Below is the Small Business Administration’s annual compilation of performance data on thousands of franchisee loans it has guaranteed covering loans made from October 1, 2000, to September 30, 2007. A “failed loan” below is when the SBA must step in and pay back a loan that it has guaranteed. However, does failure rate of a loan equal the number of failed franchises? No, because the chart below only captures the worst of the worst, when someone completely abandons their debt obligations. Definitions are tricky and can mask the true data. Franchisees who sell their units and pay off or transfer their loan or franchisees losing money are not caputred. But, the value in the report card can be a vague checklist for avoiding high-failing franchises.
Hat Tip: WSJ

REPORT CARD

Class Leaders

Class Trailers

Note: Listed by percent of SBA-backed loans that failed between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2007, starting with the highest rate. When percent is the same, companies are listed from highest to lowest number of total loans.

Source: Coleman Report

• Patriot Express SBA Loan Initiative
• SBA Guaranteed Loan Program Q&A
• Interview with The SBA’s John Renner-Veteran Entrepreneurs
• Same-Store sales report
• Bally’s Total Fitness tries more franchising

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4599872a13.html

Keely Clements also says her repeated pleas for support from Subway management were ignored, despite telling them her Northlands Mall store was losing money.

That franchise was closed on Monday, after mall management terminated the lease, because it was owed $164,000 in unpaid rent.

Clements also stands to lose her second store, in Kaiapoi, after Subway served her with papers to terminate her lease on July 1, meaning there was no way for her to on-sell the store and recoup capital.

Clements has been protesting outside Subway stores in Christchurch this week to highlight her situation. Christchurch has 23 stores, one for every 16,000 residents.

Clements worked at Subway before buying a franchise in Kaiapoi in 2005 for $480,000. After the success of that store, a year later she bought a second franchise at Northlands Mall for $410,000.

• Domain Names that include Franchisor’s Name - OK?
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• Subway’s DeLuca loses battle with franchisees
• Independent Franchisee Associations
• Location, Location

When I lived in Cincinnati, First Watch was the place for the “power breakfast”, where movers and shakers would gather to strategize over coffee and omletes.  Meeting with a venture capitalist or political insider?  You would likely meet them at First Watch.  There is no First Watch where I live in Chicago, but here to breakfast is big deal for meetings with local favorites the Four Seasons,  Orange, Bongo Room, and East Bank Club.

First Watch, the Florida-based chain with 76 company-owned restaurants in 11 states is planning to franchise this year.  It’s only open for breakfast and lunch, and is always located in affluent suburbs and downtowns.  Being closed for dinner, I was always skeptical that it could generate enough sales.  Apparently, that is not a problem.  Below

If the site meets our criteria, we think it’s a good time to build right now. We’ve weathered this economic climate pretty well so far. We have a very low check average [$7.50], we think we put out a high-quality product, and our value perception is high with our customers. We think that’s actually helping us. So far it’s been OK.

You’re not seeing declines in traffic or check averages?

We are not. We’re actually on our 25th straight year of same-store-sales increases. We’ve had 24. You never want to say that you’re recession proof, and we certainly don’t think we are. All we’re saying is that for the pressures that the consumer is experiencing now, we seem to be an outlet for that. We don’t know if it’s a trade from another dining occasion, trading off the expensive dinner to maybe a nice brunch on Sunday at our place. But we’ll take that.

Are you finding sites fairly easily?

No, I wouldn’t say fairly easily. We’re pretty disciplined in what we’re looking for, and we don’t like to waver from it. So to find sites that match all that criteria takes a lot of work and a lot of digging.

I will say, over the past two years, we’ve opened 11 and 14 restaurants respectively, which from a percentage basis, we were opening a large percentage of restaurants. Those stores are starting to mature now. Most of them are performing where we want them to be. Some are in markets where we didn’t have a lot of brand awareness, so we’re working a little harder to get up to our average unit volume.

Brand awareness is critical for all restaurants, as the Chief Marketing Officer confirms.  The beauty of franchising is that hopefully you can buy into an established, well-recognized brand that will immediate generate sustainable sales upon opening.

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• A must-see Reagan tribute
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• Self-Service Kiosks

Below are select recent same store sales results from publicly traded franchisors and restaurants.

