[Indoor]

I'm buying Dublcheck franchisee. Please tell me it is a good comapny? I will invest 20 K ...so I need advise from you guys ! ..

[Dust Knights]

What are you getting for your £20k investment?

If it's for the name and reputation I'd invest my money elsewhere?

Chris

[The Great One]

Hi

£20,000!!!

I stsrted my cleaning business with £50, turnover for the last 3 years about £72,000.

You will need to make £20,000 before you see any profit, and thats not including monthly fee's.

I have been down the Franchise route, please think very carefully, £20,000 is a lot of debt to be in, plus all the stress that comes from any new business venture.

Regards

Martin

[d s cleaning]

20k for what? a name, fancy overpriced stationary, little else and dont forget a percentage of your profits each year you may also have to go out of your way to do a job you dont realy want at a price you may think is too cheap taking into account of where the job is (parcleforce and interflora may get there in 30 mins they know all the short cuts and and who knows what this may take you 45 mins to find and dont forget you also have to get back) if it was me i would keep me 20k use some to advertise and some to invest ie pension

[Liahona]

Indoor, you need to let us know what it is you are getting for your investment.  Without this knowledge we can not inform you if it is good or bad.  Martin started off with 50 quid which is nice as it is a very low start up cost  but accordingly has a very low turnover.  You may well get back your investment every month or at worse two months making it money well invested.  Again it really depends on what the provisions are for the 20k.  Some franchises are twice what you are being asked for but provide 30 to 40,000 pounds worth of work per month.  Not for everyone, granted but nevertheless the rewards are great.  I invested almost 50k to set up my business but accordingly I profit many times over that amount per year.  Each to their own but as long as the return is worth the investment then good luck to anyone how they chose to do that which they do.  Good luck whatever you decide, best, Dave.

[john smith]

if your intent on building an asset base, then check that your franchise can be passed on to another family member when you retire, or god forbid (on sudden death).

It may be the case that it has to go back to the franchisor?

This is a point that is too often over looked.

[Len Gribble]

Thought you were interested in nic?

Before DC started they had the master UK franchise of JK.

Len

[heritagecleaning]

I was a Dublcheck franchisee once. I would advise you not to.


Owen

[The Great One]

Hi

Start up cost is not relevent to income.

If i want I can go after commercial contracts but I choose not too, Cleaning for me is a means to an end, not something I intend to do for the rest of my life. 

I have other business interests that can yeild far more than cleaning ever could, but until such time, it's marigolds on.

Regards

Martin

[martin19842]

hi there

indoor,

email me  martin.sales@btinternet.com

you dont want to be signing a cheque for £20k,

what area of the country are you in??

there are far more better ways of you getting up and going.

we started 3 years ago,
with £5Kinvestment,
6 months later another £10K investment,
all investment repaid in first 12 months,
and now turnover rolling 12 months to date turnover in excess of £250k,
a good salary, company vehicles,and a reasonable standard of living.
!!!
hard work, sweat and toil, and great fun, i must be mad!!!!

harder work, and then even better returns.

your £20k can be used a whole lot more effectively than a franchise.

i.e.

a chap was selling on here a vehicle, pressure washer and bowser,
add to that some targetted marketing, and some effective networking, and one business up and running.

there are so many more ideas.

a question to be asked of yourself??

why do i need to buy a franchise,  ??
can i not run my own business froim the ground up ??

the wrong answer to the above questions, may indicate that you dont have the right mental attitude to deliver the goods.

its only an opinion

regards

martin

[murky]

We used to be a franchise but walked away.

I have to say I have never heard of them and I looked at allsorts of franchises.

Why spend 20k on a business start up doing this, most take your money and then leave you alone. You need to have a business or sales background to get these off the floor, and then of course if you had you wouldnt give them 20k to do something you could have done yourself anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look on here for general advice on starting a business, go buy a Henry and some bits and pieces and off you go.

[Robert Parry]

Some people prefer a turnkey solution, others dont, there are many ways to enter the world of business, including the cleaning business.

