Hershie , it seems you have some knowledge on franchise, but it seems there is one thing you DONT have namely knowledge on a SUCCESFULL franchise,

yours obviously did not work out ,but I am sure that this does not mean ALL franchises are going to flop ;)

what's a pakistani indian?

It sounds like you killed yourself trying to expand before you had one store nailed. Having a "master franchise" is a lot different than running one location. Seven shops in 5 years without someone good helping is pretty hardcore, almost as if you were doomed the second you started.

Sorry but my franchises were very successful and profitable. I am pointing out the surrounding issues and highlighting the realities of the business, to help people like you who see the business through rose coloured glasses.

thanks for the advise then , but succes is not the same as failure

if I look back on succes I speak positive

If I look back on failure I speak negative

:2 cents:

there all fucking indians to me, you know the ones, especially if you live in the city :winkwink: There cool and all with their barely coherent accents, but we all know the only cheaper people in the world are chinese porn consumers :1orglaugh

stereotypes are cool

In high school my friend (a hot chick) had a family member who owend a dominos they seemed to have a lot of money.

Indians or maybe Hindus that live in Pakistan? Actually, Pakistan and India were part of the same country during the British Raj. The country was split into two to give Moslems a homeland in the late 40s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Pakistan

stereotypes exist for one reason or another, alot of the times they fit the bill. Denying indians are cheapasses is just silly. Cheers

There is a wide chasm between the romantic notions people have about opening up a food franchise or a bed-and-breakfast and the reality of operating them. I am trying to fill in the chasm a bit if possible. I have lots of good things to say too but a dose of seeing how bad things can get is also healthy to read.

I for one sincerely appreciate your comments since they add realism and nuance to this discussion. While it's good to see the upside of an opportunity, in oder to succeed it's important to approach opportunities knowing the downside and challenges as well.

Of course not. THe guy making 75k gross is probably in the top 2%.

With franchises like these you have to find a good key location, and have a few of them.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Best post in this thread.

lol, damn you are ignorant

If he's wrong, please inform us how stereotypes are formed?

Yes, they can often be wrong and its a little silly to solely judge someone based on stereotypes alone, but they are formed for a reason.

Yes, under estimating the issues surrounding staffing requirements was a massive flaw. I had my brother in-law there to help but his role was more securing real estate for future locations...than operations and I just couldn't find decent staff and especially competent management that could allow me to sleep peacefully. We had over 100 employees and since the stores were open 24/7, having good trained enthusiatic managers was the only way to expand beyond 2 stores without triggering a nervous breakdown.

A hot chick with an endless supply of Domino's ... who can argue with that :thumbsup

Too many rules as a franchisee - too many obstructions for an entrepreneur - you'd get stuck in a rut quickly... i believe in developing your own brand...

You have to go to Dunkin Donuts University near Boston for around 8 weeks to be able to open a franchise. They make you learn the standards of how to properly bake the donuts...so you can teach this to staff. They have very strict specs and guidelines you must follow, and I imagine they have lessened the manufacturing burden in the years since I sold my stores since it was so bloody hard to manufacture properly prepared donuts.

With Dunkin, you had to fork over 9.9% of your gross sales. Ouch. 4.9% was franchise fees and 5% advertising fees.

The rules were crazy and the franchisor's pimp hand was very strong in enforcing their rules on the franchisee. The franchisor could push you around all they wanted contractually and even force you to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in leasehold improvements to adopt their new colour scheme...

Obstructions for some may be quality and operational standards for others. :2 cents:

Little Caesars has customers lined up out the door on the week nights.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :thumbsup

Same thing happened with Krispy Kreme opened in Van Nuys (it was the first SF Valley branch). My God, it's like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and the Grateful Dead appeared in one concert. Traffic for miles.


Then........ the whole Low Carbs/Atkins thing hit and Krispy Kreme looked like downtown Pnomh Penh during the Khmer Rouge days. Desolate.

It was maddening to see a franchisee in a nearby town produce crap product or let their donuts sit for sale more than the 12 hour time limit just to save some money at the cost of killing the brand for the rest of the franchisees.

If you open a franchise, make sure the franchisor enforces the standards strongly as one rogue store can hurt the rest significantly.

True. But Hershie, care to elaborate on the ADVANTAGES of being a franchisee as opposed to having your own brand built from scratch?

