[Ta-ra]

Is he a god?

[Ian Lancaster]

Is he a god?

YES I AM.  And you'd better be down on your knees when you speak my name or I will STRIKE YOU DEAD

[Ta-ra]

omg, HE has spoken!

I'd better buy a mobile home right this minute!

[Clive McDonald]

He knows a couple of things the rest of us don't, so we have to ask him.There are a few people like that on the forum, Alex Gardiner is very good on tech issues for example, and Glynn on gutter businesses. It's surprising though how easy it is to draw critisism and how thankless being helpfull can be.

[dai]

He knows a couple of things the rest of us don't, so we have to ask him.There are a few people like that on the forum, Alex Gardiner is very good on tech issues for example, and Glynn on gutter businesses. It's surprising though how easy it is to draw critisism and how thankless being helpfull can be.

So very true mate, a guy takes the time and trouble to give the benefit of his experience, and often gets accused of ripping others off.
If you do a search, Ian did post an in depth account of his methods, I take my hat off to him.
I could sense Dave Morris having a good think last night, but if you have family working in the business, franchising is not such a clear cut option, but it's a hell of a good way to provide a pension. I wish I had thought of it years ago, when I sold a big chunk of good work off for the first wipe.

[dai]

One question Ian, does the franchisee still have to pay a cut from the work he finds for himself?
He will lose some customers through moving house just like the rest of us, and someone may move into the street further down and ask him to do theirs.
Unless the franchisee agrees to only do work that you provide, you could find over the years that he is doing more of his own work, and less of yours.
If this is in the agreement, then replacing lost customers could mean that you have to continue working to replace them.

[Clive McDonald]

He's explained this before, the work is his, all of it, and he is prepared to buy it back off the franchisee including this added value that you mention at a fair price.This franchise would then go to someone else.


My opinion of this? (well actually no one asked but that's never sopped me before) I think that like a lot things a window cleaners round or business will come to reflect him.The people you think will succeed probably will.So i put a lot of this down to Ian and his good judgement of the people who work with him.

It's been mentioned before that of the many claimants to being a franchise, Ian's is the only one that actually provides the work.All the others you get your own work.His system seems to work, aside from his input, because he selects good people.My guess is that if we forum members, as a group, wanted to join most of us would fail the criteria in one way or another.Mcdonalds is fussy too, and you have to go to hamburger university for 18 months in the states and support yourself while you do so.