Want to save a pile of green? Recent studies have shown that companies that go green can lower operating costs while minimizing environmental impact. We've put together a list of 10 simple ways to help you get started.

1. Be bright about light. Over 40% of the average company's electricity bill comes from indoor lighting. Switch to Energy Star-rated light bulbs and fixtures and install timers or motion sensors to automatically reduce wasted energy.

2. Turn off the computer. Business computers waste $1 billion worth of electricity a year. Forget the screensaver; set all monitors to power off (sleep mode) after 10 minutes of nonuse.

3. Print smarter. Recycle toner and ink cartridges and buy remanufactured ones. They're cheaper and each remanufactured cartridge saves about a half gallon of oil.

4. Go paperless. The average office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of paper a year. To reduce waste, move to digital documents instead of printing notes, agendas, employee manuals, etc.

5. Rethink the fleet. When buying a new vehicle for your business, look for hybrids and other high-mileage vehicles. Make sure the tires on all company vehicles are properly inflated-it increases gas mileage.

6. Boot the commute. Encourage telecommuting. It's a nice perk that saves gas and reduces pollution while raising productivity (by as much as 40%!).

7. Go virtual. Do more business online and cut down on unnecessary business trips and delivery services. Teleconferencing and technologies are cheaper and reduce fuel consumption.

8. Create a healthy environment. Buy furniture, carpeting, and paint that are free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and won't off-gas toxic chemicals. It can save thousands of dollars in healthcare costs and absenteeism.

9. Be fair. Buy Fair Trade coffee for the office lounge. It reduces the carbon footprint in developing nations.

10. Use real cups. Get rid of those disposable cups in the employee lounge. It takes at least 20 pounds of paper a year to produce one disposable cup each day for one person.

Solving the world's problems with franchising

Can the same business format that sells millions of burgers and hotel rooms save lives in some of the poorest nations on earth? According to Michael Seid, one of the top experts on franchising, the answer is a resounding "yes!" Along with some of the biggest names in franchising, Seid is on the board of CFW Shops (Children and Family Wellness), a franchise that has taken on the African health crisis.

Q: What is CFW Shops and how does it work?
A: CFW Shops is a franchise system that started in Kenya and is now launching in Rwanda. The franchisees, local nurses, provide affordable medical services and drugs to some of the poorest people in Africa.

Q: How is this different from the way healthcare is traditionally delivered in Africa?
A: Most medicines there are either provided by the government or NGOs (non-government organizations) with top-down approaches. I've heard that 60% of money raised for NGOs doesn't leave Washington. According to the WHO, about 50-60% of the drugs they distribute are counterfeit. So a mother sits in line for 12 hours and if her baby hasn't died in that time, the baby has a 50/50 shot at getting medicine that is nothing but chalk. We've established a business format franchise with a very low cost base that can cure diseases like malaria for $1-less than the price of a cup of coffee.

Q: Is this a form of social franchising?
A: No. We function as any other franchisor would except at the franchisor level we are a nonprofit. But the franchisee is a for-profit small business. The social franchisor wants to give the profits to a charity. We direct our profits back into the organization and back to the consumer level so that the poorest people in Africa can come to our clinics and get services with the dignity that they would receive in Beverly Hills.

Q: So you're helping two people, the franchisee and the consumer?
A: We're actually helping four people. First is the consumer. Second is the franchisee whom we're helping to become an entrepreneur and create wealth. For example, we have one franchisee who took the earnings from her first franchise and bought a second, then put the proceeds from those two to put three of her children into pharmacy school-and one of them will graduate soon and buy a franchise. Third are the employees. We're creating jobs in the marketplace. And fourth are the local suppliers. We're creating a supply chain that helps local companies improve their performance.

Q: There are free clinics in Africa. Why do consumers come to CFW Shops?
A: When you ask a mother why she's coming to our clinic when the free clinic is literally 300 yards down the road, she points at our sign and says, "because here I'll get something that will cure my child, but there I'm not sure." That's the same power of brand promise that people expect from a Marriott or a Quiznos.

Q: How did you get into this?
A: Scott Hillstrom, a corporate lawyer, was the brilliant man who thought of putting franchising to this type of use and sucked the rest of us into his passion. One day he read in a newspaper that 1 million children a year die in Africa from malaria and he was appalled. He knew nothing about Africa, malaria or franchising. But he jumped in. Then he met me at a conference and even though I tried to get away (thinking he was a crazed individual), 5 hours later I was sucked into this thing. For a hard-bitten conservative Republican it feels pretty good. It's probably the most rewarding thing that I've ever done in my life other than watching my children being born.

