Tag Archives: inaquest

Greg Muzzillo – Go Buy a Mirror!


Bloody here,

I invite those who stop by the blog to help Mr. Muzzillo with his most recent post here at Bloody (crying like a little piss ant that he’s been attacked personally) to help him out and explain to him why this blog is here and just what Mr. Muzzillo cannot see with how he runs his (excuse me, YOUR) businesses into the ground …… (note the guy is so effing stupid that he cannot use punctuation or spell his own company correctly – is this a franchise owner you’d want to be in control of your livelihood?)

hello, greg muzzillo here. i am not sure why you choose to attack me personally or the organization i have taken 30 years of my life to build.

your attack is anonymous. your words are filled with lies and misrepresentations.

the fact is that our suppliers are encouraged to pay some money into a preferred supplier fund. and that money is used to benefit the suppliers and the franchise owners.

we use that money to pay for credit insurance. all our franchise owners receive free credit insurance from the preferred supplier fund. the franchise owner benefits. and the supplier does, too. because in the proforma system, both the franchise owner and their supplier knows that they will get paid…even if the franchise owner’s customer doesn’t pay them.

this year that fund and the insurance program has paid millions of dollars to the franchise owners and their suppliers. in fact, i know of a few franchise owners that would not have survived without the credit insurance proceeds.

proforma has been recognized by inc. magazine, forbes magazine, the wall street journal, success magazine, blue mau mau and many others for its accomplishments.

i am proud our system and our people. i regret that you have taken to anonymous slander, name calling, lying and misrepresentation about proforma.

i am proud of proforma. i am proud of the result of my 30 years of hard work. that said, i admit that we are not perfect and invite you to directly address with me any legitimate issues you have with proforma.

we are committed to helping the dreams of our franchise owners come true. in the spirit of that commitment i invite you to an open and honest dialog.

dream big!

greg muzzillo
founder & co-ceo
proforam

Greggy, you might want to go back to school and learn how to spell and type or at least let one of your peons type for you because your default to defense and your imbacile Rah! Rah! statements further prove to all those watching that you haven’t a clue and you don’t own a single mirror!

Bloody

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Labor Day in the life of a Zee


Ever ask a zee how they feel about holidays?  Just what goes through the mind of an average person versus the franchisee owner when “holiday” is discussed?  Ever wonder how a zor spends their holiday? In the Americas, the word is “vacation”.  Every paid worker spends their year planning and imagining the relief those two or three weeks truly bring to the family and one’s own inner balance of family vs work vs quality of life.  In Europe, it’s holiday and it’s twice as long as the Americas because most Euro holiday packages are four to six weeks.  The European has come to expect holiday and due to the lack of opportunity, in some respects holiday is one’s privilege.

In the thinking of the blue collar or the white collar or the Euro or anyone else who has never truly owned and run a business, let alone a franchised business, there is no reference or association as to what a holiday brings to a zee.  Their impression is that a small business owner who owns a high-profile franchise operation must already be rich.  They do not know that the life savings and the mountain of debt needed to serve them their 15 second servings of fast food heart attack will never allow me to enjoy another holiday.  The reference of outlay at the onset of such purchase of franchises is referred to “sunk costs”.  Oh how bloody true is that depiction!

Here are just a few interesting problems of the zee during holiday:

  • Workers are off, zee gets to stay and keep the doors open (bills don’t do holidays)
  • Workers are off, doors have to stay open, otherwise the revenue of the holiday revelers will be lost
  • If it’s a day in which stores are closed due to law, I’ll stay and catch up on books and admin as the workers aren’t in
  • If it’s a party day where retail is open, I get to stay and help the skeleton shift (who bitch and moan that they have to work)
  • Leading up to the holiday, everyone leaves early, meaning I get to stick around to make sure everything is set because I own this mess
  • And finally, the schedules are all mine to own and fix and work with due to the fact that no one owns anything but me (the R word means nothing to the hourly worker)

And last but not least, I can visualize and imagine the wonderful times the zor is having attending special events as grand marshall (the honor and respect he purchased with my life savings and ongoing royalty abuses).  After all, his ad fund, his marketing fund, his kickbacks from vendors and his admin, his legal support are all coming from the money I gave, will give him and am generating while working over this glorious holiday!

