One problem with being popular is that other people want to unjustly ride on that popularity. Take franchising for example. Franchising has become so popular in recent years that many individuals offering business opportunities call their schemes franchising just to get people to pay attention and fork over their hard-earned money. At best, the business opportunity they are presenting are merely mislabeled. The opportunity may not be a franchise but is something else – agency, distributorship, dealership, manufacturing license, multi-level sales, etc.

At worst, the so-called opportunity may be deliberately called a franchise to mislead unsuspecting investors. So what should a business concept have to qualify as a franchise? The following elements must be present:

• The franchisee must be required to pay an upfront fee for the right to engage in the franchisor’s business. This is called the franchise fee.

• In exchange for the upfront fee, the franchisee must be allowed to use the franchisor’s brand name. The franchisor in turn should have exerted efforts to protect the trademark by registering with the appropriate government agency.

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If the American dream is owning a house with white picket fences, you’d think that the Filipino dream is moving to the United States to be able to dream the American dream, what with the number of Filipinos leaving the country every year to take up residence in that part of the world.
 

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