Source: Instagram

Whether you hate her or love her, it’s quite difficult to deny that Nicki Minaj is doing the doggone thang. In addition to her lucrative musical career, the Baisley, Queens rapper has her hand in several different pots. The Barbz can’t get enough of her Pink Friday fragrance line, not to mention her recent partnership with Beatz By Dre for the limited edition Pink Pill portable bluetooth speakers. The “High School” rapper has also been trying her hand in the acting arena, she recently snagged a role alongside Cameron Diaz in upcoming film, The Other Woman. To top it all off, Mona Scott-Young’s Myx Fusions Moscato company recently named her as a partial owner and spokesperson for the brand!

“I am so excited to team with the Myx brand. I have no doubt that it will be number one. It’s a great-tasting, amazing product that people will love. It’s not even a hard sell. Myx Fusions gives us an opportunity to revolutionize the wine industry,” Nicki said in a press release.

Co-owner and Chief Marketing Officer of the fruit-infused wine brand, Mona Scott-Young, also expressed her excitement and welcomed Nicki aboard.

“The collaboration between Nicki Minaj and Myx Fusions is a game changer. Nicki is an innovative trendsetter and has the ability to energize the masses. She embodies everything that Myx Fusions represents - style, spontaneity and the desire to push the envelope and inspire change. Both brands are perfectly aligned,” Mona said.

Myx Fusions CEO, Peter Reaske, adds that adding Nicki to the team could only make a great thing even better.

“Myx is a great new innovation in a category that is exploding. Moscato has done wonders for wine consumption and Myx Fusions will do the same for moscato. Myx appeals to a broad base of wine-drinking and non-wine drinking consumers. We believe that Nicki Minaj’s partnership combined with the appeal of the Myx product will have a ground-breaking impact on the wine industry.”

Image via Omerge Alliances

Olivia Scott-Perkins’ approach to marketing varies from most. In fact, her integrated marketing business Omerge Alliances is one that operates as a consultancy.  Officially launched yesterday, Omerge Alliances specializes in branding and partnerships, and creating opportunities for entertainment properties, specifically in music.

Taking her career in marketing and advertising to another level, Scott-Perkins went from freelancing — while working and in grad school — to forming a business that utilizes skilled individuals in a unique way.  Currently, Omerge Alliances has a team of three project managers. Gathering individuals she’s worked with in the past — a videographer, graphic designer and other branding professionals — Scott-Perkins combines their skills in accordance to client needs.

“It’s very different when you have a freelance business and when you have a company with a mission and you’re standing for something. Omerge Alliances in 2009 and 2010 was very synonymous with Olivia Scott-Perkins because I didn’t have a mission,” Scott-Perkins told Madame Noire via phone. “It was, ‘I’m Olivia Scott-Perkins, I’ve been doing solid work for the past 15 years, people are calling me so I’m going to do independent work until I figure out my next step.’”

While vice president of alliances at Live Nation, Scott-Perkins completed business filing and paperwork for Omerge Alliances. However, the following year (2009), she took a position as head of marketing/associate publisher at Vibe.  After the publication folded she was recommended and interviewed to be CMO at Carol’s Daughter. Shortly before then, Omerge Alliances was revived as Scott-Perkins worked on a freelance basis. Now revamped with a mission Omerge Alliances is taking on the task to create opportunities.

So, What’s Omerge Alliances All About?

The creative marketing industry is one that has seen rapid growth as the digital space has become more dominant. Within the online, TV and print realm, Omerge Alliances works to create partnerships. Musician/brand alliances are easy to come by these days, but in order to pass them as genuine, Scott-Perkins says a bit more work is required.

“It’s important to find what the artist is already into, then work beyond that. Then it’s believable. When you’re coming up with the actual communications marketing campaign, it’s coming up with how to create a campaign that will not look contrived, “ she said.

A die-hard music fan since the age of ten, she was drawn to the entertainment side of marketing because it’s what shaped her upbringing.

