How would your franchisees answer this question, “Does your franchisor have integrity?”

Integrity is what you do when nobody is watching!

Some franchisors appear to believe that when a person asks for the franchisor’s FDD they need not give it.

Why? Here is, slightly edited a franchisor’s broker’s answer,  which appeared on a major business social network.

“Because they [franchisor] are not required to provide an FDD upon request.

Here is the excerpt from the FTC 2008 updated ruling:

“Upon reasonable request, franchisors also must furnish a disclosure document to a prospective franchisee earlier in the sales process than 14 calendar days before the franchisee signs or pays.

The failure to comply with a reasonable request for an earlier delivery is an independent violation of the Rule. This does not mean that a franchisor must tender a disclosure document to any person who asks for a copy.

Rather, it applies where the parties have taken steps to begin the sales process.”

The problem is that many franchisors begin a validation process with the prospective franchisee, but believe that they haven’t “taken steps to begin the sales process”.

But, the way I see it, is if a candidate is on a validation call then I think it’s hard to dispute that you’re not knee deep in the sales process!

Some brokers will argue otherwise.

“If I took a lead to many franchisors and after the first call said to the franchisor, “the candidate would like to reasonably request an FDD at this time” most of them WOULD indeed laugh or explain their “sales process” to me where the FDD is provided after the application which comes after the webinars and other phone calls.

I can only think of a handful of times where an FDD was provided after the first call with a franchisor.”

Irrespective of FTC Franchise Rule enforcement, it’s not the candidate’s duty to know that they are entitled to an FDD upon reasonable request, it is the duty of the franchisor to comply with the FTC Rule.

If you as a broker or the franchisor has a bona fide prospect considering a particular franchise you as the broker must communicate an FDD request to the franchisor. The franchisor must fulfill the request and track and record all FDD requests.

Even if the FTC is not watching, it is not okay for franchisors and brokers to break the rule. I recommend taking a look at The Franchise Sellers Handbook. It’s a great resource and most likely will answer a lot of questions that you may have.

Remember, integrity is what you do when nobody is watching!

*Reprinted from International of Association Franchisees and Dealers Feb 2012

This Week on Franchise Today: Make Your Social Media Efforts Pay Off

This week on Franchise Today, host, Paul Segreto welcomes as his guest, Stephanie Chandler, author and speaker.

Stephanie Chandler is an author of several books including Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business, From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products, and LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business.

Stephanie is also founder and CEO of BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs, and Authority Publishing, a custom publisher specializing in non-fiction books. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has been featured in Entrepreneur magazine, BusinessWeek, and Wired magazine, and she is a contributing blogger for Forbes.

About Franchise Today

Franchise Today is hosted by Paul Segreto, President & CEO at franchisEssentials, and co-produced by well-known franchise veteran, Joe Caruso. Their unique perspective and extensive industry experience provides the foundation for relevant discussions about franchising and franchise best practices. Weekly guests include some of the brightest minds in the franchise world, with specific expertise and experience within various areas of franchising.

Other features include Franchise News, as reported by the leading franchise publications, the IFA Corner, news and events from the International Franchise Association, New Brands in Franchising, a look at up and coming franchise concepts, and “Are You Kidding Me?”, eye-opening and thought-provoking insight into the comical, and sometimes illogical side of franchising.

The team at Franchise Today is dedicated to franchise success at all levels. So, whether you’re a franchise professional looking to grow a franchise concept, needing some assistance in facing today’s challenges or would just like to better understand franchise best practices, then Franchise Today is for you!

Franchise Today airs LIVE every Thursday at 11AM CST / 12PM EST with archived segments available on-demand.

Franchisee Failure: Logical Reasons or Lame Excuses?

Some time back, posted on LinkedIn was a discussion about franchising that generalizes negative franchise experiences, places blame for the experiences on “improper practices” and ultimately forces the franchise community to defend its practices, and ultimately, its integrity. My question is, “When do franchisees take responsibility for their own actions, or in many cases, their own in-actions?”

Too often franchisors are assumed to have done something wrong in the franchise sales process, when in fact, they have been diligent throughout the process. Certainly, that does not mean there aren’t franchise sales professionals taking shortcuts and providing misleading financial performance representations. I’d be a fool not to acknowledge that this occurs! But in having surveyed hundreds of franchisees that have failed over the past five years, I have discovered a multitude of issues that may have contributed to franchisee failure. And, in only a handful of cases did these franchisees complain about false promises or improper disclosure from their franchisor.

Some of the issues that may have contributed to franchisee failure include franchisees’ lack of general business skills, little or no emotional support at home, personal or family members’ substance abuse, and as a result of just sitting back and waiting for business to come to them. With this in mind, I believe franchisee training should address business 101 skills and franchisees need to understand the necessity of grassroots marketing. With respect to the “family and personal” issues, although franchisors cannot and should not be family counselors, many do promote their franchise as a family, and as such, should attempt to identify problems when franchisees begin to show signs of failure. At least they should keep their eyes and ears open for troubling signs outside operational issues.

As we’re discusing franchise failure, I would be remiss in not first referring to my own personal experience as a franchisee.

