WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Blue MauMau) - A Florida company, FranchiseMart, is matching buyers with franchise concepts at storefronts. If that weren’t innovative enough, it joins a small group of franchise matchmaking services in practicing what it sells —providing investors an opportunity to become franchise owners for FranchiseMart itself.

In January of 2007 FranchiseMart opened its first retail store in West Palm Beach, Florida. The owners of the franchise stores develop local expertise, setting up local retail showrooms. The franchisor that sells franchise concepts is a subsidiary of newly formed United Franchise Group. FranchiseMart’s sister companies include well established brands, such as Sign-A-Rama, EmbroidMe and Billboard Connection.

Each retail location has a flat-screen television that displays franchise videos, stands, posters and educational seminars. FranchiseMart franchise owners provide leads for a fee to franchisors and also receive revenue from local real estate sales.

Gary Lengel, the executive vice president of FranchiseMart, states strongly that his firm is different from typical brokerage services. Mr. Lengel states, “We are different from a franchise broker. We’ve put pretty much all our franchisors on an even playing field. By that I mean that our commission is based on a fixed, flat fee. Typically brokers get a percentage of the sale, so in many cases they lean towards the franchise with the highest commission because that’s the only way they make money. We have multiple income sources in FranchiseMart.”

Franchise consultant Nick Bibby, who is not with FranchiseMart, has his reservations. Says Bibby, "This is just another variation on the 'brokerage' theme. When a percentage 'or' a flat fee is paid on the sale of a franchise, it’s a commission. Further, this is not a ‘consultancy’ for franchise buyers. As a 'fee for service' consultant, I am paid an upfront fee to provide services strictly focused on the client’s best interests, not mine. Any other interpretation of the term ‘franchise consultant’ is a gross shading of the truth. Brokers are not consultants —at least not for buyers.”

Even if the matchmaker is only compensated by the company they represent, FranchiseMart has over a hundred different franchise concepts to choose from. And no matter what its franchise owners may be called, they will have potentially multiple income sources. The franchise owner receives remuneration for sold services of the United Franchise Group, ranging from financing a new business to real estate transactions. “We have a company called Franchise Real Estate that helps out for location site search. We can help them with financing and we also have three other service divisions of United Franchise Group,” says Mr. Lengel.

FranchiseMart has proprietary software to assist buyers. Lengel states, "We wrote them based on our experience, knowing the questions to ask somebody, such as, ‘What hours would you like to work?’” He continues on to say that buyers are not pushed into any one franchise. “If someone says to me, 'I have $250,000 to invest in a business,' I’ll show them franchises from $250,000, but I’ll also show them franchises that are from $25,000-$50,000. Just because they have that amount of money doesn’t mean we have to put them in a business for that amount of money.”

Bibby thinks that discovering the right franchise opportunity is much more than 72 questions from a software evaluation and providing cheaper opportunities than one’s financial limits. Says Bibby, “After years of working in the area of personal planning as it regards entrepreneurship, I do not accept that any type of questionnaire (paper, computer generated, or otherwise) can yield a trustworthy roadmap for a franchise buyer. Matchmaking can lead to very dangerous outcomes, especially when the prospective franchisee is inexperienced regarding self-employment and/or due diligence.”

FranchiseMart started a prototype in January of 2007 and now has several locations in West Palm Beach and other areas. The total package is between $110,000 and $115,000. The company will finance about 75%, so the initial investment is betwen $30,000 - $35,000. The franchise fee is $29,500.

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Read a full interview with Gary Lengel, Vice President of FranchiseMart