[Grafters Cleaning Services]

I’ve been reading this thread with great interest over the Last few days and this is my thoughts on the matter.

Many years ago a friend of mine moved back to the UK after living abroad for a few years, (fortunately, or un-fortunately as it turned out) he had a few quid in the bank to invest in a business so he decided to buy a franchise (making sandwiches and delivering them to shops, garages etc. )

He thought it would be the right thing for him so after investing his money then recruiting 2 early morning  staff to make them and 1 driver to deliver them, small industrial unit, fridges, van and the list went on and on.

After about a year or so he finally cottoned on to the fact that he was forever paying out money for the running costs of the business plus his percentage to the franchise owners, he infact was slowly but surely getting deeper into debt.   

Eventually he sold it on at a great loss and went to work for someone else rather than being his own boss, during this period of his life he almost lost his home and wife due to the stress.
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Now I for one do not know what Ian or any other party is offering with a franchise, it may be a good deal for some but not for others the big question is would I buy in to a franchise?
The answer simply is NO!
Why?
(1) because I do not need to,
(2) I would rather be in control of my business
And third being as follows
(3) I’m not sure of the set up cost of the franchise but figures that have been spoken about on this forum are as follows.
Set up £15,000 followed by 15% of the generated income (hope I got this right?)
Expected income to be £4000 - £5000 per month
Okay so lets go with these figures, if these are correct and you pay £15,000 then achieve the £5000 per month (certainly not unrealistic)
You will have made £60,000 in your 1st year but then you will have to pay your 15% (£9000) plus set up cost of £15,000 so you will have paid out a total of £24,000.

Now lets look at this at a different angle
Buy a half decent van £5000
Buy a diy system £1000
Total outlay £6000
Employ a canvasser to build a round for you @ twice face value (the norm)
Do this in a steady affordable package ie,
1st month he gets you £2000 worth you pay him £4000 (approx earnings £500 per week)
If you required double this amount ie £1000 per week (over 4 weeks) you would have paid your canvasser £8000 in total, bear in mind once paid for it’s all yours and no percentage to pay on it each month/year.
You could alternatively buy a round @ 2 times the turnover (again the norm)

By using this method you would have paid out a total of £14,000 to get a van, system and round together (cheaper than a franchise but more importantly) SOLE OWNERSHIP

Let me just finish by saying these are just my thoughts and have no beef with anyone trying to start up a franchise (good luck to them) it’s just not for me.

[bluez]

Jay,
Thats a good post. It clearly shows that you are not a potential candidate for purchasing a window cleaning franchises.

A lot of the views on Franchising that are expressed on here are based on a false assumption that the franchise is at fault if the franchisee is not successful.(see your reference to sandwich making franchise)

The business owner (ie the franchisee) is at fault if the business fails to suceed. buying a franchise is not a garauntee of sucess it is only buying the rights to a system / method of working and a brand.

Ask yourselves this question....If I as a sole trader fail in my business endevour is it someone else's fault or mine. The obvious answer is that it is my fault. Why then does it become someone else's fault if it is a franchise. I make the decision to part with my hard earned readdies not someone else.

Ian's Franchise, does not over promise, It delivers what it says on the tin, if a potential franchisee finds that  he is not suited to the business for whatever reason then tough same as if I as a newbie started up and bought a system and a van and then found that I wasn't suited to w/c.

The big assumption on franchising is that window cleaners buy window cleaning franchises or take aways owners buy mcdonalds franchises, that is just not true(in general). People who buy w/c franchises are people who want to be w/c .

I am not a franchise operator by the way, I just see it as a legitimate way to expand for some businesses that lack the capital to expand through self expansion window cleaning included.



 
 

[matt]

Ask yourselves this question....If I as a sole trader fail in my business endevour is it someone else's fault or mine. The obvious answer is that it is my fault. Why then does it become someone else's fault if it is a franchise. I make the decision to part with my hard earned readdies not someone else.

but if your parting with that much cash and paying a % of your earnings, shouldnt you expect a guiding hand in running the Franchise ?? ?  ? or have i got it wrong ? ? ?  do you pay your money and your % and not get any help at all ? ? ? ?

[bluez]

Matt, There is a big difference between garaunteeing success and giving a guiding hand.

The help you get depends on the quality of the franchise, and now we are finally getting down to the point, all franchises are not the same, it is only a way of conducting business similar to choosing to be a Ltd. Co. or a sole trader or a partnership.

I personally would never buy a franchise that did not offer expertise, and most reputable businesses would have a selection criteria that potential franchisees would have to exceed prior to being permited to buy.

It is in the interest of the franchisor that his francisees succeed, otherwise they make no money. There is no money for the franchisor in the sale of vehicles or equipment and there is generally very little in the franchise fee after costs it is often only a nominal fee (domino's I think charge about £10k) Nearly all of the potential money from franchising is in 6-7% ROYALTY payments they continue for the duration of the agreement normally 10 years.

Ian has posted that he has a waiting list, he is obviously taking his time to ensure that he can meet his commitments to each individual franchisee, and like you say giving a guiding hand. So to my mind that sounds like a good franchise, depending on the financial costs.


 

[mark dew]

grafters, am i right in reading that the sandwich man employed 3 people while he was the boss? If that is right he deserved to fail because he should have realised if he was going under, that he should maybe employ 1 and he being the other who does the driving.
If i've misunderstood, ignore this.

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

grafters, am i right in reading that the sandwich man employed 3 people while he was the boss? If that is right he deserved to fail because he should have realised if he was going under, that he should maybe employ 1 and he being the other who does the driving.
If i've misunderstood, ignore this.

that's correct mark, he had 2 girls making them and a morning driver and he did the afternnoon run

[Ian Lancaster]

This post seems to have been all about whether franchising is a rip off or not, and of course all the answers have been given by people who would never consider being franchisees - I guess 99.9% of people who post on here are self employed, or gaining info in order to become so.

I'm not surprised that the general opinion is that no-one would want to be a franchisee, and can't understand why anyone else would.

But the world is comprised of an infinite variety of individuals - all with different ideas, likings and opinions.

There is a vast number of people who are more than happy to be franchisees.  This is an undeniable truth, as there are millions of people around the world who ARE franchisees, without them there wouldn't be any franchises.

Given that these people are out there, why should a window cleaner not give them what they want?

I advocate franchising as an alternative to employing.  I take it that (except in a very few cases) nobody is suggesting that there shouldn't be any employees in window cleaning?

A franchisee is a sort of "mid way" person, not happy being an employee, but not comfortable with the idea of going it alone.  All I am saying is that instead of employing people (with all its attendant grief) give people the opportunity to earn far more than they could as an employee, with all the satisfaction of running their own businesses, but with the backup of an existing successful organisation.

Rather than getting carried away saying how you would never consider being a franchisee, look at it the other way round: if in the future you want to expand your business, why not consider franchising rather than employing?

[frames to panes]

Thanks Ian, a nice sensible reply, i think everyone has missed the whole point by looking at the idea from a franchisee's viewpoint. Most of us are, like you said self employed but only a minority are in the position to PROVIDE a franchise so most of us don't really get it. However i would have thought it an interesting subject for those with so much work that they are looking to expand and take on more staff. I don't think anyone was trying to get at you, we just went off on a tangent discussing the bad sides (that we think there might be).