Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs are often congenitally short of funds, professional knowledge, market operation experience and other conditions, so some people set foot in business by joining stores, but they are often deceived or even lost their money. At the special lecture on franchising held by Nanjing Innovation Service Center yesterday, senior experts combined with the Management Measures for Commercial Franchising (hereinafter referred to as the Measures) to be implemented on February 1 to reveal the traps and guide the prospective small bosses present. Trap: selling equipment with a fake license. Many projects are said to be franchising, but in fact they are selling machinery and equipment. This is a common phenomenon of franchise exhibitions at present. Franchisees sell their machines to join under the guise of free joining fees, and run away after completing "circling money". Shanghai 4050 project "Aojiao Coffee" sold 1000 coffee machines, and immediately "evaporated" after defrauding tens of millions of yuan. In the end, only franchisees admitted their losses. As a reminder, this situation is usually concentrated in color film processing, laundry, coffee and other industries. The company used to sell equipment through agents. If entrepreneurs find that the same machine can be bought at a lower price in the market when investigating a franchise project, and the cost of buying the machine accounts for the bulk or even all of the franchise chain, then you should be vigilant. The "Measures" point out that franchisees shall not force franchisees to accept the supply of their goods except monopoly goods and goods that must be provided by them to ensure the quality of franchise. Trap: Propaganda exaggerates the return on investment. For example, chain franchisees can only recover tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of investment in three months at most by promoting projects through exhibitions and advertisements, and the headquarters will be fully responsible for training, advertising investment and operation in the first few months. After the franchisee joined, it was found that the input cost far exceeded the original amount, and the previous commitment of the franchisee was not in place. After two or three years, the cost was still confiscated. Remind franchisees that it takes a considerable process to recover their investment. Franchisees claim that the rate of return is much higher than the industry average, but it is doubtful. How can it be willing to share profits with outsiders? The Measures require franchisers to publicize, promote and sell franchise rights, and the contents of advertisements shall not contain deceptive, omitted important facts or statements that may be misleading, and shall not conceal the situation that franchising may objectively affect the interests of others. Trap: The "model shop" turned out to be a franchise trust. A few illegal franchisees colluded inside and outside the early stage to package and publicize several franchisees and model stores, so that tourists could see that the business was booming. In fact, these are franchisees. When customers join, franchisees only care about the joining fee and management fee, and nothing else is important. Last year, Nanjing Dahai Jewelry's joining event was a typical case of internal and external collusion and using joining to cheat money. Remind entrepreneurs that before deciding to join, it is best to look at the operation of many stores under the same brand. In addition to looking at the head office, they should also choose several franchise stores at will to understand the situation. You can observe it for a few days to see if the franchise stores can make money. As stipulated in the Measures, the franchisor has at least two direct stores operating for more than one year in China or direct stores established by its subsidiaries or holding companies. Trap: You didn't discuss the contract. Some franchisees promised to buy all franchisees' products in the future when they joined, but stated in the contract that they should meet their product standards. When franchisees produce products, franchisees often refuse on the grounds that the products do not meet the requirements, and franchisees can only suffer dumb losses. Some franchisees sign contracts with unqualified entities, such as offices and franchisees, so franchisees often have no way to complain when problems arise. Remind entrepreneurs that when choosing a chain project to join, the contract is the last barrier to protect their rights and interests. You can't just sign it. You must carefully examine all the clauses related to your immediate interests. If your ability is limited, you'd better ask professionals for help. The "Measures" specify the terms of signing the contract in detail, involving the content, duration and place of franchise rights, so that franchisees' rights and interests in this respect can be clearly protected. Experts believe that for ordinary entrepreneurs, in addition to paying attention to the above traps, the choice of joining projects is very important, including choosing industries that meet their own interests, abilities and concepts, choosing more reliable brands with certain social visibility and reputation, and choosing projects with a large number of direct stores and good profitability. The simplest way is to see how long the company has developed in the practice of market operation. Because franchisees must first have the original accumulated experience of market practice, it is possible to pass this experience on to their franchisees. Otherwise, it's just to let franchisees join in to purchase goods, which is different from selling products. Moreover, it is not so easy to join the job. Some companies have been recruiting franchisees since their establishment. You said it would be better. Isn't this the case with Beijing Happy 365 Birthday Gift Company? Since its establishment in April, it has attracted investment through some advertisements, and it is still under the banner of Hou Yuewen. If you ask these people in the company, who can say that the company has 65,438+00 or 20,30,40,50 years of marketing experience before joining the company? Some big franchisees charge quite high fees. Why? Because joining is actually its intellectual property, business strategy, mayor operation, advertising, and its own business brand formed after years of market practice, in addition to providing you with equipment; There is also the collection of some fees, such as joining fees, management fee deposits and so on. In fact, it is also collecting the information resources it provides. Don't trust those free fees, because they are not qualified to charge at all. Once the charge is too high, when no company spends money to build a flagship store for franchisees to inspect, no one will join, and then attract many franchisees with low prices and then cheat more people.
I hope it helps you.