“I grew up in music and around music. When you’re creating a business one of the things you consider is the type of people you would like to work with. When I launched with this concept, my friends said, ‘That makes so much sense for you,’” Scott-Perkins added.

At Omerge Alliances, Scott-Perkins and her team work to pair musicians with corporate partners, ultimately elevating the stance of everyone involved. Omerge also uses social media, public relations and digital campaigns to spotlight underrepresented clients with great potential.

The 4,000th Papa John’s franchise opens in Long Island, NY. Founder, chairman and CEO John Schnatter (red shirt) cuts the ribbon. Image: Kathy Kmonicek/Invision for Papa John’s/AP Images

It is estimated that there are over 825,000 franchise businesses across 300 business categories in the U.S. that provide nearly 18 million jobs and generate over $2.1 trillion to the economy, according to AZFranchise.com. Why open a franchise instead of starting you own business? It’s a business brand that is already successful. You pay for your own franchise and there is a startup fee. But, then you receive a percentage (royalties) of the profits.  The HowStuffWorks website has additional details on how to operate a franchise.

And McDonald’s isn’t the only successful franchise in town.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine recently listed seven franchises that are on the rise — prime for new franchise owners. Their picks “have demonstrated solid growth despite the harsh business climate — and none of them require exorbitant startup fees,” writes Kiplinger’s. “We focused our search on franchises with growth of 70 percent or more since 2006 (or 10 percent or more since 2010 for new franchises). Then we narrowed that list to those with franchise fees of $50,000 or less. Finally, we sorted by franchises in industries that are doing well and are expecting continued growth, according to experts.”

Among their picks was JumpBunch, a franchise of fitness programs for children. This is an interesting pick as Americans have begun to focus on children’s fitness and health, with schools cutting out high-fat foods and sugar-based drinks and parents enrolling their kids in more after-school sports programs. JumpBunch targets local school districts that have cut their recreational budgets. “Franchises such as JumpBunch allow schools to outsource gym classes, a cost-effective alternative to maintaining their own physical education departments. The service is also in demand with day care programs and camps. JumpBunch franchises have grown 181 percent since 2006,” reports the article. There are only 45 franchises in the U.S. currently, so new owners shouldn’t be worked up about the brand being over-staturated. And the startup requirement is $75,000. The franchise fee is $33,000 and royalty earnings are eight percent of gross revenue.

Another interesting choice is Expedia CruiseShipCenters, cruise/vacation marketing and sales businesses. There are 32 franchises in the U.S, requiring a franchise fee of $29,000 (retail center) or  just $8,500 for a sales center. To buy you need $250,000 (for retail location only). The royalty earned is nine percent of the profit. “Franchisees can run sales centers from their homes or start their business in a storefront retail location. The number of franchises has grown 85 percent since 2006,” says the article.

With 143 franchises in the U.S., MaidPro, a residential cleaning service, is on the rise. To start, you need  $50,000. The franchise fee is between $7,900 and $21,5000. Royalty earnings are  3.5 percent to  6.5 percent of gross revenue. With so many families too busy to keep their homes clean, many are turning to outside services, such as MaidPro. According to the article, the “number of franchises has grown 126 percent since 2006.”

Before deciding on a franchise, The Wall Street Journal offers tips.

“Start by asking yourself what kind of franchise you want to operate. You will need to consider the hours you are willing to work, the kinds of work you enjoy and whether you prefer working directly with customers or remaining behind the scenes,” advises the article. Also think about how much money you’re borrowing and investing versus how much you need to generate.

And, “as a general rule, you will want to avoid industries and fields that are either too crowded or too thinly populated. Crowding creates competition, while the absence of franchisees in a particular niche suggests that it either doesn’t lend itself to franchising or that the market hasn’t yet developed adequately,” the article says.