The following is the actual LinkedIn discussion along with a few key responses. As we have always done in the past, the responders are kept anonymous and are only identified by their Linkedin position statement or by a review of their LinkedIn profile. As always, your comments are encouraged and should be submitted in the section provided below this post.

Franchising – Have you bought yourself a prison sentence?

I have recently had a number of discussions with people who had been looking to improve and secure their futures by investing in a franchise, a proven business model that, whilst perhaps not leading to a grandiose life style, should offer an honest income and self fulfilling future.

Acknowledging that there are many successful franchise opportunities, however I have been shocked by the revelations that have unfolded through my discussions. In some cases, plights of despair, with franchise agreements being sold on the pretence of realistic earning that do not even come close to reflecting reality. Many feel conned and trapped by lengthy contracts, weighted heavily in favour of the franchisor, but struggle through with acceptance because they are not necessarily dependant on the income. On the other hand, some find themselves in serious financial difficulty, with dwindled saving, remortgaging and further borrowing to survive and support a non viable business, with no easy exit and the threat of legal action for non conformity or failure to keep the business going.

If you were running a small business and it turned out to be a non viable proposition, you would most probably take the decision to close it down, learn from the experience and move on. However, one franchisee told me that they had “bought themselves a prison sentence”. As a result of the franchise they had no funds remaining to fight a case or exit from the business and were fearful of their harsh and unsympathetic franchisor.

Senior SEO and Marketing Consultant provided some perspective from outside the franchise community:

“This tragedy speaks to two serious issues that are not in fact confined to the franchise business model, yet are, due to contractual agreements and financial outlay up front, most often more severely felt.

First there’s the issue of false / misleading and otherwise deceptive sales tactics used by unscrupulous people.

The second is people wanting to buy a dream more than a business – people who truly do not comprehend the complexities or depth of commitment required in running a business in any economic situation, let alone our current economic landscape. These people almost always do little true due diligence in just about any aspect of a business model.

While many of these people are more vulnerable to unscrupulous sales tactics (as in they don’t bother to hire a accountant to do an in depth accounting, or a business attorney / barrister to review the terms), just as often many buy a business that they are not truly passionate about or think it won’t involve 60 hour work weeks at certain points.

While we can not condone unscrupulous business sales practices, we need to truly hold those looking to buy a franchise or ANY business accountable for their footwork and business sense.”

A Director of Development at a National Franchisor submitted a very detailed response:

“Given the current conditions, I think the question makes for an excellent discussion. Since no direct question was posed, I’m responding to your general request for comment regarding what I paraphrase as franchisees who buy a franchise which is not viable and then feel trapped by the terms and of the franchise agreement. For me, you’re looking at three components: (1) integrity of the selection process (sales process), (2) performance of the franchisor and franchisee, (3) contemplations on the missing “no fault” termination by the franchisee (the prison).

1. The sales process is not a yes/no or right/wrong proposition. Each franchisor is defined by a number of characteristics: lifecycle, capitalization, experience, management team, strategy, customers, etc. Likewise, each prospect has different personal goals, experience, talents, discipline, and aptitude for being a franchisee within the confines of a system. Alignment between the Zor and Zee from the onset is critical. I understand the UK does not have Disclosure Laws which makes this process all the more difficult and important. The question every Zee should ask is… am I prepared to fail? In my experience, prospects would rather “make money now” than conduct disciplined due diligence to select the opportunity making them easy prey. See link for more.

2. Mutual Performance is required. Need not be said but was not mentioned in your post. I’m a firm believer that businesses don’t fail for one reason alone but a series of bad decisions over time. With that being said, I’ve found one of the fastest ways to failure for a franchisee is lack of capitalization by the franchisee to carry through a rough opening or difficult time. A solid turnaround often times requires capital that just isn’t available. Franchising is a strategy for growth using other people’s money. Franchisors rarely bailout franchisees.

3. The thrust of your question really is the word “prison” which I can only conclude evolves from the reality that while franchisors can terminate the franchise agreement based on default conditions a franchisee does not have the courtesy of a “no fault” termination. (ie… Franchisee may terminate the franchise agreement/close the business with 60 days notice.) As a franchisor, it’s important to note that we’re building a system with a number of franchisees and only one franchisor. The strength of any system is its size and stability. Allowing franchisees to simply walk away is not always in the best interest of the franchisor, the customers of the brand or franchisees who might be operating nearby. Indeed, a no fault termination could cause havoc for a system at the first sign of danger.

Still, franchisees actually have three exit options: (a) find a buyer (nearby franchisee, someone looking for a new challenge, which can be approved by the franchisor. etc) and transfer the agreement; or (b) request a “workout” from the franchisor; or (c) declare bankruptcy as a franchisor usually reserves the right to legally terminate the Franchise Agreement in the event of bankruptcy or other creditor issues. If the Zor/Zee were aligned and both worked hard to make the business work, the Zor should be able to find a way to let the franchisee out of the deal. More often than not, a reasonable workout can be provided with the franchisor assuming the business or closing it on mutual terms with the franchisee. Workouts don’t work when the franchisee is unwilling to take some/all of the responsibility for the failure of their business. It’s not the job of the franchisor to bail the franchisee out… indeed doing so would cause challenges for the system and tax the successful franchisees that are performing. In all cases, it is very important to clearly review the terms of the agreement and seek legal advice.”

