Franchisee resource center

Many of the franchisees we talked with had to make a decision first on whether they would open an independent business or a franchised one. A few of their stories follow.

Here at FranchiseHelp we’re constantly asked about the opportunity to buy a franchise. Unfortunately I’m going to have to tell you something that might disappoint you. You can’t “buy” a franchise. In reality you are engaging in a “leasing” transaction rather than a “purchasing” transaction. Why is it a lease? In any franchise deal, the franchisee receives the assets up front, but only for a period of time - the term of the franchise agreement. The term of the agreement may run for five to ten years, or in some cases it may run for as little as a year or two. At the end of the day the renewals of these agreements are at the option of the franchisor, and the reasons for not renewing an agreement should be completely spelled out in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and franchise agreement.

Most of you are probably already familiar with franchises. You may even patronize a variety of franchised businesses without realising that they are franchises. These businesses range from car servicing and financial services to yogurt and home repairs. According to the International Franchise Association(IFA) franchises employed nearly 9,000,000 Americans in 2015 and generated nearly $880 billion. Franchising is difficult to escape.

Whether you’re purchasing a whopper from Burger King or joining the Burger King franchise system, the old mantra holds true: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When you first get started running a franchise you need to pay a fee to allow you to enter into that franchise. These fees are the largest fees that you will normally pay a franchisor and typically range between $5,000 and $1,000,000 depending on the franchise. The franchisor charges this fee as a way to recoup the costs of expanding the franchise and to continue to grow. From a franchisee perspective, this is a major outlay and can take a long time to make back, but is a necessary step. Aspiring business owners must understand how much capital is available to them so they can ascertain how much they can afford. The cash you have at your disposal is known as liquidity, and there are numerous ways to increase your liquidity above the balance in your bank account. As a result, many people don’t realize how much capital they actually can use for investments, like launching a franchise branch. We’ll run through some of those methods below.

(Huntington Beach, CA) Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is expanding again throughout Southern California with new locations planned for Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Cerritos/Artesia, Lakewood and Yorba Linda. The five-store development agreement with PK Group, Inc. will open the first location in Huntington Beach in early 2017. The Costa Mesa store will follow in late summer to early fall of 2017.

(Greenville, MS) Dickey’s Barbecue Pit announces expansion into the Mississippi Delta. The three new locations will be the first in the Mississippi Delta. The first store will be located in Greenville, and will open by the end of 2016. The additional locations will open in Cleveland and Greenwood, with timeline to be determined.

(Alexandria, VA) Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is expanding in Virginia with a new two-store development agreement. Currently the state boasts nine Dickey’s locations with more in the pipeline. Owner/Operator Rufus Littlejohn will first take over ownership of the Centreville store by Fall 2016, then plans to build a new store in Northern Virginia.

Parlin, NJ— The International Franchise Professionals Group (IFPG) and Sunbelt Business Brokers entered into a strategic partnership to allow Sunbelt Brokers to become IFPG Broker Members. This partnership will allow Sunbelt Brokers the ability to present to their clients 300+ franchise offerings that have representation agreements with the IFPG. The partnership will drastically expand the options that Sunbelt Brokers have to share with their clients who are considering business ownership.

Parlin, NJ - The International Franchise Professionals Group (IFPG) is set to launch its new CRM designed specifically for franchise sales on May 1, 2016. IFPG’s Franchise sales CRM is an essential tool for any Franchise professional that wants to eliminate the unnecessary steps traditional CRM’s provide.