Ethics

International Franchising is a tricky business and different cultures varying in their levels of integrity, yet as a franchisor it is important to extent brand name, collect royalties and to do so in as many parts of the world as possible. It makes since therefore to take a few risks, knowing that issues will arise.

Since various nations have different laws governing franchising and business transactions and some countries have no laws it makes sense to have clauses in the franchise agreement to address this and in doing so I suppose you will need to consult a professional parasite scum [attorney] to assist you thru this process.

We felt it necessary for our company to address the potential eventuality of non-compliance and injunctions in our international agreement so I came up with this clause and stuck it in our franchise agreement;

7.18 Injunctions

Nothing ...

Corporate Espionage is so great in America that competitors will go to lengths to find out what your company has that makes it so much better than everyone else’s. Often they will even go so far as to set up a dummy corporation or LLC and actually go thru the sales process to buy a franchise, sometimes even go thru the purchase process, just to get all the information they need to compete with you, using your proprietary methods.

This is why I came up with a clause in our franchise agreements which helped us in knowing who we are dealing with up front and what their interests really are. Below is one of the clauses we use;

7.16 Other Parties

If Franchisee is a partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, limited liability company or other legal entity, then all persons who have any beneficial interest in the Franchisee must execute this Franchise Agreement w...

When people from my grandfather’s generation retired after being with a company for decades they got gold watches. Gold watches no longer exist as far as companies are concerned. Now companies give out pink slips (a.k.a. their walking papers) after 25 years of service. We are living in a different world but it is humorous to me in a way.

Companies no longer have loyalty to those employees that have been loyal to them for years and years of service. When it is clear that companies no longer care about their employees in most cases, it is funny to me when the management of a company gets upset when the employees are no longer loyal to them either. They still expect the employees to be loyal without giving it in return. The same applies for customers. They get upset when a customer of 25 years leaves for a company just because of a cheaper price.

I have said in a previ...

In most industries in the United States of America we find that there are competitors who were willing to cheat and they are very careful to cover their tracks. In fact, there are companies that specialize in corporate espionage. You can find them online and learn some of their tactics and you can even books looks at the local bookstore that tell you how to do it.

In the franchising industry, which I was involved with for nearly 2 decades we constantly had our competitors pretending to be franchise buyers so they can get a hold of our uniform franchise offering circular.

The Uniform Franchise Offering Circular or UFOC is a required document that you must give to each franchise buyer 10-days prior to them buying a franchise. This disclosure document and their attachments are generally 200 or more pages. And the UFOC there is more information than someone could get going...

Most people believe that you can trust your bank. For the most part this is true however, if you are a small business person the chances are that your information is being passed on by loose lips. For instance you might become a topic of conversation at a party where an off duty teller mentions that you are loaded or that your business does not have adequate cash flow. Another instance might be the branch manager or an assistant manager of the branch who discusses your financial position with members of his Rotary club. I have seen this happen before and heard conversations.

In fact I remember hearing a conversation about me and my business at a party where the other party did not know that I was the business owner. It was at a Chamber of Commerce mixer and in they were talking about my franchisee and their financial position with a lawyer and another small business person....

If you are a small businessperson then chances are you have had a situation occur where another small business or larger competitor has used the local Government code enforcement officer to harass you. This is a common occurrence and it is unfortunate that they do not teach this at the SBA seminars.

The good old boy network that occurs in most cities is alive and well in the United States of America. This occurs both in large cities and small towns. Competitors know that if they can get the local code enforcement officer to come over and find a violation in your business that it will slow your business town and therefore give them the edge.

It is too bad that people do not have more integrity than that and too bad it competitors call in competing companies for violations. Of course if you are violating the law he should not be violating the law, but we know that many o...

The widespread government credit card abuse has forced the federal laws to change to protect the American taxpayers money as government workers would violate the trust of the American people and spend money, which is supposed to be used for official government business.

The Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2006' has so far it not been able to cure the fine folks in government from cheating us and stealing taxpayers money. When a government worker it uses a government credit card for expenditures of personal use they are stealing and yet we are not putting these people in jail but rather reprimanding them and in many cases not even taking away their government credit cards. Does this mean the American taxpayer is forced to endure widespread government credit card abuse?

