Franchise Opportunity

I've seen a couple of Courier Companies recently who have or intend to start selling Franchises.

Nothing new in that and I understand those that have or are about to get a National Contract and need to offer offices throughout the UK to be able to cover that contract. But with the advent of Exchange sites is there really a need for regional offices throughout the UK to cover said contracts?

And if thats the case what is it that the potential franchisee is buying into, apart from losing a %age of his business to the Franchisor in"fees"?

From where i'm sitting its a means to extort hard earned cash from whoever is daft enough to buy into one.

We are all in an increasingly internet based industry that allows you to compete with anything a larger Courier Company can tout for, so what do i get for my money?

Software? You can get an all singing all dancing web based bit of kit for less than £200 a month

Experience? Certainly has a value, but all you need to know is already out there if you look

Guaranteed turnover? Possibly, but for how long

You get to "buy" an area of the country thats all yours (your territory) but it isn't yours is it. There are dozens of other Courier Companies in "your" area who are touting for the same business as you are, AND with your own territory, you can't tout outside of it. Another franchsiee will own that area, so ineffect you're growth stops at the boder between you and some other equally naive franchisee nextdoor.

Lets be honest, its an avenue stream for the company thinking of franching, and little more than that.

Had couple of franchise businesses in past. I would advise against.

I agree, the internet and sophisticated software is largely doing away with the need for local offices, other than as marketing centres and reps can work from home anyway.

Wonder if the expert will start franchising soon.

Don't go giving him ideas... lol

I nearly went for one with [business] just before they went bust, but decided against it, so beware!

From my understanding, the franchising model for any business is pretty much the same regardless of the type of business.

The famous example of this is McDonalds. Now everyone knows that McDonalds is a franchise that's in the business of selling burgers. Nope!

[link]

Simply put, you pay business X a large sign up fee which gets you the initial "training!". That's just corporate speak for being told what your job is and how to do it to their standards whilst they use your money to find and fit out a property from where you will operate.

From then on, you work your ass off following company X's rules, regs and requirements. Chasing the targets that X sets for you. Getting hassle from the head office when you don't make enough profit, whilst being forced to use the suppliers that company X dictactes (read that as someone in head office of company X got a nice big bung from company Y).

You do this for about 2-3 years only to find out that you are working more hours than humanly possible, your life is not your own and you have no control over how you run "your" franchise at all. To top it off, you don't make anything near what it would take to make it worth all that hassle. So, you end up selling it to some other mug (albeit for a bit less than you invested)

It's basically just a legal way to get a group of individuals to fund the property portfolio of company X.

Well its one view, but not one i agree with entirely.

Companies that want rapid expansion, but haven't got the funds to do it, can look at franchsing AND you definitely get more fromn a franchisee than you would from an employee.

MacDonalds isn't perhaps the best model to use because anyone that can afford to buy a franchise from them, basically has a license to print money.

However, If you have ever been to an event run by the British Franchsie Association you will see all sorts of crap trying to entice you in.

Most are a complete waste of time and money

Lewis Haulage said:

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Wonder if the expert will start franchising soon.

View this email in your browser Dear [name]

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Not sure seeing eachothers "bids" is a good idea

Long Services said:

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Not sure seeing eachothers "bids" is a good idea

Puts it on the same level as Shiply or Anyvan - you have to commit commercial suicide publicly

Isn't this in direct competition with Mtvan? Or am I reading it wrong?

WARNING

WARNING

OFF TOPIC ALERT

OFF TOPIC AERT

Haha

'If I ruled the world'

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