BUDGET BLINDS Franchise Complaints
Budget Blinds franchise opportunity: Are you familiar with it?
If so, please share your experience, opinions or insights with a comment below.
The Budget Blinds franchise website claims that, by becoming a Budget Blinds franchise owner “you’ll be entering the growing home improvement franchise industry, under an established brand, that provides you with the tools you need to be successful.”
Budget Blinds boasts these benefits:
- Low investment, home-based business, with no storefront, no inventory, low overhead
- Nearly 900 franchise territories in North America including over 80 franchisees in Canada
- 8 million National Advertising Fund in North America. In the top 10% of all franchises’ NAF worldwide
- Single territory average sales*: $351,633 U.S. / $474,318 CAN in 2011*
- Average gross profit*: 53% U.S. / 54% CAN*
- Average closing ratio on appointments*: 75-79% U.S. / 70-74% CAN*
- Average number of sales closed per month per territory*: 23.5 U.S. / 30 CAN*
*Reflects data reported by franchisees for 2011. Refer to FDD for details.
Despite their sales claims, Budget Blinds franchise owners have a 37% SBA loan default rate.
Despite the impressive claims above, some things don’t add up about the Budget Blinds franchise opportunity.
According to Entrepreneur, Budget Blinds locations declined from 954 US franchises in 2008 to 710 in 2011.
According to data released by the Small Business Administration (SBA), Budget Blinds franchise owners who qualified for SBA-backed franchise loans have a high loan failure rate of 37%.
That earns Budget Blinds a spot in UnhappyFranchisee.com’s list of WORST FRANCHISES IN AMERICA (by SBA loan defaults)
The apparent drop in Budget Blinds franchises in recent years and the high loan default rates are franchise due diligence red flags.
| Budget Blinds Franchise | |
| Budget Blinds U.S. franchises in 2008: | 954 |
| Budget Blinds U.S. franchises in 2011: | 710 |
| Growth in franchise units 2008 – 2011 (#) | -244 |
| Growth in franchise units 2008 – 2011 (%): | -26% |
| SBA loans granted since 2001: | 75 |
| SBA loan failure rate: | 37% |
| Sources: Entrepreneur (growth), Coleman report (SBA) |
The inability to repay an SBA-backed loan (or any franchise loan, for that matter) indicates a serious situation for the franchisee.
It’s likely that Budget Blinds franchise owners who received SBA loans may have collateralized their franchise loan with their homes or other personal assets, and many were unable to repay those franchise loans… despite the serious incentive to do so.
Are you familiar with the Budget Blinds franchise opportunity?
What do you think accounts for the SBA loan failure rate of Budget Blinds franchise owners?
What steps should Budget Blinds be taking to stop further franchise failures?
Has Budget Blinds taken serious action to address the problems that led to these loan failures?
Please share a comment (anonymous is fine) or Contact UnhappyFranchisee.com.
If you are a Budget Blinds franchise representative or employee, please feel free to leave a comment or email us at UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE BUDGET BLINDS FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY?
ARE YOU A CURRENT OR FORMER BUDGET BLINDS FRANCHISE OWNER?
PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
Corporate responses or rebuttals welcome:
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I owned a Budget Blinds franchise for about 3 years. I had mortgaged my home, purchased a van (required) and paid $$ up front for 2 territories. Every single month I was in business I lost money – never broke even. The situation here was two existing owners who were aggressively selling in all open territories. By far, the worst was a guy who would not only keep leads in my territories, he would agressively sell against me leveraging his contractor’s license. At first I didn’t believe it until another franchisee found him in my territory (can’t miss the van) and took pictures. I’ll turns out this was his regular practice and he had no intention of stopping. Corporate wrote him a letter but took no other action. After I stopped taking orders their attorney called and started asking when I was going to pay my fees. I told him that they had extracted thousands from me and I had lost every penny I had on their phony “protected territory” franchise. They are in the business of churning franchises, taking fees and reselling them – in my view a total scam. Any franchisee claiming success likely has been at it for 10 years with open territories nearby (Reno a good example). After they reclaimed my territories, a prospect called me about the business. I was very clear they should run away as fast as possible, but they bought anyway. The day they canvassed my house was awkward, but I introduced myself and wished them the best. I think they lasted 18 months. I would encourage any franchisee who worked harder than they thought they could finally realizing that wasn’t enough to know that BB failed you, not the other way around.