• SONIC: March: 0.4% decline in system-wide same-store sales resulting primarily from weather-affected sales;  May:  system-wide same-store sales improved as the quarter progressed and returned to the company’s targeted growth range of 2% to 4%; additionally, traffic for the quarter was slightly positive
• STONEY RIVER: 3.2% decrease in last quarter in same-store sales
• OLIVE GARDEN: U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, grew 5.8 percent at the Olive Garden during the quarter.
• RED LOBSTER; LONGHORN STEAKHOUSE: Same-store sales fell
• TEXAS ROADHOUSE: Expects its same-store sales to be flat to up 1 percent for the year.

• 2006 First Quarter - Yummy Same Store Sales Increase
• Same-store sales roundup
• Quick News Notes
• GNC Turnaround?
• Papa John’s franchisees average $705K in annual sales?

Dream Dinners is an example of good idea but unprofitable business model. It’s just too expensive to attract and retain customers. A Forbes article looked through the Dream Dinners FDD from the state of Washington, and focused on the required audited financial statements.

As of Dec. 31, the company boasted $2.9 million in assets, against which it carried $3.4 million in liabilities. (Such negative book value implies that if Dream Dinners were unwound today, shareholders wouldn’t get much.) That’s a snapshot, but here’s a trend: Last year, the company lost $628,000 on $7.5 million in sales; compare that to 2005, when it earned $928,000 on sales of $4.5 million. …. Typically, new business concepts need up to five years to season before they can be franchised successfully. Dream Dinners–along with its next largest competitor Super Suppers, now with 165 stores–both began franchising in less than two years.

Many of my law firm’s clients are small franchisors, and frankly most do not have experienced managers or have enough invested capital. The new managers often spend way too much time on franchise sales and not enough resources on marketing programs for their franchisees and brand/product development. The franchise sales process is always longer and more expensive than anticipated, and that focus ends up monopolizing the franchisor’s time and money. These franchise programs have an extremely high management risk, meaning that not only is the franchisor’s management unproven in this specific strategy, but they are underfunded which keeps the focus on franchise unit sales.

I used to be extremely skeptical of consultants, and still am to large extent, but I have come to greatly appreciate the need and effectiveness of professional research and design teams to innovate and set the program up for success. The distinction is night and day between franchisors who utilize professional researchers and designers (McDonald’s is the most obvious example), and those who don’t. I have additional perspective on this in the financial industry because my wife is global director of user centered design for one of the world’s largest banks, and I see how many projects get screwed up when the bank’s business units try to short-cut improvements without leveraging the expert teams.

Meal Assembly Watch has an insightful post on how to fix Dream Dinners - 5 Ways to Save Dream Dinners. Executives of the franchisor with poor strategy and execution beyond selling franchise units seem to be the main problem.

Back to the Forbes article…Franchisees accused the franchisor of false promises and unsubstantiated financial projections.

A major point of contention has to do with rosy promises Dream Dinners seemed to have made to its franchisees. Under the Federal Trade Commission’s franchise law, franchisers are not permitted to make “predictions” about franchisees’ financial success–unless they do it in the Uniform Franchise Offering Document, which typically contains a host of disclaimers. Dream Dinners “totally disregarded these regulations,” says Garner. It not only posted financial projections on its company Web site, he says, it also put them in a Power Point presentation given to potential franchisees. Jennifer Hemann, a former Dream Dinners franchisee in Maryland and one of the plaintiffs in the suit, alleges that she was shown that Power Point presentation–which included estimated profit margins for a given volume of customers–when interviewing with the founders. “They told us, ‘Our lawyers said not to show this to you, but if you write fast, you can get it all down,’” she says… The slides, provided by Garner, present some tantalizing figures: Allen and Kuna projected that, at 187 customers per month, a franchisee could expect to earn $75,400 in profit annually, or 18.9% of total revenue. On the high end, at a quoted 328 customers per month, net profits jumped to $163,300, or 23.3% of sales. The estimated distance customers would be expected to drive: two to five miles. Allen and Kuna insist that “the figures were realistic and based on the actual performance of stores.”

The owners look innocent and reliable enough in the picture, eh? I would be tempted to believe Allen and Kuna. But, how could you have seen past their persuasive projections?

