TheFoggBlogg: The People's Franchise

Do you recycle? I do. I think it's a very good thing, especially when you can have what you bring-around again be valuable & useful for people. No need to reinvent the wheel if the wheel is still round and it rolls.

So it is with this piece. One of the best I've ever written (I have been told) and a number of people recently asked where they could find it, so... it's here.

It's long for a weblog post, but... And I've included a link down at the end for the PDF you can download and share. AND tomorrow, I'll give you the Mp3. Then you can learn for yourself if it's "still" a useful & valuable education & prospecting tool.

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The People's Franchise
Network marketing is the most remarkable business model developed so far for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary success. Now is the time of best investment for greatest returns in network marketing. It's like having the chance to buy gold again at $49 an ounce!
John Milton Fogg

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“I would rather have one percent of a hundred people’s efforts than 100 percent of my own.”
— Andrew Carnegie

I'm going to be telling you about The People’s Franchise—how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary success.

Now, it’s probably bad form to begin with a quiz—but just for fun, let’s do it anyway. Don’t worry. This is really easy—and it’s multiple-choice, too.

Read the following statements, then choose the correct answer from the list of choices at the end:

“In most Americans’ minds, it’s a ‘scam’ and a ‘scheme’ – questionable or unethical at best, immoral and illegal at worst.

“Many own-your-own entrepreneurial hopefuls have been hyped into turning over their life savings, only to see the company go out of business, taking their dreams down with them.

“Politicians, regulators, and the media (especially the media) cry ‘foul’ whenever its name comes up. Newspapers, magazines, and television news and talk shows regularly expose it for the ‘flimflam rip-off it really is.’ Major corporations who get involved go out of their way to avoid any appearance of doing so. There is even a move in Congress to outlaw it altogether!”

Now, guess: which one is the right answer?

a) TV ministry scams
b) Off-shore investment schemes
c) Multilevel/network marketing
d) None of the above

Did you pick a), b) or c)? Well, there’s probably some truth to all those choices—but none of them is the right answer.

The truth is, it’s a trick question. The right answer, “d) None of the above,” WAS correct—more than forty years ago! Back then, that’s exactly what people were thinking and saying about a radical, revolutionary new business concept called franchising.

In the 1960s—before Ray Kroc and McDonald’s, before Dunkin' Donuts, Midas Mufflers, Molly Maid, Pizza Hut... and all the other successful franchise companies established franchising as a legitimate industry—all of those negative things were being said and done about franchising. And yes, there was even a move in Congress to outlaw franchising.

And today…?

Today, experts say the franchising industry is responsible for more forty percent of all the retail goods and services we buy and sell in the United States alone—over one trillion dollars!

Not bad for what just a few years ago was labeled “a scam and a scheme.”

Let’s take a closer look at franchising.

Franchising truly was a revolutionary business concept—and it still is.

Take a look at your alternative: approximately eighty percent of all small business fail in their first year. Eighty percent of those that make it don’t survive to see year five—and of those that do, even fewer will last another five.

Think about it: how many companies do you do business with that have been around for ten years or more?

Not very many….

Franchising is a way for the small business entrepreneur to boost the odds of success. A franchise takes the guesswork out of building a business from scratch. The franchise company creates a “turnkey opportunity”—a ready-made, off-the-rack business, complete with products or services, logos, uniforms, training, vendors, policies, and procedures. Virtually anyone with the desire and start-up capital can climb into this vehicle, turn the key, and drive off down the highway of entrepreneurial success.

It’s truly brilliant.

You don’t need to know all there is to know about building a franchise to own one. The franchise company has done all that work for you. You simply pay your franchise fee, build or rent your location and furnish it with the equipment the company has already designed and successfully tested for you, hire your people, and then pay the company a percentage of your sales and profits.

A question: How well do franchisees do?

According to its critics, the truth is about one third of all franchises fail. Another third breaks even, and one third makes a profit. In fact, some franchise veterans say you can’t make money in franchising today unless you own at least five or more individual franchised units! Still, that’s a much better average than the 80/20 failure/success rate of conventional small businesses.

Question: How much does it cost to own a franchise today?

Ahh, there’s the rub.

Franchise fees range between a low/low/low of $1,000 to $500,000 and more. The average fee today comes in at around about $50 grand.

You can get a Molly Maid or a Thrifty Car Rental franchise for a fee of $17,500. Sir Speedy is $25,000. And the big guys, like McDonald’s..., well even if you could find one—forget it! It’s in the millions....

The really bad news is that’s only the fee. You’ve still got to pay for the building, equipment, initial inventory, etc.—all of which can run into the millions or more. The average investment in a proven franchise opportunity is $250,000! Not quite what the average person can afford. PLUS, most franchise companies take a percentage of your sales—not just profits, SALES—as their royalty commission!

It’s tough to start a franchise today. It’s not like it was back when the industry was young and unknown. Just as in real estate, the stock market, or most other opportunities, the real money is made by those who get in early.

There’s a higher risk and a higher reward. Once anything is a sure thing, it seems everybody’s doing it.

Today franchises are proven profit centers. That’s one reason why they’re so expensive. You pay for having less risk than a conventional business start-up—and you pay for being a johnny-come-lately, as well.

But there is a way to have the low-to-no-risk benefits of a proven, duplicatable business system like franchising and still enjoy the rich rewards of a ground floor opportunity.
Frankly, most Americans don’t have the extra $25,000 to $250,000 or more that it usually takes to own their own franchise business. But almost every one of us can afford to have the next best thing. And that’s exactly what I’m telling you about here: The NEXT… BEST… THING…. The People's Franchise...

… Network marketing.

Network marketing has taken the concept of franchising—providing independent entrepreneurs with a ready-made, low-risk, proven, turnkey, small-business opportunity—and made some genuinely remarkable improvements on it.