I find it ironic that we already know that stealing is against the law no matter who you ...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is getting ready to make a huge bust on a giant Chinese Spy Ring, which goes very deep and involves many players. In fact, the group has been operating for years in the United States and stealing technology. The number of companies they are involved with is astounding and the number of college students who are involved is also interesting.

In fact the number of important bureaucrats and officials is scary. The number of nationalities involved in this ring and ad hoc circle of friends we'll give you a headache just looking at the spider web of all the people involved.

Luckily the FBI has got to the bottom of all this and is getting ready to make a huge announcement. I know this because I heard about it in a dream and I always trust my dreams how about you? Much of the corporate espionage involves military contractors and equipment manu...

There is an unlimited drive to innovate in nearly any area. And the easiest way to innovate is to copy a concept that has been invented in an adjacent or remote area.

Donations where originally reserved to non-profit organizations (Amnesty, Greenpeace, Red Cross, WNF, etc) to fund their (ideological) activities.

Now you see this donation pattern on a regular basis on the internet. The best example I saw was on a internet site of which the owner exhibited a self development ideology -- acting against the traditional order (society). The owner had just switched from an adsense method to this donation mechanism because the adsense income fell short.

Even though it seems a harmless idea borrowing the concept of donation for a profit business -- which did seem to work in his case -- you might wonder whether you act in line with conventional ethics. In the case I saw, the...

Sometimes stealing pays, especially if said stolen item is $24.99 or less and is stolen from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart recently announced that it is changing its zero-tolerance rule when it comes to theft. Previously, Wal-Mart would prosecute anybody caught stealing from one of its stores - even if it was just a pack of gum. But, the zero-tolerance theft rule has now changed. Henceforth, prosecution happens only if an item stolen is worth $25 or more.

It's all about economics. According to a J.P. Suarez, who is in charge of asset protection at the department store, "it was no longer efficient to prosecute petty shoplifters. If I have somebody being paid $12 an hour processing a $5 theft, I have just lost money. I have also lost the time to catch somebody stealing $100 or an organized group stealing $3,000."

This raises the question, Should Wal-Mart be publicizing this new r...

Many street sweeping companies, which have big large contracts with retail outlets and shopping malls often cheat the company on their services. In fact, as I travel around the country I am appalled at this particular industry. It seems that so many of the contractors who have street sweeping businesses cheat the customer. I asked myself why this is? It appears to me that the lowest bid will get the contract and many of the companies bids are so low that they cannot afford to do the work or by adequate equipment to do the job right.

I have watched Street sweeping folks come into a parking lot and drive around a few times put a little bit of dirt in the air kind of like when you take your home vacuum cleaner and forget to clean out the bag and the vacuum blows all the dust all over the place while you are vacuuming. Then the street sweeper leaves without cleaning anything, as...

Is it possible to run a company in today’s business climate without taking the cut-throat, winner-take-all approach that seems so predominant? While all the big news lately has been about those companies that have failed, and particularly those that have failed while using questionable tactics and obfuscating accounting practices, not to mention showing little concern for the average employee, are there still companies thriving while being run in a fashion that recognizes the value of ethics and the contribution of employees who feel like family?

One example that comes to mind here close to home is Celestial Seasonings. In spite of the various changes the company has undergone over the last 15 years, including a stint as a Kraft subsidiary, a time as an independent company, and now as part of a larger health-food company, Celestial Seasonings has stayed true to its roots. The co...

“Fix your credit”, easy process. So says many internet ads I read daily. I thought, well, that should be easy without their help since the FEDERAL law requires it. THE law says “a credit bureau, when proven their data are wrong, must correct the error[s] within 30 days. REALLY? Ok. NOW, has anyone CONVINCED the bureaus? Apparently not!

HOW can I say that with such conviction? Cause I am now dealing with the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] to get my bureau reports corrected!!! THE BLOODY FTC had to be contacted. That SEEMS like having to call the FBI when the neighbors steal your newspaper when you have a front of the house security camera!

My story is important, thus my rantings! It can help you.

I am a real estate broker. Part of my tasks when I help someone to buy a property NOW includes making sure they have good credit if they choose to use an i...

Many people want to get out of corporate America and get into their own franchise business as part of their American dream. They would rather control their own destiny than be controlled by corporate America. However, sometimes that American dream can turn into an American nightmare.

Of course franchising has a lower failure rate and someone who starts their own business from scratch, but still the franchise buyer must be wary of the Franchisor's methods and motives and consider the ethics of those running the franchising company.

