Have a question you need an answer for?   Browse through the Q&As below to see if we can answer the question for you.. 
For you entrepreneurs, look at the Biz Startz Q's;
If you're a hotshot investor, check out Stock Optionz Q's;
For resume, college, and job help, read through Careerz Q's;
And to learn the finer points of building a bankroll, jump to the Money Smartz Q's.

Biz Startz Questions

• How does franchising work?
• How do you write a business plan?
• Where can I find out more about starting an online business?
• Is there any financial aid for a 21-year-old starting a business?
• How can I generate more e-biz?
• How do you pick what kind of business you want?
• What is a computer platform?
• What is the best way to shop for a computer?
• How can I copyright something?

Stock Optionz Questions

• What is the Dow?
• How do you read stock quotes?
• What is a stock split?
• Where can I find out more about mutual funds?
• Where can I start investing on a limited budget?
• Where can I start investing in companies like Coke?
• Where can I find a broker to start investing in DSPs and Drips?
• Should we buy more Sepracor, or switch to Dell?
• How do you know how much you've made from a stock?
• What is a stock market crash?
• Can you help track down a stock?
• What does the terminology of the stock market mean?
• Should I start investing with only a little money?

Careerz Questions

• Does YoungBiz offer any seminars?

Money Smartz Questions

• What is the Inflation Rate?
• How can I get out of credit card debt?
• What is compound interest?
• What is Time Value of money?
• What is a T-Bill?

The idea behind franchising is to take an idea that one company has and allow others to use their resources to reproduce it in other locations. Each franchising organization is unique, but most have some similarities.
Franchiser: The company which had the original idea.
Franchisee: The person or organization who decides to take on the franchiser's original concept.
Contract: The franchisee usually pays the franchiser a fee for the right to use their idea. This fee comes in the form of an up-front fee, royalties, or a combination of the two. In exchange for these fees, franchisers provide franchisees with services like marketing support, protected or exclusive territories, product testing, and administrative support. Many times the franchiser provides detailed plans about how the business must be run. This can mean building layout, what products they stock, and the employees' uniforms. They can even determine the franchisee's hours of operation. 

So what's in it for the franchisee? Well, they get to open their own business, but the plans and the funding are already in place. That cuts costs and allows the franchisee to jump right in. 

I am trying to get an outline of the components of a business plan with a brief description of each. Can you help?

Of course! Here are the basic parts of a business plan: 
Executive Summary: Explain exactly what you're doing an why, then give an overview of what you're going to cover in your plan. 
Target Market: Who are your customers? 
Competition: Who is your competition? Don't just focus on other companies with the same product or service, but also companies who are targeting the same audience as you. For instance, People magazine's editors might see Entertainment Weekly as competition, but they are also competing with TV and movies for your hard-earned cash. 
Marketing Strategy: How do you plan to get the message of your product to your target market?
Operations Strategy: How will you operate? Who will do what? How will you get your products assembled, packaged, and distributed? Who will be in charge?
Financing Strategy: Just like it sounds – how will you pay for your business? How will you pay for advertising? Will you apply for loans or investors? When do you see your business as becoming profitable?
Use of Funds: How do you plan to use the money you receive through your business plan?

This is just a brief explanation, and you can always include more in your business plan than we have here. In most cases, though, don't use any fewer sections than we have here. 

I want to start an urban hip hop clothing store online. How would I get started?
Katrina – Las Vegas, NV

This is a pretty complicated question; there are a lot of different things you need to know. Answer these questions for yourself:

• Do you have your own inventory, or will have to take orders and then forward them to your manufacturer?
• What will I name my Website? The trick here is to think of something catchy, but still easy to remember. When you have a name, you'll need to register it with InterNIC.
• Who will host my Website? There are a ton of hosting services, but you have a few things to consider before choosing one. Are you going to take credit cards online? If so, your domain host has to support secure connections and shopping cart features. You'll probably need forms, too, which are the pages that allow visitors to type information into a box, then submit it to you. For that, your domain host will need to support CGI scripts. Do you want to know statistics like which of your pages is the most popular?  This can help you see whether or not the number of visitors to your page each day is growing.
• Who will create my Website? You might have some friends who can help you, you could do it yourself, or, if you have enough cash, you can hire a design firm to do it for you. Check YoungBiz's Biz Pages for some teen Web designers! 
• Do you know how to market your company? This is probably the most important part of business. You could have the coolest site in the world, but people can't come if they can't find you. Try registering with search engines like Excite, Yahoo!, and Snap. These probably won't generate too many visitors, though. Some better places to start might be by placing an ad in your school paper or a small, local magazine or paper. Also, try sending an e-mail to all of your friends about your site, then ask them to forward it to their friends. Just make sure your spelling and punctuation are correct before sending it. You want to look professional!  Some simpler options include making a bulletin board or poster for school, then having your friends at other schools do the same thing.

