Rodent Regatta

Inc.com offers fifteen solutions for the problems with most meetings.

The Entrepreneurial Mind reports that Belmont University has been listed in a ”top 10” list for universities with an entrepreneurship emphasis. Congratulations to Dr. Cornwall and all the others who worked so diligently to build an excellent program.

Jeffrey Mayer (succeedinginbusiness.com) has an entry commenting on Phil Mickelson’s step-by-step plan that led to victory in The Masters. He then considers step-by-step plans that can lead to greater sales results.

Business Opportunities Weblog (via others) is running a table that shows how much some franchises earn. I may be misreading the table and the paragraph that precedes it. That paragraph seems to be telling me that the last column in the table is the gross profit that each franchise makes.

I think of gross profit as the different between sales and cost of goods sold. From gross profit, businesses subtract all other expenses associated with running the business. The table shows annual figures. Don’t be deceived by a sales figure of $1.3 million followed by a ”profit” figure of $916,000. It costs a lot more to run a McDonald’s than the difference between those two figures.

The table is still worthwhile. You get a good idea of how to view the financial structure of some businesses with which we’re all familiar.

That said, I know what it’s like to be stuck in a job you don’t like. I am looking for every opportunity to help other people find jobs they love. It really is special once you get there.

Robert Scoble