Bloody

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Greg Muzzillo is Pro-Bankruptcy (but only if you’re a vendor giving him kickbacks)


Words of wisdom from a franchisor:

Proforma’s co-CEO Greg Muzzillo said “the filing will improve Norwood’s balance sheet immediately”.  Well, no sh** sherlock! Bankruptcy is a great vehicle to screw your creditors!  (Greg gets a 2-3% kickback on every item a franchisee buys from Norwood.)  Why not screw them all the way just like you do your franchisees, Greg (and your wife too)!  After all, you learned from the best – Mr. DeLuca.  And your little whipping boy Brian Smith can help you snow the franchisees into believing that all is OK while you rape and pillage their future livelihoods too!

Except that if you are a franchisee and you chose bankruptcy for protection, you lose everything (Section 13, xii in the franchise agreement)!  So what’s good for the vendor who is feeding kickbacks to Mr. Muzzillo is death to the franchisee who is giving nearly 25% of its net worth to a fat lazy schmuck who sues his ex-wife to get out of child support when he’s making 38K a month and she is a homemaker!  Can you spell D-O-U-B-L-E S-T-A-N-D-A-R-D Greg?

Update: For all of those who don’t know it, Mr. Muzzillo gets it both ways.  He takes kickbacks from every vendor that sells to any franchisee in his system.  If you’re a franchisee, he’ll twist your arm and make you buy from a “Proforma PLP (preferred limited partner)” because there’s a 2% kickback from the heavy volume PLPs (BIC, Norwood, Vantage, SanMar) and more for low volume PLPs who spend their time schmoozing Greg and Vera and Brian.  You would think that franchisees would have more clout since they are losing over 10% in royalty fees as compared to the PLPs.  But oh contrare!  The franchisees are nothing but marks and only those in the “Million Dollar Club” are given any attention (and very little at that).  They are in fact the angriest!  You see, if they do 1 million in business at a net profit of 35% (highest average of all franchisees), they would receive $350,000.  Yet they end up paying Greg and Vera a whopping sum of $100,000 (28.5% of their net profit for absolutely nothing)! (If one only makes 25% net profit on 1 million, then Greg and Vera would receive 40% of the franchisee’s net profit!)

You see Greg and Vera don’t know an effing thing about selling print, promotions or apparel (that’s how Greg got in the business, but he hasn’t been in the trenches for over 25 years.  He was actually an accountant by trade and Vera is an investment banker.)  They are in the business to sell more franchises to more unsuspecting marks and they aren’t very good at that!  Franchise counts are not measurable as they are simply the word of Greg and Vera.  Franchise discontent continues to grow year after year (especially with those who are successful in spite of Greg and Vera).  As one makes more and more profits, Greg and Vera get more and more and more for less and less and less.  What do they do with all of the marketing monies, you ask?  They spend the royalty dollars marketing Proforma to prospective franchisees and mostly for their personal PR to prop up their personal image.  If you want marketing services for your specific franchise, that’s extra and you either have to do it yourself out of your own pocket or you can buy those services from Greg and Vera, (but that will be extra).

Bloody

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Franchisee Recourse


Many of you have faith in the system.  This is why you bought into a franchise, are looking at buying into a franchise or sadly, have been burned and turned into ash by a franchisor.  Some have said that those of us who have been burned simply want to rant and throw the whole system out (the baby with the bathwater).  This is true if franchising stays in its current condition.  Franchising could be a great model, but not until there is recourse on behalf of the franchisee.  Today, recourse is non-existent.  As a franchisee, here are your options:

Scenario:  You’ve run into a snag.  No matter the snag (financial, operational, marketing, sales, functional or strategic), you are at a point where you don’t have the resources or the knowledge to go it without some assistance.  The normal course goes something like this:

