Actually both are business relationships entered into willingly. If you sign an agreement I assume you read it and accepted the terms. You can find yourself at the whim of a customer having a bad day. I know I have.
You’re not going to get fired by 300 customers, in fact, I think I’ve fired more customers then customers have fired me.
A franchise owner has all your marbles.
But only because you gave them to him in the first place. I’m not saying I’d do this but if someone choses to do so they should have read the contract and be willing to live up to it. If the franchiser isn’t living up to their end then the franchisee can get out of the contract.
Not living up to expectations and not living up to “their end” of the contract are quite different things. I got around it but it was iffy if you know what I mean.
So was it a case of them promising certain things to you and then not delivering?
Absolutely. They even took one of my employees that I trained and gave him to another franchisee that had 3 days experience, to help him out. They gave me all the storms he got all the casements, I got all the hieghts (which i didn’t mind) he got all the store fronts. I got all the commercial work that was under priced, after construction clean up etc. I still made money because the guys working with me were friends and had 20 years experience and the other guy literally, could not do it. But for all that, I didn’t make significantly more money then he did while doing the bulk of the work. Soon as I realized that he was giving low low quotes just to “get the job” and explained it to me as “Volume”, like that was a good thing for ME… I was disillusioned completely and couldn’t wait to get out.
like so many other things, it could be a good fit for some and not for others. It will depend on what is offered (or Kevin has up his sleeve) that will determine who it is a good fit for.
I would not think “franchising” would ever be a good fit for a reasonably successful independent.
It would really have to knock down some insumountable hurdle and put the volume or profit thru the roof to even be considered I’m sure.
Even then, that’s why we’re independents, because we’re independent and are following our own vision.
On the other hand, licensing the right to use “________” may be far more appealing, but to give a percentage etc of that profit? Probably a flat rate thing would be more accepted by existing co’s, would be my guess.
That’s garbage (what they did to you), you’re not a franchisee, you’re a “restaraunt geneeral manager” following corporate’s rules, whims etc, sounds exactly what a restaraunt chain would do (but they are all employees), take skill from one store and give it to another.
Was there anything in your contract that would prevent him from giving low quotes to get the job?
If not, why expect otherwise? Volume is what he is going to want. Was it a case of you thinking the big money was
going to just be there as the salesmen are going to lead you to believe?
Yeah I figured. This is my fault. I’m talking about putting $5k in your pocket weekly after you pay $2k to the franchisor. $7k total.
That’s interesting. I do know of licensed dealers that retain relationships for decades, because they still win big.
I can see what you’re describing easily happening though.
Do you feel that with your own marketing you can earn $100 average, day in and day out? How about $135/hr average? For all your work time?
Are you there now? If not, why not?
I’m not actually suggesting you would be forever dependent on it, I’m saying you would ideally WANT to stay connected.
I agree with you 100%, and thx again for the feedback.
This is a question I can dig my teeth into for sure. My husband and I started our first window cleaning company almost 30 years ago. We sold it 20 months later receiving a nice down payment and a payment for about 7 years. The next one in another state we sold about 22 months after opening with a bigger down and payments, and we also added a small percentage of the gross receipts for a limited period. We did that with 3 or 4 more as we set up to franchise. This all occurred about 20 years ago.
We ended up only getting franchisable in one state and we never ended up using that agreement with anyone. Our license agreement worked best for us. I do know that the role of franchisor is a challenging one, and we did not have our act together to the standard I would have liked, not because we did not have that intention however. If I had it to do over again, I would possibly stick with license agreements with a limited time. Many of our operations are still in business, and we still keep in touch to compare notes. I was amazed through this process how many people would pay a lot of money and then not do what you told them. 
The ones who believed us and saw that we something right paid us our money due and were successful. Funny thing, they are the ones who we still keep in touch with.
From the viewpoint of the franchisee, I think some people do best with a business that is already figured out. If the franchisor is a competent entity, and the profit margin is there for all to win, it can definitely work. Not sure if I would ever put it in terms of what they will make per hour though. The appeal of having their own business and possible residual income is often more attractive than a dollar amount right now.
To specifically respond to your question, yes it would be worth it, just not sure if that should be the only motivation. 
Thx everyone for the feedback.
It’s quite interesting to hear what you think about the franchise model and what kind of conditions would have to be met to make it attractive. I’m not saying that I am without irrationality with this stuff, too.
I think it would bug me to earn $5k/day if another company also earned $5k that same day from my work. Should I resent their profit? Of course not, but I probably still would.
How could I overcome that mental block? What would help it hurt less? That’s what I’m trying to figure out.
Thanks! What if the potential licensee already had their own company, and do was already fulfilling those existential type needs?
Why would I want to stay connected?
IF you can make 100 per hour, why not have employees right now working for 20 per hour?
Have you been doing that? The problem is that it doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
Interesting scenario. We did sell some consulting and our computer program to a few people who were already washing, but wanted guidance. They kept their name and we had no long term money on those.
Hey Kevin, I like this.
It reminds me of a study a while back.
What they did is take a $100 dollar bill and 2 people that didn’t know each other.
1 person got to decide how the money was split and the 2nd person got to decide if it was a fair split. So if he said that it wasn’t neither of them would get the money.
So they did the study and for a while people would say okay lets split it 50/50. Both people were happy. Then people started to get smart and say this is free money anyways lets split it 60-40. Then 70-30. Around the 70-30 split the person that got to decide and they came to the conclusion that it was more painful to see the other person walk away with $70 dollars to their $30 dollars even though it was free money. They would rather have both of them have nothing.
So this happened in the US and the researches said well $100 isn’t all that much money. Lets go to a 3rd world country and try this same study. It came out exactly the same! Even when $30 was a months salary it was still too painful thinking how greedy the other person was to get the short end of the stick.
When I read some of your posts I thought of that study. Even though people could make twice to 3 times as much doing the same work. It would be painful watching you make a grand a week not doing anything.
Interesting topic, thanks for bring this up.
Cheers,
Don
