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IamAman · IamAman

Quote:

Originally Posted by j_cis1011

Franchises are a hassle. I worked at Jimmy Johns for years and I remember my boss hating all the restrictions that they had. The only good thing about it was that he was making good money and that the business had name recognition. But if you want to start a business where you are the boss and you make your own rules and your own procedures, then a franchise might not be for you. I can only speak for Jimmy Johns franchises, but about once a month they send a corporate coach to review your store and see what you're doing wrong. They give you a percentage score and if you get lower than 70 or 80% they put your on probation and threaten to shut you down if you don't correct your mistakes. When customers complain, they usually complain to corporate so the only way you find out about customer complaints are when your corporate coach sends you an email chewing you out. Then there's also the downfall of buying everything overpriced because you have to buy all your supplies and inventory from Jimmy Johns, so you're stuck paying $10 for a knife that would cost $5 or $6 at your local supply store. That's just the franchise's way of making $4 off of you.

So if you want to start a business where you want the freedom to insert your own ideas and start from scratch and are willing to be patient to build up a clientele, you're better off starting your own thing. If all you really care about is making money and want to own something that already has name recognition and you don't mind following someone else's rules and procedures, then maybe a franchise is for you.

Oh yeah, buying through them also drove my relative mad. All of this stuff happened like 25 years ago so maybe things are different now (although given that there isn't a single one in my city now is proof we were right), but anyway, at the time, we could buy higher quality deli meats locally (Boar's Head is considered a high quality brand) but instead, it had to be overpriced and through them.

Not only that, they'd tell him "You bought x amount of meats, cheeses, tomatoes, etc. so your sales should be y amount but they are lower. Have you been cheating us?"

Subway was still the much bigger franchise then so people were more used to them, so customers would ask for pickles and we'd have to say "sorry, we don't have pickles"...so then we'd have to buy some and hide it because if the franchise would do an inspection, they'd tell us to remove it. It was just stupid things like that. There was no room for having an identity or adapting to customers' needs.

On top of that, they'd have all these stupid "buy one get one free" deals which would destroy any profit but drive up sales which meant more money for the royalty fees.

Again, not saying that there isn't money to be made, but a lot of people including one of my best friends thought he could just buy one, hire a manager and a few employees and leave it alone and it would make money for him and that's just not the case. I think it's always best to stick with your area of expertise and something you like doing - whether you're an IT guy who wants to set up computer stuff for people, photographer, mechanic, electrician, whatever.