Were you working with the Moe’s Texas (Hooters) boys? That lawsuit settled, as you may know, but I could not get any final info ($ damages, punitive $, etc.) on it…you have any?

Be still pulling buckshot out of your “Titleists”

(I shouldn’t talk. I once caddied for Donald Rumsfeld. I did not, however, wash his… Titleists)

I liked the concept, but thought it was franchised prematurely. I also was a bit taken aback by their strategy of not hiring a marketing company until they had 50 units open. But I spent a good amount of time assessing the units and putting together some proposed fixes. I also raised concerns, including the use of unlicensed celebrity images as part of the trade dress (long before they got sued for the same) which seemed like rookie mistakes.

We redesigned the menuboard layout to make it vastly simpler and customer-friendly, without losing the look, feel or cutesy, cumbersome names. We proposed a system that made it cheap and easy to change prices, etc rather than ordering an entirely new board. As I know a franchisor’s need for control, we proposed a no-risk, no-cost test of the new approach with a clear test period and end date. If it worked, they would be free to use it throughout the chain.

The franchisee went to Atlanta with the presentation, and they were not even allowed to test any of the changes or programs we proposed. The stores limped along and eventually closed. I’ll never forget the plane trip back, opening up a restaurant trade mag and reading how they had just won a hot new concepts award while the franchisees were all interviewing litigators.

Developing prototypes is not where the big money is for these crooks, as you know. Accumulating contracts for cash (franchise agmts) and then selling these contracts at a large multiple (10x earnings) is where it’s at…try ~$120-130 million (on a ~$12-13m royalty stream) for Moe’s, for example. And Sprock owned 2/3 of moe’s…not bad for the ponzi-scheme artist.

re: “over-support”

I did not see a corporate rep for over 1 year, while begging for support/help. Moreover, numerous times, I asked our “business consultants” and Matt Andrew, Raving exec and former president of Moe’s (i think Focus fired him): How do we make $$$ at our revenue level? We never got a straight answer. Why? Because with ONE corporate store (not much/if any skin in the game), so many stores’ revenues all over the map, and completely inadequate/incompetent system-wide support/info, they really did not know–i.e., incomplete or no business model. Result for Raving and Sprock? Lawsuits. See Mama Fu’s and Moe’s and Doc Green’s and…????? And this does not even address the improper marketing “kickbacks,” err
rebates…

Just plug in some money to fight lawsuits –knowing that current regulation of franchising and law and process makes it tough to be put out of business by franchisees.

Another day and another concept will always save the day for those greedy and predator franchisors who make their living by using the trust, the labor, and the capital of franchisees
who don’t really understand how the game is played, and how the deck is stacked against them.