buying a franchise?

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Just curious if any of the CP gang owns or has owned a franchise in the past.

Any good or bad experiences to share?

I'm kicking around the idea as an investmentand now would be a great time for someone to throw cold water on the idea.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

Just curious if any of the CP gang owns or has owned a franchise in the past.

Any good or bad experiences to share?

I'm kicking around the idea as an investmentand now would be a great time for someone to throw cold water on the idea.

All I can say is to read the agreements carefully and make sure you're not getting into a situation that will have you merely 'breaking even' after the franchise owner gets their cut. You've got to make a pretty decent profit to take any money home at the end of the day with some of these things.

A tip I can offer is to look up some business brokers to see existing franchises that are for sale. You have a history, location and customer base already established so you can at least get a feel for what you are getting yourself into as opposed to buying the rights to some coffee shop in Invermere, breaking ground and starting from nothing.

Otherwise, get as much info as you can from as many different types of franchises that you can (even if you're not interested in it) just to see what the different agreements are like.

Never buy the first one you see without doing more research!

[photon]

A friend asked me once if I wanted to go in on a Tim Horton's with him and some other people. Didn't have the capital at the time as it was tied up with other stuff, but if there's any franchise that seems like a great idea it would be a Tim's.

[Winsor_Pilates]

I would love to get a Tims too, but I don't think I muster up the 1 million or so that it takes.
maybe 1 day....

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

I would love to get a Tims too, but I don't think I muster up the 1 million or so that it takes.
maybe 1 day....

The one in Canmore was apparantly for sale for $250k last year but we missed the boat on that one. It was shared with a Wendy's though.

I heard you need $2million for a stand alone Tim Hortons with $1million free capital.

[LouCypher]

My advice would be the more financial freedom in running a franchise the better. Something in a good location with an established client base would probably be a good start. Also as mentioned above be clear on all agreements and exactly what is entailed, some can be pretty restrictive in how they expect their franchise branches to operate.

[eazyduzzit]

A family friend owns a Timmy's here in Calgary.

It's an awful lot of work...given the labor shortages and the fact it's hard to get employees. She ends uphaving to work a lot of the hours.