Free Franchise – Come One Come All – Step Right Up! The Show Will Now Begin!

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x617071075/Printing-distributor-targets-Rockford

Please tell me you’re not that naive!

PFG Ventures is silently backed by the slimiest business dealer in the universe – Fred DeLuca.  (If you don’t know the connection, Mr. Deluca, the co-owner of Doctors Associates is the franchisor for Subway.  There are more lawsuits against Mr. DeLuca than McDonalds, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts combined.)  Muzzillo ran into trouble back in the ’90s and DeLuca bailed him out and took majority share in the company.  Then he taught Muzzillo how to write all of his contracts with arbitration clauses in them so no one could sue him.

Greg Muzzillo then divorced his wife and sued her in court, then appealed the judgment in her favor to make the misses share child support and take away her alimony when she had faithfully served him through the rough times.  She was unemployed at the time and he was making $30,000/month.  The judge sent him packing.

Thus, the reasonable needs of the children and the relative abilities of the parents to provide financial support are primary factors the trial court must use to determine the child support contributions of each parent. The trial court in the present case did precisely that. Plaintiff earns more than $38,000 per month and has ownership interests in various companies that are worth approximately $2,000,000. Defendant, by contrast, is not currently employed and does not have any monthly income, although we note that she is expected to “take steps in the near future to develop, and use, her earning capacity.” In this case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering plaintiff to pay one hundred percent of the child support. This arrangement correctly reflects that the children would have received one hundred percent of their financial support from the parent earning the income if the parents had been living together.         We affirm the order of the trial court.

http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/opinions/2005/unpub/040039-1.htm
He then remarried an investment banker and now lives the life of Reilly!  He and his new wife don’t even go to the office.  They make the company blokes travel to Detroit to have meetings.   How does he do it?????

PFG has ruined many a people in its “free franchise” crock of watered down confidence schemes.  PFG is one of the few that gets everyone on the backside.  Most confidence schemes take the marks up front.  PFG has figured out how to get them for the long haul.  I’m sure it wasn’t planned, but it worked out that way.

This is why they give it away for free….They take kickbacks from their hundreds of printing, promotional and apparel vendors promising the franchisee that they get privileged pricing.  They often misrepresent themselves as a “corporation” whenever it suits them.  They hand franchises to people out the side door when a deal too-good-to-be-true shows up and they don’t want to share.  Their “Co-CEOs” live in Detroit and have absolutely nothing to do with the day-to-day.  Their president (Brian Smith) is one of the biggest “whipping boys” that ever walked the face of the earth.  He’ll talk logic and then sell the franchisees down the river when his boss lays down the gauntlet.  Good guy, bad guy to perfection.

How does it work?

1. They invite you to a “discovery” day – it’s the beginning of what they refer to as “due diligence”
2. They give you disclosures and an agreement that is all one-sided in their favor
3. They can change their mind at any time and you have no choice in the matter (just life most UFOCs or FDD as they now call it)
4. They sign you up to a minimum 10 year agreement = the naive are signing 20 year agreements
5. They give you a franchise that is of nearly no value – thats’ why it’s free
6. They control all of your money collections – if you take money, they dump you
7. Here’s the kicker – they take 10% of all of your GROSS – they don’t give a damn about your profits – you can lose money and they’ll take their cut anyway
8. They have their hands down every vendor’s pants.  All of their vendors are in a 2% kickback scheme.
9. If you have a large client, they’ll force you into doing business with their vendors (due to kickbacks) – you cannot push back or they’ll dump you and give your client to another franchise or they’ll simply take it and hand it off to one of their employees who suddenly “chooses to become a franchisee”.
10. This has happened with accounts as large as the United Way and many other Fortune 500 companies
11. The business is one of high overhead.  The average franchise makes about 28% net profit because in printing, promtional and apparel, the product is nearly 60% of the deal.  This only leaves 40% before overhead.  Proforma takes all the proceeds, requires that they pay themselves, then they pay the vendors and then last is the franchisee.  It’s indentured servitude and nothing more.
12. If you make them angry, they take your money and then they tell the vendors to come after you!  It’s another cute little “out” in the contract.
13. A non-compete also keeps you around and from keeping your accounts if you part ways.

Be careful – Nothing of value is FREE!