1. Looking at the audited financial statements would have revealed a tightening financial situation.
2. If the profits were as high as the owners said, they would be raising money to open company-owned stores.
3. The inexperienced co-founders are still playing a leading role in the company…are they really the best people to be managing a fast-growing organization?
4. …post your ideas on the waring signs in the comments below

• Not-so-super Super Suppers
• Celebrity Competition in Meal Prep & Assembly Franchises
• Delivery-only Restaurants
• Sign a Rama First Franchise to Win U.S. Presidential E Award for Exporting Success
• 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Buying A Franchise

Pinkberry Craze

Frozen yogurt is hot again? Well, sort of. Given the implosion of the last frozen yogurt phase, you are wise to be cautious. The last frozen yogurt craze in the 1980’s and early-1990’s was lead by TCBY. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, TCBY’s same store sales fell 10%-15% annually between 1997 and 2004, particularly when the low-cal and low-fat versions were introduced. The International Dairy Foods Association reported frozen yogurt production in the U.S. went from 118 million gallons in 1990 to 65 million gallons in 2005, a 45 percent drop.This time Pinkberry sure seems to be all the buzz lately, even being features in a recent American Express ad and having their hip tart frozen yogurt dubbed “Crackberry” playfully implying an addiction is possible. Here are photos of a Pinkberry in Manhattan. Founded by Shelly Hwang (coming off several failed small restaurant ventures) and Young Lee (a solo designer), they effectively brought to Los Angeles the tart frozen yogurt now famous in South Korea.Pinkberry has apparently been stretching the healthiness of its yogurt, and in early April 2008 settled a law suit where it was accused of misrepresenting its product as “frozen yogurt” and making bogus health claims, including that the dessert was “all-natural.” Pinkberry admitted no wrongdoing but is paying $750,000 to a local food bank and $5,000 to the “victim”. The article implies that the recipe is not all natural and has higher calories than the founder claims.Nevertheless, sales of the tart frozen yogurt are impressive. Pinkberry has put forth in the media unit sales of $250,000/month and has generated a plethera of copycats across the country, including Berrie Good, Yogurberry, BerrySweet, Red Mango, and recently Berry Chill here in Chicago. Pinkberry has supposedly ceased selling franchises for now.

The Concept

The hip tart frozen yogurt concept is simple:

• a few basic flavors of tart all-natural frozen yogurt
• a variety of berry and exotic real fresh-cut fruit toppings in addition to cereal and cookies
• curvy counter and furniture; accented with colorful hip floors and wall coverings
• at least 4 plasma TVs showing something “cool” like music videos or Japanese game shows
• at least 4 plasma TVs above the counter with an animated menu
• charge about $4-$7 for a tart yogurt and 3 toppings of brand-name cereal, fresh fruit, candy, and pastries.

Should you buy a franchise or role your own?

You can easily roll your own. Here are some basic supplies you’ll need to get started:

• get your 2 ice cream machines from Taylor, ($36,000 each)
• tart frozen yogurt mix from YoCream,
• cups from Jas Wholesale (supplies price sheet ) (500 ct = $59)
• ultra modern flooring, counters, cabinets, and furniture from Ikea (~ $3,500)

I may be more biased to the “role your own” after seeing the success of a single-unit startup in Chicago called Berry Chill. It occupies a small storefront on State Street a few blocks of Michigan Avenue (the Magnificent Mile). The entrepreneurs got the location right, and executed the “feel” of the asian-inspired Pinkberry clones well enough. Berry Chill opened a few months ago during the middle of winter when the weather was below freezing.  However, while most of the frozen custard places close for the winter, there was almost always a line at Berry Chill.  I attribute most of their early success to copying a proven concept and selecting an excellent main street location with lots of tourists and local high-rise condo residents.   I’m sure the store will do well over $1 million in sales during the calendar year. Coincidentally, there is a Cold Stone Creamery (with Soup Man) 1.5 blocks away with a larger store but *probably less than a third of the street foot traffic and it rarely has a line except in the evenings of summer days…what a difference a few blocks and hip attitude make.Would I buy one of the aforementioned franchises? Probably not. I’m a strong believer in historic trends, and I would not want to be financially tied to a concept so easily copied or a category that tanked so quickly in the past few decades. I would be very hesitant to open a unit in a suburban outdoor strip mall, as heavy immediate foot traffic seems to be part of the successful formula.If I was to franchise, I would go with the brand with the high exposure and recognition, which at this time is Pinkberry, unless one of the franchise clones have extremely flexible terms in the Franchise Agreement, such as permitting me to essentially change my store brand if I choose not to renew, and permit me to transfer all assets to my new business without penalty or encumbrance, and if the Franchise Agreement did not require me to refrain from competing for any period of time after owning a franchise. If the concept doesn’t work, I want out of the franchise obligations but I want to still have the option to utilize the assets I paid for (either sell them or use them in a similar/renamed business).