While this is an outline of the basics you'll need, there are still hundreds of other things it's important you know. Try checking the phone book for your local Small Business Administration, or stop by the local library and check out a few books about entrepreneurship. but it is by no means all the things you need to know. For more help call you local Small Business Administration.

I'm 21 years old wanting to start up a business. Is there a program through federal or state that helps people like me? (Grants, loans, or anything.)
Robert – Hendersonville, NC

I don't know of any specific programs to help young entrepreneurs, but there are certainly plenty of places in your city to check. First try the Small Business Administration (pick up that phone book and use it!). Tell them exactly what you're looking for and, if possible, stop by in person. The SBA is a federal agency supporting small businesses. They even have a program called SCORE, which consists of retired executives looking to mentor small business owners. This is invaluable! Another great resource is your chamber of commerce, where they'll have plenty of information about business. 

Another source are any local universities or colleges. Most schools have entrepreneurship and/or technology centers where local businesspeople often provide support to entrepreneurs. They can help you with a business plan and your business model, both of which are very helpful in securing a loan for your business.

As a young entrepreneur (very young) I would like to ask some following questions. My business is run mostly through the Internet, and its main purpose is to make high quality web sites, and cutting edge graphics. My main question is how do I get more business in general? How do I get people attracted to our cause?
- Big Ballin Designs

There are a couple of things you can do to build clientele. The easiest is to ask your current customers to recommend you to any other companies they do business with. Also, ask your friends and family if they know of anyone who needs work done. Spend every free hour you have submitting your name to sites. Send press releases to any magazine, newspaper, or e-Zine. Also, register in our BizPages and any other business-to-business sites you might find. 

- Jen, Madison, WI

There are a lot of points to consider when you’re thinking about starting a business, Jen. Ask yourself these questions:

• What are my three favorite hobbies?
• What am I good at?
• How much time do I want to spend on my business each week?
• How much money do I have to start my business?

Your business should be a combination of your answers to those questions. If your three favorite hobbies are sports, painting, and cooking, but you have very little time and money, what types of businesses do you think you might be able to start? Selling pies and cakes on the weekends might work well — you could take orders during the week, then bake and deliver them Saturday and Sunday. You could also organize a sports camp one or two weeks each summer by asking a few of your friends to help you. The easiest way to figure out what type of business you’d like is by sitting down with a blank notebook and brainstorming. Write down every idea that pops into your head, or even ideas you might hear from other people. Then discuss them with your parents and friends. Which business do they think your neighborhood would use the most? If people don’t need your business, they won’t use it. If you do some serious thinking about the type of business you’d like to start, you’ll probably think of the perfect one for you. Just let the ideas flow!

What is a computer platform?
S A ­ Oak Ridge, TN

A computer platform is another term used to describe a computer system. Today we use the word "platform" to refer to any of the software operating systems like DOS®, Windows®, Mac®, or UNIX®. When computers weren't as universal, it was used to refer only to hardware, because people saw computers as simple machines we could use to perform only a few tasks rather than the thousands of uses they have now. 

What is the best computer for your money? I'm talking about the best memory, quality and price. Which would be better a Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, or IBM?
SRC ­ Oak Ridge, TN

First, let me say that is this not a paid endorsement. This is my opinion and should be treated as such -- YoungBiz is not responsible for any type of purchasing experience you may have. My personal choice would be Dell. I have been using Dell products for over five years, and I have been constantly impressed with its performance. I run my computer 24 hours a day with heavy-duty graphic software, and I still feel like I have a lot of life in my computer. Here are some other things I like about the company: 

• You phone in your order, which means you can get intelligent answers to any buying questions you might have.
• Their computers are easy to upgrade, while COMPAQ and others are famous for upgrade problems. 
• Your system is tailored to you, so you can add anything extra you'd like. 
• The computer is delivered to you, so you don't have to worry about dropping it in the parking lot. Plus, you always have great boxes for when you want to move your computer!

