Well Seasoned Blog

A new franchise opened recently in the Fraser Valley – a fairly new Western Canadian based franchise with less than 15 locations (just to put it in perspective). Let’s for the sake of argument say this franchise sells widgets for $3.50 each and super widgets for $4.50. There are other widgets in town, in fact all over town if you look close enough but these ones are new and they claim to have the “best widgets in the world”. So a family buys this widget franchise from Widget Central – they want to make tons of money selling widgets, have no experience with widgets and likely wouldn’t know a “super” widget if it bit them in the ass but they see the current trend in widget sales and want a piece of that widget fortune. Well, this is going to take some capital – buying a widget franchise isn’t cheap so 3 f them get together to pool their resources and pitch in to buy their dream widget outlet. They rent a brand new building in a shiny new strip mall surrounded by homes of thousands of unsuspecting people they will coax in and hopefully get hooked on their widgets. After many months of negotiations with the landlord, expensive leasehold improvements, delays getting city permits, construction challenges and signage problems the dream widget location finally opens its doors and hangs a big generic sign out front that says “Now Open”. There is no brand and no sign to be seen anywhere letting people know exactly what it is that just opened – it isn’t until you drive up to the front door do you realize it is a Widget outlet and apparently you can get the worlds greatest widgets inside – well, thank god it is finally open. I didn’t know I really needed a stand alone widget outlet until now but hey, what the hell let’s give it a go. Inside the place is very sterile, empty actually…well, it’s new it will take them a while to settle in right? One sign on the back wall identifies where you are – there are a single row of well lit showcases where you can look at the widgets, there are tiny signs that say if the widget is a regular or a super widget…you can’t touch the widgets, smell the widgets or even get close to them, there is no description about how the widget is made, what is inside of it, how to use it or how to treat it when you get home. And apparently they even make Jr. widget but you have to special order those, clearly they don’t want to downgrade a potential sale.
So I order a regular widget and a super widget to go…they are carefully removed from their designated Plexiglas glass display case and put inside a plane unbranded cardboard box. There is no hope of knowing once you get home where those widgets came from, what they are used for, which one is the regular and which one is the super…it is all very confusing to a new widget buyer like me.
So now the widget outlet has been open for just about a month – they barely have a sign identifying them, they do not have any branded collateral material inside the outlet – they don’t care to find out who you are or where you came from or how you stumbled upon them they just want the $8.00 for your two unidentifiable widgets and to send you on your way.

I want to know who sold this franchise and what did the people actually think they were buying?

They certainly didn’t buy a recognizable brand…no one knows those widgets from a hole in the ground. They didn’t buy a turn key operation with signage, an opening strategy and a plan. In fact – if you can grasp this, they aren’t even allowed to make their own widgets on site…the franchisees even have to call and order their widgets 2 days in advance. They must then wait for them to be delivered everyday by a courier from the widget factory. So if they run out of widgets in the middle of the day they are screwed…god forbid they order way too many widgets – what happens then? I am pretty sure you can’t send them back. They corporate widget office have convinced the franchisee’s that the widgets must come from their warehouse to maintain “quality control”. You don’t want to make your own widgets – that is too much work…leave it to us, we are the widget experts.
Really?
Widgets are easy to make and if you made them in the new outlet people would be excited to see them being made and maybe want to buy even more. The corporate office wants to maintain control all right – control over everything their dumb little franchisee’s do and sell. WTH ?
They don’t sell anything but widgets – no widget accessories, no widget upgrades, no widget swag…just widgets. They don’t even have frequent buy cards for the hardcore widget addicts.

Wow – is this really what people think owning a business is?

I don’t know who the sales person is that sells these widget franchises but they are obviously very good at their job to have sold these franchisees absolutely nothing. An unrecognizable brand, an inaccessible product, no apparent strategic plan, no collateral material, no marketing strategy and in my opinion a sadly inferior widget. Why did these people buy this widget outlet? They could so easily make their own widgets…probably from a pre-fab mix like the rest of the world does, they could have branded themselves and atleast made the widgets on site…where customers could have a relationship with the widget – see them being made & created on site by the folks running the outlet. Instead they purchased a place that for all intense and purposes could be selling bulk staples instead of widgets.

For the love of god…give the franchisor’s back their license and get on with your life – you could do much better on your own, they will never let you make more money they they think you should. They will control the cost of your widgets if they think you are selling too many so they will always make more money than you…what are you thinking? What part of this deal was remotely attractive to you? This widget franchise is a pipe dream and unless you evolve and are nimble & flexible in your business you will die on the vine like millions of others widget outlets before you. You don’t have a business – you are an outlet to sell widgets for “the man”. What a shame that you spent all that money.
You got my $8 once but I don’t need anymore widgets and unfortunately I won’t be back…don’t worry, apparently I wasn’t your target market anyhow.
Good luck to you and your widgets, I wish you success in your new endeavor but if someone…anyone could help me figure out what was remotely attractive about this franchise I would be grateful…why would people buy into something like this that they could very obviously do better themselves. I just don’t get it.
Thanks for your input…