West Coast Show: Want a Franchise?

Cash Peters has the right name to attract a franchisor's attention. For Marketplace, he attended today's West Coast Franchise Expo to be fudged and brewed. Here's a few excerpts from Cash's report:

Work? This franchise lark sounds hard. You work 60 hours-plus a week, and it's not even your business. You're still answerable to a dark corporate overlord -- the franchiser. Julie Bennett's written a guide book to franchising.

Julie Bennett: Not only do you have a corporate overlord, you have an operations manual. You have to paint the walls a certain way. You have to put merchandise on your shelves a certain way.

Peters: And what happens if you don't? What happens to you?

Bennett: You may lose your right to operate that franchise.

I guess the hallmark of a franchisee is that they can follow the franchise color code and manuals! Cash Peters continues . . .

Buying into a franchise can cost anything between $20,000 and two mill, which is another reason I won't be doing it. One of the best ones at the expo, though, was Kelly's Coffee and Fudge Factory, which sounded perfect for me, since it combines a unique business opportunity with the chance to eat fudge all day. Mary Gerlick, the franchiser, wanted me in.

Mary Gerlick: Definitely, if you're interested to follow a proven system.

Hmmm, I wonder how proven? Back to Bennett ...

But clearly, franchising's not for me. There's way too much effort involved. . .

Bennett: I interviewed dozens of people for my book, and I asked them, "What was the hardest part?" And most of them said, "Doing everything myself. I had a corporate staff before. Now I have to wash the toilet."

Indeed, hard work. I wonder if most franchise owner/operators had corporate staff in their previous life? At any rate, Cash sounds like he has the right attitude by attending the show to have some fun, eat a bit and observe.