Finally, some broad advice for any computer buyer. Don't just get the cheapest system you can find, do your research and buy a brand known for quality. If you only have to buy a new computer every five years instead of every two like your friends, think of all the money you could save. 

If I have an idea about something that I want to get started on the Web can I get that idea copyrighted or patented? If so, how?
Natalie ­ Sumter, SC

Great question! You can do this a few different ways. The first is through a lawyer, who can do a copyright/patent search and then apply for the patent. The downside? Price. While there are a lot of lawyers who specialize in copyright law, the lowest price you'll be able to find is probably somewhere around $800. If you're just starting out, you probably don't have that kind of money, so you might want to check out some of these Websites. They'll give you all of the information you need to get started, and you can search the databases yourself: 

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Databases
• Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Kids Pages

The final way is called the "Poor Man's Copyright." Write or sketch your idea, logo, Website on a plain piece of paper (if it's on the computer, print it out). Put the paper in an envelope, then mail it to yourself. When you receive it, don't open it. Put it in your files, and make sure you remember where you've placed it. If you'd ever have to go to court, you can prove how long ago you had your idea by showing the sealed envelope with the postmark. Believe it or not, this is a completely legal way of documenting your copyright! 

Your best bet is probably to do the poor man's copyright right away, then spend some time exploring your other options. 

The Dow refers to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is calculated by adding the price of one share of stock in each of 30 companies whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The total of their prices is multiplied by a number determined by the Dow Jones Company to come up with average. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is not necessarily a mathematical average, but closer to a unit of measurement. The Dow and the S&P 500, which is another average, are the most closely followed indicators of how well the American stock markets are doing. This chart lists the 30 stocks currently used to calculate the Dow.

Stocks are generally tracked by using their symbols, which are sets of letters that stand for specific stocks. For instance, General Motors' symbol is GM, Delia's is DLIA, and Coke's is KO. If you were to look at the CNBC ticker, you would see two bands of symbols. The top band tracks stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange, while the lower band focuses on stocks traded on the American Stock Exchange and NASDAQ (National Association of Securities and Dealers, Inc.). Each of the symbols is usually followed by two numbers. The first number is the last price the stock was traded at, and the second number is the difference between that last trade and its final price at the market's close on the day before. 

In Example A below, Disney stock was trading at $32 ¼, up ¾ of a dollar from the final price the day before. Occasionally between the stock symbol and the price is a number that indicates how many shares were in the last trade. You'll see that in Example B, where the 15s indicates that the last trade was 1,500 shares. In Example C below the 10.000 indicates that the last trade in Disney stock was for 10,000 shares. If the last transaction was below 1,000 shares, like in Example A, you won't see these numbers. 

A stock split is when a company splits each share of its stock into two or more shares. Why? There are two main reasons a company might want to do this.

It's usually to keep investor's interested in the company's stock. Most companies prefer not to price their stocks about $100 per share, because they feel that investor's will no longer buy if the price is any higher. For example, let's say that Baby Company has 1,000,000 shares outstanding. They are currently trading them at $120 each, which gives the company a market value of $120 million. The company's management decides that $120 is too much for investors to pay for one share of stock, so they decide to split each share into two shares. This gives them 2,000,000 shares at a price of $60 each, but not taking any value away from their company. Check it out below:

The second reason is simply to increase the number of shares available for investors. If Baby Company has 1,000,000 shares, but insiders (company officers and other major stakeholders) hold 75% of the stock, that leaves only 25%, or 250,000 shares available for the market. The company wants to increase the number of shares available to the market without issuing more stock, so they split the current stock. After the split, the percentage of stock available to the market remains at 25%, but the number of shares has increased to 500,000.

We saw an article in our local paper yesterday with quotes from Gregg Fidan. He notes that there are mutual funds that begin around $250 and allow monthly payments of $20. How do I find out more about these mutual funds?
Matthew – Raleigh, NC

You can find info in our Start Investing Now, then continue on to the BuckInvestor list of low cost mutual funds, or you can click to Greg's site at BuckInvestor.com.

