Help Please...urgent

Hey Guys

Im a franchsed pizza place…my company is willing to let me go indy…
we are only carry out large size pizza only on menu for the pricing of Cheese $6.00, 1 topping for $ 7.00, 2 topping for $8.00, deluxe with unlimited topping for $10.00. We dont do delivery or any thing else… store sales are slaging and compition is rough with price driven market.

My question to you guys is it wise to go indy, what do I need once i go indy from being franchise, what are the things to look out for from termination of the franchise contract from company…any one had done this…

Please give me some guidence and advice with your suggestion…
Thanks

if your want to go indy…don’t do it there…it would take a while to get it back even if your product is much much better. Clouds hang over previous places! Go fresh…Go in another building…and Go For It!!! JMO

I’m wondering if they’re willing to let you go Indy because they want to cut off the potential loss of your store in that location from them?

Myself, I agree with the other poster…if you go Indy…start a whole new place up rather than try to do the “under new management/ownership” route.

Most often, that just tells the customer that something was substandard before and who is not to say it still is? You know?

If you go from a franchise to an indy, the perception locally will not be that you dumped the franchise, but rather that the franchise dumped you. This will make it even more difficult to reverse your declining sales curve. If the franchisor is willing to let you go independent, you can bet that they’re making that decision in their own self interest, not yours. They may see this as a store that is likely to fail in the next year or so and want to cut losses, or they may have someone with deep pockets who’s interested in opening a store within your (current) protected area. Neither scenario looks good for you. Contact the franchise; ask them if they may know of anyone willing to buy the business from you, or if they’re w open to purchasing it from you. If you do sell out, make a copy of your customer list for the time when you open your own place in a different location.

Make sure that you get it in writting that you are not responsible for future royalties! A franchise I had a store in about five years ago “let” one guy close his store and another de-brand his store and sell it, and that is when they were taken to court for causing the loss of future royalties. The franchise won in both cases, and these two guys got stuck paying about 9-10 years worth of royalties! Have a lawyer take a look to protect yourself! Good luck!

The main reason you are having trouble with competition is most likely because you don’t DELIVER–ie: 89% of my sales–really

Thank you all for your honest feed back…
We talked to franchise about buying back our location or finding a buyer.
In both cases they did not help…they dont want to expand on retail side was been told.
No one want to buy this franchise, its mismanaged and not popular with only 10 stores in total includng 5 of company own.
I was thinking by going indy and saleing through broker to a buyer who wants to buy location or low cost running business…
Like I mention it has no delivery or dineing, with only large size pizza on menu…this is effecting our sale…
My customers dont even know its franchise

Please give me more suggestions…
Thanks

if you have the desire 2 make it as an indy, and the ability 2 make your own dough…you can add the extra sizes and side items and make a go of it, but you must have the desire and the financial resources…then it might be worth something if you you choose to sell @ a later time…

hey jay, its ron from vegas convention
I think it is a great opportunity for you and a long time coming
remember all the great ideas you had but couldnt impliment them because of your franchise?

Hey Ron

Good to hear from you… I have beeing trying without luck to this one

We asked them to buy it back but they are not intrested. finaly they came back to us and told us

that we can go indy and try to sale it by our selves.

We can try to operate indy and see what happens. It could not be worst than now with them.

If you do decide to go indy, and all the particulars are in place, close the doors on Mon and Tues. Paint and change some of the interior. Put your new sign up and when you open the next day, you should be able to see a noticeable difference. Also, for legal reasons, think about putting the new place in someone else’s name so the franchise can’t come back and get you for something in your name.
just a few thoughts.
bubba

going indy, for one thing $10.00 for your unlimited seems cheap for anywhere considering the price of cheese. as far as going indy, i stayed in the same location, took over a run down name and tried the new owner stuff and got nothing. the day I changed the name of the place, sales went thru the roof. never changed the core recipe just made it better and things are still going up.

Thanks Man

We are changing name and going to do delivery, expand the menu to salads, bread sticks and diffrent sizes of pizza instade of large only…

Do you do delivery, if do what is your daily delivery number and percentage of sale. Please give me some guidance.
Thanks

yes we deliver and it is 70% of our business. delivery goes between 45 to 120 per night depending on the night of course weekends are the big ones.
we charge a 1 or 2 dollar fee to deliver and no complaints due to gas prices. i am also the only one who delivers subs and more. 10 dollar minimum delivery but you still cant get subs delivered in to many places. my menu is pretty big for a small pizza shop, check it out at topdogzpizza.com
mistake i made…changing the size of the large, i am from NY so here in the south everyone goes with the national chains where a lg is 14 inch and mine is 16 inch, mine is a better value for the buck but getting people to understand this is very difficult, they are all stuck on the chain pizza sizes. marketing is everything and plan to spend a bunch at the beginnig fo that. things that did not work for me was radio ads, and they cost an arm and a leg. things that work were post card mailing and inserts in the local news paper. if you have the oppertunity to go to the annual pizza convention in vegas this april, it is worth every penny for a new owner, the classes they give on every area of owning a place was priceless, i went last year and am going this year, plus it is an excuse to be in vegas and gamble :lol:

hope this helped some, any more questions feel free to ask, only been doing this for 2 years now so I can tell you what did not work for me