Anyone with Franchise Fulfillment Experience?
thornysarus (926 pencils) | Wed, 2008-04-23 18:42A long-time client of mine who owns a successful restaurant is starting to franchise. Currently, everything I develop for each franchise is billed to the owner, who in-turn bills each franchisee.
Last week I had a meeting with the owner who asked me to handle all the design, printing and fulfillment for each of his franchisees and offer them a "Package deal." Example: The Grand Opening kit consists of banners, signs, coupons, menus, etc. Everything you'd need to hold a grand opening. The Franchisees will get to choose which elements they want and order them directly from me.
He wants me to mark-up the design, printing and other associated costs and bill them directly for it.
My print rep just giggled and said "Dude... You have no idea what just fell into your lap."
Does anyone have any experience with something like this? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it, how to set-up this service, policy, billing, rights and usage, etc. I want to be fair to all-involved, but I want it to be (very) profitable as well.
Any thoughts, suggestions or horror stories welcome.
Terry Thornhill
e-zign design group
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
I'm with your printer. Congratulations. It's not every day that this type of work is offered to you.
I don't profess to know much, if anything, about this, but thought I'd toss the first dart at the board.
1) Warehousing. Most printers are yelling for floor space so they're not about to cede it easily for storage for a client. If you don't have the space yourself, you are going to have to work something out with your printer or incur the monthly fee of a storage facility. Don't forget to mark this hidden price in.
2) Distribution. Not only do you have to produce, package and market it, you have to ship it. Work out weights, costs for area shipped to, etc.
3) Legal. It can be copywritten by your writer (aka you?), but need always be approved by either the client's on-staff lawyer or an attorney specializing in the areas of advertising and marketing law.
4) Invoicing. Modify the program you are currently using to accommodate the franchisees' unique requirements, such as long-distance shipping costs.
5) I'd design an online order form listing all of the program's marketing/work collateral. I no little of programming, but if at all possible, I'd have the form tally the weights and delivery destination costs at the end to save you this extra, yet necessary, effort. I'd also have a faxable/mailable copy on file.
6) Point-wise. That's your call, but do be a little generous with yourself. There are always hidden costs along the way.
Good luck!
ciao
3dogmama
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Thanks! A few of these, I hadn't thought of. The program I'm building for them is really coming together. Thanks to the advise I've received.
Terrell Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
I'm extremely jealous!!! I really have nothing further to add as I am small potatoes compared to you.
Congrats!!!!
suzanne maestri-walters :: graphic designer :: www.onegirlcreative.com
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"I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint." ~ Frida Kahlo
www.onegirlcreative.com
Congrats Terry on the job. It sounds great...
A couple of things that I though about was the increased 'business traffic' you'll be receiving... instead of communicating with just your original client, you'll be dealing with many new clients with all of their questions and complaints. I'm not sure how your shop is set up, but I'd have someone around to deal with the increased customer service needs as well as the increased business stuff... invoicing, accounting, etc.
My 2 cents
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I agree with this. You've grabbed a buried elephant by the tail on this one. You might see how much customer service you're going to need to do and add that to your billing.
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Powerpoint is not a design application
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Dirt and Rust