Unfortunately, as is demonstrated by your site and Blue Mau Mau and Franchise Pundit, too many franchisees do not find these sites until AFTER they have made the investment and it is then TOO LATE for them.

I’m sure you realize that there are those who believe that the visability of the LARGE and MATURE franchisors is the proof of the pudding and they don’t find their way to sites like Blue Mau Mau or Franchise Pick or spend scarce resources on due diligence help.

Did you read Nick Bibby’s post on Blue Mau Mau on Nov. 11th where he warned VETS and their families about all of the bad franchisors out there, and suggested that VET Fran and others were pushing unviable franchise concepts, etc.. to the Vets —-since the introduction of the Patriot Express Loan Initiative in June of 2007?

Carol Cross makes some great points and is on a crusade to educate prospective franchisees to make better decisions. However, Carol tends to lump all franchisors together and imply that all of franchising is a plot to defraud.

My experience is with the 100+ franchisors that I have worked with (admittedly not a cross section). I have run across very few who would perceive that the disclaimers in the disclosure documents give them a license-to-scam. Legitimate franchise companies want to build successful chains by having successful franchisees – not by defrauding suckers. The consultants and attorneys I associate with counsel that once a legit franchisor has to resort to what the legal agreement says, both sides have lost. We do not get resistance to viewpoint, and we do not work with people who make illegal or misleading earnings claims – and we keep plenty busy.

Franchisors are a varied group. Burned franchisees tend to refer to them all as if they are all as underhanded as the one FR they perceive burned them.

Unfortunately, most entrepreneurial media and even well-meaning groups like SCORE err in the opposite direction – and make recommendations and “Best of” lists with absolutely no basis other than size or ad dollars. The last list of franchises I saw recommended by SCORE read like the Who’s Who of Franchise Litigation Defendents.

The most important thing a prospective franchisee can learn from this blog and these discussions is that they have to do their own thinking and research and make their own decisions because ultimately they – not me, Carol, SCORE, or Entrepreneur magazine – will reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of their decisions.

I would hope the SCORE workers would independently investigate the actual failure rate of the franchises that veterans look at and explain that “churning” and “encroachment” and “appropriation of deposits” seem to be practices that are not deemed illegal under federal regulatory policy —-as demonstrated by Quiznos management practices that are upheld in the courts as long as the acknowledgement and reliance clauses are in place in the boilerplate contract that is presented in a package with the FDD.

It would seem that SCORE could do much more to bring the imperfections of franchise regulation to the attention of Veterans and their families who consult with them.

Remember that Quiznos borrowed several million in a securitization deal in 2006 and, in reality, many of their franchisees’ contracts are owned by a separate special vehicle legal entity. Quiznos is just a “servicer” under the law, I believe, of those franchisees’ contracts that were legally sold in the securitization process in 2006.

I wish Mr. Ashe success in his new venture to help VETS, and I would hope that SCORE would work to prevent VETS and their families from investing in high-risk churning organizations like Quiznos, the UPS Store, and many others.

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Netiquette tip: posting generic sales copy into a blog comment area is considered “comment spam,” offensive and bad form. It’s more likely to do damage to your image than promote it. I always give the benefit of the doubt that it was a newbie mistake, so no harm done.

Success depends on growth of both parties. The Franchisee’s need the Franchise itself to grow in order to get the desired name recognition and the Franchisor needs the Franchisee’s to grow in order to sell more. It’s a vicious circle and there are no easy answers.

People only seem to make money in this society if you want to rip people off and sell garbage of some sort. You try to sell Fitness…..a proven way to improve your health and quality of life and apparently no one wants it.

You think Coca Cola wants people healthy? How about McDonalds? The Pharmacuetical companies? These companies can afford to cram their unhealthy products down our throats 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It’s tough for a strt up Fitness Franchise to combat.