Industry Developments

Forbes has a good article on the current status of the Frozen Yogurt industry. Reformulations of the frozen yogurt to a low-fat with fruit mix seem to be working:

MaggieMoo’s International also reformulated its smoothie line, changing it from non-fat to a low-fat, lactose-free ice cream or fruit smoothie called Zoomers. The company made the change after conducting blind taste tests with consumers, 67% of whom preferred a tasty, low-fat smoothie to a non-fat smoothie, says Debbie Benedek, senior vice president of brand marketing. Flavors include a Triple Berry Pomegranate that’s packed with antioxidants.

After changing its frozen yogurt production process, within six months Dreyer’s/Edy’s Slow Churned watched a double-digit decline in frozen yogurt business turn into double-digit growth, says Suzanne Ginestro, senior brand manager for Dreyer’s and Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream. (Dreyer’s is known as Edy’s east of the Rockies.) By using the slow churn method, fat is better dispersed throughout the product, making it feel richer and creamier. A similar change also boosted the brand’s light ice cream sales.

• A New Culture to Yogurt Franchises
• Bagel Franchises have Reinvented Themselves
• Dippin’ Dots Competitors
• Soup Nazi for $30K
• Dunkin’ Donuts Makeover

U.S. Veteran and Little Caesars franchisee Patricia Evans celebrates the opening for her new Little Caesars Pizza Restaurant in Valdosta, Georgia. Evans is the fifth veteran to open a store under the Little Caesars Veterans Program which offers honorably discharged, service-disabled veterans who qualify as Little Caesars franchisees a benefit of up to $68,000. Honorably discharged, non-service-disabled veterans who qualify as Little Caesars franchisees are eligible for a benefit of $10,000.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080130/480/60cbb1da1d1f490eb8e41cb12271e710/

• Interview with The SBA’s John Renner-Veteran Entrepreneurs
• ‘Homework’ Key to Restaurants
• Performance of Franchisees’ Loans
• New Englands own Papa Ginos wants a bigger slice of the national pie!
• Mobile Oil Changes

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2008/01/28/story4.html

Serve Holdings LLC, the largest franchisee of Captain D’s restaurants in the country with 26, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to, in part, avoid payment of $245,000 to the franchisor.

[note: post title amended on 2-1-2008 to more accurately identify the zee as filing….hat tip: FuwaFuwaUsagi and Michael Webster in the comments]

• Story of a Bankruptcy: Jiffy Lube franchisee
• McDonald’s chickens out on Boston Market
• Dubious Franchise Salesmen
• Lenny’s adds another 80 franchise restaurants in TX
• When Blogs Attack - Cuppy’s Coffee & Java Jo’z

If you have been to Europe, particular the U.K., you know what Tesco is. It is an omnipresent, progressive grocery chain. They are opening up their first US stores starting in California. I always enjoyed Tesco’s twist on the supermarket, and I am sure they will be making a very successful entrance into the US marketplace.

Labor unions don’t like Tesco’s non-union workforce, and are already starting trouble.

Store layouts, customer experience and ergonomics has always interested me, and it should interest you to if you plan to open a storefront.

Below is a slideshow of the store.

• None Found

Local government regulations can be an expensive pain to comply with, as this Lamar’s Donut franchisee found out with its sink:

•When is the Lamar’s going to open on Johnson Drive? A sign has been up since this summer.

An area Lamar’s Donuts franchisee took over the spot at 5901 Johnson Drive in May but was slowed down dealing with city regulations, such as fitting in a three-compartment sink to a 600-square-foot spot, along with other plumbing issues.

The “satellite store” opened Friday. Doughnuts are made at the midtown store and then taken to Mission.

The franchisees, Alan and Kimberly Foster, own the Lamar’s at 3395 Main St., as well as locations in Lee’s Summit and Greenwood, Mo.