Q; What are the plans for the future?
A: We have plans to expand from 65 CFW Shops to 250. We see this model being successful, not only in Kenya, but in a lot of neighboring countries. Then in Uganda we're launching Health Guard, an indoor residual spraying franchise that we expect will reduce malaria in our service areas by at least 80%. And we're looking down the road at establishing ways to bring fresh water into the communities that don't have it.

Michael Seid is Managing Director of Michael H. Seid & Associates, LLC and can be contacted at mseid@msaworldwide.com; (860) 523-4257

Personal Highlights of the IFA Convention

By:Mary E. Tomzack

February is the month for the International Franchise Association’s (IFA) Annual Convention, held this year at the Marriott World Center in Orlando on Feb. 9-12. For those of you unfamiliar with the organization, IFA is a membership organization of the franchise community, including franchisors, franchisees, and suppliers. Originally formed as an association for franchisors, IFA has over the years enlarged its membership to include suppliers and, in the last few years, franchisees.

From a personal viewpoint, the annual convention is a perfect venue to meet with colleagues from all over the world, attend interesting seminars, and come away with a pretty good idea of the state of franchising at this point in time.

Here are my highlights of the convention and my reading of the most important concerns and issues of the attendants:

• The keynote speaker General Colin Powell, our 65th Secretary of State, was the most impressive speaker I have heard over the years at this event. General Powell kept all of us at attention during his 45 minute speech. His points regarding leadership were especially enlightening. I found him worldly, sophisticated, smart and totally engaging—admittedly, not what I had imagined.

• Congratulations to Matt Shay, president of IFA since 2005, who was awarded the additional duty of Chief Executive Officer. In his presentation he sounded very much like a CEO.

• Everyone was talking about the new rules for franchise sales and disclosure. I attended an excellent session on this subject moderated by Michael Joblove and Joel Buckberg. The new disclosure format is close to the familiar UFOC but has significant changes. Franchisors must comply with regulations for the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) by July 1, 2008.

• The Supplier Exhibits were well-attended and there was lots of interest in the financial solutions companies. The “big bummer” moment for me was having my name called as a winner for the $1000 raffle with three minutes to claim the prize. Of course, I had left the exhibit floor just minutes before--- so, no prize.

• The Supplier Roundtables are always well-attended. This year I co-moderated with Amit Pamecha of Fran Connect Software. Our topic was using the Internet and new technologies to generate more and better franchise prospects. Suffice it to say that many franchisors are not satisfied with the quality of leads they are receiving through the numerous websites and the inefficiencies of sales personnel chasing after prospects who can never be reached. I heard this complaint over and over in conversations, not only in the roundtable discussions. Certainly, this is an opportunity for an inventive supplier to come up with a solution.

All in all, the IFA organization and new chairman, Steve Greenbaum, put on a great event. If you missed this year’s convention, you might want to mark your calendars for next year in beautiful San Diego, Ca on Feb 14-17.

Mary E. Tomzack is the publisher of this newsletter, and the president of FranchiseHelp Inc. You can contact her at MTomzack@FranchiseHelp.com or call (800) 401-1446 or (914) 347-6735

Yum Posts Flat Earnings After Slow U.S. Sales

Yum! Brands Inc. reported flat fourth quarter earnings this month with still sluggish U.S. sales suppressing strong international results, especially a KFC driven 42-percent system sales jump in mainland China and a 17-percent same store increase there over the prior fourth quarter.

Yum said U.S. Taco Bell sales improved for the last three months of 2007 to a flat year-over-year result after declining for the first nine months of the year. Same store sales for the blended U.S. system, including KFC and Pizza Hut, rose 1 percent for the quarter but domestic operating profit fell 1 percent to $196 million as restaurant margins declined 1.4 percent on steep food inflation. Yum posted quarterly net earnings of $231 million, down $1 million from the fourth quarter of 2006, on an 8-percent increase in total revenue to $3.26 billion. Yum, its franchisees and licensees operate more than 35,000 restaurants worldwide. (Nation's Restaurant News, 2/5/08)

Lending Crisis May Spread to Hospitality Projects

Portsmouth, NH-based Lodging Econometrics' end-of-the-year data and construction forecast shows a record-number of projects, with 718,000 rooms in the construction pipeline. But, the company believes that within the past weeks the obvious worsening of the residential mortgage meltdown and its spread to commercial sectors will cause a bulk of projects to founder and make financing scarce for major projects. In the report, the company points out numerous other negative issues facing hotel development: a declining economy and potential recession is creating a softening in demand, hotel rates, RevPar and operating profits.

