Entrepreneur and Today Show Features Best Franchises

The criteria that Entrepreneur uses obviously doesn't involve the success or failure rate of first-generation franchisees and only looks at the success of the franchisor.

They must be looking only at the overview of these franchises ----who, of course, do a lot of advertising with them and ensure their existence.

There ought to be laws against this kind of false advertising that the franchisors use to sell their franchises to unsuspecting prospects. The media is always looking for "product" and apparently Entrepreneur has immunity under the law for spreading false information to the public. The business media completely accept the Entrepreneur Top Picks and help to spread false information to prospective franchisees with immunity and impunity under our laws.

The Today Show, a respected classic on TV, should be ashamed of itself.

If the 5 companies listed above are franchising's; "best and brightest", things in franchising are a lot worse than I believe they are.

At least 4 of these companies would go near the bottom of my list of the "best and brightest" franchises out there.

The list is more evidence that Entrepreneur Magazine doesn't have a clue.

Jim Coen

Email: Jim@franchiseperfection.com
Blog: Lets Talk Franchising

Holy dog crap, do people not read at all?

Here are some bones from the last Just Dog's UFOC.

1.  Item 20 claims that they have not terminated any franchises, but their financial statements indicated that they "reacquired" one franchise.  Oops, somebody ought to point out this little error to them.  As of the end of 2004, they had 20 stores with one failure- already below the 87% mark.

2.  The financials also show that at the end of 2004, a total of $37.6k  in royalties for apparently 20 stores.  Uh, each store is paying $2k in royalties?  At 5%, that amounts to $40k gross a year.   Hmm, but our new franchisee is expecting $200k gross.  Something is wrong here.

3.  Check out the departed executives and growth in the high end of item 8, up to almost 300k in 2005!   Ironic, considering the franchisee's reaction to a 300k franchise expenses.  Note that her own estimates are less than the item 8 lower end.  Why?  Can she count properly?

4.  No more UYFOCs on Caleasi since 2005.  Hmm.  Did they go out of business after this wonderful write-up, or just fail to file?

5.  "Someone's proven business model" for a business opened in 2003, which was talked about in 2005.  Very low levels of proof are required, I assume. 

Michael Webster PhD LLB

Franchise News

Just looking at their #3 pick Quiznos, I found one website with 400 stores for sale many at rock bottom prices.

Entrepreneur Magazine does no research, asks no hard questions, crunches no numbers, and puts out a best franchisor list that is absoluteley worthless. The only best lists Quiznos belongs on is "Best At Ripping Off Franchisees" and "Biggest Franchise Ripoffs of 2008". Q is the king at siphoning franchisee wealth, over-developing markets, and churning stores. The self-proclaimed "fastest growing QSR" has seen at least 80 stores close in the past month. Quiznos is a rip-off, a scam, and a lie.