Frequently Asked Questions
What constitutes the "Upfront Capital" amount?
What's the difference between a Franchise and a Business Opportunity?
How are the "Results Listings" ordered? It seems a little confusing with two descending sets by price.
Some listings show a zero Upfront Capital amount. Why is that?
Some listings do not show contact details. Why is that and how can I contact the franchisor?
There's a well known brand out there I'm trying to find? (ie. McDonalds or KFC) But they are not listed. Why?
I filled in the form, but received no reply! Why is that?
| What constitutes the "Upfront Capital" amount. |
This is defined as the amount of available finance (cash, bank loans, etc.) that will be required to purchase and launch the franchise to the point where you start receiving a revenue income.
This would typically include the following items:
- Franchise purchase price
- Franchising fees (if applied at time intervals)
- Advertising fees and Royalty fees
- Purchase of capital equipment (such as machinery)
- Shopfitting, deposits, legal fees, etc.
- Provision for working capital
We cannot stress strongly enough the importance of preparing detailed cashflow budgets as an early stage of developing your business plan. These issues should be dealt with at this stage and you should also be able to project whether the revenue streams will be sufficient to start liquidating the debt. If not, then you may need to provide for further capital inflows.
| What's the difference between a Franchise and a Business Opportunity ? |
Sometimes not much, and sometimes quite a lot.!
In short, franchises often provide more security, are considered to be less risky, are bigger operations and cost a lot more than the typical business opportunity. Business opportunities usually provide a limited range of products and services and a business plan to use for blueprinting the operations. But it's a grey area with a lot of variances.
For a more detailed discussion go to: Business Opportunities versus Franchises
| How are the "Results Listings" ordered? It seems a little confusing with two descending sets by price. |
Some franchisors are paid-up Biz.for.Sale Members and their contributions provide the funding for the site development and maintenance costs so that you can have cost-free access to the information. In return, we display information related to their listing ahead of the "non-members." A non-member is typically receiving a limited enquiry free trial listing to enable them to assess the frequency and quality of the leads. Within those two groups, we list the results in order of descending "Upfront Capital" required.
| Some listings show a zero Upfront Capital amount. Why is that? |
Certain franchises are offered under rigid pricing structures while others are very flexible. The location and size of the franchise area, for example, might effect the pricing dramatically. There may also be considerations related to training and the mix of products and services that will be included. Rather that be accused of misleading you by publishing the lowest cost, and not wanting to seem prohibitively expensive by publishing the highest cost, these franchisors prefer to divulge these details only on application and after assessing your requirements. We according list them at a zero cost and they appear at the bottom of the listings.
But you should note that these franchises are often among the more expensive.
| Some listings do not show contact details. Why is that and how can I contact the franchisor? |
If there is a "Contact" button at the bottom of the page, then filling in the form will give you the best information at this stage. Most franchisors have pre-prepared information packs that will be emailed or posted to you containing almost everything you would want to know. Far more than you will get from a telephone conversation.
If it is a Restricted Listing, then you can email us at info@bizforsale.co.za requesting that we send you the contact details, making sure you identify the franchise you are interested in. Please do not telephone for this information as we do not release these details over the phone. We need to provide the data with qualifications and contact information and it is disruptive for someone to have to attend to your request on demand.
At Biz.for.Sale, we provide an advertising service and cannot tell you more than the information you already see displayed. You need to contact the franchisor and not us.
| There's a well known brand out there I'm trying to find? (ie. McDonalds or KFC) But they are not listed. Why? |
Some franchisors will not list with us for a specific reason and have asked us not carry their listings. In the case of others, you may be misspelling their name of they may have closed.
We have a full section dedicated to these issues and list the known "Refusals" as well as the "Closed and Hard-to-Find" listings. We suggest you visit this page for more information in this regard.
| I filled in the form, but received no reply! Why is that? |
That should not happen. If the franchisor advertises actively with us, then all the necessary contact details (telephone, email, etc) are displayed at the bottom of the page and you can obviously contact them directly as well as by filling in the handy on-screen form. If we have any incorrect details listed there then please let us know by mail at: info@bizforsale.co.za
A franchisor who is assessing our services would have an on-screen form available but no contact details. This is to channel enquiries through a trackable route for the assessment period so contact details are not displayed. They should respond, but if they don't then please let us know (preferably by email to info@bizforsale.co.za) and we will try to find out why. We will respond to your email by mailing back the franchisor's direct contact details to you.