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• Eating in the Car
• Papa John’s New Restaurant Strategy
• Secrets to Arby’s $3.5 million/year Store
• Ground Round on Rebound

I’m not sure how I would react in this robbery situation.

• Franchisee Won’t Sell Certain Foods, Says Against Religion
• Dunkin’ Donuts - New Restaurant Design
• Dealing with Local Government Planning Boards
• Dunkin’ Donuts Makeover
• Dunkin’ Donuts going free of trans fat

McDonald’s is planning to pick up 40% of the $100k-$150k in remodeling costs for franchisees to accommodate the new high-end coffee drinks.  The franchisees are still responsible for the equipment costs.

Most franchisors are NOT so generous.

• McDonald’s Franchisees, $100k+ in Costs for New Coffee Drinks
• It’s Official: McDonald’s to offer Specialty Coffee in all Stores
• McDonald’s chickens out on Boston Market
• Wendy’s Following McDonald’s Lead on Coffee Bistro
• Franchisors Not Liable for Negligent Franchisees

• Gas prices hurting delivery drivers.
• New owner of Shoney’s hopes to fix the brand by improving the food freshness, more upscale menu items, and upgrade the buildings.
  • Quote: Franchisee Glenn Wood rum, who owns 21 Shoney’s in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, said he sometimes disregarded corporate norms in the past in an attempt to boost his own profits, but now he’s looking forward to more continuity from headquarters. “Any change in the right direction is what we want,” he said.
• You will be seeing a lot more co-branded Noble Roman’s Pizza and Tuscano’s Italian Style Subs.  ….The Area Development agreements entered into thus far provide for the sale of a total of 868 units over multi-year periods as defined in the various individual agreements. The company will continue to market its traditional co-brand business by offering additional development territories. Additionally, the company has also sold 53 traditional co-brand franchises directly to individual franchisees…
  • The company’s traditional co-brand franchise program would be strengthened by several operational enhancements. These enhancements include: more rigorous franchisee selection criteria; a longer, more robust training period for new franchisees; more direct franchisee involvement in the construction and marketing processes; and intensified monitoring and enforcement of operating standards and unit performance. Recognizing that these steps could slow the speed of franchise development within territories covered by existing Area Development agreements, the company intends to offer reasonable accommodations to the exclusive development time frames specified in those agreements so as to align the interests of Area Developers and the company in sustainable growth of the traditional franchise program.
• In Taiwan, franchisee are mostly between 30 and 40 years old.

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• Common Areas of Dispute

Restaurants seem to have had a good year.

The largest Pizza Hut Franchisee in the U.S., NPC International, Inc., owned 874 Pizza Hut locations during the 3rd quarter of 2007. With $173.3 million in total 3rd quarter sales, the annualized sales per store was about $793k, which translates to a monthly revenue of just over $66k, and daily sales for a 30 day month of about $2,200.

Comparable sales, or sales in stores that have been open at least a year, increased 4.9 percent in the third quarter. That makes five consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth, pushing NPC’s positive comparable sales record to 35 of the last 37 quarters, Schwartz said in the release.

CKE Restaurants reported Wednesday that Hardee’s same-store sales rose 3.6 percent for the four-week period ended Nov. 5, and increased 2.7 percent for the third quarter ended on the same date.

In the U.S., McDonald’s same-store sales rose 5.4 percent in October, boosted by the ongoing popularity of the Monopoly game promotion, the company said.

RETAIL UP:

• Target +4.1%
• Wal-Mart +0.4%
• TJX (TJ Maxx, Marshall’s) +3%

RETAIL DOWN:

• Anne Taylor - 4.2%
• Chico’s -10.6%,
• Bon Ton, Cato -8%,
• Fred’s -0.6%,
• J.C. Penny -1.8%,
• DSW - 3%,
• Cache -3%,
• Pacific Sunwear -.08%
• Sharper Image -8%,
• Gap -8%,
• Nordstrom -2.4%,
• Macy’s -1.5%,
• Kohl’s -1.5%,
• Talbot’s -7.9%
• Shoe Carnival -5%,

• 2006 First Quarter - Yummy Same Store Sales Increase
• New Englands own Papa Ginos wants a bigger slice of the national pie!
• Same-store sales roundup
• Pizza Styles
• Captain D’s Largest Franchisee Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

A benefit mentioned on this blog before (see similar posts below and this McDonald’s post) of paying fees to a franchisor is their investment in research and development in the product or services offering. Wendy’s seems to be following McDonald’s lead in rolling out its own high-end coffee bistro called Javaccino. While McDonald’s seems to going the standalone route, Wendy’s is looking to carve out space in existing restaurants to offer gourmet coffee.