The power of a strong brand is off the charts vis a vis the success rate of a food business over one that opens without the known quantity of the name/system. For instance, the Dunkin Donuts sign near the road was the only reason I had lineups at the counter from day one. I think the 4.9% franchise fee is a steal to leverage the billions of dollars spent building up the brand over the decades and familiarity people have with the name/product...

$5 Chicken Wings

Build a pizza shop on a college campus $$$ Mad money man. Us college kids eat it like crazy!

:1orglaugh :thumbsup With or without that kickass blue cheese dip?

As someone who managed convenience stores for 5 years, I agree that 24 hour businesses suck in a major way.

Personally I think that if you know how to run a business you're better off starting your own brand than you are going the franchise route.
All you really get with a franchise is a brand. Brands are powerful things but the negatives outweigh the positives IMHO.

With a franchise your business can be taken away from you at any time.
The convenience store chain I worked for went into acquisition mode and bought a small chain that had about 200 company owned stores and about 60 franchises.
They immediately put a team of lawyers to work at getting the franchise stores back under company control and within 2 years all the franchisees were gone.
These were people who put their life savings into their franchise businesses and in the end were left with nothing.

You either know how to run a business or you don't. Even with a franchise you're still going to have to buy equipment, a location, hire and train staff, etc etc.
The only difference is if you open Ma and Pa's sub shop nobody will know who you are whereas if you open a subway you'll probably get business immediately.
IMHO you're better off spending the franchise fee and the monthly % that you would pay to the franchisor and just spend it on advertising and marketing to build your own brand, and then you'll have a business that's 100% yours.

:2 cents:

no offense but being just a store manager, either you weren't 'in the know' on the acquisition procecess, or you are talking out of your ass.

Anyone know the average amount of time for a KFC to return investment?

Who ever said I was just a store manager?

Believe me or not, I don't care, it's not my money at risk.

Do some research and I'm sure you'll find dozens of stories just like the one I've told about companies that changed gears and decided franchisees were no longer part of their long term business plan.

fast food still in? not up here.. more and more people getting a more healthy lifestyle so you might think about that aswell..

Do a search for a Canadian company called I think Bitove or Scott's in Canada. They have hundreds of KFC franchises in Canada and turned the company into a public company trading on the stock market, so they have all sorts of financial records/disclosure info. available on the net.

Someone just opened up a Quiznos here about a week ago. So far, it seems to be doing really well. We'll see how it does after it's newness wears off.

what's the net?

what the fuck is a pakistani indian? they're two different countries. sounds like you don't know your "friend" that well...

I stereotype you as an idiot.

Applied and got rejected in the GTA area :(

You actually have to work for Domino's for a number of years as a fulltime manager before you can become a franchisee

restaurants are small profit margin high traffic needed.. Fuck that shit.

For locations within Europe (not sure about the market and its maturity in US) I would suggest starting a Wok resto like http://www.noodlebox.com.au

Like any other business... INTENSE research is key or else you might fail.

My experience leads me to completely agree. The food industry is also a highly stressful place to work, with all the time constraints to produce product, dangerous equipment, worries of food quality and especially cleanliness and food safety, all the team work needed with stressed out co-workers, long bad hours, dealings with the public. When you are a manager/owner there are of course zillions more crap piled on all that.

I was the manager of one of the busiest Pizza Hut's in North America when I lived in Toronto. Constant craziness but wow impressive volume.

I had a friend in High School who's parents owned several subways. They were pretty well off. Before I got into online porn I did some basic research on subway franchises. If my memory serves me correct, each subway usually makes $10-30K net yearly. So ya you need several before you're making decent money. So what happens when you can find 2 good locations but can't find a 3rd? You can easily be stuck owning a few, working full time and still only make $30K. They aren't like a simply winning lottery ticket. It takes time and hard work.

Location does play a HUGE part in any store/restaurant etc.. But keep in mind that a great location not only will get u more sales BUT the rent will also be a lot higher as well.

Basically there's a ton of factors that go into running any franchise and they are anything but easy. Be prepared to work very hard, put in lots of hours and still have no guarantee of success.

P.S. Yes there are exceptions to everything and I'm sure there are people that get lucky with the perfect great location, perfect rent etc.. and can make a boatload off 1 or 2 locations.

It also helps to know the demographics of the area and their tastes.