At the end of the day, you always get what you pay for, for you to invest £20k , then ask the forum if this is a good idea, rings alarm bells for me, investing that amount of money, without any sort of background checks, is in my opinion foolish. You should have already checked out the franchise company in minute detail, financially, marketing, training etc. From your post, i dont believe this to be the case, you should have taken advice from your bank, accountant and the other franchise holders, and not just the names the company give you either.

The other advice on here, that all you need to do is buy a hoover, mop bucket etc and away you go, again is the wrong way to enter the industry, at least 80% of all self employed or so called companies within this industry start out this way, now dont get me wrong, some advice given on this forum is good, but most is tosh, the blind leading the blind as it were.

You can find this type of advice by the bucket load on this forum and others, most of it, i will concede, given with only the best of intentions, now please dont get me wrong, i am not a millionaire, nor am i an expert in all areas of cleaning or Health & Safety, employment law, but if i dont know, i entrust experts instead.

What I am certain of, is that we offer our clients a top notch service at a price that is both fair and reasonable, tailored to their exact requirements.

So my final advice would be to check out your franchisor, utilising the expertise of others, and dont rush in to any deal, keep reading the forum and asking questions, and only when your satisfied that you are making the right decision go ahead and decide if this is something you want to persue, the best of luck.

Regards,

Rob

[Cleaning Resource]

I knew some one with a minster cleaning franchise, he had to pay them 7% of his turnover (yes turnover, not profit) they put so much pressure on him to get the turnover high that he was taking contracts which hardly earned  him anything, just to keep them of his back.............................. ; :

personally I can`t see what a franchise can offer you that you can`t do yourself, it`ll be like having a partner who takes a cut of your money for doing sod  ::)all

[Indoor]

For 20 K i will get £26,400 a year
" Guaranteed " ..    every additional  14 K a year will cost me 5 K ...English is my second language ..so Franchise is best for me to get any work ..Thank You guys for advice

[martin19842]

hi there

indoor, you need to read the small print on that guaranteed bit, its not as easy as that.

regards

martin

[Indoor]

I was a Dublcheck franchisee once. I would advise you not to.


Owen

Why ? tell me more    mosszahary@tlen.pl

[Indoor]

Indoor, you need to let us know what it is you are getting for your investment.  Without this knowledge we can not inform you if it is good or bad.  Martin started off with 50 quid which is nice as it is a very low start up cost  but accordingly has a very low turnover.  You may well get back your investment every month or at worse two months making it money well invested.  Again it really depends on what the provisions are for the 20k.  Some franchises are twice what you are being asked for but provide 30 to 40,000 pounds worth of work per month.  Not for everyone, granted but nevertheless the rewards are great.  I invested almost 50k to set up my business but accordingly I profit many times over that amount per year.  Each to their own but as long as the return is worth the investment then good luck to anyone how they chose to do that which they do.  Good luck whatever you decide, best, Dave.

I get 26 K / year ..additional 14 K/ year  for  5 K  (investment of :  20 ooo this includes 8 K " one time franchise fee "

[Cleaning Resource]

there are alot of cleaning contracts worth that, surely you could manage to get one contract worth 30k without spending 20K, when you think the ave contract say for 2hrs a day 5 days per week is worth min 5k a year you only have to get 5 to match the 25k they "guarantee you"  :

[Indoor]

there are alot of cleaning contracts worth that, surely you could manage to get one contract worth 30k without spending 20K, when you think the ave contract say for 2hrs a day 5 days per week is worth min 5k a year you only have to get 5 to match the 25k they "guarantee you"  :

Do you help me ?? ...heheheh..I will pay you 10 K cash  if you find 30 K work for me

[Ian Gourlay]

As I see one advatage of a Franchise is a way to hide inexperience, and have Rules such as Staff , Healthy Saftety sorted for you


If you use a Franchise people think you are a big company.

What is the diffrence between a Franchise and Large Company

Both could employ people with No Experience.

Franchises do depend on the size of your wallet.

Hopefully if a large company was seeking a Manager they would be able to choose from qualified people.

