my old man told me today that he's researching the benefits of buying a franchise, games wizard that is, when he first told me i couldnt wait to get home to read the email, as i did not know what the franchise was, but as i read the email, i was rather dissapointed, i don't know why, as it sounds alright to me, problem is he kind of expects me to go with him to help him out, but it's not something i really want to do, sure i'd do it for a few years for some cash. sounds like a good business a guy he was talking to said he made $400,000 in december last year. he's checking out EB as well,(i thought they were better and had more of a name)

what do you's think of this, and why am i dissapointed, i don't get it. i wasn't expecting anything as i had no idea. but just when i found out it was that i was like ohh.. cool..*sarcasm*

Franchaises can be gay.......if you choose the wrong ones....theres always some horror story or other.

all franchaises are gay, they let you belive your incharge of your own buisness when really your not, some people like that tho and it works for them. those who really do prefer to be there own boss are better off going independent and actually buying/starting there own buisness ( its harder but atleast you dont get f***ed over by the franchaisee)

Personally, I think franchises are good for initial start up. You have the goodwill, and the corporation will help you out in the beginning, because they don't want a bad name

not sure about later on, that's what I can sorta think about it

tis why my dad is doing alot of research on it, no discredit to my dad, but he never used to be the smartest person, and since he got a job with a corp. within wesfarmers he's gone places, even at uni doing business courses, and i think if he did leave it should be to something similar as to what he's doing now, not running his own business, i reckon it's a fad, like sure i'd love it, it would be good fun for about 6 months to a year, then i'd get bored.

franchises are great when first starting out, they do offer a heap of support, but once you have money rolling in and you can stand on your own 2 feet.. they still feel they have to direct you around.. well actually if your read there contract you have todo what they say so its not really directing. i havnt come across one franchise that doesnt do thise, and i know alot of people who have been in this situation and my parents have been in franchises themselves.

but yeah do your research, i dont mean to bad mouth them, but honestly there is very little nice things i have to say about em :|

nar yeah no worries man, i want to know the goods and bads, and thoughts of everyone, this is an anything thread although most the time i like no flaming, but this is good CONTRUCTIVE criticism.

can't go wrong with mcdonalds :)

mcdonalds isnt a franchise

Actualy most stores are a franchise

rofl

Mc Donalds is a huge franchise, pitty the licence is so expensive..

last I heard it was around $3million to get the rights to use the McDonalds name on your store... that includes your building and everything though...

mcdonalds isnt a franchise

And donald duck wears green knicker-bockers :P

perhaps a pretzal related one?

I would suggest making sure you check out the fine details.

Things they can catch u out on for example:

-Computer systems - Sometimes they can tell u want u have to buy and where from.

-Supplies/Support - They have "recommended" suppliers/supports that you have to use.

I work in an industry where i hear these stories.

There are definitly up sides to being part of a chain.

sounds like a good business a guy he was talking to said he made $400,000 in december last year

I know lots of people buy software around x-mas but I find it a little hard to believe that you could make that kind of money from a games shop in one month. $100,000 maybe.

Who knows..

Its plausible, the crowds in EB around christmas are horrendous. Usually a line of at least 5 or 6 people. Now lets take an estimate and say in a 20 minute period, 10 people are served, and each spends approximately $90. So thats $2700 in an hour. By 8 hours a day, thats $21,600 in a day. By 6 days a week (cos sunday trading wasn't around then) thats $129,600 a week. By 4 weeks and it'd be $518,400. Of course, thats just a huge estimate that makes a lot of assumptions, but I reckon it wouldn't be too far off...

a mate of mine was a manager of a few EB stores about a year ago (garden city and carindale)

he said it was the worst work hes ever done

busy, 1 register, troublesum customers and s***ty owner demanding exceedingly long hours be worked

i dont think he even lasted 3 months before he gave it up and did something else

I guess your Dad may already be in retail, but if not some of the things to consider are where your shop's going to be, and if it's in a shopping center like a westfield they (seem) to place lots of restrictions on you

from what i heard from a guy running a computer game franchise at a westfield - he had to pay westfields 'recommended' contractors huge fees to setup his shop (could not install it himself). That's shelving, running power, setting up desks etc. The franchise forced him to rejigg his store every year (or maybe it was westfield) once again this was through expesnive inhouse contractors.

He has to be open when the shopping center is open, whether he wants to or not.

He believed he was protected and another game store wouldn't be opening up in the same shopping center, that was not the case.

His rent was HUGE. They expect him to have significant discounts monthly, etc.

Yeah, running a franchise can be good if you are in the right location. But what can really set your store out from others is having some type of niche market. Like stocking a few things that the others don't have, things that might be hard to get elsewhere.

Also, don't run it like a Hardly Normal or something where everything is done by the book: as in serving people to get them out the door as fast as possible. Try and get to know customers and be a friendly as possible to get them to come back again. You want the customer to come back again because of your service and your prices. Even if you don't have the best cutting edge prices, you'll still get people coming back because you're helpful and talkative with them.

Never take for granted that just because you have the only store of it's kind in the suburb that people will be "forced" to use you. That type of attitude sucks and people aren't stupid, they'll drive across the city because they know they'll get good quality service and know that they're not just coming in to buy something but they're coming in for that extra service they know they'll get.

Take it from a professional like me that when it comes to this type of stuff I excell in every way.

8-)

So yeah. There are a few more things you must do in order to keep your business going apart from the "just making money" side of things. I hope you've all learnt something here today and I'll be here all week.

8-)

mcdonalds isnt a franchise

rofl. as if it isn't.

what is it then? please enlighten us.

macdonalds isnt a franchise, whos leg u pullin

is i use to know people in canberra that owned 2

a franshise means that you have to abide by strict rules and regulations in running the shop. you can't really do anything different from what Mc Donalds wants you to because they own the righs to the name and so forth. and you agreed to contracts and so forth. And Mc Donalds controls the franchisees.

Franchising is similar to licensing, licensing means that you still have to pay for the name but you can have more control in your business, as in you can do anything you want and still use their name.

now if Mc Donalds isn't a franchise, what is it? because it isn't a license.

macdonalds isnt a franchise, whos leg u pullin

is i use to know people in canberra that owned 2

unless they called them MacDonalds or MicDanalds then they were either running the franchise OR illegally operating a business with a copywrited name

unless they called them MacDonalds or MicDanalds then they were either running the franchise OR illegally operating a business with a copywrited name

lol, good one Grosby

I hope greyden was kidding :/

hi welcome to mcdongles can i take your order please?

Greyden needs a clue.