  1. Call the franchisor, who gets back to you a week later and simply says “You’re just not doing what we told you to do, keep trying”.  Or perhaps “You’ll need to buy another franchise to increase your revenue”.  (This isn’t an option because you’re already up to your eyeballs in debt.)
  2. You call other franchisees to get support and find out they’re in the same boat and they have no answers. (Bitch and moan sessions break out.)
  3. You seek out help from your friendly neighborhood lawyer, all to find out he has no expertise in this area and getting any advice from him is just plain stupid and doesn’t apply. (I pity those of you who trust main street lawyers with your livelihood.)
  4. You read your contract and find out just how lopsided it  truly is and you now realize you’ve been effed (or “had” if you aren’t yet mad as hell by now).
  5. Now you’re really in a pinch and you start thinking about any other recourse you might have.  Let’s just say you’re not an evil person so sabotage or ambush are not considerations of your recourse.
  6. Considering you feel you’re very resourceful, you call your local franchisee association (assuming there is one – which means you’re in the minority).  After six months of feeling these people out, you realize its rife with lukewarm blowhards who have no clue as to how to get anything accomplished, while there are slight glimmers of hope from a few conversations, only to realize that corporate has infiltrated the association and everything submitted is “taken under advisement” never to see the light of day again!
  7. Finally, you’ve done all of the nice guy things that can be accomplished, so you pull all the stops and you seek out franchisee-only law firms.  After several confusing discussions, you realize that the lawyers will cost you a fortune in hourly fees considering most will not take a contingency case.  Contingency cases must be a slam dunk and this rarely occurs when the UFOC/FDD is written 99% in favor of the franchisor.  The UFOC/FDD is loaded with intangible statements including “good faith” and “disparaging” types of words which do not and will not do the franchisee any favors with most judges.  The law firm will ask you enough questions to figure out whether the case is egregious enough to be considered a contingency or a class-action or you are stuck with arbitration. (Class action suits only benefit the firm and in almost 100% of all cases, the franchisee will only get a partial portion of their initial sunk costs back, about 5 years after engagement if one wins the suit.  The judge in these cases now holds all the keys to your future.)
  8. Let’s just say you read the FDD and you ask your competent lawyer about the clauses of “arbitration”.  You find out that you cannot even go to court because you don’t have a case large enough, or it cannot be monetized and you are therefore subject to arbitration.
  9. At this point, you either have to have the reserves to hire the firm on a retainer basis ((you now have to take a second or third or pull all of your life savings together (provided you have any left) to defend what you’ve already sunk into the venture)).  If not, you simply give up and either suck it up and swallow the franchisor’s bullshit or you close up shop and walk away a “loser”.  The franchisor can simply put you into the loser’s category and in court, you haven’t a chance in hell of ever convincing a judge or jury otherwise because he has statistics of successful franchisees and unless you can refute them, his word is way more viable than yours.  After all, he’s a successful franchisor and you’re just a low-life franchisee.
  10. Maybe you do have a rather egregious case and the firm takes your case on a contingency basis.  First, they will need a retainer.  If you don’t have $50,000 to throw into a retainer, then you have to fund it with a loan or even worse, you ferret out other franchisees to see if you can rally the troops.   (You know from previous conversations that you’re not alone, but for fear of retribution, most are not as ballsy as you and you will have to do this with great fear and trepidation to avoid this getting back to the franchisor making you vulnerable to having your franchise terminated with/without cause).
  11. Once you take action with a firm, regardless of contingency, retainer, class-action or some combination thereof, you now are going to be terminated and marked.  You will have to go out and find another way to make a living in the meantime.  Wasn’t buying into a franchise the alternative to having to go back into the corporate hell hole in the first place?

Conclusion:  There is no viable recourse for franchisees.  Even with a settlement (see the previous post about a Quiznos franchise awarded in favor of the franchisee over a 4 year period), you are subject to appeal.  And trust me, the franchisor has more time and money (your money I might add) and will pursue any and every possible remedy (with your money I remind you) to keep you from exposing them.  See the post below placed on Bluemaumau.com by the owner of a franchise when I called him on the carpet for being a dishonest franchisor:

hello all….bloody franchise is a nameless, shameless liar and malcontent. he/she seems to be hell-bent on trying to destroy the institution of franchising with malicious and false attacks on franchisors and their people at his blog and with persistent emails to people in organizations he wants to attack.

he/she attacks real people with real words but all the time refuses to expose hie/her real identity. my caution to you is to be very wary of any communications you have with him/her. his/her ONLY agenda is to destroy all who are part of the franchise family of franchisors and service providers.

hello bloody….we will find you. we will find out who you really are. and because of your malice, libesl and other counts we will seek all remedies the courts allow. you are a coward to hide behind an alias and attack real people. we will find you. and we will crush you. you are a coward. you are a liar. you are a loser. and if you have anything left to lose…you will lost it, too. that’s a promise.

So franchisees, there are no conventional recourse options.  Legal is in it for the money.  Franchisee-only lawyers are in it for the money – they have to be!  If they play both sides of the fence, they cannot be trusted!  The courts don’t have a clue and with the changes in franchising, the laws of the court have been replaced with franchisor-friendly arbitration firms who schmooze the franchisors to get the cases.  You have no options there either.

“So what are my options?” asks the franchisee.

