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Why Starting A Internet Business Is Better Than Buying A Franchise

Guest post by: Glen Harris

Article Overview: In this article I share my life story of how buying a franchise almost drove me to committing fnancial suicide, and the difference between starting a internet business and buying a franchise.

Why Starting A Internet Business Is Better Than Buying A Franchise

Why Starting A Internet Business Is Better Than buying A Franchise

Back In early 2007 I purchased a franchise called Budget Blinds for around $100,000 dollars. What a waste of money, and a whole lot of time. This is easily the biggest mistake I've made in my entire life; this is also how I learned starting a internet business is better than buying a franchise. I'm telling you these guys that ran this organization operated it like big time criminals. They hid behind their 1-800 numbers, and in house attorneys like cowards. That should've been my first clue, when a company has an in house attorney you know they are doing bad business, or they would have no need for an attorney to be with in arms reach away.

So let's talk about the pros and cons of why starting a internet business is better than buying a franchise. Cost, or start up. A franchise is going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars maybe even millions depending on the franchise you are looking to purchase. With Budget Blinds, I had to send them a $50,000 dollar check in the mail to purchase what they called a " territory " then I had fly out to California for a miserable 2 week training on how to hang every window treatment you can imagine, Huge waste of time considering consumers in my " territory " could only afford the cheap stuff. I also had to purchase a van that cost me $25,000 dollars, so now I'm at a total of $75,000 dollars plus airfare, and time loss. Next I had to get my van wrapped, they gave me my first wrap for free, but I had to pay to have it put on, $800 more dollars. Now marketing, how am I supposed to do that when they just took every last dime I had to my name? Door hangers, yep you know the things you throw away every couple Sundays you find hanging on your front door. I had to work my butt off walking through neighborhoods in my "territory "every single day, and when I was lucky enough to get a lead from this sad form of advertising, I had to go play salesman, and if I was lucky enough to get the sale, I got to come back to their house and install their window treatments for them "YIPPY "just what I wanted no freedom! Now if these guys plan would've worked like they said it would. I could've hired a salesman, and an install guy, but I didn't stand a chance with this business model, and a crumbling economy. So now I'm starting to realize that the door hang game doesn't work in my "territory "so I Have to do another form of marketing. So I take a $15,000 dollar loan to start my big marketing campaign. But, now Budget Blinds wants their monthly franchise fees of $2500 dollars, and I'm already behind due to no profits. So I had to send them my marketing money or they were going to take my business away! The business that I already paid for. You see franchise contracts are written for the little guy to fail, there is no getting out of it. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

Now let's talk about starting a internet business. The startup is no more than a couple hundred or you can pay a couple grand, but you will not be digging your own financial debt grave. Sure you can get ripped off, but this is a process that is very easy to avoid on the internet. With a franchise you think just because they are a franchise they are automatically legit. To make sure they are legit on the internet, all you have to do is run a Google scam or just look them up on you tube to make sure they have a phone number posted, and they answer when you call them. Just like the franchise world it can be time consuming depending how fast you want to progress, but you will be in the comfort of your own home, and not bout knocking on some strangers door begging for them to call you when they need your services, or hanging something in their house that you can't even afford to hang in your own house. Unlike the franchise world, you can do all of your marketing for free. It won't cost you thousands of dollars to market when starting a internet business. I will never pay for any form of marketing unless I choose to.

Keep in mind if you don't find the right business and person to sign up with you can lose quite a bit of money, and I don't want that to happen to you or anybody else.

I hope this article was helpful, and thank you for reading.

Glen M Harris Jr.

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Article Tags: Glen M Harris Jr, starting a internet business
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



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Re: Hi there - Hi Galuh, Welcome to the forum, you will get plenty of help here and from what you have said, you may have found a niche market there. Starting an Internet business is no different from any other business in as much as if you enjoy it and have knowledge of the subject then so much the better. From what you have said there may well be a market for your idea and it is something that you could start small and test the waters first. If it goes well then you can take it further. best wishes, Mal.


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