Franchising Costs

[playerone]

I know this topic has come up before but I was wondering what would the general costs of franchising an existing business?

Im mainly looking at the legal side of things as there would be very little capital investment on our part to get it going.

We hadnt considered going down this track but have been contacted a number of times asking whether we do. I guess it would be rude not to!

[singlecoil]

I've had a look at your website, and I have to ask, what exactly is it that you would be franchising?

And another quick question, do you really call at people's houses to collect £10 a week?

[TooLateForAName]

photography (but not great photography) by the look of it.

Venture etc are franchises and make good money (also without great photography) so I guess that there are plenty of people around who think that ownership of a dslr means they can be photographers.


Of course what you need to provide if you plan to franchise are business skills and marketing.

[playerone]

singlecoil said:

I've had a look at your website, and I have to ask, what exactly is it that you would be franchising?

And another quick question, do you really call at people's houses to collect £10 a week?

Portrait photography. Well, the ability to do photography on low cost credit as we are primarily a finance company.

Yes. Agents visit once a week.

The website isnt a great "shop window" as we dont use it to acquire customers (due to the demographic) and we havent actually updated for months

[singlecoil]

playerone said:

singlecoil said:

I've had a look at your website, and I have to ask, what exactly is it that you would be franchising?

And another quick question, do you really call at people's houses to collect £10 a week?

Portrait photography. Well, the ability to do photography on low cost credit as we are primarily a finance company.

Yes. Agents visit once a week.

The website isnt a great "shop window" as we dont use it to acquire customers (due to the demographic) and we havent actually updated for months

I'm not really getting what you would be franchising, though. Is it the name, or the idea, is there something more to it than is shown on the website, would you be acquiring the customers then passing the leads to the franchisee?

[Redarress]

call me a old women but I don't feel comfortable with this. You are money lenders who trade under the guise of selling photographs on credit......please correct me if I am wrong and if so accept my apology

[playerone]

singlecoil said:

playerone said:

singlecoil said:

I've had a look at your website, and I have to ask, what exactly is it that you would be franchising?

And another quick question, do you really call at people's houses to collect £10 a week?

Portrait photography. Well, the ability to do photography on low cost credit as we are primarily a finance company.

Yes. Agents visit once a week.

The website isnt a great "shop window" as we dont use it to acquire customers (due to the demographic) and we havent actually updated for months

I'm not really getting what you would be franchising, though. Is it the name, or the idea, is there something more to it than is shown on the website, would you be acquiring the customers then passing the leads to the franchisee?

The photographers who have approached us have basically said they are attracted to a regular income. We have a proven model and access to sales people. Part of our revenue would be providing sales people to them which the majority would want/need.

[playerone]

Redarress said:

call me a old women but I don't feel comfortable with this. You are money lenders who trade under the guise of selling photographs on credit......please correct me if I am wrong and if so accept my apology

hang on. "under the guise"? So we pretend to give people photos?

[TooLateForAName]

Redarress said:

call me a old women but I don't feel comfortable with this. You are money lenders who trade under the guise of selling photographs on credit......please correct me if I am wrong and if so accept my apology

The photography link has gone now - what gave you this idea? I saw the 0% interest but thought it was just for poor photography? I see the http://www.flex-finance.co.uk/ link though.

[Redarress]

As I said forgive me if I have got your business model wrong. I am not very bright.

[mybrainhurts]

Be very careful.

I know of a large company that ventured into franchising, got it wrong and the network of around ten franchisees collapsed.

The franchisor was chased through Court by about seven franchisees and settled out of Court.

Settlement was around £2.5million, plus franchisees' legal costs of around £2.5million, plus their own, undisclosed legal costs.

[playerone]

mybrainhurts said:

Be very careful.

I know of a large company that ventured into franchising, got it wrong and the network of around ten franchisees collapsed.

The franchisor was chased through Court by about seven franchisees and settled out of Court.

Settlement was around £2.5million, plus franchisees' legal costs of around £2.5million, plus their own, undisclosed legal costs.

The legal and marketing side is what Im looking at now.

Theres plenty of companies offering off the shelf contracts for a couple of thousand. But my gut says if its too good (cheap) to be true...

[therealpigdog]

PM sent

[mybrainhurts]

playerone said:

mybrainhurts said:

Be very careful.

I know of a large company that ventured into franchising, got it wrong and the network of around ten franchisees collapsed.

The franchisor was chased through Court by about seven franchisees and settled out of Court.

Settlement was around £2.5million, plus franchisees' legal costs of around £2.5million, plus their own, undisclosed legal costs.

The legal and marketing side is what Im looking at now.

Theres plenty of companies offering off the shelf contracts for a couple of thousand. But my gut says if its too good (cheap) to be true...

Forget contracts. If you don't get it right and something goes wrong, putting franchisees out of business, it's very hard to prove you weren't negligent.

It only takes a few franchisees in such a position to chase you for money they lost, and money they owe creditors, to land you with a claim as I outlined above. I think the investment in that case was around £60,000 - £80,000 per head.