“Aside from criminal, civil or libel actions against the franchisor, going to the press or organizing other victims of your franchise brand to bring grass-roots marches on the front steps of the franchisor, there are none!”  – Bloody

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Freddy makes the Billionaires list – Franchisees proud or angry?


Just one question:  Is that money his or yours franchisees?

Subway founder Fred DeLuca of Fort Lauderdale ranked 450th on the list with a net worth of $1.6 billion. His sandwich franchise generated $12.9 billion in revenue last year, Forbes reports. DeLuca is 61.

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Mr. Proforma’s (inaquest) response to BloodyFranchise on Bluemaumau


Note the comment placed on BlueMauMau.com by us at Bloody and the “inaquest” response.  The truth hurt so much that “inaquest” (my my, he hasn’t revealed himself while accusing us of being shameless to remain anonymous?) reacted somewhat vehemently with the standard “malcontent” argument.  Mr. Proforma, you know who you are and so do I.  The truth is painful and when it has the potential to touch your wallet, your reaction was quite predictable! 

You might want to listen to your in-house counsel, Mr. Kordel and be careful in the future.  Your character flaws and your temper are going to get you into trouble!  Your trademark email behaviors are well known amongst your Kool-Aid drinkers, as well as those who are sick and tired of making you wealthy for doing nothing while they work their asses off to make ends meet.

 

With regards to your comment: he/she seems to be hell-bent on trying to destroy the institution of franchising”.  You are partially right.  We are hell bent on destroying the abuses of franchising of which franchisors of the lowest character (you and Mr. DeLuca) have concocted and executed at the expense of the indefensible over the last 30+ years.  I suggest you find an alternative before it’s too late because your fat ivory-tower days in the penthouse are numbered.  Your IQ is half of Bernie’s and they had no problem putting him away!

Franchising 2009  

Submitted by bloodyfranchise on Tue, 2009/02/24 – 17:46.

Mr. Wilkerson,

You have never seen what is going to happen to the franchise market in 2009! Things will happen even you with your vast knowledge will not have predicted. And quite frankly, I don’t know how you think financing opportunities will be difficult? With all of the predatory lending and illegal “capital equipment lease” contracts disguised as financing vehicles, there will be plenty of honest people losing their lives and their homes and their retirements to this fine industry which has fueled your existence we refer to as “franchising”.

“profitable wonder machine” – that’s for damn sure! Wonder is about all it’s capable of creating!

“Mom and pop will gain plenty of attention from franchisors in the care industries, including home and health, entertainment, education and physical fitness” – yet another bunch of marks for you to sell down the river!

“The business of franchising is literally the yellow brick road” – with wicked witches and a little wizard behind the curtain too!

Your Kool-Aid machine goes 24/7 I see…..

https://bloodyfranchise.wordpress.com/

bloody

Submitted by inaquest (not verified) on Thu, 2009/03/05 – 10:59.

hello all….bloody franchise is a nameless, shameless liar and malcontent. he/she seems to be hell-bent on trying to destroy the institution of franchising with malicious and false attacks on franchisors and their people at his blog and with persistent emails to people in organizations he wants to attack.

he/she attacks real people with real words but all the time refuses to expose hie/her real identity. my caution to you is to be very wary of any communications you have with him/her. his/her ONLY agenda is to destroy all who are part of the franchise family of franchisors and service providers.

hello bloody….we will find you. we will find out who you really are. and because of your malice, libesl and other counts we will seek all remedies the courts allow. you are a coward to hide behind an alias and attack real people. we will find you. and we will crush you. you are a coward. you are a liar. you are a loser. and if you have anything left to lose…you will lost it, too. that’s a promise.

Reply to Inaquest

Submitted by bloodyfranchise on Thu, 2009/03/05 – 16:55.

Did we touch a nerve? Reactions like yours mean we hit the mark…The truth really hurts doesn’t it?

Getting exposed for what you really do to people’s lives will be even more painful. Maybe they’ll have a cell next to Bernie or Mr. Stanford for you after sentencing.

Sincerely,

Bloody

2nd reply to Inaquest

Submitted by bloodyfranchise on Sat, 2009/03/07 – 14:27.

