How to go independent?

[part-time-operator]

Hi all. have followed the forum for a while and found it very interesting. This is my first post so hello and I hope your experience can help me out.

I've been operating a small tower franchise for just under a year now and would like to try being independent as there seem to be a number of advantages to this.

Most of my towers are on site and doing ok but I've got about two dozen towers in storage as I've been busy with other projects. These towers either did so bad it wasnt worth the petrol, or the site asked for them to be removed.

I've re-sited almost all of my towers at least once in this year although the majority of the time I've used a site finder service.

My idea is then to take the towers I currently dont have sited and operate them independently. I'm a legit kind of guy so don't really want to breach a franchise agreement even if it does seem a bit restrictive.

I'd like to do this in the new year as I have to re-site these machines anyway and I can't afford to pay for site-finding.

Does anyone have any experiencing of going independent or being in a similar situation?? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Coin Operated Group]

If you have unsited machines in your garage and you site them yourself those machines are independant and you can buy stock from whoever you like for those machines, them simply buy your stock from your franchisee for the machines they sited and hey presto all done. You can try using independant site finders as there are a couple or even use a site finding service from whom you wish to purchase your new stock.

Who resited your machines you have recently moved ?was it the franchisee?

If you are referring to leaving your franchise agreement and going independant then that is another question.

[part-time-operator]

Thanks for your quick reply. Welcome to 2012!

Originally all of the sites were found through the franchise company. So what you are saying is that since I have removed the machines from the sites they found, provided I remove their branding, I can site and operate these machines independently? Do I need to even tell them?

It would be great to get stock from other suppliers as I really don't think I'm getting the best prices at the moment.

What is the difference between this and leaving the franchise agreement?

Where/how would you recommend I find decent sites on my own? The site finding service offered by the franchise company seems to throw up a lot of mediocre sites and I had to turn down a worrying proportion of them because I knew they'd make no sales.

[Venderbase]

It really depends on which franchise your agreement is with.
But generally the machines are yours to do what you like with.
Your contract may say that you have to remove machines from franchise found sites if you terminate, but there has been much debate on whether this would actually stand up in court as you have paid to have the sites found and they can't belong to anybody. It's up to the site owner if they want your machine there or not. Simply tell them that you are no longer part of said franchise and operate alone and ask if they still want your machine (debranded of course).
The only down side to this, is it has been known by tubz vending to do their best to get your sites from you either by sending another operator to install machines or spreading rumours about poor service.

Ive been independent for a few years now and am starting to struggle as I need some fresh sites, so I may actually do the opposite and rejoin one of the suppliers to get some more sites. This will depend on a deal being made that suits me and my situation and not a general supplier biased contract.

I'd be interested to hear what your worrying proposition was.

[Coin Operated Group]

It really depends on which franchise your agreement is with.
But generally the machines are yours to do what you like with.
Your contract may say that you have to remove machines from franchise found sites if you terminate, but there has been much debate on whether this would actually stand up in court as you have paid to have the sites found and they can't belong to anybody. It's up to the site owner if they want your machine there or not. Simply tell them that you are no longer part of said franchise and operate alone and ask if they still want your machine (debranded of course).
The only down side to this, is it has been known by tubz vending to do their best to get your sites from you either by sending another operator to install machines or spreading rumours about poor service.

Ive been independent for a few years now and am starting to struggle as I need some fresh sites, so I may actually do the opposite and rejoin one of the suppliers to get some more sites. This will depend on a deal being made that suits me and my situation and not a general supplier biased contract.

I'd be interested to hear what your worrying proposition was.

Yes but they are saying they have resited all machines themselves already Daz.

[Venderbase]

I've re-sited almost all of my towers at least once in this year although the majority of the time I've used a site finder service.

I take this to mean the franchise site finding.

[Coin Operated Group]

If you decide to terminate your agreement then you must remove all asociated branding and then you are free to go independant.

As you have resited all your machines yourself then there will be no comeback, all the franchisor will do is probably sell the orignal sites on again to someone else!!

Its a pretty sorry state of affairs when somone pays for a 'franchise?' and then ends up resiting themselves to get a decent income, but good on you for making the business work for you. Now you have the oportunity to source the best price on stock and hopefully build yourself a nice little business.

Regarding site finding, surely if you have resited yourself already then you should carry onlooking yourself? other options are to use a site finder or even approach one of the suppliers and ask them to do a it for you, making it known you are independant but will buy stock from them if prices are good and they find say 5 sites for you.

[Coin Operated Group]

I've re-sited almost all of my towers at least once in this year although the majority of the time I've used a site finder service.

I take this to mean the franchise site finding.

[part-time-operator]

Yes in response to the above it was franchise site finding.

I got a few sites myself through asking around and recommendations from some of the existing sites.

Unfortunately for the majority of the sited machines I used the site finding service so I'm worried I'll have to remove these if I end the agreement completely. Most of these sites are quite profitable and I'd be very sorry to lose them after so much effort and money was spent on getting them.

I thought I should start by independently siting and stocking the spare towers i've got as it seems that there's nothing to stop me doing this. Only thing is, I'm not sure how I should go about finding two dozen good sites. I've not tried intensely to do it before and in the past just made the most of the haphazard bunch of sites I got sent.

Plan was to double up in a couple of my best sites and then call a load of pubs out of the yellow pages. I'm open to all suggestions though as I need to make more money from this...

oh and yes Matt, its a bit of a pain having to re-site to try and get a decent income but having paid my money I thought I'd better make the most of it! :)

[Vendingwarehouse]

As far as court goes for site finding, I had my solicitor look into to this a good while back. You pay the fee to a supplier to do just that...site find....They don't own the site , and neither do they have a written or verbal agreement for exclusivity of the site they find for you. Their involvement legally ends as soon as you pay them for the site and they hand you the site details. After that , they have no legal right to put you off the site. Only the owner of the site/business can do that. They can and do, muddy the water on you and cause you to loose the site, and you could legally follow them for this, but it's too expensive and not worth the hassle.