It seems completely absurd that franchise buyers lie about their financial position, available cash and abilities in order to buy a franchise. After spending 8 years setting up franchises around the nation and fielding inquiries I am appalled at the lack of integrity of the average business buyer. If you wonder why franchisors make franchise buyers fill out forms and ask lots of questions it is because 75% or more of every franchise inquiry to a franchise company is misrepresentative of their reality. A franchise opportunity seller should beware of franchise buyers lying on forms. Why do we have laws for franchise companies and yet none for franchise buyers or investors? It is appalling the lack of integrity of the average American or in this case investor of a franchise. Some of these liars waste our valuable time as the fraudulently make up a falsehood picture of their financial ability and business acumen. They ought to be thrown in jail. Well, I guess I really went off on the franchise buyers. At the time of this statement in 1999 I had just hung up on four franchise buyers that week, feeling it hopeless to even have further conversations with anyone inquiring. Turned out not all these potential franchise candidates or buyers were real, many were competitors and even some believe it or not were working for the government as entrapment phone solicitors. One we later got to know was a 26-year old homosexual Attorney working for the Federal Trade Commission, who upon my visit to the FTC office in Washington DC, starred at my rear end the entire time? We franchisors work very hard and can usually help a franchisee into a very small business of their own position, but we need straight answers; such as their true financial picture. If we get a song and a dance about how much money they have, and then we start the process only to find out that they really do not have as much as they said then we have a franchisee who may fail simply due to being under capitalized. The most common reason small businesses fail as surveyed time and time again by the SBA; Small Business Administration and other groups is the fact that the business was under captialized. If we have franchise buyers who want colorful brochures, great, but level with us. Tell us you just want someone to tell you, you are great and you just want someone to yell at due to your personal frustrations. If you have little money state that, there maybe a plan to help you along. Then after that is over we can be serious about winning market share and having all the game plan laid out carefully. I doubt if the US Military wants to fight a war with generals who do not have bad information, pilots who do not follow orders, Navy Seal Teams who are untrained, an intelligence agency who lies or allies who are actually hostile and full of misinformation. To win a war in franchising you must above all be on the same team, from the beginning. It is imperative that every one understands each others goals to win. Franchise buyers who want to be argumentative towards their future business partner in order to vent off anger from their previous downsizing company and tyrant boss should wait until they are better understanding of their current situation and ready to review why they are where they are, before they try to buy a franchise. A franchisor that puts up with such non-sense has no business franchising, because that franchisor is clearly out for just the money and that short term attitude will kill the long term win-win partnership that is needed to dominate the market place. A franchisor such as that should not be in the franchising business. Franchisees who lie from the start are not good team members and once that bond of integrity is broken there can be no more trust. Advice; if you are going to buy a franchise, be upfront and honest with your future business partners, you moron. Think about it. |
