As a selling point to existing window washers you have to show them what the 1000/week is doing for them. As a franchisor are you contacting the customers, keeping records, invoicing etc? Covering the costs of all advertising marketing? Even further…maintenance on vehicles, buying equipment, additional training for add-on services? Where does the line in the sand appear, closer to the franchisor or franchisee for covering costs and the logistics of running the business?
If you approached me (as a one-man show) and said I can make 4000/week and never have to deal with the office side again, I would pay 1000/week.
I’ve had this idea in my head for years, I’ve planned out a system much like mr.hanymand where the franchisor has many franchisees but only one consistent look for the company. This could do so much for window cleaners as a whole, instead of 10 guys in a variety of vehicles and appearances working in an area, you have 8 guys that all look and charge the same rates. It leaves the 2 other guys to pick up the scraps at 50/hour, jobs we don’t want anyways.
This is a good thread and I’m following it with interest. I don’t plan to weigh in on the subject because I have absolutely no experience with franchises so I can’t add anything useful to the discussion.
I just hope this thread doesn’t get tossed into “The fridge”…but then again, late at night when the kids are asleep and the lights are out…I find myself alone in “The Fridge” digging through some of theeeee most delectable topics- all neatly stacked-away down there in “The Fridge”. I often find Kevin and Paul in there, as well as Sorb…uh, whats his name- Hell I even found myself in there too. It’s good stuff still- maybe a bit old and crusty, but still tasty!
Threads like this one are great because you really get to see how people think and there is a lot of great info to be had, so if you suddenly can’t find it anymore- it’s probably down in the fridge;)
I wasn’t responsible for advertising or setting up appointments, my schedule or bids. I was responsible for insurance, salaries, vehicle and all related expenses.
I was not my own boss either.
My experience was the franchise owner would put out low bids to get the work he gets a % no matter how long it takes. He gets lots of work he’d just sell another franchise so you’ll never have more then one or two employees.
Being a franchisee is basically a job and all it made me want to do was start my own business. I can’t imagine how a franchise owner could guarantee that kind of money in window cleaning… especially in window cleaning. You must know how seasonal this work is.
I have a good Idea. Make the guy selling the franchise put you on $3000 a week salary then have him give you 40 hours worth of work and he can keep all profits over $3000. I wonder how long that would last.
I wouldn’t interested for the same reasons the others have brought up about not really being on your own…there’s a stigma with the word “franchise.” I like the flexibility I have more than anything else – not necessarily my schedule, although thats great too, but where I want to take the business. If I decide tomorrow that a new logo, and a completely different spin on our slogan is a good idea I can do it. Feedback on that idea would be appreciated, but resistance or anyone telling me I COULDN’T would be very much a problem for me.
Having said that, I WOULD be interested/willing to spend money on a sort of 1 on 1 marketing program where you design the pieces, look at what we’re doing, decide what should be stopped and what should continue, etc. Then, rather than pay the fees to run your business for you, I’m paying you to help market mine – with it’s unique (not that im unique, I just mean not identical to all other franchisers as in the franchise situation) problems, market, angle, etc. Even if the program cost more, I’d still feel much better about that route. I think you already do this anyway.
Really, this is somewhat illogical --paying twice as much to make the same money in my own business just for the sake of it being my own business – and has more to do with pride and wanting to be unique when I take a step back and look at my viewpoint, but that’s still the only way I’d be interested in something along those lines. I imagine others would agree, but who knows.
This might interest you then. It is almost the same thing as that E-myth thing. I know a guy in lawns that swears by this guy. I think in one post he said it costs about $500 a week. I’m not into the whole guru thing but he sure does have the best business blog that I know of.
I have been solo, in a franchise for brief bit, and independent with employees
A franchise does not provide economy of scale like an industry with product or high equipment costs, like food service does.
There is no advantage, no big brand favortism by consumers in window cleaning, for example - a postal place vs a UPS store
Sure there’s Fish, but that’s not nearly even the same benefit like being a McD franchise vs Joe’s burgers
Plus 10% of royalties going to marketing and the standard royalty fee - what marketing do you receive? some boilerplate forms? big deal. No tv ads or anything again like a food franchise
that 10% is your business profit if you were an independent!
The franchises in our area are the low price leaders, where’s the profit margin in that? That’s a descending spiral that leads to bankruptcy. Oh, and don’t forget to send in your 10%, or you will get reamed.
What training does Fish provide? Not enough.
You’re going to be doing the same marketing work as a franchise or not, you will be spending the same on reaching your market franchise or not
but you will be out an additional 10% of GROSS REVENUE on top of that as a franchise
If i’m not pulling a hundred an hour (while working) I am about to raise someones rate on the next cleaning. The sooner you guys start thinking like this the sooner we are all elevated. Are you really making that kind of money if you have to let one quarter go here or there I would have to believe that you are really making 3/4 of of that hundred before silly little things like overhead get in the way… is this really a conversation?
It doesn’t work out to way more money. You would only increase my income by 2000/week and half of that I would have to give to you. Just what exactly are you offering the owner for 1000/week?
As a selling point to existing window washers you have to show them what the 1000/week is doing for them.
What if the franchise could train you and teach how to charge more and earn more than you ever have before and ever could without the training and unique tools and resources?
Would it be worth it then?
The advantage would not be brand awareness, it would be systems, methods and tools, instead.
Just what are you offering for your payment? You keep asking the questions of what distribution of income is reasonable but I still don’t know what you’re offering me. The ability to make more money through what means? I know this is just a fishing experiment but there is a reason behind it. Are you simply trying to find out how much a person is willing to pay you to help them make your money? How?
Exactly what kind of work would this be? What kind of equipment would I need?
How much would I have to spend to get it?
Also once I learned how to do it, why would I want to keep paying someone else for the information?
Also there is the possibility that you are just suggesting that you can do it, but in reality cannot. If that was
the case it would just be an advertising claim posing as something else.
No, I think my point was I would rather have my own business.
I also knew someone that had a Pizza franchise. They had to buy their crusts and their toppings from certain suppliers. When Pizza’s starting going 2 for 1, they didn’t have the freedom to change with the times and the competition ate their lunch so to speak. They worked 7 days a week to 3 am at that place for a few years then went broke.
He started a carpet cleaning business and 18 whatever years later, they built a $600k house on a 2 acre lot. They used to have low low prices, went to a seminar, now has high prices (not really high) and I think the competition in the city followed suit. Crap, they can gross 80k a month sometimes just for carpet cleaning. (They lose money for a couple months in the winter) But he can do what ever he wants. Radio ads, coupon books, multiple yellow page ads, he wanted to expand so he bought out a few duct cleaning companys and now he’s expanding into my line of work with my brother…Basterd.
He’s one of those $600/hr guys, at least I think.
I imagine most people here in this forum are in business, it would be hard to trade that freedom for a franchise in my opinion. Where I bought a franchise (I bought their first WC franchise, they were cleaning windows for years with employees so they had lots of work for me to start out with but) they also had lots of maid franchises and some lawn care franchises as well. All of them had to show up at 7:30am to get their work or their keys just like regular employees. I was treated ok but the maids had a lot of turn over and law suits. I think in the time I was there there was 100% turn over in the maid franchises. They had to compete, price wise, with molly maid etc. The franchise owner even charged us GST on the money we made, 7% at the time. I had to sign a written warning once, just like I was an employee, LOL.
If you’ve never been in business, buying a franchise is a good way to get the bug but watch what you sign. I couldn’t even take my contract out of the building, I had to sign it there then got a copy. I’m rambling.
