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 through your personal laptop or through all the drawers and filing cabinets in your office.

It is an unbelievable amount of disclosure, which is required by law. This prospectus includes audited financial statements of your business, lists of all your franchisees, your future expansion plans and just about everything else including the color of underwear you are wearing this morning.

Obviously your competitors will want to get a hold of this information so they can better compete with you. In my company we actually had someone buy a franchise and allow us to help them set up the business only to find out later that the money they used was that of a competitor.

You see, they had no intention of running the business all they wanted is a complete set of our operations manuals, UFOC and all the inside information that our company had including the training modules. This dishonesty and lack of integrity is unbelievable.

Later, the individual attempted to file a complaint with a state agency and a federal regulatory agency that we had misrepresented ourselves during the sale of the franchise. Of course this is utter BS and yet there are consumer laws that protect the consumer over the word of the Franchisor.

In fact once a regulatory agency starts an investigation you are guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent. It is the biggest bunch of horsesheet I have ever seen. But this is how the reality of business works and how the regulatory agencies do things.

If the United States of America and the regulatory agencies cannot do any better than this then we can never have free enterprise or a level playing field in any industry. This also means that we will stifle innovation, hurt entrepreneurs and missed opportunities in the marketplace and be passed by other nations in various industry sectors and sub-sectors.

After retirement and looking back on the situation it seems to be a game that an honest person would not like to play, nevertheless an honest business person can do a lot of good in the world, but one has to ask is it worth it?

If Franchisors are required to disclose at that level of information to anybody buying a franchise and it is obvious that their competitors will attempt to get that information by pretending to be buyers. The government does not care and the regulatory agencies are blind to the reality of the situation.

And in doing so they cause more harm to new franchise ores and start ups and a they are really need that market sector much like they have ruined so many industries in the past. I hereby can damn the regulatory bodies of the United States of America as ignorant, incompetence and utterly worthless. And I have the facts, paperwork and proof to back up my statements, unlike the regulatory bodies or the competitors.

What we have here is a bunch of weak human beings that cannot handle competition and a lousy ignorant government to help them cheat. Who needs that? Consider this in 2006 and if you think this is too harsh, I say that is irrelevant because it is the truth.

Lance Winslow

Tags: Ethics and Competition, Franchising, Leaves Unanswered QuestionsEthics and Competition, Franchising, Leaves Unanswered Questions

Share This

Ethics in business has become big news over the past several years. We read about the escapades of the executives at Enron, WorldCom and other major companies and shake our heads in astonishment thinking, “How could that happen.” We marvel at the unethical behavior of these leaders while at the same time never considering our own behavior.

The truth is that business leaders, regardless of the size of the company, are faced with ethical pressures everyday. The scale or impact of the ethical decision may not measure up to the likes of an Enron, but nevertheless, they do exist. How a business leader handles minor ethical issues is a precursor to how larger decision will be made as the business grows.

Many of the ethical issues we may face are not clearly black or white. In fact, two people faced with the same issue could quite possible make contrary decisions, while believing they each have made the best ethical decision. Why? Because ethical decisions are based upon one’s moral character. When it comes to moral behavior, we each march to the sound of different drummers and as such will make different decisions on similar issues.

As a business owner you must set the bar on ethical behavior. Make integrity a core value, be honest with your customers and employees, always follow the rules, never compromise your principles, and remember that the right thing is not always the opposite of the wrong thing. Do these things and your customers will respect you and your employees will remain loyal, essential ingredients to a successful business.

To Your Success -

Tags: business ethics, Choices, ethical decisions, ethics, Moral Charater, Small Businessbusiness ethics, Choices, ethical decisions, ethics, Moral Charater, Small Business

Share This

I was starting to get worried. It was the eighth of February and my electric bill, that usually comes on the second or third day of each month, had not arrived yet. From reading some of my other posts, you know how paranoid I am of the U.S. Postal Service. So, I promptly got on the phone with my power company and asked if they had sent it out on time. The lady on the other end of the phone checked my account and said my billing cycle had been changed and that my bill would be printed tomorrow.

Now this meant that my February bill was going to be larger than usual because of the one-time longer billing period. The power company had figured out a way to get more money out of everyone for one month, even without a rate increase. I believe this is an unscrupulous practice. Now, they might argue that I’m getting some benefit out of it, in that I’m being allowed to wait later in the month to pay my bill. But that’s no benefit to me. I always pay my bills when I first receive them and the money is still coming out of my February budget. In addition, since there is no corresponding shorter billing period, there will not be month when my bill will be smaller than usual.

This is not first time I’ve had the screws put to me by billing cycle changes. Many years ago, my cable company got 13 payments out of me in one year by constantly moving up the billing cycle, and thus the due date. Then last year, they did it to me again. Before I moved last May 16, I had already paid my cable bill, which was always due by 15th. After I moved, they changed the billing cycle on me and I received a bill that was due on the first of June. That’s right, although the second one was reduced somewhat, I had to pay two cable bills out of my May budget. Once again, they were hitting me up for 13 payments in one year. When I called to complain about the injustice of such billing practices, the person I talked to couldn’t understand why I felt cheated!

Now, the only effect this stuff has on me is to reduce the amount of discretionary money I have at the end of month to spend or put in my mutual funds and money market accounts. However, what about people who live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to make ends meet? These unethical billing cycle changes will inevitably cause some of them to have to not pay in full or forgo some much needed food and/or medicine. That’s a crying shame!

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, and blogger from Hopewell, VA. On his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - he posts commentaries on various subjects such as politics, technology, religion, health and well-being, personal finance, and sports. His commentaries offer a unique point of view that is not often found in mainstream media.

Tags: billing, change, cycle, ethics, fairness, moneybilling, change, cycle, ethics, fairness, money

Share This