A very prominent franchise consultant provided his perspective:

“I can only add that I’ve been involved in franchising for 30 years and during that time I’ve certainly met unhappy, disgruntled and failed franchisees — and some who failed because they selected faulty franchise systems and didn’t necessarily do anything wrong themselves.

Fact is: Not all franchise companies are created equal. Some are better than others.

The thing that always gets me is the failed franchisee who is boo-hooing because they’re “held prisoner,” they had no options, they “bought a job,” they didn’t know any better, they were misled, even lied to . . . come on now. It’s possible that happens to some of the people some of the time — but it doesn’t happen all that often EXCEPT to people who allow it to happen.

People don’t want to accept that there are no guarantees. They think they should be able to buy a franchise and be wildly successful just because it’s a franchise. They’re shocked to find out that it doesn’t always work that way. And if you ask them how much homework they did, who they asked about the opportunity, did they ask others: “Is this the same as buying a job?” . . . “Do you feel imprisoned by the franchisor?” . . . “Do you think you were misled about how much money you can earn?” . . . etc. etc. etc, it turns out they didn’t do any (or much) real homework.

Thanks to the recession, we may be coming out of the Age of Entitlement, and that will benefit franchising, network marketing, and all other forms of business.”

A Founding Partner of a Media Business provided his perspective based upon prior ownership of a franchise:

“My wife and I owned a franchise on the East Coast for a while. We used it as a transition from the corporate world to getting the courage to do “our own thing” and form our own business. Here is my take on franchises (we investigated 10 franchises before buying one specific franchise): we dealt with a really good, top-notch franchise consultant, by the way:

1. You’re essentially using your capital to “buy” a new job or career. It just comes wrapped in a business model which may or may not work depending on your region, local area, local culture, and most important, your level of effort and seriousness.

2. As long as you’re a franchisee, you will be paying rights, royalties, percentages of your hard-earned income, to a franchisor. That money comes off your top line, by the way.

3.Some franchises are innovative and create significant improvements in their products or services; others have founders who lose their excitement or will to develop innovations when they’ve made their money, BUT you’re still paying royalties and fees to them.

4. Many franchises and franchise types are profitable only if one obtains employees from the bottom of the economic barrel, because they must pay “bottom of the barrel” wages in order to break even or make a profit. That level of employee is often undependable, turnover of employees is inordinately high, and one often spends days without adequate staffing when employees don’t show up.

5. Because one hires from the bottom of the economic barrel and is paying not much over minimum wage, one feels (at least we felt) that we were exploiting people.

6. Finally, “owning” a franchise, because of the often restrictive nature of the business model, the marks, the methodologies, is just as often about NOT being in charge of your own business as it is about being in charge of your business. When all else fails, read my comment number 1 above.”

Last, an entrepreneur of what appears to be an independent business responded:

“Isolating individual experiences and calling that a pattern or problem with franchising might be a little misleading. It’s not a perfect world and if you have 100 of anything, a certain percentage of that number will not pan out for an infinite number of reasons. there are a lot of bad franchisors out there, and there are a lot of bad franchisees. As for the bad franchisees, a good franchisor should 1) never should have awarded to them and agreed to their locations etc and 2) some franchisees never follow thru on the execution and hard work.”

Need additional food for thought? Here’s another interesting article.

*This post was originally published on this site December 2010.

“Google for Franchises” on Facebook

Google for Franchises has been developed as a resource to the franchise community by franchisEssentials.

This Facebook page was developed to provide the franchise community a one-stop resource to learn about Google, including breaking news, updates, articles, whitepapers, presentations, videos and much more…

As all will agree, Google is such a major component of every franchise organization’s digital strategy. But, with so much information about Google and its new products and services, it’s overwhelming to keep up to date. Hopefully, Google for Franchises will help make it easier for franchises to keep up to date and to use Google effectively.

Please take a moment to visit the Google for Franchises Facebook page, LIKE it, and share with others.

Thank you!

IFA Member Feedback Requested

The following is correspondence I received today from Matthew A. Haller, Sr. Director of Communications | International Franchise Association. In order to assist in spreading the word and gathering information, I am excited to share the same with FranchisEssentials clients and subscribers, as well as to all my franchise social media friends, connections and followers.

This year, the IFA Convention’s Technology Summit will feature speakers from two of our newest members: Facebook and Google. Both organizations understand the franchising world has unique requirements and challenges and would like to better understand these unique issues. This feedback site has been created as a simple one-way communication channel for IFA members to submit their suggestions on what they would like to see each of these speakers address during the Tech Summit at this year’s convention. I would encourage you to send the link to the companies you represent or to fill out the questionnaires on their behalf.

Also, if you’re on Twitter, please RT this link to your followers so we can solicit as much feedback as possible from the franchising community: https://twitter.com/#!/Franchising411/status/162562851402293248

Please let me know if you have any questions and looking forward to seeing many of you in a few weeks in Orlando!

 

Thanks,
Matt