• Wendy’s franchisee bids for company
• McDonald’s chickens out on Boston Market
• Advice from a McDonald’s Franchisee in U.K.
• Winner of Coffee Taste Test
• Smoothies Competition from McDonald’s

Joel Libava, blogger at FranchiseKing and owner of Franchise Selection Specialists Inc. in Cleveland (and invited blogger at this web site), was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about franchisee funding sources:

• Think About Franchising. These days, franchisers are actively targeting boomers because of their deep pockets. Entrepreneurs are generally expected to put up some of their own money to start a franchise, and boomers have lots of it on hand.

But you don’t have to bet the farm. “We recommend that you use the smallest portion you can of your own money and leverage the rest,” says Joel Libava, president of Franchise Selection Specialists Inc., a franchise consulting and marketing business in Cleveland. Generally, entrepreneurs should expect to pay about 15% to 30% of the total cost of starting the franchise out of their own pocket, including the franchise fee and working capital, Mr. Libava says.

For instance, Louis H. “Gig” Runge of Houston has put up about $80,000 of his savings to open a Martinizing Dry Cleaning franchise. The money has gone toward franchise and legal fees and other necessities. He plans to fund the rest of the business with a $350,000 loan guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. The loan requires him to provide an equity injection of $82,000.

“It was a challenge for me to work through the tax benefits of borrowing versus just funding it myself,” says the 47-year-old Mr. Runge, a certified public accountant who has done a variety of financial jobs at JP Morgan Chase for the past 18 years. Mr. Runge decided that the SBA financing would help him protect his personal savings and use it as collateral to invest in other stores down the road.

Here are my initial thoughts….

Leveraging (borrowing money) is a good idea so long as the business ultimately works out, or you’ll end up losing the same as if you funded the whole enterprise with your cash savings. Leveraging does buy you some time if things don’t work out by leaving you some personal cash in the bank to invest in the business should it be necessary. But, all lenders to small startup businesses will require a personal guarantee, so if the business fails you will need to cough up the money to pay back the loan even if the loan is to a business.

Before getting a loan, you should set up your personal estate plan to protect/preserve the asset you already have from bankruptcy or lawsuits - which in small part entails moving assets out of your personal name to irrevocable trusts and business entities that have special control features and tax provisions so that you will still have these assets available for your use even if you get sued for a $10 million dollars or file bankruptcy.

Funding your franchise by transferring your 401(k) savings without penalty is possible, but it comes with debt restrictions. One route without tax or penalty (but will include fees imposed by the new custodian) is to convert your 401(k) to a traditional IRA held by a custodian that permits you to invest the money in “alternative investments” (some companies, like Charles Schwab, permit alternative investments but require pre-approval and offering documents from the business offering the investment). This is exactly how we accepted investments of retirement plan money where I used to work at the private equity and specialty finance company. Also, most 401k plans allow you to borrow up to $50,000, or 50 percent of the value of the account, whichever is less. This is penalty-free, unless of course you don’t pay the money back.

• SBA Guaranteed Loan Program Q&A
• 10 tasks when starting a new business
• Alternative to buying a franchise
• Patriot Express SBA Loan Initiative
• Investing in Private Placement Offerings (Part 1)

Download the Quiznos Profit Spreadsheet

Based on the 115 comments, the most popular post on FranchisePundit.com has been What a Quizos Franchisee Makes, posted on April 10, 2005. The purported author of the financial projects also founded the web site QuiznosSucks.com (don’t bother going there, it now defunt and replaced with a domain aggregator’s advertising search engine). More of his experience is posted in this forum thread (pdf) on ToastedSubs.info. Here is the main snippet:

QuiznosSucks
08-10-2005, 11:35 AM
Yeah, Corporate is aware of Quiznossucks.com. Richard Sauls, the fellow who is responsible for the site, is himself a former Quiznos franchisee. Corporate actually sued to force him to kill the site and lost. My own feeling is that Quiznossucks makes them a bit nervous. It was developed on a shoestring and to little fanfare, but now averages in the neighborhood of 30k hits per day. I know that ever franchisor has its share of unhappy franchisees, but the situation with Quizno’s has reached a fever-pitch. From my research, the only
comparable situation I have found is UPS Store franchisees.

