Dating Site Franchise

[Billy Boy]

I have recently been emailed by a company selling a dating site franchise. All I do is pay a certain amount for the software that starts me on my way.

Is this dodgy?

Anyone heard of it?

[gammaray]

you don't need software to run a dating agency! you need people to sign up. It's a con. If you get anything at all you'll get a bog standard data base (the type you get in Word or smartsuite, some bitmap files to use in newspaper advertising and a booklet of ten top tips to running a succesful dating agency. By the time you've read it and realised that you don't get the essentials in their little pack - clients, contacts, financing etc. and that it's not just a matter of loading a CD onto your computer, the company you've just paid hundreds of pounds to will be long gone.

Look at it this way, if everybody they sent e mails to signed up to run a dating agency, there'd be nobody left to go on dates!

[buildersmate]

Franchising usually works by granting some aspect of exclusivity for an area. This can't work like that. Just another try on, one suspects.

[Buenchico]

The main reason for getting involved in any sort of franchise agreement is usually to be able to trade under a well-known name. For example, if you wanted to run a fast food outlet, you might be interested in the franchises offered by McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, and similar well-known companies. I very much doubt, however, that you'd consider buying a franchise from a firm calling itself something like FastBurger, simply because your potential customers wouldn't know the name.

The same applies to the dating site franchise. If you've never heard of it, then neither have any potential clients.

Chris

[Oneeyedvic]

I disagree with the reason for buying a franchise. Names like McDonalds, KFC, cAsh converters, Specsavers are all well known brnad names - but their franchises cost many tens of thousands of pounds.

There are lots of franchises that you can buy that do not involve such large figures - often less than �10k.

What these offer are a way in for people who do not know how to run a business a lot of information.

Most will tell you where to buy your stock from (and have in place discounts - one business will get far less discount than a group of businesses), how to conduct your advertising (these are often tried and tested means rather than 'lets give the local rag a go'), support help lines for what happens when things go wrong etc.

They can help with how you do your wages, info on Vat returns etc etc. In some businesses they can get you access to companies that you can't get by yourself.


That said, I would agree that this particular franchise doesn't sound like a lot of good!