Franchise guidelines out soon

WITH the franchising industry growing every year, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) together with franchising associations will release a set of guidelines for franchising by the end of the year.

The guidelines will provide ideas on what franchisees need to know before investing and making sure that the franchisers do not dupe them and on how franchisers should deal with potential clients.

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“The Philippine Franchise Association (PFA), Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (Affi) and the Filipino International Franchise Association (Fifa) are working out with DTI to curb scammers in the franchising industry starting with the set of guidelines,” franchise consultant Rudolf Kotik said.

He said this is a good move by the government to regulate businesses to avoid unscrupulous franchisers.

Kotik, founder of RK Franchise Consultancy, has developed more than 350 Filipino companies into franchise systems, such as Thirsty, Handuraw Pizza, Mooon Café, Tita Gwapa, Acebedo Optical, Ruiz Derma and Spa.

“Franchising creates opportunities for business ownership and personal wealth for individuals interested in growing their own business. It helps people to be their own boss and operate their own business,” he said.

To provide a venue for potential franchisees to meet legitimate franchisers, RK together with Fifa will hold the Cebu Franchise Exhibit on August 27-29 at Parkmall Atrium West. Thirty exhibitors from Davao, Butuan, Dipolog, Iloilo and Cebu will
display their franchise opportunities.

“This year, we will have the exhibit rather than the usual franchise expo we organized to cut down on costs. The number of exhibitors this year is lower than the past franchise expo which had 78 exhibitors last year,” Kotik said.