Where is the best place to go to start investing with a limited budget?
Kristen – Des Moines IA

Great question! There are a lot of places you can start. An easy way is with U.S. Savings Bonds, which you can buy with as little as $25 at your local bank. You could also try buying stock in a company through Drips or DSPs. Click here to read about these programs, which allow you to buy stock with smaller amounts of money. Another easy way is to invest in mutual funds with low minimums. You can read about them here.

I'm 14 yrs old and want to buy some shares from companies like Coke. Could you please give me the sites where I go to buy them?
Esteban – Sydney, Australia

One place you could start would be our Starting Blocks area, where you can find basic information about investing as well as the names of companies who allow you to buy stock directly from the companies. These are called Drip or DSPs and, since you do not need to open a brokerage account, you don't have to pay any commissions. You might want to look at other Ask YoungBiz questions, too. 

If I want to start with Drips or DSP's and need to use a broker first, where do I find the right broker?
Angela – College Station, TX

Since you're not actually opening an account with a broker, your search shouldn't be too difficult. You could ask your parents if they use a broker, or just look in the yellow pages under "Stock," "Investing," or "Brokers." You need to instruct the broker that you want the share of stock actually issued to you, and once you have the certificate you can handle everything else on your own.

Our club already owns 25 shares of Sepracor Inc. Why should we buy more shares of Sepracor instead of purchasing Dell and or Cisco Systems?
SA – Oak Ridge, TN

Honestly, I'm not that familiar with Sepracor or the biotech industry, so I can't really make any recommendation about what you might want to do. You could check out Dell and Cisco in our Pick of the Week area, and I think both of them are great long-term investments. Always remember that keeping your investments diverse is a great idea because it prevents you from taking too large of a hit should any particular industry or company experience a large value loss. I would suggest researching all three on sites like Excite and Yahoo! before jumping into a purchase.

There are two ways you can go about this. The first, and most obvious, is to look at the stock's price. If you bought 10 shares at $15 each in Company X, you would invest $150. If you sold those shares in one year for $25 each, you would make $100. On the other hand, if you sold them for $10 each, you lost $50.

The other way is through dividends. If Company X pays a dividend of $1 per share each year, you would earn $10. Many times the combination of the two methods will give you an estimate of your earnings. You also have to factor in any commissions you've paid, though, to be completely certain of your gain. 

A stock market crash is a very fast decline in stock prices. It doesn't have a specific percentage of decline associate with it, but it generally means that the stocks drop more than 10%. There has been one famous example of a stock market crash in the U.S. -- the crash of 1929. I have provided a link to a page that discusses the stock market crash of  1929. 

What causes a crash? Fear and anxiety are the two major reasons. Sometimes events in the market, even in the world itself, make people afraid that their stock certificates will be worthless. Those people sell the stock as fast as they can for whatever price they can, making the stocks' prices fall. 

My husband’s grandfather gave him stock in Libby’s, but we called them and they said they were bought out by Nestle. We cannot find out how to retrieve his stock. Can you help us?
Donna, Payson, AZ

Donna: Try www.nestle.com — they have a full online investor relation section which may give you the answer you need. If not, they also have an e-mail address for investors to use. Try dropping them a line, and good luck!

I want to learn about the stock market and how to invest. I don't know what the terminology means or how to read the symbols.
Johnathan, Miami, FL

Way to research, Johnathan! That’s what we like to hear. There are plenty of places for you to research investing online — most of the online search portals (Excite, Yahoo!, Snap) run investing areas, but we recommend using either Yahoo! or About.com. A great book for beginning investors is Investing for Dummies, which you should be able to find at almost any bookstore. It’s got a lot of basic information and relates investing to your everyday life, so it’s not too hard to follow. Also, keep checking back here! We’ve got some great investing info in the works, and you can always use our glossary  to help you along.

I am 16 and I want to know how to get into the stock market with only about $300… Is it worth trying just yet?
Paul, Sarasota, FL

Paul: There are a lot of ways you can get involved with the stock market now for even less than $300! Your best bet would be to do a lot of research into the stock market (you can start right here), then read about different types of interest-bearing savings accounts, too. While it’s a great way to build your funds, a lot of people jump into the stock market without knowing the negatives as well as the positives. You may want to take that $300 and deposit it into a high-interest bank account to build on your savings, then use only part of it to invest once you’ve done your homework. Good luck!