Selling

Coping wih rejection is the hardest thing by the sounds of it Dubcheck does the selli for you.

In their advert they qoute reasonable Margins but the question would be are all contracts sold negotiated to achieve this price with the correct level of staff.

[heritagecleaning]

I can't discuss my case because, when we parted company, we signed a kind of severance contract. A clause of this was that I am only allowed to state that the matter was concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.

But, DON'T, PLEASE DON'T


Owen

[Liahona]

Ok, now we have the relevant info I would advise not to invest your monies.  As has been said you could do much better with the 20k.  I have never put monies into advertising but if I put 20k in I would hope to see a better return than what you have been told you will get.  I pay a lad who knows nothing about this business more than 25k a year and he's 19.  I must add though he is brilliant and has learned well.  So I am not disrespecting him by my comments.  Best, Dave.

 Where are you based?  If you are daft enough to give out 10k to get a measley 30k a year in return I ll take your money.  Actually no I wont, wouldnt be fair.  Even I dont get 10k a week so I am not going to take it off of you.......

[Indoor]

I can't discuss my case because, when we parted company, we signed a kind of severance contract. A clause of this was that I am only allowed to state that the matter was concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.

But, DON'T, PLEASE DON'T


Owen

Sorry. But still ..you dont have any argument against them." Please dont " - is not a argument ..anyway if something goes wrong 20 K is not that big investment. So I think in my case ( English not good enough to sell ) Franchisee is a best Idea

[richyvezy]

anyway if something goes wrong 20 K is not that big investment.

What ?? You must have money to burn then, that's all I can say !!

Richy

[Atlantic Cleaning]

 Believe me you will loose much more than your investment. I have been down the franchise root and the only ones that make money is the franchisor. My advice is DONT you will regret it, you may as well go up to a stranger in the street and give them 20k

Duncan

[heritagecleaning]

Indoor

Look, you've asked the question and plemty of people have told you not to do it. Both myself and Atlantic Cleaning have ACTUALLY OWNED cleaning franchises and we say don't do it....what more of a qualified answer could you hope for?

Plus, if 20K isn't that much to you then why not invest it down the bookies? I hear the returns are fantastic.


Owen

[martin19842]

hi there

i have also seen the inside of the franchise industry.

i am now running my own non franchise business and ding well enough.

£8k franchisee fee, wow,

there is absolutely loads of potential business in your area

regards

martin

[Indoor]

Indoor

Look, you've asked the question and plemty of people have told you not to do it. Both myself and Atlantic Cleaning have ACTUALLY OWNED cleaning franchises and we say don't do it....what more of a qualified answer could you hope for?

Plus, if 20K isn't that much to you then why not invest it down the bookies? I hear the returns are fantastic.


Owen

I Owned Coverall Cleaning Concept in USA ..I was very happy with them. Sorry but it depends on experience. mine was very good.

[Cleaning Resource]

there are alot of cleaning contracts worth that, surely you could manage to get one contract worth 30k without spending 20K, when you think the ave contract say for 2hrs a day 5 days per week is worth min 5k a year you only have to get 5 to match the 25k they "guarantee you"  :

Do you help me ?? ...heheheh..I will pay you 10 K cash  if you find 30 K work for me

all the work I bring in stays with me i`m affraid......................

[Ian Rochester]

Indoor,

It sounds to me that you have already made up your mind, or more likely already made your investment!

You asked and hoped for people to say that it was a wise decision, they haven't, that's obviously upset you and now you're getting on the defensive!

I looked into franchaises when I first started out and the investment and running costs did not meet up with what I wanted from my business.  I also asked the questions from people who had done franchaising and took there advice.

Remember you will have no say in how you run your business.

I have looked at their website and it appears that you need to buy a licence for every individual area of cleaning that you want to do, carpets, ovens, etc.

If you are paying them £5K for every £14K of business, where is your profit going to be?  35.7% of that £14K is going to them, even a very good business will struggle to make an operating profit of 40%, I can't see where your profit will come from.

