Beware Of “Experts” Who Trash Franchising While Selling Their Business Opportunity

Where do these “experts” come up with this stuff? And then they want you to buy a business opportunity?

What are they really selling?

Ah, wait a minute, they’ve got something else to sell. Like this one who wrote an article about the “high risk” of buying a franchise in “this recession.”

This “expert” gives you five reasons why you should not buy a franchise and then, finally, at the end of her article we discover what she’s really selling. She’s not selling you protection from franchises. She wants you to buy a home-based business “in an Industry which is booming during this recession” — that’s your ticket, she claims, to financial freedom! Interestingly, she sells this particular home-based business!

Give me a break.

Your ticket to financial paradise?

Surely any interested reader can see through that message: Don’t buy a franchise, cause it’s risky, but buy my home-based business opportunity cause that will lead to your financial paradise!

I don’t underestimate the intelligence of my readers

Fortunately for readers of this blog, I’m not selling franchises or business opportunities, which, by the way, fail more often than do franchises, according to many different studies.

Fortunately for readers of this blog, I tell you over and over again that franchising is not for everyone, and it may not be for you! In fact, starting and operating a business opportunity of any kind may not be for you, and it’s not for most people!

Fortunately for readers of this blog, I talk about the facts — not scare-tactic nonsense contrived by “experts.” 

This is nonsense

Let me give you some examples from the above “expert’s” article:

1. She wrote: “If you are buying a franchise that requires a shop front, especially a franchise in the food/cafe/restaurant industry, the set up costs can be enormous. Up to a million dollars is the usual.” . . . She was okay until that last sentence. It’s patently false. The “usual” is not up to a million dollars. The average franchisee doesn’t invest a million dollars. Now, she wrote “up to” and perhaps that means $250,000 to $400,000, which is more than likely the “usual.” Fact is, she doesn’t know! Because the number varies from concept to concept and from market to market. But it’s not $1-million, which is what she implies. Good scare tactic, but false information.
2. She wrote: Under the sub-heading “You could loose (sic) it all” she claimed: “You will most probably lose your house.” Really? Where’s the proof of that? In my 30 years in franchising I’ve talked to dozens of failed franchisees — and never one that lost their house. Have some lost their house as a result of failing in a franchise? No doubt. But I haven’t met them, and if it’s an almost “sure thing,” as this “expert” implies, I would have talked to at least one in 30 years. More nonsense. And yes, it always makes me a little suspicious when an “expert” confuses “loose” with “lose” — but hey, it’s an honest and easy mistake to make.
3. She wrote: Under the sub-heading “Paying more than once” she thinks it’s intolerable to pay a royalty to a franchisor. Quite amazingly, she wrote: “There is no hiding anything!” . . . Wow! In other words, if you can hide something, if you can cheat, if you can lie, if you can deceive, you should. But you won’t be able to as a franchisee! My sick sense of humor suggests that you should buy her home-based business opportunity where surely you will be able to hide things and not pay her what she’s due! On the other hand, by cheating her maybe she’s getting what she’s due?

Selfishly written to promote her business opportunity

I could go on and shoot holes in more of her article, but I know I don’t need to. This is a selfish article that tears down franchising in an attempt to make the author’s business opportunity appear less risky and of greater value. That’s a disservice to readers and it makes a mockery of journalism.

There may be good reasons for not buying a franchise in a recession, but you’re not going to find them in this “expert’s” article.

. . . I did not provide a link to the article because I don’t want to embarrass the “expert” — but if you want to read the “expert’s” article, send me a note and I’ll forward the link to you. 

Photo image by: urban_data

Categorised in: business opportunity, Buy a Franchise, franchise information

This post was written by Dr. John Hayes