Month: October 2024

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Investing in Restaurants – Pros and Cons of Franchise Investments

When it comes to investing in restaurants, there are many different ways that you can get involved. Investing in a smaller, family-owned restaurant might prove to have a bigger payoff in the end if you are willing to take the risk. However, investing in a franchise is often considered by people because it is a much safer investment in terms of restaurants. Franchises offer more security because there is a smaller cash capital required for startup, training is provided to owners and employees by the franchising company, and franchises have a reputation that already exists, instead of having to build one like local restaurants do.

The Pros

Franchises are an easy model because there already IS a model in place. Whether you buy into a franchise directly or invest in one that someone else is attempting to open, you can guarantee a better chance at success.

Franchises help train people and allow owners to do things without any guessing, questions, or confusion. This makes a business at least 50-60% more likely to be successful than a business without this support.

Investing in restaurants is usually a risky venture, but franchises offer less risk and better rewards generally speaking. No two investments are the same, but the chances of losing it all are much lower with a franchise investment than a locally-owned investment.

The Cons

Franchises are limited. They have rules, regulations, and ways that things need to be done. Whether you are going to be the owner or just an investor, it can become bothersome to have to run things the way that someone else sees fit.

When you invest in a franchise, you will likely not have as much involvement unless you invest as the owner. Even then, you will have less say in things that happen and how things operate. If you are willing to sacrifice your opinion and creative freedom for a better investment, this isn’t an issue.

Restaurant franchises are different from one owner to the next. Although there is a better chance of long-term success, you can’t depend on every single franchise to stick.

Now that you understand a little more about investing in restaurants, you can weigh the options and see what is right for you. Some people sort out this information and can easily make a decision about investing in restaurants for themselves. Other people might need more time, and might even decide that restaurant stocks are the better option for their investment. For more information on investing in investment opportunities usually or normally not found in the marketplace, click here!

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Brazil Is Hottest Investment Destination

Once again, Brazil comes out as one of the world’s top destinations for investment. With great achievements this year, investment in Brazil is looking ahead to even better opportunities.

Experts from politics and many walks of business life in Brazil got together last week in São Paulo to discuss Brazil’s immediate future. Meeting at the Reuters Brazil Investment Summit, speakers from investment banking, real estate, equity and Brazilian political life were unanimous that 2010 has been an excellent year for Brazilian investments and that there are still great things to come.

According to Reuters, Brazil combines three essential ingredients – its long list of natural resources, a sound banking system and high levels of consumer spending. This combination means that, for Reuters, “Brazil is shaping up as one of the world’s hottest investment destinations”.

Several speakers at the Brazil Investment Summit highlighted these three essentials with particular emphasis on how Brazil’s huge purchasing power is good news for investment. As Urban Larson from the London-based F&C Investments said, Brazil has “so many people moving out of poverty and into the middle class, and that’s a key driver for demand”.

This demand is behind increasing foreign interest in sovereign wealth fund investment in Brazil. The largest private sector bank, Itau Unibanco announced it had attracted high interest in its Brazil-focused funds and was “close to obtaining mandates from several sovereign wealth funds that want to invest in Brazil”.

Stock and shares are also buoyant and in demand in Brazil, home to one of the world’s best-performing stock markets. Speaking at the Summit, the Bovespa’s Chief Executive summed up many investors’ sentiments when he said “I’m just as happy as I can be with Brazil for the next few years”.

Brazilian investment does, of course, come with challenges such as a highly-complex tax system and lack of infrastructure. The Reuters Summit also addressed these by asking experts how they would like to see Brazil’s new President Dilma Rousseff deal with them.

Top of Dilma’s agenda is her pledge to eliminate poverty during her four-year mandate. Dilma is also keen to overhaul the tax system by bringing in reforms to facilitate doing business in Brazil. In addition, one of her priorities is to continue infrastructure projects to improve Brazil’s airports, roads and ports. All three of these objectives are welcomed by investors in Brazil and all three will continue to further opportunities for investment.

Brazil’s high public spending looks set to fall, which in turn will help bring down the double-figure interest rates. Speaking at the Summit, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said that “with the economy growing at over 7%, it was time to abandon fiscal stimulus”. Less spending from the public purse should gradually bring down interest rates, currently at 10.75%, among the highest in the world. Finance Minister under Lula, Mr Mantega is continuing in the post with Dilma, a continuity well received by investors in Brazil.

Over the next month, Dilma will continue to name her cabinet and define her policies ready for when she takes office in January. All the signs so far are good and lmarket forces believe that with Dilma conditions for investment in Brazil will be at least as good as they were with Lula, echoing the speakers at the Reuters Brazil Investment Summit in their confidence in Brazil’s progress towards becoming a fully developed nation.

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Why to Book Hotels Online and to Use Hotel Price Comparison Websites

Hotels as tourist accommodation alternatives for travelers and tourist have existed for centuries and will probably continue existing. Staying in a hotel while abroad is not only a privilege but a necessity – it is the only option for the tourists so that’s why so many people take advantage of it and so big money is being invested there and in the travel industry as all in all. There are of course other options as motels, hostels, aparthotels, etc. but the idea of all is the same – to provide short-term accommodation to people who need it.

Nowadays, in this high-tech society, when more and more people tend to use internet for almost everything travel respectively turns into one of the most competitive niches in internet which of course is absolutely normal and inevitable. Lots of people prefer searching for hotels online not only because it is easier and faster but also because the options are a lot more and last but not least – it is often cheaper. Why it is cheaper? Because the competition is fierce and the people have so variable choices that if the hotels and hotel chains do not offer value for money deals – they might lose many clients which will bring to low occupancy rates which they do not want.

Internet conquers the travel industry:

  • The online booking tendency grows with every past day
  • The people prefer reading guest reviews, previewing pictures, reading descriptions, exploring locations, obtaining information…etc.
  • Hotels become more and more connected with internet without having the option to choose.
  • The established online travel accommodation merchants become extremely popular reaching millions of pageviews on a daily basis.

As a result – hotels are forced to negotiate different prices with different merchants. Everything associated with the online travel industry becomes a matter of money, interests and business relations because the websites can afford it as they start controlling.

You have probably booked a hotel online and have a favorite hotel reservations website which you prefer using. It is not bad but you have to keep in mind that it is not a guarantee you are getting the best deals there. There isn’t something like the best hotel reservations site. A given travel website negotiates lowest rates with a given hotel, but another website negotiates lowest rates with another hotel and so on. There is no way to find the best deals in one and the same website.

But there is a solution for that. Here come the hotel price comparison websites – some great and innovative tools that help users to save on hotels by finding the best deals for them. Those sites’ idea is simple but brilliant – they search for availability, find hotels and compare the prices that some of the most established travel accommodation providers offer. It is just as simple as it sounds. Those hotel comparison websites are nothing more than just free helpful tools – no online reservations can be made there nor any private data is being processed. Users just search for availability, compare the hotel prices and when they find a deal that meets their requirements – they click and get redirected to the travel merchant they have chosen. Then they book their hotel in the way they would book it without using the price comparison website but now they know they have found the best deal and they do not pay more than needed. My advice is to use hotel comparison websites without hesitation as you don’t need to pay more when you can pay less. Don’t be fooled by any websites that claim to offer the lowest rates online – there isn’t anything like that! The different websites offer different deals- one better here, another better there.