No guarantees here as to how good or reliable the service may be, but check out the piece, "Buying a Franchise After 55", by Jeff Elgin, who is the "Buying a Franchise" coach at Entrepreneur.com, who has almost 20 years of experience in franchising, both as a franchisee and a senior franchise company executive. He’s currently the CEO of FranChoice Inc., a company that provides free consulting to consumers looking for a franchise that best matches their needs.

Good luck.  And remember:  Work hard.  Make money.  Have fun.

          –    JRIngrisano, The Freestyle Entrepreneur

Conference calls free and easy.  Works for me.  I’m a small fish that has to swim with big sharks sometimes.  Conference calls can be expensive.  Actually, it’s just that I’m cheap and would rather spend the money on something a little more fun…like a hot date. 

Still, when a client says, “John, I’m interested in your proposal.  Can you set up the conference call for the eight of us?” my response is, “You bet.” Then I groan as I mentally calculate the cost of 80 cents per minute times 45 minutes for $36 out of pocket.

That brings me to www.freeconference.com, a subsidiary of Global Conference Partners, which has been around since 1985.  The word FREE caught my attention.  After all, 36 bucks is 36 bucks.  Since then, I’ve used them for several conferences.  Here is my glowing and totally unsolicited review.  (However, I do intend to hit them up for advertising on our www.TheFreestyleEntrepreneur.com site.  After all, I am a capitalist!)

Scheduling a conference is simple.  Go online to the website.  You will be given several conference options, from a basic, free call to ones that cost 10 cents per participant per minute, depending on the level of service you want.  (For me, wanting just a plain old conference call, the free portion works just fine.)

After you register, you will be invited to block out a time and send invites to your participants.  Everyone receives a phone number and access code.  If you like, you can have a special code as the moderator.  That’s it. 

Here are the pluses:

• It’s easy.  No hoops to jump through and no lengthy registration process.
• It’s free, if you choose that option.  There are no hidden charges and no need for a credit card.
• The sound quality is excellent.  I conferenced recently with my partner and several columnists from around the country (Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin) and we experienced no sound drop-outs, static, echoes or bleeds from other calls.
• After the call, I received a time-and-numbers summary of the call. 

One negative, though I do not see it as such, really.  The free conference option has a standard, U.S.-based phone number to call, so participants will have their own cost of the call.  Other options include a toll-free number. 

The bottom line:  For business conferences and for family and friend chat times, give www.FreeConference.com a shot.  I was delighted with the service. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have $36 in my pocket, a hot date, and a reservation at a neighborhood pizzeria.  Work hard.  Make money.  And please be sure to have fun.  — JRIngrisano (The Freestyle Entrepreneur)

Promoted as the ideal way to ensure your content is delivered to the right audience at the right time, by empowering your organization with Spot Relevance™, Acuity Mobile asserts that it “improves marketing response rates, lowers marketing costs, and drives more revenue.”

Co-founded by Barry Glick, founder of MapQuest, Acuity Mobile’s management team is said to have its finger on the pulse of mobile marketing and is continuing to develop and evolve technology to meet the growing needs of mobile marketers and their consumers.

For more information, call (301) 513-0111, email them at info@acuitymobile.com, or visit http://acuitymobile.com

Want to know more? Visit the professionals at TaxMasters or call them at 888-497-5937. They’ll make sure the IRS treats you fairly and with respect.

• Work on your office PC from home — in real time
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• Access your files, programs, email and network

… with easy, secure access to your PC from any browser.

Access your PC from anywhere. All you need is a Web browser to access all your programs, files, emails and network resources — in real time, just as if you were at your desk! No extra software or hardware is needed. With real-time remote access, GoToMyPC delivers the competitive advantage you need to stay ahead of the herd. With anywhere, anytime access to your office PC, you can take advantage of more opportunities and turn problems into profitable solutions. And you can try it FREE.

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• Secure
• Outlook®-compatible
• Real-time Account Provisioning
• Requires no hardware or software
• Dedicated to 24/7 Customer Support, and
• Secure-Data Transfer

eFax® Corporate makes the security and compliance of your business their priority. 
Through dedicated Compliance Solutions, the company provides digital fax and document management services that meet the strictest secure data transfer requirements of the latest federal mandates.

eFax Corporate’s reliable tracking capabilities offer the following benefits:

• Allows you to easily identify and report usage by individual fax number or employee, as well as by client, vendor or case/matter.
• Provides protection for sensitive data and produces clear audit trails.
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Want to know more?

Visit eFax, or call 1 (888) 532-9265 or 1 (323) 817-1155.

(TFE does not receive any benefits from the product’s company for this review)

• If you sell to businesses — With Salesgenie.com you can easily target large or small companies and get contact names to call. Get weekly leads of new businesses, store your contacts online, schedule follow-up calls and track your results.
• If you sell to consumers — Get accurate mailing addresses and approved consumer phone numbers. Search for high-income homeowners or people of a certain age. Find people who rent, or live in older homes or search based on hobbies.

Visit Sales Genie for more information or call for a free demonstration (866) 327-6391

(TFE does not receive any benefits from the product’s company for this review)

Pricing: LegalZoom guarantees honest, upfront flat-fee pricing. Please be sure to include the court filing fee when calculating your total price.

Need help? Call LegalZoom.Com (M-F)
7:00 am – 6:00 pm PST
1-800-962-7490

(TFE does not receive any benefits from the product’s company for this review)

• Accurately scans and reads business cards in seconds and creates a digital address book.
• Consolidates all your contact data using drag-and-drop from email and web sites.
• Easily categorize contacts, search, sort, de-dupe, print labels, map addresses and much more.

Synchronizes easily with Outlook, PDAs and smart phones. Designed for today’s mobile lifestyle, the palm-sized scanner featured in CardScan Personal measures only 4.5" x 3.125" and has a closing scanner door, detachable USB cord and handy travel pouch. Note: CardScan Personal does not currently work with 64-bit Windows systems. 

$159.99
Satisfaction guaranteed.

Availability: http://www.cardscan.com
Or call: 800.942.6739
Monday — Thursday, 8:30am to 6:00pm EST, 8:30am to 5:30 pm EST on Fridays

(TFE does not receive any benefits from the product’s company for this review)