StickyMicky

hello, i am seriosly considering a change of working practice, there was a pretty big anoucement at my current place of work which has cast sum serious gloom over the workforce, basicaly, every single nissanmicra seat we build we lose £20 on.

now the companys owners have a European turnaround program which has put the plant on a "90 days consultation period" to turn things around

basicaly they need to start making money in 90 days??
the best way to do that is get rid of staff

its not looking good and im all for jumping ship instead of holding on in the hope that things well be ok.

My mate jumped the ship last summer, he sold his car and put 4k into a car wash franchise, if you stay there longer then a year you get your 4k back which seams goopd to me, hes doing really well, and can get me a simmiler pitch aperntly

my problem is that i dont have 4k sitting in the bank, i can either flog my car (dont really want to do this tbh) or go with sum kind of franchise loan (started downloading sum info about this from the net)

any good/bad experiances to be told??
i worked with my mate as a valeter for 4/5 years so its not like he or myself would be jumping in at the deepend in a situation that we know nothing about

Matt Churchill

Franchishes can be a good thing in my experience, and lenders do look at them more favourably than just simply going into business on your own.

What you need to know, is what the franchisor will do for you (and the money you give him), as far as support/promotion/advertising etc?
What percentages/commission etc you pay over, and that there are no hidden catches?
What protection are you afforded as far as additional outlest being opened? (for example to the best of my knowledgem, a McDonalds franchisee has no come back if McDonalds decide to open another restaurant in the vicinity).
What sort of success have other franchisees had?
How transparent are the performance figures for other franchisees?

Just make yourself sure you are happy with everything and you get a straight answer to your questions.

Chip

Check out when the National Franchise Exhibition is on. Very useful.

Chip.

StickyMicky

i can get 1st hand knowledge of the ins and outs of the company due tomy good mate whos now useing them

as above i worked with him as a valeter for approx 4 years, and then we both moved to nissan making the cars on the production line (he was 2 stations up from me on the same line and started on the same day freaky!!)

i left nissan and joined the company who make the nissan seats next door, my mate was layed off about 2 months later due to the new primera not selling and ended up joining the company where i work now in a job which was about 50 meters from my own i am destined to follow him LMAO

its just the whole "who do i see about sum kind of financing" type of thing thats got me a bit stumped

i did a google serach for "franchise loans" and got bombarded with the usual crap
if i goto my bank can i speak to sumbody who knows the ins and outs? (like a franchise specialist or sumthing?)

fatherpierre

Every bank has an expert in loans, mate.

Just give them a bell and make an apt. Before you do that, though, get the prospectus from the franchise co. so you at least go armed with the info.