“Why won’t they share the names of the employees they let go?”
“[Name withheld] is no loss as far as franchisees are concerned. He was awful… a complete ass.”
“Katie was sweet and actually cared!”
“Dolly Morrison was amazing… she’s gone?”
“Tracy needed a coordinator for a podcast 11 people listen to?”
“[Name withheld] liked to talk down to the owners. I guess Kevin Copa & James Caudle can pick up the slack on that.” “Kevin claims the solution is to sell more franchises to increase brand recognition. How’s that working out, Kev?”
A recession-proof model? JDog markets itself as a recession proof model. In a recent JDog Brands Facebook post, they claimed that they offer a proven business model with low start-up costs, excellent profitability, and entrance to a recession-proof industry. Yet inside sources state that the parent company of JDog Brands has been laying off employees for several months. In fact, on Friday, December 1, they laid off 5 people from the corporate office citing the difficult economy as a reason. In that email, Tracy Flanagan acknowledged that many locations are currently struggling. While bemoaning the negative effect of a bad economy behing closed doors, they continue to market this failed system to the public as being part of a recession-proof industry(!) What they don’t tell you is that every time the economy sees a downturn, local markets are flooded with people who open their own junk hauling businesses. Unlike other national junk removal franchise systems, this brand lacks the recognition necessary to ensure that customers still find JDog owners during slow sales periods. Owners speaking on condition of anonymity have expressed frustration to me that they were told the model would be recession-proof, yet they are struggling to make ends meet and keep their doors open. Attempts to talk with corporate about the difficult times are met with the same lackluster advice of putting out more door hangers and being more active on their social media. They also openly express confusion at how one of the founding partners of this failed franchise system can cite poor economy as a reason for closures and layoffs while the company continues to market itself publicly as being part of a recession-proof industry. These same owners also falsely state that the entry costs are low. They are anything but. Most owners getting into the franchise system currently can expect to spend between $125,000 and $160,000 getting this business up and running. At the same time, the profitability claim is highly questioned considering the unacceptable failure rate. If the concept is so highly profitable, why have they disclosed terminating more than 200 veteran-owned franchises? It is believed that the franchise system has not been able to sell any new locations since July of 2023. Given the fact that they rely heavily on fresh revenue from new franchisees, it’s not surprising that they’re currently laying people off in order to stay afloat. Perhaps they need to adopt a business model based on making each franchise territory profitable rather than recruiting new franchisees to replace the veteran franchisees sinking in debt with no meaningful support – from a company that doesn’t have a single corporate-run territory?WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW. We will continue to seek the opinions and experiences of all involved (confidentially or anonymously, if preferred) in order to provide military veterans considering this (or other) franchise opportunities the information they need to make informed decisions on behalf of themselves and their families.
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