Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Hi guys Wondered if anyone here can help... I have my own car selling website - http://www.carcargalore.com and am now looking into how I go about offering it as a franchise for people to buy, and run, in their own town. I am sure there must be companies who have people looking to buy a franchise but I don't know where to start The plan is to sell the carcargalore template site for each local town - and the person it that town can buy the site for a small fee of between £500-£1000 depending on size of the town. They can then go about running this as there own business and selling it to local car/motorbike/van dealers. Because the site will have a local domain name i.e. Brighton.carcargalore.com it will also rank much better in Google searches. We are also going to build a local directory for a secondary income revenue for the people buying the franchise - so there can be headings for local MOT stations, servicing, tyres, wheels, modification etc....anything related to cars, bikes, vans and trucks!! So we have the infrastructure in place, I'm just not sure where to go now...any help greatly appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awisto Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 How would the Franchisee earn their £500-£1000 back? charging for adverts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeG Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 How would the Franchisee earn their £500-£1000 back? charging for adverts? Yeah that, I pressume it would be advertising on the site? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky49 Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 mmmmmmmm cant see this taking off mate, but I hope it does for you. If it was worth while wouldnt Autotader, Pistonheads and alike of already thought of the idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wile e coyote Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 will they be paying you a fee also I have a franchise and pay a monthly fee on turnover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attero Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Autotrader and Pistonheads are not franchises. I can't see this taking off either because of the size of Autotrader and Pistonheads but if you wanted to try it, building a cloud service could be the better solution. This way it would much more cost effective for your customers (so it will be more attractive) and you'll be handling nice monthly subscription payments. But again, you could waste so much money in developing this and gain little to nothing back, you'll regret it big time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 How would the Franchisee earn their £500-£1000 back? charging for adverts? Hi yes that initial outlay should be recovered very quickly. There will be many potential revenue streams .... Charging to list vehicles for sale Charging to list parts for sale Sponsorship of the site Selling banners and other advertising positions Also the directory should become a good money maker. The idea is all local businesses associated to motor trade can be listed in the directory for a small amount and that then becomes the hub for people searching for local business. This is a major selling point over national competition that is cery strong on a nationwide platform, but on a local level cannot compete with this kind of bespoke, town by town local directory and locally advertised cars... Not everyone is as crazy as us enthusiasts who dont mind travelling hours to see cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 mmmmmmmm cant see this taking off mate, but I hope it does for you. If it was worth while wouldnt Autotader, Pistonheads and alike of already thought of the idea Lol ... Thanx Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 will they be paying you a fee also I have a franchise and pay a monthly fee on turnover Hi mate, i would imagine there will be a small fee on any profit made over a certain amount. We want this to work in as many towns as possible. There is a decent opportunity for each franchisee to earn decent money from this through the channels outlined above. As you will probably know franchises usually cost many thousands so this should be an attractive proposition. We will also retain the national CCG website and all cars listed on the local sites will automatically feed through onto the national site. So not only can you sell a localised personal site, but also offer national coverage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awisto Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 As a free site, I applauded your effort to get some competition up with the likes of Pistonheads & Gumtree, but I don't see it working as a paid site, well, maybe nationally, with some bucks chucked in for advertising, but as a Franchise business, I can't see the Franchisee earn anything, unless CarCarGalore is paying for nationwide advertisements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 It probably has more potential as a local site. As i said people like to buy cars locally which is why gumtree is currently popular. Carcargalore has been built to blow away the competition of gumtree, pistonheads and autotrader in the way its designed amd presented, and also the search functionality. With a local directory attached to it and a dedicated owner of that town working with the dealers in that area there is no reason why it cant become equal competion for the aforementioned sites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammytruck Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Hi, I have registered on your site, find it interesting, easy to use and the name is easily remembered...I dont want to be at all