Trap 1: Selling machines
In fact, it is selling machines or charging a lot of franchise fees, which is a common phenomenon in franchise exhibitions at present. At an exhibition not long ago, a company producing bath boxes listed the joining conditions as follows: they only need to buy their machines and purchase 3 sets at a time without joining fees, so they can obtain the market agency right at the county level, which means that they have the right to develop offline franchisees. Although they shouted the slogan of exempting the joining fee, they were playing the idea of buying a machine to join.
once the company "circled money" and ran away, the weak franchisees could only lose their wives and soldiers.
countermeasures: this kind of projects are usually concentrated in color expansion, laundry, coffee and other joining projects that rely on large equipment. The premise of joining is to buy the machinery and equipment of the leader. Some machinery and equipment that can be bought at a lower price in the market are claimed to be "all imported" and "international patents" in the leader, and should be sold to franchisees at a higher price. If you know that the same machine can be bought at a lower price in the market, and the cost of buying the machine accounts for the bulk or even all of the franchise amount, you should be on your guard.
Trap 2: Pay the deposit on the spot
As long as you have been to the franchise chain exhibition, you will certainly not be unfamiliar with the following scene: before you walk to the booth of a certain project, you will see "runners" wearing this brand of clothing scattered in almost every corner of the exhibition hall, recommending you with a small notebook and leading you to the exhibition area to try to get you to join, and also urging you urgently, countless people want to join, "time is money." While hesitating, the audience applauded and cheered. It turned out that someone had paid the money on the spot.
the more you join the headquarters, the more likely you are to have problems. Franchising is a pattern of "one fall and all fall". If there is a problem in one store, it will be implicated in all stores. In order to ensure the consistency of the quality of goods and services, the formal franchise headquarters has very strict qualification examination for franchisees, including the threshold of franchise funds, performance guarantee and purchase channels. If the leader does not inspect the franchisee and can join immediately as long as he pays the joining fee on the spot, you should also be careful.
countermeasures: many franchisees only listen to the written information or explanations from the headquarters, and then hastily sign up to join. When there is a dispute, they go to the headquarters and find that the headquarters is smaller than their own stores, and they have no ability and experience to solve the store problems. Therefore, it is necessary to go to the headquarters and its franchise stores in person and collect first-hand on-site information.
when selecting franchise chain enterprises, prospective franchisees can ask the head office to provide relevant information. If the head office can't provide it, it's better to think twice. In addition, you can ask the headquarters to provide the number and location of existing franchisees, and choose franchisees similar to the expected business circle for unannounced visits to find out whether the actual operation of franchisees is really as the headquarters said.
don't pay the initial fee or deposit hastily without investigation and study.
Trap 3: Free franchise fee or extremely low franchise fee
Nowadays, many franchise headquarters attract franchisees with low franchise fee and low capital "threshold", but experts warn that low investment amount does not mean low risk, and sometimes it may even contain risks.
countermeasures: when measuring the standard of joining fees, we should not simply look at the amount, but whether these fees are commensurate with the products, management, brand and technology provided by the franchiser. Those champions who are weak without brand awareness have no way to help franchisees to resist risks. It is better to be careful when encountering such franchise projects.
Trap 4: Promise to recover the cost in the short term
A franchise chain owner promised to help franchisees provide business training and take charge of advertising and store decoration only by paying tens of thousands of yuan of initial fee. Franchisees without any business experience can recover the cost within half a year and make a quick profit, with a net profit of tens of thousands of yuan every year. However, once the franchisees joined the joint marketing system, they found that the investment cost was far more than the original amount, and the merchants' prior commitments were not in place, and they still did not recover the cost after two or three years of tossing.
Countermeasures: Like normal operation, a franchise project also has an investment recovery process, and it will be profitable at least after one to one and a half years of operation. For those who claim that the rate of return is much higher than the industry average, it is doubtful. At present, the management of registered enterprises by the industrial and commercial administration department has also changed from the original examination system to the registration system. Therefore, the rate of return selected by the leader has not been inspected by any relevant department, and only the franchisees themselves can carefully judge it.
Trap 5: Visit the "model house"
The most common and hidden money trap. Some franchisees make a few model stores, and then start to "circle money" through pre-packaging and publicity, only charging franchise fees and management fees, and nothing else matters.
countermeasures: with a lesson from the past, franchisees should look at the operating conditions of many stores under the same brand, besides the head office, they should also look at the conditions of franchisees before making a decision to join. Moreover, it's best to randomly check several franchise stores by yourself, instead of just looking at those recommended by the leader, because it is likely that the leader deliberately created a "model".
after a random survey, we can find out which stores have certain experience in opening stores, and the number of chain stores has reached a certain scale or developed for at least two years, so that there is more business guarantee.
Trap 6: A contract that looks beautiful
Some franchisees promise to buy franchisees' products, but they will indicate in the contract that they must meet their product standards, which are vague. After franchisees produce products, the franchisees can reject them on the grounds that the products do not meet the requirements, and franchisees can only suffer dumb losses.
countermeasures: when participating in the project of franchise chain, the contract is the key to protect one's rights and interests, and all the clauses related to one's real interests must be put into detail. If one's ability in this respect is limited, it is also very necessary to hire a lawyer.