Ultimately, the Quizno’s business model doesn’t work. particulars vary from region to region, and depend heavily upon the franchisee’s rent and debt load, but break-even for a Quizno’s store is astronomical for this type of operation. The only thing keeping this house of cards aloft are second and third owners, who buy existing stores based on cash flow, at a fraction of the cost of a new store. I actually had a Q owner in my area approach me to see if i was interested in buying his store. The store was 3 years old, and he was running at break-even for the first year-and-a-half, with sales around 6700 per week. The Q opened a store near him (you have no radius protection with Q. technically speaking, if they wanted to open another store across the street from you, and could find someone fool enough to do it, they’re within their rights), and his sales dropped off 5%, which put him in the red to the tune of about $1100 per week. he offered the store to me at 80k, and i wasn’t interested. I am one of the “lucky” ones, in that I’ve very little debt, and an excellent location. For the time being, my store is making money. Unfortuantely, though, there is a lot of new development around me, and I am waiting for the day when Q decides that I am doing too well and opens stores closer to me. My store is for sale, along with his, and I am hoping i can sell the thing while it is still making money. The short of it is that Q is in the business of selling franchises, and they do this extremely well. Too well, if you ask any current franchisee. In the grand scheme of things, they would prefer that we make money than not, but it doesn’t much matter to them. Corporate makes more money from its supply chain. We’re forced to use their Q-approved vendors, each at a rate consdierably higher than we could find ourselves: accounting firm; CINTAS, a company which takes care of the rugs and towels; Vistar for food, chemicals and paper; Muzak…it goes on and on. The real shame of it is that Q doesn’t have to do business this way. It is ultimately self-defeating, in that no franchisor can alienate its franchisees to the degree Q has alienated us without serious repercussions. Quiznossucks.com is a natural by-product of the contempt with which Q treats its franchisees. If anyone is still interested in acquiring a Quizno’s store after all of my ramblings, and visiting quiznossucks.com, i would suggest that you go to bizbuysell.com, find an existing store in your area and save someone who is losing money, or someone like me, who has a store that is making money…for now. really! I am too young and nice looking for the headaches and stress!

This web site posted his projected monthly expenses based on $40,000/month in sales:

I think quiznossucks may have made a mistake in his numbers and the cash left over at the end of the month is actually a little less than he projected. He projected 9.4% or $45,120 left at the end of the year for the franchisee, but plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet nets 7.15% or $34,320 (perhaps he paid himself a small salary included in labor). Regardless of the $9K discrepency, the debt load and returns are not worth the risk for nearly anyone looking at this deal. I’ve uploaded a spreadsheet for you to play with the numbers for yourself. It makes for a simple planning tool/reality check for any franchise.

Download the Quiznos Profit Spreadsheet

• What a Quiznos franchisee makes (II)
• Quiznos comments
• Quiznos lawsuits (Part 21,412,219)
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McDonald’s is planning to offer lattes, cappuccinos and other specialty drinks in all 14,000 by 2009. Internal projections estimate a $1 billion boost in sales.

What is the cost to franchisees to upgrade?

Costs will vary, depending on the size and configuration of each restaurant. Franchisees must buy equipment to make specialty coffees, and, eventually, smoothies, as well as wall-mounted refrigerators for bottled sodas and energy drinks, and would have to remodel the counter and drive-thru service areas to make room for the equipment.

A franchisee who installed the new beverage equipment as part of a company test pegged the cost at $100,000 per restaurant, according to notes from a meeting of restaurant owners in August.

McDonald’s hopes to equip 1,500 restaurants to sell the new drinks by the yearend, with the rest on board by late 2008, the planning documents indicate. It’s the biggest change for McDonald’s since it overhauled its cooking procedures in the late 1990s to make sandwiches to order, says Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant consultant with WD Partners in Ohio.

As it rolled out that plan — the Made for You campaign — McDonald’s agreed to pay half of the estimated $25,000 per restaurant in equipment expenses for franchisees. But when the costs for the program exceeded the estimates in some restaurants, it caused hard feelings among some franchisees.