Are seminars available? Does the site offer help in recruiting personnel? Is this organization publicly or privately funded? How does this site list any success stories?
Libby ­ Fieldale, VA

YoungBiz and its parent company, KidsWay, Inc. offer many different teacher-training and entrepreneurship conferences throughout the year. Our most popular is BizFest, which usually takes place in spring. Keep your eye on our home page for information about upcoming events. Our organization is privately funded, and we list stories about successful entrepreneurs in our Profile section.

Inflation describes the rise in prices from one part of the year to the next, or from year to year. The Inflation Rate is the percentage of change in prices, or the average of the change in prices of the entire economy over one year. How do they average them? Some products change in price more than others, while some will even go in different directions. During any one year you could have milk increasing by 5%, athletic shoes increasing by 15% and computers dropping by 23%. The Inflation Rate is the average of all of those prices.

Credit Card Debt! $9000 in debt, what to do? Paying 7.9% on one and 13.49% on the other. Both have about $4,000 on them. PLEASE HELP!!
ROBERT — Erlanger, KY

This is a very common problem, and I'm sorry you have to go through it. If you can, get a second job and dedicate all of the income from that job to paying off the cards. It's not the best way to have fun, but it's better than messing up your credit for the next ten years. 

Believe it or not, the credit card company will work with you to help you pay off the balances. If you can't cover even the minimum payments, call your cards' customer service numbers and ask them if they can lower your payments. Remember to be polite! Nobody wants to help a rude person. If they still say they can't lower them, make an appointment with a credit counseling service. There are probably several in your town, they're free, and they can help you get a handle on your problems. They can often help you lower your payments and stick to a budget, but it does have a drawback -- it'll go on your credit report. Still, creditors will see the counseling service as a willingness on your part to correct your mistake and pay your balances. Try looking into Consumer Credit and Budget Counseling, Inc. or American Consumer Credit Counseling.

Remember that, while it seems like it'll never go away, you can get rid of your debt with some hard work and sacrifice. Start making those monthly payments. Nothing is more important. Also, pay the minimum on the lower interest card, then use the rest of your money budgeted to the cards to pay off the high-rate card first. This should save you some money -- and time. Good Luck!

When you put your money in a bank, the bank promises to pay you for using their bank to hold your money. This is called interest. Let’s say you want to deposit $100 in the bank. When you go into the bank, the teller informs you that the current rate is 10%. That means that if you keep your $100 in the bank for one year, the bank will pay you $10, giving you $110 at the end of the year. If you keep your money in the bank for another year, you'll make another 10%... but this time it'll be on $110. This comes out to $11, giving you a grand total of $121. The interest paid in that second year is called compound interest, because it was paid on both your original deposit and the first year's interest payment. 

Why would a bank pay you to deposit money? Banks make money in a lot of ways. They charge fees for things like ATM usage, bounced checks, and credit card usage. Another way they make money is to charge interest on money they lend. When someone wants to buy a house or a car, they usually go to a bank for a loan. In return for lending their money, banks charge borrowers interest. The way banks make back the money they lend is by convincing depositors (like you) to put money in their bank, so they have to find some way of making it worthwhile to people. By paying interest on money in accounts, they make it more worthwhile to you to deposit your money into the bank instead of keeping it hidden in your sock drawer. The interest rate on your money is lower than the rate they charge borrowers to use their money, and the difference between the two is the banks "spread," or profit. 

This means that one dollar is worth more today than it will be tomorrow. Why? Because if you have a dollar today, you can put it to work by investing it or putting it in an interest bearing account. Example: If someone offers you $100 today or promises to give you $100 in one year, you would probably choose to have the $100 today so you could use it immediately. If you were to deposit it into a savings account paying 10% interest, you'd have $110 in a year instead of the $100 you were offered. 

T-Bills, or treasury bills, are direct, short-term debt obligations of the government. You can buy them in different maturity periods, which is the time in which the government must pay you back. Basically, if you were to buy a $10,000 T-Bill, the government would pay you back $10,400 in 12 months. They allow the government to receive short-term loans from private investors. 

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