Over the past 5 years I’ve had the opportunity to buy, operate, and sell five franchised restaurants. The restaurant businesses, and specifically franchised restaurants, have provided significant additional cash flow for my family (on top of my earnings as a financial advisor 2002-2006, and now private equity fund manager 2007-present).

I think the key is to realize that 9 out of 10 new business ventures fail in the first 12-18 months. Conversely, a franchised business (franchised from an established, proven company) generally has a 90% chance of surviving that first year, and a 75% chance of surviving and/or thriving for up to 5 years.

The second key point is to understand the difference between (1) franchises that require the owner to operate them day in and day out, and (2) franchises that are designed to be operated by a manager and not requiring 8 hours of “on site” time from the owner. I’ve confused these two in the past and it has cost me dearly.

If you desire additional cash flow, you need to find a franchise concept that is designed to allow the owner to maintain their current career, but to “support and assist” a manager at their franchised business.

This is important, because if you purchase a franchise that is designed to have the owner live there, you have simply bought yourself an expensive job. It will own you, you will not own it! The key point of understanding a franchise as an investment is to employ the concept of return on equity.

Let’s say you purchase a hair care franchise for $100,000. With good credit you generally will need to come up with $20,000 of your own cash (you, family, friends, etc.) … and a bank will usually give you the other $80,000, spread out over a 5-year repayment term. If you hire a great manager your store may be profitable that first year. To illustrate, let’s assume your store did $200,000 in haircut sales that first year. You paid your manager, your employees, your rent, your supplies, utilities, franchise fees (royalties), taxes, interest on your loan, etc. Then your accountant tells you that you have $20,000 left over at the end of the year… your profit! You may look at this and say, “Wow, I made a 20% return, because this hair care place cost a total of $100,000…Great!” But from the standpoint of Return on Equity, you have actually made a 100% return on your invested dollars! The actual equity that you have into your business is only the $20,000 that you had to come up with to secure your $80,000 bank loan. $20,000 invested, $20,000 profit, 100% annual return. (If things go well…and there is a lot that can go wrong! This is not for the faint of heart, no matter how much you like a franchise.)≡

This post was written by The Almost Millionaire. If you have follow-up questions or would like to know more about any aspect of starting or buying your own franchise for cashflow, you can contact him on his blog at http://thealmostmillionaire.blogspot.com, where he posts regular updates about his businesses.

The Philippines, which is officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is located in Southeast Asia. It comprises 3 big islands, namely: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Because of its geographic location, a variety of crops can be produced. The main exports of the Philippines come from the agriculture sector. Certain products like palay, corn, vegetables, and fruits are the main commodities exported worldwide. Well, that was what the Philippines used to be.

With the change of time, agriculture is no longer the main export sector of the country. With a growing population estimated at 90.5 million by the latest survey, scarcity of food has become a big problem.

The country used to be one of the major suppliers of rice in the world; now the Philippine government needs to import this product because it is a staple food for Filipinos and there is an inadequate supply of it.

Although rice has been a major problem of almost all the countries in the world – in addition to the increasing prices of oil – still the government is able to meet the demands of most of the people (though the cost of it is still too high for a poor family that earns $7.00 per day.)

Today, remittances from overseas Filipino contract workers are one of the major contributors to the Phillipine economy. Economists say that these remittances help a lot in boosting the value of the Philippine peso versus US Dollar. But due to the never-ending increase of the price of oil in the world market, the peso is getting weaker again. But one thing that is remarkable is the fact that Philippine peso exchange rate versus the US Dollar used to be PHP 54 - US$ 1.00 during 2003 and up to 2007, but now it has grown in value to PHP 44.3 - US$1.00.

Other nationalities visualize and perceive the Philippines as just a big field full of crops. A country that is unindustrialized and its people are illiterate. But as a citizen of the Philippines, I myself have seen such fields only during school trips. Usually these fields can be seen in the rural areas and even nowadays the rural areas are no longer full of fields. The Philippines – especially the urban areas – has a lot of skyscrapers, though not as many as those in other countries. A lot of planting fields are being transformed into commercial centers, high-rise condominiums and similar constructions. And not all Filipinos are illiterate; there are a lot of teachers who truly devote their time to teaching and we can speak and write the English language pretty well.

Another perception about the Philippines is that it is a poor nation, but if this were true how come even the beggars have electric guitars to beg for money? (I’m being satirical.) How come one can see several people lining up in a fast food chain? Even a cigarette vendor wears nice shirt. Nevertheless it is really true that there is still a big discrepancy between the poor and the rich. These differences can be compared to an inverted triangle – ▼ – where the top comprises the poor sector and the lower pointed part represents the rich. As you can see, the poor comprises the larger sector of the population. But, from my point of view, the Philippines economy – even if we’re considered as a Third World country – is stable.

Also, we are considered the happiest people in the world. Maybe the reason is the fact that we don’t deal too much on the financial aspects of life. We are always content with whatever we have.

The government is doing their best to help the poor sector by giving subsidies for rice, electricity and other things, especially now, during the hard times which not only the Philippines are experiencing, but the whole world as well. I believe that all good things are possible to happen as long as everyone will do his/her own share for the good of all. And lastly, fight and stop corruption. A good country is good if it is governed well and its constituent is the top priority before itself. For example, the Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, promised to make the Philippines a developed country by the year 2020. We, as one nation, are hoping for the best for our nation.≡

This post was written by Angelo at A Million By 20. Angelo is a fifteen year-old student who lives, works and blogs in the Phillipines. Among many other things, he plans to become a doctor. He can also write music. You can also find him on StumbleUpon as kengelo (a friend of MoneyEnergy, who is listed as “fluomundi”).

For more information on foreign stocks and economies, a great resource is Top Foreign Stocks.

Do you live or work in Asia?

I’m looking for writers to contribute a series of guest posts on what it’s like to live and work as an investor in Asia. You could be in India, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Taiwan or Pakistan. I’d like to hear about:

1) what are the common vehicles for investing for the average person?
2) tell us about your local stock market and how it works, or how it’s different than the NYSE or LSE.
3) what special rules or restrictions does your region enforce regarding investing in foreign countries?
4) how many of your peers and colleagues are active investors in the market?
5) and similar topics of your choice.

If you’re interested, email me at moneyenergy AT hotMaiL [d0t] COM.