Many franchise systems could care less how much money the franchisee makes, they only care how much products they sell to the franchisee, which then in turns sells those products at retail to the customer.

For some franchising companies is only a method of distributing their products into the marketplace and a way to propel growth of thei...

I bet if you have been on the internet very long you have seen a few programs that market themselves with a matrix system. In the 2X2 matrix, the recruit would sponsor two and those two would sponsor two, filling the 2X2 matrix with six people.

There are questions by many whether this is legal or not. That is almost like asking if concrete is legal. It really depends on how it is used. The matrix system itself is not illegal, unless it is used to perpetuate a fraud or a transaction or exchange of money without any substantial product or consideration for the money spent.

The 2X2 is limited in its width, but is still based on a pyramid with three levels. Level one has 1 person, level two has 2 people and level three has 4 people for a total of 6. A pyramid is not illegal in itself unless it is a pyramid scheme designed to separate people from their money and not deliver an...

Discrimination against older workers is out there, and none of us will ever know (for the most part), whether we were discriminated against because of our age.

During my many years on this planet, I never gave any thought to ageism. But, I couldn't understand why I was having so much trouble finding work...including temporary work. During my entire lifetime, I have had no use for racists and bigots, so the issue of ageism never crossed my mind.

Then one day, I read an article in the local newspaper about the subject of ageism. It said that discrimination against older workers was the number one complaint at the Equal Employment Opportunity Center (EEOC). And, the article went on to say that complaints were rising at a rate of 15% per year over the past three years! At this time, I was over 50 years old, and after I read this article, I started to pay more attention to...

The world admires and benefits those that have high integrity. If you are a person of integrity, a person of quality, a person of excellence, the world will reward you. This is an important key to being a winner in life and business.

People will be attracted to you, be persuaded by you and willing to help you toward your ends, to do the things that you want them to do.

To be a person of high integrity, go the extra mile, do more than you have promised. If you an appointment, you are early for your appointment. You respect the other person’s time, you do not come late. That communicates your time is more important than theirs.

Which brings me to the other issue, some people might say, “But, if I have high esteem, I’m proud and really like myself, won’t I be arrogant?”

That's not true, unless you think you are better than s...

I received an email today from a person wanting to know what is the rule of thumb regarding gratuity for cleaning and janitorial staff. Being in the cleaning field over 10 years and receiving tips, and also knowing how cleaning staff wants to be treated, I would believe this to be proper.

Household Cleaners and Residential Cleaners-- (Owners or Staff) 10%-15% of the price you pay for service. Lets face it folks you go out to dinner and pay the waiter or waitress this amount of the bill (or at least I hope you do)You are entrusting this person to you home, normal cleanings depending on the size of your dwelling can be 3-4 hours if not longer. If you receive superior service a gratuity is appreciated.

Carpet Cleaners-- (Owners or Staff) If you receive carpet cleaning in your home or business , and the carpet cleaner goes out of his/ her way to give you superior service by mo...

The Federal Trade Commission is considering a new proposed rule, which would require Biz Op's and business opportunities to substantiate earnings claims that they may to potential buyers if the buyer requests them. Such earnings claims proof will hopefully eliminate much of the fraud that goes on in the business opportunity sector.

Below is a copy of the Federal Trade Commission's proposed rule on substantiate earnings claims to potential buyers to ask for them;

Proposed section 437.5(f): Written substantiation for earnings claims

“Proposed section 437.5(f) would prohibit a seller who makes an earnings claim from failing to provide written substantiation to prospective purchasers and to the Commission upon request. Rather than mandating that business opportunity sellers include documentation for earnings claims – which could be voluminous – in the earnings claim stat...

Most business opportunity specialists and practitioners are indeed legitimate. Most business opportunity sellers really do care about their customers and the buyer. However, it is a wide known fact that many Biz Op companies are fraudulent and will lie just to make the sale.

The Federal Trade Commission is now onto this and has proposed new rules to prevent this from harming consumers. Below is a copy of the proposed rules that would prevent business opportunities salesman from lying about the amount of money that a potential buyer will make;

Proposed section 437.5(d): False earnings claims

“As noted throughout this NPR, the making of false earnings claims is the most prevalent problem in the offer and sale of business opportunities. Proposed section 437.5(d) would prohibit sellers from misrepresenting, directly or through a third party, the amount of sales, or gr...