Check out the International Franchise Association, a Washington trade group that provides a free online directory of more than 1,200 opportunities. There’s also FRANData, which maintains a database of franchise circulars, contact lists and other information about franchises. There is a research fee to use FRANData, but it’s worth it. Also, World Franchising Network is an online directory of franchises.

By Alexis Garrett Stodghill

Are you looking for an all-access pass to every aspect of Kanye West’s existence?  More importantly, are you willing to pay $4.99 a month for it? Multicultural ad agency GlobalHue is hoping that you and millions of others are. The famously egocentric star has a new web channel launching on the Voyr platform, a fresh idea from the agency’s incubator GVH. GlobalHue hopes to add a roster of stars to Voyr that will offer positive, intimate content to fans on a for-fee basis. While names like Oprah and Elton John have been floated as other possible participants, West is the first super-celebrity to sign on to overshare the minutiae of his life on the site.

Voyr is set to launch on September 15, to piggy back on a 35-city tour West is planning to embark on with Jay-Z to support their coming album, “Watch the Throne.” This will make great fodder for West’s Voyr channel, which promises to project the details of his performing romp across the country from behind the scenes. Advertising Age reports:

Stuff that will be available on his channel: his exercise routine; what he eats on tour and instructional videos about how to prepare those items by his personal chef; a “720-degree” concert experience; rehearsals for the show; a documentary about Kanye called — appropriately — “Me”; and his animated series called “Runaway.”

Possibly more interesting are ideas for the platform GlobalHue presented to Mr. West that the notoriously fussy artist struck down. These include allowing fans to vote on set designs or allowing marketers to sponsor specific episodes. Mr. Lewis said Mr. West, ever the auteur, slammed those ideas, saying he doesn’t need the popular vote to make decisions and the idea of, say, a McDonald’s powering that sort of voting power with the push of an “I’m loving it” button was a “piece of a crap.”

Kanye might be playing the diva, but in this particular situation he is not in total control. In fact he has no monetary stake in the project. Voyr is wholly owned by GlobalHue subsidiary GVH. West’s compensation in this deal was not disclosed.

Major barriers to entry for Voyr include the free content available on sites like YouTube, and of course competition from stars’ own web venues. Kanye in particular is famous for using the web well, so it will be interesting to see what he chooses to feature on Voyr as opposed to his own site, and whether fans will be willing to pay for the deeper peek into his life. Another question is how Voyr will build a massive audience and compete with sites like Vevo when most of its content is behind a pay wall.

History has shown that making Internet users pay for content rarely works. The only success story is that of The Wall Street Journal, which famously prevents its current edition from being read online by anyone but paying subscribers. While its pay wall went into effects years ago and generates income for its already successful business, The New York Times tried the same thing recently and saw it’s online circulation drop by up to 30%. And this is for an already successful, long-standing brand. It would be history-making for Voyr to beat these odds as an anonymous new brand.

But if they can get people to pay for anything, it might be close web contact with luminaries. That is what GlobalHue is banking on. GlobalHue is hoping that stars will attract viewers by offering complementary information about their lives that cannot be found on salacious entertainment sites. The company is also considering a variety of pricing models that will appeal to both the die-hard star lover, and the more casual consumer who would only be willing to pay on a one-off basis.

The launch party held earlier this week for their collaboration with West featured huge stars like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and West himself of course. Who knows? Maybe stalking a beloved star into every corner of his or her life is worth a few extra dollars a month. Perhaps through Voyr the famous can change TMI into massive coin.

(Econsultancy.com)   You have a great idea for a business, but you don’t have the knowledge, skills and relationships to pull it off yourself. What should you do?  It’s a question that is asked time and time again by plenty of entrepreneurs, many of whom realize that founding a successful business will require a co-founder. Unfortunately, finding a co-founder can seem just as tough as getting a business off the ground. After all, starting a business with someone else requires more than just complimentary knowledge, skills and relationships. It requires a good working relationship, and trust.

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