Nothing gets me more riled up than getting contacted by franchisees who are on the verge of going out of business.

And while their reasons vary, all of them have one thing in common.

They didn't go the extra mile when they were "investigating" the franchise they purchased.

Why am I bringing this up in this week's VIP Franchise Newsletter?

Donuts

"On June 29, the California Commission on Business Oversight, which regulates franchise businesses, sanctioned Sweet Assets-owner of The Donut Shop franchise for misleading* franchisees over initial startup and operating costs. In addition, the regulator found that the company provided different disclosures to franchisees than it did to state regulators."

In other words, it looks like the folks interested in potentially buying The Donut Shop franchise were given false information on costs.

Read more

*Franchisors that mislead would-be franchisees upset me too. A lot!

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Ribs

My friend, Sean Kelly, runs a website called Unhappy Franchisee.

It was there that I learned about Dicky's Barbeque Pit. (I wrote about my experience dining at my local Dicky's BBQ here. You have to read it!)

According to Unhappy Franchisee, "58% of Dickey’s franchise owners reported that their stores weren’t profitable in 2018. 69% reported that their 2018 financial performance was worse than the previous year. 39% are considering closing their stores."

Question: if you were looking at a Dicky's Barbeque Pit in 2018, do you think you would have been able to find that information out?

Allow me to be blunt.

If you answered "probably," experience tells me you "probably" wouldn't have been able to find out how bad Dicky's BBQ franchisees were doing. And how many of them were going out of business.

My point?

If you don't go the extra mile when you're investigating franchise opportunities, you'll only have yourself to blame if you lose money, or worse, have to close your franchise business down.

How Do You Go The Extra Mile?

A. Work with me.

B. Work with me.

I can help you a lot.

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The Franchise King®

Joel Libava

216-831-2610

"My wife and were interested in starting a business so we visited a franchise expo. Afterwards, we were contacted by a couple of franchisors and we soon found ourselves deeply immersed in researching these particular franchises. We needed to take a step back and take stock of the bigger picture: 'Is a franchise right for us? Right now? What types of franchises would suit us?'

We needed an independent and knowledgeable perspective. A one-hour chat with Joel Libava clarified some of our thinking and gave us some useful ideas to pursue."

Steve and Marci Nemburg, Toronto