Joel LibavaI have had several speaking engagements in the past month, and I want to share with you what some attendees have been telling me about their experiences concerning finding the right franchise….
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After one seminar that I gave on "Could Investing In a Franchise Be The Answer?", a couple of folks came up to me, and shared that they were current franchise owners, already. The first person said that they had purchased a fitness-nutrition related storefront operation.The first thing this person shared with me is "I wished I knew how much outside marketing I would have to do to get this store profitable." This person did not look to happy, and also said that "I wish I would have known about you, Joel."
The second person that came up to me after my seminar told me that he and his wife purchased a meal prep franchise, and just had opened their store a few months ago. This person also told me that " In the time I have owned this franchise, I know of one franchise that closed it's doors." This person then shared that they wanted to try to sell their store. {After 4 months in business!}This could be a problem…. This person also said that "I wish my wife and I had met with you, first." The meal prep industry is in trouble, and I shared my concerns with this non-well-thought-out model, before.
Do I detect a pattern?
Then this one…"I just was downsized, and I was contacted by a lady that does a similar thing that you do, Joel. She presented a couple of opportunities, and they were just "ok." I called some franchise owners, but I really need to make some money quickly." The first thing I asked this person was this: "Was the person that you worked with to help you find a franchise, local?" This person said it was all done via phone, and he never met her. That is the first problem. This lady has no skin in the game. She lives out of town, has no idea of how the NEO market works, what franchises are needed, what type of franchises are not needed, and most importantly, never even met this person face to face! I told this person rather strongly that I would have never even scheduled one of my FREE consultations with him. He needed income immediately, and that is just not realistic during the start-up phase of a new business.
These situations illustrate to me how difficult it really is to find opportunities that are not:
A. Fads
B. The Wrong Fit
C. Just Plain Wrong
If you are looking to get a franchise/small business of your own, will you use my expertise? Here is where I am going to brag:
1. I do not work with franchise opportunities that have the potential to be fads.
2. 95% of the folks that I help live in Northeast Ohio, and meet with me face to face, with all interested parties {Spouses/Partners} in attendance.
3. I have real skin in the game. I bring new small businesses to Northeast Ohio. I bring new jobs to our area, also. I help my franchise candidates launch their new franchises with some interesting marketing and pr techniques
4. I have a great local network of attorneys that know franchising. I have a deep network of local CPA's, lenders, and others who can help my folks along, when needed.
5. I care. I am very comfortable telling someone that a franchise business is probably not for them, and to look at some other options.
In the past couple of years, a plethora of "consultants-brokers" have appeared on the scene, attracted to the promises of $200k a year income, just for matching folks up to franchise and business opportunities. These newbies contact folks that are downsized, or who go to the huge number of franchise websites out there, requesting free consultations, and try to ram opportunities down the throats of unsuspecting people, who want to change the way that things are going for them, career-wise. Well since none of these newbies are making their $200k, they push, and push, and sell sell sell. {Because they are up against a wall themselves..i.e. not making any money.} Lots of the folks that they contact eventually find me, thru referrals or on the net, and the stories that they share with me are unreal.
In summation, if you know of anybody that truly wants to work with a franchise professional that cares, please have them contact me, directly. That way, maybe they won't have to be suckered into anything by an out of town, phone " franchise consultant."
{By the way, if anyone is contacted by other "Ohio" franchise consultants, who do not live in NEO, the same thing applies. They have no skin in NEO, either. Toledo, or Cincinnati, is not Cleveland.
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{ Please contact Joel Libava at 216-831-2610 or email franpro at sbcglobal dot net}