You will hear many more sad stories than happy stories when if comes to franchaises.

If you have already invested, then best of luck, if not then look very carefully at what you are doing.

[The Great One]

HI

I have to agree with Ian.

I had people begging me not to Franchise about 7 years ago. I didn't listen to them and got pig headed about it and went ahead anyway.

When I needed their backup they hung me out to dry.

I was based in a shopping centre/mall and the management of the centre kept moving me about and customers were finding it hard to keep finding me, thought i'd packed in and left, no help from franchisor.

Couldn't open for 1 day, centre put me in breach of contract and put me out of business, to save the site franchisor asked me to sell up cheap so he could put someone else in (unknown to me at the time) Guess what i am trying to say is that the Franchisor is in business to look after themselves not always you.

They all say in their marketing they only succeed if you succeed etc, etc

But that is exactly what it is, Marketing, the Franchise agreement is ALWAYS in their favour.

If you have already done it then really the best of luck, if it goes bad don't be embarassed to say so, other people may learn from your experiences.

Regards

Martin

[heritagecleaning]

Martin

Who were you with?


Owen

[Indoor]

HI

I have to agree with Ian.

I had people begging me not to Franchise about 7 years ago. I didn't listen to them and got pig headed about it and went ahead anyway.

When I needed their backup they hung me out to dry.

I was based in a shopping centre/mall and the management of the centre kept moving me about and customers were finding it hard to keep finding me, thought i'd packed in and left, no help from franchisor.

Couldn't open for 1 day, centre put me in breach of contract and put me out of business, to save the site franchisor asked me to sell up cheap so he could put someone else in (unknown to me at the time) Guess what i am trying to say is that the Franchisor is in business to look after themselves not always you.

They all say in their marketing they only succeed if you succeed etc, etc

But that is exactly what it is, Marketing, the Franchise agreement is ALWAYS in their favour.

If you have already done it then really the best of luck, if it goes bad don't be embarassed to say so, other people may learn from your experiences.

Regards

Martin

If something goes wrong I wll notify you immediately.

[Indoor]

If you are paying them £5K for every £14K of business, where is your profit going to be?  35.7% of that £14K is going to them, even a very good business will struggle to make an operating profit of 40%, I can't see where your profit will come from.



Yes its true ..but if you keep contract for another year you have 100 % - (12.5 % franchisee fee). So its not that bad ....The problem is to keep customers happy for long long time

[Len Gribble]

Martin

A fool and it money are soon parted  , join the gang  . What a learning curve.

INDOOR

I have a list in the region 500 happy franchises  ; I only know of one who was very ecstatic got a DTI loan.

Len

[The Great One]

HI

Hey Len!

Not spoken for ages, hope you are well?

Yep, a vertical learning curve, amazing when you Franchise you think you will be well looked after, ah well.

But, in retrospect I am kind of happy I ended up -£72,000 in debt. Not because of the amazing pressure it put on me & my family but of the financial education that I cannot get anywhere else, no business school can give the education losing a business can.

This is why I had to start my cleaning business with £50, always tough starting a business with nothing. Although I have only turned over about £72,000 in 3 years I am quite proud of myself for that acheivement, it is a great ROI.

Now I analyze everything business wise, is it worth it? what return can I expect?
How soon til I get my money back? Can I really afford it?

About 3 weeks after I lost my business I read a book that changed my life, it's called ' RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert Kiyosaki.

I cannot recommend this book enough, 4 months after reading it I was back in business and still in it.

Regards

Martin

[Len Gribble]

Hi Martin

Very well thanks, hope you and family are well.


Ps hwe is the way to go!

Len

[Happyeater]

Looks like indoor is either a 'fisherman' or has made his mind up already to get a franchise.

As an ex-employee of a Franchisor, I'd say don't do it. Do a search on franchises and see for yourself. Ask to speak to all of their franchisees, dont accept the brush off or the 'you have to respect their privacy' line to keep you away from the unhappy ones (which is most of them).

If you really want one, go get one but dont ever say you weren't warned.

