Eli Estrada, a hardworking man from California and his co-worker were crossing a street last week and happen to find a bad containing $140,000 in cash in a bag sitting in the middle of the street. Undecided on what to do with it, Eli Estrada finally decides to do the right thing and turn the cash over to authorities. Soon after, the media gets wind of Eli Estrada’s good deed and they are all over his fabulous story.
While watching the news story on every channel all day for two days, I can’t help but to notice one thing. Eli keeps mentioning he’s in debt because he bought a franchise. The franchise is “Turf Turf”, a new synthetic grass franchise with barely over 10 franchises.
Now if you you think about it, Turf Turf is now getting probably upwards of $1,000,000 in FREE national advertising. What does Eli Estrada get for this? Nothing. He’s the franchisee, the free national advertising does not help him at all. Yet, all the free advertising has probably helped Turf Turf sell a few franchises.
This is just another reason why it always better to be the franchisor, than the franchisee. The franchisor benefits from such opportunities, not the franchisee.
On: April 20, 2008 at 6:04 pm
# 109
I disagree with you on this… I haven’t heard of the good deed guy and it’s not a national story (that I’m aware of). So assuming its in your city and surrounding counties… he the franchise owner of turf turf in that area is benefiting a lot by getting his business out there and people might feel bad for him and generate some business for him!
Why would you think the franchisor is getting tons of benefits when the franchisee is blatanly telling the world that buying a turf turf franchise is a BAD investment. I would stay clear away…
On: April 20, 2008 at 6:27 pm
# 111
It was all over CNN and FOX for two days. If that’s not national news I don’t know what is.
As for the franchisor, ANY publicity is GOOD publicity. Especially when you’re a small franchise with only 10 franchises sold.
Yes, the guy was on TV saying he’s in debt to the franchisor, but that should not be a shock to anyone who’s ever started a business. You don’t start of in the black. It normally takes three years or so to get out of the red.
On: April 20, 2008 at 6:36 pm
# 112
Here’s the story on the USA Today website.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/04/lost-found-cali.html