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Advice needed with franchise business

by cjbmeb14
6 replies
Can someone help with advice.
I am looking at buying a franchise business with a company in the UK called City Local.
The problem is I have no experience whatsoever with offline selling although I am quite good on the computer.

It is a town portal site and as such I would basically be selling advertising space for businesses within my local area.

I would have to do a lot of cold calling and I am not sure if I am able to do this.

The costs for my area are over £10,000 for the franchise but the rewards if I can do this are good.
However, I am really nervous about handing this sort of money over and then finding out I cannot run this business.

Any advice or help will gratefully be received.
#advice #business #franchise #needed
  • Profile picture of the author anderson9731
    Planning is the process in which an enterprise tries to make the best possible use of its resources towards achieving the goals of business. The aim of the business is to earn maximum profits out of minimum efforts. So, the basic purpose of financial planning is to make sure that adequate funds are raised at the minimum cost and that these funds are used wisely.


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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    No offense intended but if you have never done sales work, why would you want to purchase a sales-based business?

    My advice is hold onto the cash, go do sales for someone for awhile based on commission and learn a bit about it before you put down 10,000 pounds on something.

    Btw, if you set it up right, you certainly do not need to pay a franchise that money, start the business yourself.

    There is a really good book called "The E-Myth" you may want to read as well.
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    I have no agenda but to help those in the same situation. This I feel will pay the bills.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    You can always outsource the calling. And nobody is comfortable with cold calling. "You don't have enjoy making calls--you just have to make them."
    Look at my Free sales training videos (link in my sig) and see if that approach could be for you.
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    >> Executive advisory: Unstick sales, strategy & growth problems fast → jasonkanigan.com

    >> Selling? Then this is the FREE YouTube series you need RIGHT NOW
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    I would tread lightly on this. I have seen hundreds of these type of local business directories here in the States. Very hard to monetize and close sales. Unless you getting like over 1 million page views per month, even in a small town, you won't close big clients.
    I watched this company here in San Diego, drop $300,000 and then went broke. You money is better spent in other areas IMO
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    I think we are the wrong people to be asking. Contact a several other of these franchise owners from different areas and see what their take is. Also, ask the franchise to supply you a number of franchisees that have failed. If the franchise does not want to provide you that info then I would be very caution. You could even try to find out who those ppl were that failed and ask them where they think they went wrong.

    The best source of information is going to be from the ppl who are already doing this business.

    Sean
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    -------->Started with $500 on Amazon and building it from there. Week #1 income report is live ($593.78 in revenue)<----------
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark_Austin
    Hi, I agree with other points made. If that franchise really appeals to you then it is others who have joined that you should be asking.

    £10k is a lot to shell out and local portal sites aren't exactly new and probably much harder than you are expecting.

    If you invested a fraction of the amount you are willing to spend in your own education you could get something up and running for much less and be that much more in control.

    All the best,
    Mark
    p.s. I 2nd reading the "E-Myth", a great book for those starting their own business
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