How to Franchise my Business

[KKoher]

We're looking into franchise our clothing/accessory store, but have no idea where to start. Any ideas, or advice?

[shawn0001]

I highly suggest reading Michael Gerbers E-myth revised and E-myth Mastery. Youll find all the answers you need.

[LiveWise]

Franchising is a great idea if you can properly reproduce/replicate what you have going. The advantage is getting overrides on work that other people are doing. The disadvantage is that sometimes other people can ruin the reputation that you have worked so hard to get. I worked for a chain of restuarants that were great, but one store of the chain had a bad reputation and it affected the whole chain. Make sure that anybody who represent you and your product to does so in a way that it will hold up to your reputation.

[ltressel]

Google "Franchise Consultants." You should find a listing of firms that you can hire to do this process for you seamlessly.

LT

[BusinessAdviser]

Quick question:

Has anyone come into your store and expressed interest in starting a franchise?

That is a quick way to determine whether it's even a decent option.

That's step one.

We're looking into franchise our clothing/accessory store, but have no idea where to start. Any ideas, or advice?

[KKoher]

We haven't had anyone stop in and say they were interested in franchising our store. But, we've had other store owners, Simon mall managment, and scouts from malls in the surrounding areas stop in and tell us we should look into it. We were looking into finding an angel investor, but now I'm thinking franchising may be the better solution for us.

[BusinessAdviser]

If you don't have anyone knocking on your door to buy a franchise, you are becoming more of a soliciter, trying to push the supply. Franchises are more effective where there is demand already. However, maybe talk to a franchising consultant to find out your options and opportunities.

[franchisebrief.com]

Beware! Franchising a concept is VERY expensive. For a concept such a clothing store, I would imagine that it will cost you at least $150,000 to start franchising. Of course, you will probably find some franchise consultants (such as FranCorp) that will offer cookie cutter franchising options. AVOID THEM! PM me if you want names of a few franchise consultants with a proven track record.

[Young_Mogul86]

Dont think this task is too hard, Franchising is very simple with calling the right people. In the US, all you need to start franchising a company is a "prospectus" They usually run 10-20k, Its a lay-out of what your business does, income history, and what you offer franchisees. This is put together by a franchise specific lawyer. With a Good connection at a print store, for a very cheap rate you can have all the necessary marketing stuff, franchise materials, and even the proper literature to offer your buyers (franchisee). Get a prospectus, Then offer your company on the Franchise Market... It can be done for under 20K, (my father franchised an advertisment company for 21K and could have spent less.) Any capital you might need after marketing will be obtained via your franchise cost. Incorporate to protect yourself, and bank on the corporate taxing system... Since corporations are taxed AFTER expenses...
You have to understand though, that after you franchise, the items you sell in your store are no longer your primary product, your primary product is the whole store... even If its crap, one sale makes 25% of a years pay OR MORE.

Dont take my word for gospel, look into it yourself and DO NOT start until you are positive its what you want to do... but if your franchise fails, what have you lost? You recouped the initial franchise investment from the first sale, And got 6 months in royalties from that franchise thats failing... in the end you left with your origonal store... why not take the chance?

Ps.. A specialty insurance company can offer your corporation liability protection from lawsuits etc from people who feel your franchise was a bad investment...

[BusinessAdviser]

It's really not that simple, and let me try to explain why:

Before you even get to the issues of actually creating the contracts and developing the support, you have to determine whether your business is even franchisable. What I mean by this is that just because you want to franchise your story because you heard you can get rich franchising doesn't mean it's possible.

The first thing you need to do before proceeding further is determine whether there is demand for your franchise. My wife works at a very high end boutique which is just beginning to franchise. The woman who owns it did not one day wake up and say, "Hey, I'm going to franchise." Rather, after a half dozen customers inquired seriously about purchasing a franchise from her, she began looking into the possibilities and ultimately decided to move forward in doing so.

There must be people willing to pay you for your name and support for you to franchise, not just a desire by you to let people franchise.