Hey Mr. Proforma…..yeah, we know you are behind inaquest – btw – another failed venture back in ’99 –

http://www.inaquest.com
What it offers: Business cards, letterhead, and other standard products; forms; gifts and promotional products.
What it’s good for: Customized marketing giveaways, like T-shirts and phone cards; graphic-design consultation.
Don’t waste your time on: Trying to figure out the site’s odd name, which panelists called meaningless, confusing, and hard to remember.  What our panel had to say: Some found inaQuest.com easy to use and appealing. “This site makes me want to buy something with a logo on it — and I don’t even need anything!” one panelist remarked. But another tester called the site “frustrating” and “a waste of time,” with sluggish page loads that slowed down his system.

http://technology.inc.com/internet/articles/200009/20135.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Why “Subway is the biggest problem in franchising….Dean Sager”


Though this report was written some 10 years ago (and Fast Food Nation in 2001-2), the infractions and arbitration have only increased exponentially.  In 2006, Fred took control over all of the marketing funds (400 million) by changing his contracts (was formally under control by the 14,000 member North American Association of Subway Franchises or the NAASF) and now simply markets whatever he thinks will sell sandwiches even if he chooses to give them away for free at the cost of the franchisees.  When they sued Fred in court, his counsel claimed that arbitration was the venue.  The judge told them to “kiss and make up” and let Fred go.  Fred DeLuca has spread his wings to more franchises and invested in others in an effort to heap riches upon himself (billionaire already) while destroying the little guy through his predatory model.–Bloody

The U.S. House of Representatives’ small-business committee studied the franchise industry for six years, and staff economist Dean Sagar concludes: ‘Subway is the biggest problem in franchising and emerges as one of the key examples of every abuse you can think of.’ Says Cliff Marshall, a franchise consultant for more than 30 years: ‘If anyone in my family ever asked whether they should buy a Subway, I would say absolutely not, no way.’

FORTUNE MAGAZINE – MARCH 16TH 1998

–Judges and juries in several cases have found that the company has conned or misled landlords by using shell companies.

–Legal disputes disclosed in an annual report required by the Federal Trade Commission total 160–more than the combined total listed by Subway’s seven largest competitors (McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Hardee’s). The number has nearly doubled in four years and doesn’t include 50 cases in Milford, Conn., the company’s hometown, against various dummy entities DeLuca has used to conduct business.

THE LEADER IN LAWSUITS

The FTC requires franchisors to provide prospective franchisees with data about relevant litigation. Here are the numbers of pending and concluded cases* for the eight largest fast-food chains over the past decade.

*Includes arbitrations.

Pizza Hut 4 Taco Bell 5 Wendy’s 10 Hardee’s 25 McDonald’s 26 KFC 28 Burger King 29 Subway 160

From the Mar. 16, 1998 Issue

The defacto standard of publications depicting the true nature of the fast food industry:

Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser

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Antonyms of Franchisor = Character, Integrity, Trust, Honesty


Yesterday we showed you the character of one Greg Muzzillo and his chumming buddy Fred DeLuca.

Freddy is the great white shark of the franchise world.  He’s so big, no one can take him down (so the arbitrators say).  Today, I bring you a local franchisor who seems to have the same character issues of Freddy and Greg.   Now meet another shark of the same school but with different tastes – MEET Peter Picurro

A prominent businessman whose name graces a local gourmet pizza chain was arrested Sunday and accused of soliciting a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl on an Internet site, according to the Tucson Police Department.

________________________________________________

A High-Profile Arrest Destroyed the Good Name of a Local Pizza Chain

Could the company be saved?

________________________________________________

Franchisee leaves brand to go out on his own….

Experts say turning a franchise into an independent business is fraught with perils – including the expense of changing logos, signs, phone numbers and proprietary equipment; possible lawsuits by the parent company; and all the usual challenges faced by small businesses, such as trying to develop a customer base.

Nonetheless, Shaffer and other former franchisees said they were willing to take the risks.

“I’ve been much happier being independent,” said Roberta Shapiro, who changed her Tucson restaurant to The Pizzeria On Ina after her franchiser, Peter Picurro, was charged in 2005 with luring a minor for sexual exploitation. Shapiro said she enjoys the freedom of being able to choose her restaurant’s hours and experiment with the menu, which she couldn’t do as a franchisee. That helps her keep up with her customers’ changing tastes, she said.

“I think we’re a lot more efficient,” she said.

________________________________________________

Update: When the Worst Happens

Published January 2009

In August 2007, we wrote about Terry Wyman-Picurro, who scrambled to save her chain of pizza restaurants after her ex-husband’s arrest.

________________________________________________

Do you really want to swim with the sharks?

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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!

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