negative but heres a question.....what stops somebody having a website built almost as an exact copy, maybe different house colours, script, link buttons etc......apart from the name which may be protected, very little else on any site is protected.......or am I missing something....what do you continue to supply to your franchisee to hold them to the " mother ship " so to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awisto Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 I think you'll need to become much bigger as you are, to be able to sell it to people. I totally agree, people do prefer to buy cars locally, especially when they're non-specialised cars/vehicles, but Gumtree is free to advertise for private and trade (with the overly priced option to pay for featured ads), although being part of the eBay machine, it may not stay that way. Personally, I never search for cars on Gumtree, I just browse to see what's been advertised over the last few days as it's not my preferred place to buy cars. I love to see enthusiasm in the motor trade and people trying new things, but I don't see anything really different about CCG than what's already out there, and if it became a paid for site, I don't see the attraction at all, unless everyone knew the name. I hope you see this as constructive criticism, I'm in the trade myself, and just don't see the dealers paying for more advertising/local lists than they already do, unless it's something special, I could spend a fortune with all the phone calls I get daily with people wanting to put me on a list. Maybe it's just my area, and it's booming elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 I think you'll need to become much bigger as you are, to be able to sell it to people. I totally agree, people do prefer to buy cars locally, especially when they're non-specialised cars/vehicles, but Gumtree is free to advertise for private and trade (with the overly priced option to pay for featured ads), although being part of the eBay machine, it may not stay that way. Personally, I never search for cars on Gumtree, I just browse to see what's been advertised over the last few days as it's not my preferred place to buy cars. I love to see enthusiasm in the motor trade and people trying new things, but I don't see anything really different about CCG than what's already out there, and if it became a paid for site, I don't see the attraction at all, unless everyone knew the name. I hope you see this as constructive criticism, I'm in the trade myself, and just don't see the dealers paying for more advertising/local lists than they already do, unless it's something special, I could spend a fortune with all the phone calls I get daily with people wanting to put me on a list. Maybe it's just my area, and it's booming elsewhere. Hi yes totally understand what you're saying. The site, if deemed more beneficial, doesnt need to charge for people to upload adverts. You can make a lot of money from advertising banners etc and from the directory, all while keeping the volume of cars for sale up due to them being free - pistonheads ran free ads for many years until it became a more household name and now theyre increasing their prices every 6 months!!! I believe if someone is dedicated to their town, and running this as their own business, they will make a sucess of it. Im not sure where else you can buy your own business for under a grand! The site itself was built to be very search engine friendly. It has more sub categories than any other site (as in saxo, saxo vtr, saxo vts all in seperate fields). It also has the most searchable functions allowing you to drill down your search and not trawl through pages of unwanted adverts. No other site offers this even the 'big boys'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 Hi, I have registered on your site, find it interesting, easy to use and the name is easily remembered...I dont want to be at all negative but heres a question.....what stops somebody having a website built almost as an exact copy, maybe different house colours, script, link buttons etc......apart from the name which may be protected, very little else on any site is protected.......or am I missing something....what do you continue to supply to your franchisee to hold them to the " mother ship " so to speak. Yeah valid point. The actual cost of building a website like ours, including the massive amount of detail gone into the database, and content management side of things would mean you could probably buy 5-10 CCG franchsies with that money!! Our web designer is very clued up on search engine optimisation and the sites are all built to maximise search results via Google. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammytruck Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Yeah valid point. The actual cost of building a website like ours, including the massive amount of detail gone into the database, and content management side of things would mean you could probably buy 5-10 CCG franchsies with that money!! Our web designer is very clued up on search engine optimisation and the sites are all built to maximise search results via Google.I do think you have a sound idea imo..from past dealings with franchises, something always seems to be supplied as an ongoing expense, normally stationery........If the site would cost many £kkk's to build, then selling the "pattern" with no ties, and with no ongoing monthly fee paid to yourselves, I would suggest £500 -£1000 far too cheap in the first place.....why not find a reliable friend in a different area to you, and set up a trial area with your pattern....see how that runs and then use as your selling example......I wish you luck, and hey, just giving you another angle..........no expert