[newswire]

Hello, Franchising can be expensive and time consuming, and you need to have the format already planned, I found an interesting blog that takes you thru the steps, howtofranchise blogspot

The site also offers some links so you can do most of the Franchise Documents, Manuals and Templates to start with yourself.

Remember to seek legal advise when you have decided to take the steps. Good luck and remember Entrepreneurs are risk takers and if you never try you never know

Jenny Peterson.

[franchiseinvestments]

Hey!!

There is a site where you can easily find solution to your problem for franchise investment at findthatmoney dot com

[YourMarbella_Chris]

Hi,

Just been reading this thread, makes for some interesting reading!.

Over the past 18 months, we have developed a Niche Social Networking model that is region specific. We always knew that once we had got the hard part out of the way we would be able to open it up around the world at the click of a button (well almost!).

Our model involves bringing together adult social networkers in an area, but instead of sending pokes, fish slaps and other werid and wonderful things like on facebook, your networking actually has a purpose as you talk about the local area and review and recommend businesses etc.

After putting our first site to the test in a competitive market in Southern Spain where the majority of the population doesn't speak English as a first language, we have started to see a healthy return on investment, a constantly inceasing user base and lots of relevant traffic.

Naturally, upon seeing our growth a number of contacts from around the world (namely UK, Asia and USA) have expressed an interest in franchising/licencing our model from us and marketing it in their region.

As it is an internet based venture, my thoughts are torn between the theory that I could run the sites myself from anywhere in the world to how great it would be to have a team of local experts running dozens of sites in the major towns and cities.

So, my question is 'To Franchise or Not To Franchise?!' .

As a forum owner myself I am reluctant to input my domain name or business details on my first post so if anyone would like to take a further look before posting any advice, I have simply placed our main URL into my signature.

That's all for now!

Chris

[JLeezer]

Dont think this task is too hard, Franchising is very simple with calling the right people. In the US, all you need to start franchising a company is a "prospectus" They usually run 10-20k, Its a lay-out of what your business does, income history, and what you offer franchisees. This is put together by a franchise specific lawyer. With a Good connection at a print store, for a very cheap rate you can have all the necessary marketing stuff, franchise materials, and even the proper literature to offer your buyers (franchisee). Get a prospectus, Then offer your company on the Franchise Market... It can be done for under 20K, (my father franchised an advertisment company for 21K and could have spent less.) Any capital you might need after marketing will be obtained via your franchise cost. Incorporate to protect yourself, and bank on the corporate taxing system... Since corporations are taxed AFTER expenses...
You have to understand though, that after you franchise, the items you sell in your store are no longer your primary product, your primary product is the whole store... even If its crap, one sale makes 25% of a years pay OR MORE.

Dont take my word for gospel, look into it yourself and DO NOT start until you are positive its what you want to do... but if your franchise fails, what have you lost? You recouped the initial franchise investment from the first sale, And got 6 months in royalties from that franchise thats failing... in the end you left with your origonal store... why not take the chance?

Ps.. A specialty insurance company can offer your corporation liability protection from lawsuits etc from people who feel your franchise was a bad investment...

This advice sounds like it is coming from someone who has read an article online about how easy it is to franchise. If you are an ethical person concerned with the success of your business and franchisees and with following the regulations of the US government, it is substantially more expensive, time consuming, and complicated than this responder is leading you to believe.

[KKoher]

Hey all..thanks for responding to this post. I'm glad it has turned out to be resourceful ,and interesting read for some of you. Just to let you know, we have decided Not to franchise. We jumped right into it after a few people asked about us franchising, and a lot of the store owners around us said we should look into it...but I know I would have a really hard time with someone else managing one of our stores. I wouldn't want one bad store to tarnish our name. Plus I have ridiculous control issues...So, hopefully down the line we will open more BLACK HEART INC. stores...but they will be owned and managed by us. Please feel free to keep commenting on the subject...I'm sure it will prove to be a useful source for those that are interested in franchising their own business. Thanks, Katie