Start Me Up!: These Five Young Brands are Off to the Races.

Starting up a new company is risky business, even in a healthy economy. Despite the troubles and fears that have plagued the economy and business world in the past year, many new franchise concepts have hung out shingles, and others that were just barely off the ground are thriving today.

We talked with top executives from five "new" franchise concepts about where they came from and how they've made it work--amidst the challenges, and against the odds. Each is characterized by a unique, innovative product offering, and for some, a distinctive delivery approach. As you'll see, these entrepreneurs believe in their brands, and are not letting anything--especially the headlines--get in the way of their continued growth.

The yogurt and ice cream market is a growing and competitive sector. But the youth movement--with it characteristic lifestyle and desires--is driving one new upstart brand based in Salt Lake City. That's where Ryan Combe, CEO and co-founder of Spoon Me, has kick-started a new yogurt concept with a fresh perspective.

"There are a lot of yogurt and ice cream concepts out there," says the 27-year-old, "but we were looking to create a larger 'brand' and not just be another yogurt seller."

That larger brand, he explains, begins with the unique and whimsical name--Spoon Me--and the appeal of yogurt as a healthy snack alternative. It continues through a green-focused approach, where everything is recycled and biodegradable (including the spoon), and the cultivation of a community feeling where employees and customers alike share common values. "It's a lifestyle concept, not just a product," he says.

The first Spoon Me location opened in October 2007, and Combe says they were exploring franchising possibilities within a month. The first franchised location opened in March 2008. There are now six franchised units open (five in Utah, one in Arizona), with three more scheduled to open this summer and several more sold. The original site and two other company-owned stores still operate as "test sites" for research and product development, he says.

To read the entire article please click here: Franchise Update

Divorce From a Different Angle

Karen Stewart started her Fairway Divorce franchise in 2006, and it's seen amazing growth in the short time since.

That's because Stewart did the research, tested her concept and made necessary adjustments before she put out the Fairway Divorce shingle.

Stewart, a financial counselor, says she started thinking about a different way to approach divorce in the late 1990s, as she watched clients suffer its often-devastating financial implications.

It became a personal crusade in 2000, when the financially savvy Stewart went through a divorce herself. "Over the course of five years, I spent $500,000 on legal bills," she says. In 2004, she commissioned a market research study to find out whether others felt the way she did about the adversarial divorce system.

The answer was yes. So Stewart decided to write a book, Clean Break: How to Divorce with Dignity and Move On with Your Life. In her book, Stewart laid the groundwork for an alternative to the win-lose system of divorce. That system ultimately became the Fairway Process, a fixed fee, step-by-step, independently negotiated resolution process.

"A couple can move through my entire process separately and bring resolution and get to a win-win," Stewart says, noting that the traditional system of divorce wrongly tries to deal with money and children at the same time. "That creates a tug of war from day one," she says. Stewart's process deals first with the financial realities. "Once you get money issues out of the way, 95 percent of couples--even adversarial couples who are fighting--can negotiate a really great co-parenting plan for the kids," she says.

Stewart made sure she had the training and experience she needed before she started Fairway Divorce. She became a certified divorce financial analyst and earned a designation as a financial mediator. "Over the course of a couple of years I got myself involved in every kind of scenario," she says. She worked on collaborative teams as a financial expert and also guided couples through traditional mediation.

Stewart also took the time to verify the efficacy of her new system. "I was fortunate enough that I had my financial firm," she says. She created a subsidiary and experimented with processes and methodologies for two years, working with 80 to 100 couples during that time.

She didn't make a lot of money, but she proved that her system worked. The final step before opening her doors was verifying that she could, in essence, duplicate herself. So she hired a CPA who came from a big accounting firm and proceeded to teach him the Fairway Process.

That's when she knew she was ready.

To read the rest of this article please click here: Women Entrepreneur

Spoon Me Named One of Utah's Emerging Companies

On the heels of announcing multiple new Utah stores and growth into Western Canada through franchising agreements, Spoon Me, a frozen yogurt franchise, has been named to the Utah Entrepreneurial Forum's (UVEF) annual "Top 25 Under Five." Spoon Me ranked 20 among the other 25 emerging Utah companies and was the only food and restaurant company on the list.

"We're excited to be named to the Top 25 Under Five and feel it is tremendous validation that our brand, philosophy and products are being embraced by our customers," said Ryan Combe, Spoon Me's founder and CEO. "We feel this is a great stepping stone to our success and future growth as we plan to expand within Utah as well as to other states across the nation."

The UVEF takes into account several aspects when judging the Top 25 Under Five. Entrepreneurs are judged based on profit, growth, equity funding, job creation, and job quality. Past winners have included high-growth and successful companies like Doba, Agel Enterprises, and Xango.

To read the entire announcement please click here: Chain Leader

Franchise Failures on the Rise

Here’s a shocker:  franchising is not immune to the economic downturn. In fact, franchise owners are getting hammered like never before. A new report by Coleman Publishing found that franchise failure among people who took out an SBA loan rose by 43 percent last year. Overall, SBA loan losses to franchises reached $93.3 million in 2008, a 167 percent increase year over year. Leading the pack was fitness chain Curves for Women, with at least 11 franchisees defaulting on loans last year. Other big names experiencing defaults include Domino’s Pizza, Subway and Carvel Ice Cream, according to the Coleman report. You can purchase the report online for $149, if you can still afford it.

Cuddle up with your favorite flavor. The newest kid on the franchise block is Spoon Me, which bill itself as a “fun, high energy, tongue-in-cheek, frozen yogurt experience.” Hmm, sounds kinda fishy to us. What exactly are they putting in their fro-yo, anyway? The company is now offering franchise opportunities throughout North America. Actually, Spoon Me seems like a pretty cool operation. Here are three reasons why: Everything customers use in Spoon Me stores is biodegradable. Spoon Me’s delectables are made from all natural ingredients. And, instead of tips, Spoon Me stores accept donations to a new local charity each month. 

To read the entire article please click here: AllBusiness