However, according to Lodging Econometrics, this same period was a heyday for the hospitality industry nationally. The lodging industry posted record-breaking occupancy, RevPar and room profit in 2006 and 2007. Lodging at operational level didn't feel any impact from the economic slowdown until November, December and early January, when the industry began to see a little bit of impact on demand and occupancies. (Globe St., 2/18/08)

Breakfast and Dollar Menu Increase McDonald's January Comps

McDonald's Corp. credited strong breakfast and Dollar menu sales for a 1.9 percent U.S. same-store sales increase for the month ended Jan 31., an uptick from the flat comparable sales in December that triggered an unusual fall in the burger giant's share price last month. Globally, McDonald's same-store sales outpaced the U.S. uptick and rose 5.7 percent for the month. January same-store sales increased 8.2 percent in Europe and 7.8 percent in the company's Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa region.

The company pointed to unique premium and value menu items for the positive performance in Europe, especially in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Extended operating hours and menu options geared to local consumer tastes drove performance in Australia, China and other markets in the APMEA region. Many analysts, who have been scrutinizing McDonald's domestic same store sales performance for a correlation to the country's struggling economy, said they were pleased that guest traffic and sales for the 30,000-unit quick-service leader had returned to positive territory and seemed to be accelerating. In the spring, McDonald's has plans to introduce "Southern Style" chicken products and a Southwestern Salad. In addition, the chain plans to introduce espresso-based beverages on a market by market basis. (Nation's Restaurant News, 2/8/08)

Tim Hortons Plans U.S. Push

Canadian foodservice giant Tim Hortons Inc. is mounting another expansion push in the United States, this time using self-service kiosks, after disclosing a planned change in its top management and strong quarterly results. In reporting an 11.5-percent rise in net income on a 10.5 percent-pop in revenues for the fourth quarter ended Dec 27, the one-time Wendy's International Inc. holding said it plans to use the kiosks to "increase its U.S. brand exposure and create another channel of potential growth." Currently 15 of the devices, which dispense hot and cold beverages and a selection of doughnuts and pastries, are in place at gas station convenience centers About 140 kiosks operate in convenience settings within Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Hortons said it plans to develop between 90 and 110 outlets this year within the United States after opening 68 units last year. It plans to open 120 to 140 stores in Canada after adding 130 stores last year. For the fourth-quarter, Hortons' U.S. branches posted a 4.2 percent increase in same-store sales compared with an 8.3 percent jump for the same period a year earlier. In other news, the company announced plans to promote Don Schroeder, a 17-year veteran of the company, to president and chief executive as of March 1. (Nation's Restaurant News, 2/21/08)

After breaking a new ad campaign that blasts quick-service breakfast as "fake", Denny's is rolling out what it's touting as three "real" breakfasts, each priced at $5.99. Available through March, the new choices also are available in an expanded version for $1 more. For instance, the $5.99 Three Meat Breakfast includes a strip of bacon, a sausage link, a slice of ham, two eggs cooked to order and two buttermilk pancakes. For a dollar more, patrons can add another bacon strip, a second sausage link and hash browns.

The introduction of the limited-time offer follows last month's debut of the family chain's "Don't Fall for Fake" ad campaign. The ads take a slap at quick-service breakfast while positioning Denny's as the king of the breakfast table. The 1,500 unit Denny's has boosted its breakfast-marketing in the past two years to blunt the encroachment of the major quick-service chains, many of which targeted the morning meal as an opportunity for significant sales growth. (Nation's Restaurant News, 2/22/08)

Texas Chicken Enters into UK

Texas Chicken, the international brand of Church's Chicken, has announced the opening this month of its restaurants in the UK. The company plans to open 36 restaurants by the end of March and 50 before the year end. The company said that a majority of the 50 locations are existing Dixy Fried Chicken restaurants whose franchisees are converting to Church's/Texas Chicken.

The first group of Texas Chicken restaurant openings took place in London and Birmingham. Each franchisee will operate single or multiple restaurant locations. Church's Chicken believes that there are currently no strong players to compete with KFC in this region. They are entering the UK market to grow aggressively and provide an alternative to KFC with home-style, freshly prepared fried chicken with a unique crunch and signature side items. (Food Business Review Online, 2/8/08)