Low Capital Investment—Little or No Risk
How much money do you need to become an independent network marketer? There is usually no fee required to start your networking business. You’ll typically commit between a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars for your sales kit, your training and sales and marketing materials, and your initial product inventory (if you need it).

The Benefits and Tax Advantages of a Home-Based Business
For most participants, network marketing is a home-based business, so you don’t have the high overhead of a retail or office location. The equipment you need to begin your networking operation can be as simple as a telephone, desk and file cabinet. And the potential tax advantages of owning and operating a legitimate home-based business represent one of the last forms of tax relief available to the average American today.

No Employees—You Are in Control
As a network marketer, you are an independent contractor—the CEO of your own businesses. Think of it as "Me, Inc." You have no “employees.” The men and women with whom you’ll work are also CEOs, running their own independent networking businesses. In network marketing, you don’t simply “own your own job”—you own your own business.

And unlike most entrepreneurs, your business does not own you! You are truly in control of your work—and your life.

More Choices—Part-Time, Full-Time, Travel, National, and Global Businesses
Every network marketer is a volunteer: You don’t “have to” do anything. You’re free to work the days and hours you want, where you want, doing what you want—and perhaps most important of all, you’re free to choose the people with whom you work.

Although the majority of networkers work their businesses part-time—currently about 85 percent of the industry are part-timers—more and more men and women are pursuing network marketing as a full-time career. Some work exclusively from their homes; some choose to set up formal offices; others enjoy traveling to other cities and even to other countries, building their businesses on a global scale.

Personal and Professional Support
In network marketing, you’re in business for yourself—but not by yourself. Your network marketing corporation’s success depends on your success—they’re your business partners, so they give you the most support possible, each step of the way.

As a good franchise company would do, a good network marketing company provides you with the product or service to market, plus an R & D department, new product development, field training, sales and marketing literature and promotional materials, a distributor service department, and more. And today every network marketing company is Internet-friendly. You and your company are truly partners in a win-win opportunity.

Sound incredible? It is—but there’s more. There’s another very special reason network marketing is the next step beyond franchising. Which is why it’s sometimes called…

Franchising²

When you buy a franchise, you acquire the right to market the product or service provided by your company. It’s much the same in network marketing, except that you don’t have to pay a franchise fee nor the huge start-up and overhead costs, have a retail location and/or elaborate equipment, hire and manage employees, and there are no geographic restrictions on your marketing territory. You also don’t have to pay a percentage of your sales back to the network marketing company, as you do in franchising. What’s more, you are an independent contractor—you work for you—not for “the company.”

And as if all of that were not remarkable enough, a network marketing company does one more truly revolutionary thing for you.

It gives you the ability to offer the opportunity to build a successful business to others in partnership with you, too!

In network marketing, you not only get to earn income from marketing your company’s products or services (like a franchisee), you can also earn income from the sales generated by people you enroll into your own network organization (like a franchise company). They're your “Business Partners,” men and women who, just like you, own their own independent network marketing businesses.

That’s why we call it Franchising².

And that’s what creates one of network marketing’s most powerful and profitable features: it allows you to leverage your time, talent, and energy to earn commissions from the sales made by all the other people you bring into the business.

Remember, Andrew Carnegie said, “I would rather have one percent of a hundred people’s efforts than 100 percent of my own.” That’s just what network marketing enables you to do.

This explains why so many “ordinary” people can achieve extraordinary success in the network marketing industry. Conventional sales and distribution methods depend on a few, select high-performance sales superstars, who each do a huge amount of sales volume. Network marketing is just the opposite: it’s based on a lot of people—doing a little bit each.

That’s why we call this concept “The People’s Franchise.”

Network marketing powerfully combines all the income-building benefits of being both a “franchisee” and a “franchise company” at the same time—while cutting out the major stumbling blocks of both.

    • There’s no fee, because you’re an independent network marketer.

    • You don’t pay royalties from your sales back to the company.

    • There’s no hiring, firing, or managing employees.

    • There are none of the all-consuming demands of a seven-day-workweek and a 15-hour-a-day retail operation.

    • There’s the powerful marketing advantage of offering superior quality, one-of-a-kind specialty products and unique services that meet high consumer demand with exceptional value through relationship marketing.

    • There’s the independence of choice: choosing with whom you work, when, where, and how you work.

    • There’s the freedom of owning your own home-based business—and the tax-saving advantages that come with it.

    • There’s the flexibility of part-time or full-time involvement, as your unique situation allows...as you choose.

    • There’s the opportunity to leverage your time and energy and earn income from the efforts of others: in time, tens, hundreds, even thousands of others.

    • There’s the limited risk of a start-up that requires only a few hundred dollars.

    • There’s the proven potential reward of both earned income and residual income—which can range from an extra $300, $500 or $1,000 per month up to $10,000, $25,000 and more.

    • It’s a great business for the Internet, too. When you combine the high-touch of network marketing with the high-tech of e-mail and the World Wide Web, it just might be the most perfect business of all....

    • And finally, there is still the opportunity for you to be one of the first to enter an industry—an industry that has just begun its dramatic growth curve…an industry that is creating a revolution in the way the world buys and sells everything!

There has never been a better time than now to take a serious look at network marketing. “The People’s Franchise” is an extraordinary concept whose time has come— today!

Now is the time of best investment for greatest returns in network marketing. It’s like having the chance to buy gold again at $49 an ounce!

Make the time today to check out the benefits of building your own network marketing business. It’s a straightforward and simple, low-risk investment—and it promises to return the most remarkable rewards you can imagine.

The People’s Franchise.

There's more. Click this link to download the Adobe PDF.

And please, let me know what you find most valuable & useful about it.

Thanks.

I appreciate you!