is the only way a person can truly control their future. Slim provides a lot of insight about how to break free from the corporate world.

Once you do, may I suggest owning a franchise?

You can buy the book it here.

They don’t call Nouriel Roubini “Doctor Doom” for nothing. The NYU Economics professor was one of the soothsayers

predicting last September’s global economic meltdown—as far back as 2005, he was sounding alarm bells that the global economy was overleveraged and headed for disaster. So when Mr Roubini makes positive predictions about growth in entrepreneurship, we sit up and take notice. New Republic magazine has an interview with Roubini in their latest issue. Most of it simply hashes out Roubini’s life story and how he came to predict the global recession. But if you read on, there’s a very interesting nugget towards the very end where Roubini states his feeling about the role of entrepreneurship will play in revitalizing the economy.  Here’s what he said:

“When you have more financial engineers than computer engineers, you know that the brightest minds have gone into something where, probably, the margin was excessive,” he had told me earlier. “Maybe some of these bright people are going to do something entrepreneurial, more creative, or go into government. I think that’s actually a good change. The transition is painful, but the result may be good.” [emphasis added]

It’s an interesting thought. We blogged earlier this year about laid-off Wall Street VP’s who have turned to franchising. As the big-money jobs in the financial world dry up, a whole new generation of smart thinkers will have a choice to make. Either sit by and wait for the economy to get back on track or do something about it, by seizing the reins of entrepreneurship. Luckily, franchising offers one of the most sure-fire ways to start your own business. If you don’t want to take our word for it, read the Risky Business blog’s post with the 5 silver linings of the recession.

We’ve all witnessed the rapid and remarkable rise of Twitter and Facebook over the last year or so. Social media has quickly become part of the fabric of our lives, but it’s also bringing franchisors and franchisees together.

And as analysts crunch the numbers, an interesting portrait of social media use is beginning to emerge, especially where women are concerned. A recent study by women’s blog network Blogher has said that of the 79 million women online, 42 million participate in some form of social media once a week (this totals about 53% of women). This is groundbreaking information for franchisors looking to develop a better strategy to target female entrepreneurs.

There is more relevant info. The study claims that more 64% of women prefer blogs to sites like Facobbok for information and 55% looks to blogs over social media for opinion sharing.

“Social media continues to be a growing phenomenon, and bloggers, in particular, represent a highly engaged and influential segment of social media users for brand marketers looking to connect to consumers online.” said Susan Wright, President of Compass Partners LLC. “Bloggers have a broad reach in the social media population and the survey demonstrates that women who blog are the most actively engaged social media participants — constantly seeking out new ideas and ways to share their opinions about those ideas.”

Blogher surveyed nearly 3,000 women for this study. Blogger Paul Segreto outlined the ramifications of this study for franchisors on his franchiseEssentials blog recently, and his post resonated with us:

As more and more women explore franchising as a career alternative, choosing to control their own destiny, franchisors must market directly to this rapidly-growing group of opportunity seekers. Joining the force of today’s more sophisticated, educated and technologically advanced transitioning corporate executives, women will use social media to explore and investigate franchise opportunities.

There are abundant signs that people looking to control their futures are turning to franchising. Franchisors trying to target those women need to take a serious look at mastering social media, be it via blogs or Facebook. Read the study from Blogher to learn more.

National Small Business Week is upon us. There are a number of events happening around the country to accentuate the notion that small businesses and franchises are the life blood of the US economy. We’re of the opinion that every week is small business week, but we’re happy to unite with the franchising community, as well as entrepreneurs and small businesspeople and trumpet the important economic work wehttp://www.franchisedirect.com/blog/wp-admin/edit.php all do.

Franchisees or small business owners around the Beltway might be interested to visit the National Small Business Week event winding up at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Conference. After all, SBA head Karen Mills has made headlines for a bold new small business initiative announced in her address yesterday.

Ms Mills introduced a new temporary program for small businesses, America’s Recovery Capital (ARC). Through ARC, the SBA will provide short-term relief to small businesses in urgent financial trouble.
These are some of the details of the plan:

• These short-term loans of up to $35,000 can be used to cover payments on non-SBA debt.
• They have no SBA fees or interest costs for the borrower and are 100 percent guaranteed by the SBA.
• The loan is for six months, followed by 12 months of no repayment and then 5 years to pay it back.
• ARC loans are for viable businesses, meaning that the business must have an established history of good performance – but they are in a situation where they just need a little extra help to bridge the “troubled waters.”

This is a very promising initiative and comes right on the back of an interesting new study saying that small business confidence is at its highest ranking all year.

Finally, have a look at this great video, created by entrepreneur phone service Grasshopper, and feel the positivity of entrepreneurship during this National Small Business Week.

Welcome to this week’s Franchise Update.

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This week, the IFA and the International Bar Association are holding their 25th annual joint convention. It’s titled Navigating Rough Financial Seas in International Franchising. The conference runs from May 19 to May 20.

VR Business is also pleased to announce it has expansion in St. Petersburg.

Check out Franchise Update on the Franchise Blog every week, which provides the latest on the franchise industry