Search Results

This chapter provides a discussion on the nature of work franchisees perform at Sign Masters. In particular, it considers the roots of uncertainty they face. The troubles of Sign Masters are often pinned on Stu Beyer, the founder. Beyer's mistakes in running franchise units are addressed. It is noted that he sold the company store because of a financial crisis, but in doing so, he lost far more than a revenue stream. Sign Masters became a weaker company as a result of the scoured trust that franchisees once held in Stu Beyer. Thus, Beyer added to the financial sufferings of many franchisees by designing a franchise system with a limited range of services, and he continued their troubles with a poor marketing strategy, poor technical and franchisee support, and weak criteria for franchisee selection. It can also be stated that custom products and franchising are strange bedfellows.

This chapter introduces a typology of franchisees that cuts across King Cleaners, Sign Masters, and Star Muffler. The three types of franchisee include neo-franchisees, disillusioned franchisees, and sideliners. Neo-franchisees are outspoken critics of the franchisor and with good reason: most neo-franchisees are successful in the business. They also have full confidence in their abilities and have no doubts that they would be successful as franchisees. Disillusioned franchisees largely believe that buying a franchise was the worst decision they ever made. Sideliners are in some respects the stable backbone of the system. Sideliners are not difficult to manage compared to neo-franchisees and disillusioned franchisees. There are common experiences and uncertainties that led these franchisees to be more alike than dissimilar. Regardless of their profile, franchisees work long hours, operate six or seven days a week, and rarely take vacations.

This chapter argues for a rhetorical approach and a digital future for American Sign Language (ASL) literature. In 1910, George Veditz, then president of the National Association of the Deaf, capitalized on the technology of film to produce the “Sign Masters Series” featuring ten nationally known “master signers” in an effort to “preserve and advance” the tradition of ASL, which he claimed we must “possess and jealously guard.” Almost one hundred years later, supported by a grant from the Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs (BETHA) at Ohio State University, new digital media technologies were used to re-enact the “Sign Master Series”—to digitally remaster the potential that exists in the creation, production, publication, and reception of sign language “literature.”

This chapter examines three basic components that are features of all franchise systems: royalties, trademarks, and long-term contracts. It demonstrated how these components function and, in particular, how they impact franchisee survival rates at King Cleaners, Sign Masters, and Star Muffler. Competition among franchisees changes the value of the trademark. It is noted that the prices for services given by Star Muffler is a major source of contention among franchisees. Franchisees and franchisors agree that the royalty is a “right” of the company, the price for their expertise, and assumed to be an operating expense for franchisees. The long-term nature of contracts is one of the defining characteristics of franchising, and it is an aspect of the strategy that seems to serve franchisors and franchisees well. Furthermore, it is believed that the short-lived tenure of franchisees is surely due to something other than contracts, trademarks, and royalties.

Franchising has become one of the dominant methods for distributing goods and services in the Western economy. It is an effective solution to the organizational problem of control since there are economic incentives in place to bind franchisee and franchisor to the trademark. In line with this, this book's author participated in the frontline operations of franchisees in three companies, referred to by the pseudonyms of King Cleaners, Sign Masters, and Star Muffler. Then, preformed structured interviews and network analysis with franchisees and with the CEO and other senior executives of each company. It is noted that franchise companies have the problems of having to sell franchise units and provide services to franchisees. Furthermore, this book present a sociological understanding of franchising both to those familiar with the strategy as franchisees or franchisors as well as to those who are familiar with it only as consumers.