[excelcrewe]

i too say no dont do it. ihad afranchise fees paid monthly even if you had no work . istarted with little money and dont have the worry of finding the fees .its a great feeling being in a bisiness i have built up.

[niceandclean]

Hi Indoor.
I tell you what, ill get you a website up and running, design your company ident, market and sell your business for you for £12000! Then ill take a percentage of the contracts i/you get as well from then on! How does that sound? 

[Indoor]

I bought Dublcheck 3 months ago. That was the best decision in my bussines life.

[Art]

I bought Dublcheck 3 months ago. That was the best decision in my bussines life.

I would've agreed with all the don't do it posts on this thread.

Glad it's going ok for you.

Arthur

[Bertie Boo]

indoor

what exactly is your business?

stephen

[cml]

[I'm buying Dublcheck franchisee. Please tell me it is a good comapny? I will invest 20 K ...so I need advise from you guys ! ..
]

Indoors with respect you did not need advice if you bought this 3 months ago and thought it was the best thing you ever did. What ever advice the forum gave we could not have changed your current position unless you are now in doubt about what you have paid for and wanted out.  What happened to your USA Franchise?  Is this still operating and  successfully being a Franchise also? 

I understand why you went for a franchise given your reasons about the lanuage and you may believe that by doing this it will get your into companies.  When it comes to your sales pitching  with the money you've spent you could have hired someone to do the sales for you.  Having used a Franchise before you could have answered your own doubts.  You know you have no control over your business and still don't have confidence in sales pitching which is key to expanding any business.  So the questions is do you intend to grow your business or work for someone else and if so you may be happy with that for which you paid £20K for.

I do wish you luck and hope this lives up to your expectations. As a suggestion when dealing with some of the clients they may want to talk to you about other services.  Use these opportunity to get to grips with how you can present yourself and your services and you may just find you do not need a francise after all.

[The Great One]

Hi

If his original post was 6 months ago, then the question was valid.

Hope it works out, but you may find yourself becoming disenfranchised.

Regards

Martin

[Indoor]

After 4.5 years..Im still with Dublcheck.....so far so great !!! They helped me a lot..they friendly..helpful..Im very happy with them

[BDCS]

I've looked at their website but don't understand what your £20k+ buys. I can see the "invest and get my hand held for a while" security but in real terms ar'nt you just someone else's bitch. Surely you are just their onsite contracts manager ?

[Buckland]

This might explain quite a bit:

http://www.startuptv.co.uk/directory/franchise/dublcheck/dublcheck-interview.html


Carol is an impressive no-nonsense lass, you can see why she would get business, and I guess she still leads the sales team - lets hope she's got some equally impressive back-up because when she wants to take a back seat if she ain't got the A team in place it may all go t---s up

Their accounting procedures at the end of the FY must make interesting reading - how do they value the incumbencies in terms of guranteed business that they owe to franchisees? which side of the P and L do they put that little lot - if I was buying business from them I'd pay to see a copy of their trading and PL accounts etc

Anyway good luck to indoor - interesting thread what with franchises being so prevalent in our business sectors (CARPETS, DRIVES, CLEANING etc) - personally I'd run a mile before buying or even considering a franchise UNLESS you really are guaranteed business  like this one claims to do. And lets not forget maccadees and that lot are generally franchises - they have to start somewhere - unless there is alot of bad karma out there about a master franchise company they can pick up fresh meat fairly regular and esp when times is challenging like now with lots of public sector workers with payoffs and pensions are being put out to grass. In this day and age you have got to have something unique to be a successful franchisor - either an exclusive bit of kit (i.e. eco graffiti removal system, eco anti-fouling stripping etc) or a unique marketing system that has proven itself - its seems to me in this case the number one asset you are buying into with dublcheck may be carol herself...

It occurred to me initially that indoor was an agent provocateur (fisherman someone said) trying to flush out some free publicity for dublecheck but I have to admit it was a pretty good disguise...

Anyway the best bit of advice you can give anyone who is thinking of taking up a franchise (apart from DONT) is contained in those three letters D I Y...