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Former Domino's Executive Pushing the Envelope
Posted: 6/3/2002
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(Bradenton, FL)---In the late 1980s, General Motors ran a marketing campaign featuring the well-remembered slogan, "This Isn't Your Father's Oldsmobile." The same notion best describes what Cyber Growth Solutions has devised with its innovative franchise model: "This isn't your father's franchise."
No, it is definitely not. By combining cutting-edge technology with its "high-touch" way of doing business, CGS is stretching the boundaries of the traditional franchise concept so far that it almost defies description. Witness the words of CGS chairman and chief executive officer Thomas N. Burnham: "This is one weird thing."
The affable CEO is free to use any adjective he wants, but groundbreaking is another description that comes to mind. CGS is certainly garnering enough attention. Before it even began marketing its concept it drew 80 inquiries within one month.
So just what is it that's eliciting all the oohs and ahhhs? Well, CGS has two co-stars. The first star is its technology, which gives small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) a complete offering of web-based business management applications. The second star is its legion of franchisees who will deliver customer support that's never been offered before by a technology company. And they'll accomplish it by letting someone else do most of the work.
A CGS franchisee represents the company's physical presence in every community and business environment. Their only job is to attract and then provide never-before-seen customer support to business clients. The real work of designing web sites, devising portal solutions and solving any other business application need is performed hundreds and even thousands of miles away from the franchisee and client by the CGS technology staff in Bradenton, Fla.
Franchisees pay an initial franchise fee of $29,500 for a base territory, whose minimum demographics cover 100,000 people and 3,000 businesses. If located in or near a large city, a franchisee's base territory would include the entire metropolitan area. More than one franchisee can operate in a metropolitan area, but for an additional fee of $15,500 they can purchase the right to offer and sell services anywhere in the United States. For an additional fee of $19,500, a franchisee can sell to customers anywhere in the world.
Boundaries aren't strictly defined because they don't have to be. Having office space is an option, but not a requirement. And the proliferation of small and medium-size businesses in most geographic areas is so great that even a cadre of franchisees in a given location could never call on every one.
"This product exists in space," Burnham said. "It's not like having a pizza guy down the street saying you're in his delivery territory."
Business needs are minimal, almost negligible. The only major needs are a high-speed laptop computer with wireless Internet access, a quality printer and a digital camera. For a fraction of the cost of what it takes just to build, not operate, a fast-food outlet, CGS franchisees can be operating a global enterprise.
"It's an extremely affordable initial investment," Burnham said. "You don't need $300,000 to build a store. You can get into business for a very reasonable amount because you probably already have most of the equipment you need. We have a much larger portion of the population who can become franchisees compared to the typical franchise offering."
"We wanted to combine the business services that dot.coms were providing with the ‘high touch' aspect franchising affords," Burnham said. "That's really the secret to all of this. The franchisee is the most important person in our business."
Evidence of that importance is the lengths to which CGS is going to ensure that its first graduating class of 20 to 50 franchisees in 2002 receives "every level of assistance and support we can possibly provide them," says Burnham.
Franchisees receive one week of comprehensive training at the CGS home office in Bradenton, Fla. One of the training advisors is David Groth, who has written more than 20 computer textbooks. His many certification books published by pioneer Sybex Inc. continually appear on the computer industry's best-seller lists. Groth is president and founder of Practical Training Solutions, part of the Global Franchise Concepts family which also oversees CGS.
"We train what's missing," Burnham says. "We're already supplying the products and research and development, but the biggest thing is the training and support. You don't need to be an IT person, but if you want to know more you can just keep coming back for additional training depending on how much you want to learn."
Because of the national and even global selling opportunities that CGS provides, Burnham said many prospective franchisees are already talking of forming partnerships with friends or business associates in other cities. Considering there are no additional fees, it becomes a most intriguing business prospect.
"A lot of people talk about going into business with old high school buddies, but they never do because it normally requires them to be in the same location and that's often not the case. That's not a problem with us," Burnham said.
While its business innovations will stretch the imaginations of the business world, Burnham and CGS are still relying on some tried-and-true axioms. There's no frantic race to throw big growth numbers out to inquiring minds.
"We have no intention of having 200 or 300 franchisees or anything else this first year," Burnham said. "We're not in any hurry. Numbers are interesting, but stability and having a proper platform for our first base of franchisees is far more important."
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