Thanks to Penny
PR and TFGtv for your constructive responses,
I should point out that we are being extremely pernickity about who we are choosing to bring on board and not just taking on anyone. Sorry, I should have explained this better in my initial post.
Whilst we have focused on keeping our prices below that of a successful high street printing chain who are our main competitors, we are trying to build a successful brand based on a system that is much easier to use and understand and offer unrivaled customer service. As you will be aware, there is no shortage of printing companies out there but from doing quite a deal of fact finding, this is where many of them seem to be falling down and they are not looking after their customers. The Director of Amazon indicating that one of the main reasons they have become so successful is because they are 'obsessive about customer service.' This is key to our business plan and I hope what is going to make us stand out from the rest.
As a thank you to the people that do come on board within the next 12 months that help us run our pilot scheme, we will be giving them the opportunity to come on board as an official franchisee and the only cost they will have to be will be the legal fees which is in the region of £4000. The official virtual franchises will be getting sold for in the region of £15000 at this point once we can prove it is a viable franchise model.
The benefit of having a virtual franchise is that the overall brand can have representatives throughout the country being able to offer local support and will be able to go our and visit clients at the drop of a hat if they require any assistance. It will obviously take time to build but hopefully after not too long by going down this road, the franchisees will start to benefit from the nationwide advertising campaigning we will be carrying out and eventually the good reputation the company is building will add value to their franchise.
All payment transactions and orders are carried out online and managed by head office. Payments are required up front so we do not need to worry about cashflow or bad debts. Our prices are so competitive as a reflection of this. I will be putting X amount of profits generated within the franchise territories back in to these areas to help the franchisee grow their business and our marketing team will contstantly be offering help and advice as well as making sure they working within the company strategy.
Franchise owners will receive their 20% commission on a weekly basis directly into their bank accounts. We also have an affiliate scheme available for companies or people not actually wanting a full territory or perhaps they have clients spread through multiple territories. Affiliates are not committed to any one territory and are given their own unique link to direct traffic towards. Any orders received via this link will earn the affiliate 10% commission. Should an affiliate bring in work from a franchise owners territory, the franchisee will still earn 10%, even if they have had nothing to do with that order.
I would love to hear you guys thoughts on this if you have time to respond!
Regards
Colin