What do you think to these franchise opportunities?

[nkingy2003]

Over the last 2-3 months I have been looking at various franchise opportunities. I have received lots of different franchise prospectus' and now think I may have found the one for me.

There are actually two franchises that are very much the same. One is the 'Snack in the Box' honesty box franchise carrying the Cadburys brand name and the other is the 'Sweet Appeal' honesty box franchise. Both of these involve placing honesty boxes in sites throughout your territory (SITB place 150 and SA place 350 sites for you in your first week) and then servicing them every few weeks to restock and take money etc.

The appealing aspect of these opportunities are that I do not need experience in a certain sector whereas other franchises such as accountancy, legal, financial franchises I think the experience would be beneficial.

The SITB franchise carries the Cadburys brand name and sells Cadburys snacks which is obviously an advantage. The SA franchise sells sweets and snacks from Marie Curie charity boxes in commercial places. The SA franchise has only been franchising for 6 months however advertise a higher earnings than the SITB franchise due to the fact that they place 350 boxes for you in your first week.

I have put the links to these websites below and would be very grateful if you could have a look at each opportunity and advise me on which you think is best.

SITB
http://www.snack-in-the-box.co.uk/

SA
http://www.sweetappeal.co.uk/

[fisicx]

Sweet appaeal because it's not Cadburys and it's raising money for charity.

[nkingy2003]

You say 'because its not Cadburys'. I was thinking that it would be a positive thing to have the branding of a major name?

Sweet Appeal advertises very good earnings and good chance to expand. I have been talking a lot with one of the owners on the phone and have arranged a meeting for next week. He tells me that they are realistic goals, that all the franchisees so far have been successful and are very happy with the amount of money they are making.

Im going to attend the meeting next week, hopefully look at the accounts of the company run territories, get a full list of franchisees and contact them all. If all is well then I am pretty sure that I will be investing in the Sweet Appeal franchise.

[simon7]

food for thought, I looked at the Snack in a box franchise many year ago, but never took the plunge.
Consider how much travelling you have to do each week to service your clients (350 sites), my job entails visiting clients in their home i maybe have 8-12 appointments per day,the commision i get paid on some clients dont even cover the fuel costs (and i get 20%, the cheapest product i sell is around £40) my deisel bill has gone from £50 to £110 per week, not sure what the profit margin is on confectionary, but you dont want all your profits to go to the petrol companies. Whatever you decide, i wish you success. Simon

[fisicx]

Good point Simon,

The bloke who does the snapon tools for us spends 5-6 hours a day just travelling around his clients.

A mate who services van coolers can drive for an hour to a client, go back home then end up returning to the same location 2 hours later.

And remember, if you are using your car for business your insurance won't be valid.