The test market numbers looked good:

In test markets including California, Georgia, Michigan and Texas, specialty coffee has increased customer traffic by 44% a week, an August memo from a franchisee group shows. The initial tests show the new plan doesn’t require more employees or slow down service.

Specialty beverages such as lattes have much higher profit margins than sandwiches. Sales in this new beverage category could rise by 90% in the next five years, generating $125,000 in annual revenue per store, according to company documents. McDonald’s estimates that those sales could mean additional annual profit of between $15,000 and $60,000 per restaurant, the documents show.

• McDonald’s Franchisees, $100k+ in Costs for New Coffee Drinks
• Advice from a McDonald’s Franchisee in U.K.
• Relief to McDonald’s Franchisees for New Coffee
• McDonald’s chickens out on Boston Market
• Smoothies Competition from McDonald’s

The tech-savvy community at Slashdot.org in 2006 had an interesting post and comments on the viability of a Gaming Cafe and what branding, culture and services have shown to work.

Re:Yes we have one. (Score:5, Insightful)
by Orangejesus (898961) on Friday August 11, @11:56PM (#15893072)

you have to understand that most people don’t go to gaming cafes for the games perse, they go for the social interaction, they go to play with their friends and be able to yell at them, they go to hang out with people with similar intrests. I have a better PC than the local place I go to game at and so do most of my friends, but it’s easier to spend a few bucks and just go to the gaming place down the street than drag a bunch of computers around and fool with networking them and making sure everyone has the same version of what we want to play and working cd keys and ect. the gaming place I go to is open 24/7 and after 5 hours is free, (5 an hour) So it’s pretty common for us to just go and set up shop and do an overnight there playing till the wee hours of the morning. When I was on break from college one summer about 6 of us litterally lived up there for almost a week straight sleeping on the couches and ordering pizza. I mean we probably didn’t smell very good by the end of the week but it still ranks as one of the most fun times i’ve ever had. The key to a good gaming place is to make it somewhere that people just want to go to hang out and escape and not be bugged. I don’t know how long this place will last but it’s been open for over 5 years now and it’s just a small 10 computer place in a small town. the key is that the owner is a cool guy, he lets people play sometimes if they are a little short or he’ll let them owe him and ect. people like him people like the others who play there, people keep coming back and the place stays full all the time.

Re:Yes we have one. (Score:5, Informative)
by DarkMantle (784415) on Friday August 11, @11:57PM (#15893075)

There’s a place in town here (Cambridge Ontario Canada) That does fairly well (open for a year now) They use memberships for people that want to play regularly to make most of their rent. They also have food/drink there (pop and chips kind of stuff) and gamer and geek T-Shirts as well (similar to Think Geek [thinkgeek.com]). The WiFi is cool, secure it though so you can control who’s on it better. There’s another one in London Ontario that has a “Internet Cafe” in the front, so people can check email and surf the web. Then the back room is the gamer room. Combine the front Internet cafe style with a bit of a real cafe (watch out for the licensing if you’re selling food/drink you make there) with a few tables at it so people can grab a coffee and do a quick email check on their own laptop/PDA while there would be a neat idea as well. Best advice is to look at the area and ask what is needed. Maybe hang out near the local EB Games for a day or two and ask people as they’re leaving/entering if they’d fill out a 5 question survey about it. You may be able to avoid the mistakes the other places made.

wwtdd (Score:5, Informative)
by antiphoton (821735) on Friday August 11, @11:23PM (#15892941)

I live in Brisbane, Australia, and gaming cafe’s are quite popular in the major cities. I know of at least four around inner city brisbane that have been open for years and are quite successful. From my observations their main revenue intake is based around these key concepts: 1. Location 2. Word of mouth Location is imperical, and you need to strike deals/lan nights to get word of mouth generation. Setting up shop near a school (preferably private school) can sometimes make this type of business a success, as i’ve seen in Brisbane. If you start all nighters and events it will generate a decent amount of friends telling other friends and so on to bring in business and customers. Anyway, these are just a few suggestions i’m guessing you already know about, hope it helps. PS: If you have the room, get a pool table!

depends on how you do it (Score:4, Insightful)
by grapeape (137008) on Frid