here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awisto Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Im not sure where else you can buy your own business for under a grand! But what are you buying for £1k? the rights to run an unknown car/parts classifieds website? If the majority of money is coming from the directory and banner ads, you're just another online business listing, which there are dozens out there already. A franchisee will have to put in thousands on advertising to generate traffic. I think you may make some money out of it long term, but I really don't think it's a franchise opportunity IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 But what are you buying for £1k? the rights to run an unknown car/parts classifieds website? If the majority of money is coming from the directory and banner ads, you're just another online business listing, which there are dozens out there already. A franchisee will have to put in thousands on advertising to generate traffic. I think you may make some money out of it long term, but I really don't think it's a franchise opportunity IMO I've dealt with many local newspapers and in my experience for as little as £150 you can get a full page advert in them which covers the entire local area. Because there will be lots of vehicles for sale, it then becomes this loc hub of info and the added directory enhances that by offering CCG as a one-stop local resource for the industry. It may involve some hard work but not many people are lucky enough to get rich easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aero-M Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 You could be on to something, and i think the area that will really make it succead is from the local business sponsering the site, as well as the charge for advertising vehicles and parts. I'm sure most dealers would be interested in advertising there company on the site for a initial fee and then a reduced rate of advertising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 I do think you have a sound idea imo..from past dealings with franchises, something always seems to be supplied as an ongoing expense, normally stationery........If the site would cost many £kkk's to build, then selling the "pattern" with no ties, and with no ongoing monthly fee paid to yourselves, I would suggest £500 -£1000 far too cheap in the first place.....why not find a reliable friend in a different area to you, and set up a trial area with your pattern....see how that runs and then use as your selling example......I wish you luck, and hey, just giving you another angle..........no expert here. Thanks for your input. I just feel the price, although very cheap, is about right for a new business model in am established market. If/when it really takes off the people that supported it from the start should be making a very tody profit from each one from absolute minimal initial outlay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 You could be on to something, and i think the area that will really make it succead is from the local business sponsering the site, as well as the charge for advertising vehicles and parts. I'm sure most dealers would be interested in advertising there company on the site for a initial fee and then a reduced rate of advertising. thank u mate, appricate it. Thats the angle we're going for. Local businesses supporting local platforms and providing essential local info to residents while beating off national threats. Google loves local websites and once each franchise has a decent amount of content from ads and/or directory the google spiders will pick it up and the CCG site WILL rank about autotrader and pistonheads for local car searches 'supra for sale in aylesbury' etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammytruck Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Perhaps some accessories, specialist or otherwise, blingy bits, could be part of the package so every new business has a more interesting site from the word go with ref to "bits for sale ".....this would be a good tie to your stockroom with some type of commission deducted by yourselves for mail order items sent out........this time next year we'll all be millionaires........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awisto Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 I've dealt with many local newspapers and in my experience for as little as £150 you can get a full page advert in them which covers the entire local area. I must live in the wrong area (Cambridge). A full page ad is in the region of £350 for the local rag and they have minimal trade advertisers on car day, due to the car trade being in the s*** All the best with it, I hope it succeeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 I must live in the wrong area (Cambridge). A full page ad is in the region of £350 for the local rag and they have minimal trade advertisers on car day, due to the car trade being in the s*** All the best with it, I hope it succeeds. Thank you mate I used to work for a local newspaper and its amazing just how cheap you can get the ads down to if you negotiate hard and threaten to pull all your adverts etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesy Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 I must live in the wrong area (Cambridge). A full page ad is in the region of £350 for the local rag and they have minimal trade advertisers on car day, due to the car trade being in the s*** All the best with it, I hope it succeeds. The directory and online advertising can be tweaked by each owner to cater for all aspects of the motor trade for dealers and private sellers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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