Now that the election dust has settled, employers need to gear up for potential major changes in labor and employment law.

A couple of months ago I had an opportunity to speak with a Cuppy's franchise owner.

The Wall Street Journal writes that the last thing someone thinks about when buying a franchised business is what happens if the franchiser declares bankruptcy.

I deal with business folks every day who are facing failure. My advice: Look for the silver lining because it's there.

It has been an unfortunate aspect of independent franchisee associations that they only get established in the face of perceived impending calamity.

I don't believe it.

Used to believe it. Years ago. But I've learned better.

It’s no secret that the U.S. economy has seen better days. Just last May, more than 171,000 American employees lost their jobs through reductions in force.

When franchisee candidates come calling, I have always tried to determine whether a candidate was more interested in developing a business to extract as much money as possible while they were operating it, or more interested in re-investing profits back into their business.

The following is a reprint of the September 2006 edition of Franchising World. The author is Rupert Barkoff.