Just noticed Ian's thread on the subject. Sorry Ian, I've been out and about in our new motorhome, practising for retirement (8 weeks and counting
).
Contrary to some ugly rumours, I'm still about, still running my franchised organisation and still prospering
Check out my website - we are going from strength to strength - all my franchisees are still with me and still happy with their businesses, earning very good money and glad they took the plunge.
As to setting up - yes, I did take the best part of three years thinking and planning my operation, but for someone who already has the workforce and customer base and just wants to change from employer to franchisor it could be done much more quickly.
I wrote my own franchise agreement, that's what took so long, but a few months ago I went to a franchise solicitor and got her to re-write it in such a way that everything I wanted was still there, and everything the franchisees needed was still there but put in the right way so we are all protected in the event of a dispute.
I'm glad some of you remember the presentation I gave at Windex - I still have the Powerpoint article and I'm happy to forward it to anyone interested (unless Ian Wicks would be kind enough to put the link on his website again - I'm not clever enough for that!!)
For anyone considering this way of expanding their business, I can say that I have never regretted it - it is far better than employing, virtually looks after itself and pays us a regular income for very little input.
As for Paul Smith, aka PowerClene - he has disappeared from the face of the earth. I've spoken to one of his franchisees in Scotland, who never actually paid any royalty fees - the whole house of cards collapsed before it really got going. I can't understand why he should have failed, he had everything thought out and all systems in place.
All I can say is that my experience is if you think about what you're doing and don't try to go too far too soon, then world really can become your oyster. I'm too old now to fully take advantage of the opportunities, but if it's properly set up, it can become self propagating - I have one Master Franchisee operating in another area and he has started building his network. I get a cut of his operation for doing very little. There's no reason why this pattern can't be repeated over and over again throughout the whole country, and even the world - as I've mentioned many times before - look at Jim's Mowing :