Dream Dinners resorting to bullying to make money?
It’s no surprise that no one is buying into the concept of meal assembly anymore and the royalty stream is drying up. Because of that franchisors need to come up with new outlets for revenue. So what do you do? Generate better product? Cut waste and increase profits? Streamline to save time and labor?
Oh good heavens no, that would be smart business and we simply can’t have that. A much better way of making money off your owners is to extort it out of them. I’m starting to put a couple of hints and rumors together and taking their queue from Make & Take Gourmet it appears that Dream Dinners is now giving owners an “opportunity” to walk away from their business flop without having to pay any further royalties. All you need to do is come up with $20k, pay it to Dream Dinners, vow never to sue them over the faulty business model they sold you and you’re home free. I mean it’s so simple I’m surprised everyone’s not doing it.
How ironic it is that a company who claims to have created an industry and a proven system has to bleed another $20k from owners who they never made money for in the first place.
It’s interesting that a company who keeps touting that it’s not about the bottom line is going to make sure they get every red cent they feel they’re due.
Strange how a company who claims to be faith based and helping communities and families would be so callous to their family of owners as to say that in order to get out of the failed business they sold you, you need to cough up another $20k or else the lawsuits will commence.
Funny, if owners had $20k on hand they might not be on the verge of closing their doors.
Make & Take owners hinted at the sordid tale some time ago from their franchisor. Not to be outdone there is some talk that Dream Dinners has latched onto the idea and will make it a part of their standard operating procedure, or closing procedure depending on how you look at it.
How odd it would be to buy a brand new car for $30,000 and then spend $250k in repair bills only to turn around and sell the car back to the dealer for $20k just so you can ride a bicycle to work.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 am
I love the analogy!
September 4th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
not that anyone on this site would admit it but Dream Dinners is trying to “Generate better product, Cut waste and increase profits and Streamline to save time and labor.” All of those things ARE happening and our store is already starting to reap the benefits (no, we haven’t come close to our target this month but we are hopring after our one year anniversary party next week that we will) It’s funny how some people can be critical of anything. For example,
-DD cut down on unnecessary employees; i.e. the training staff…I LOVED Ellen, Doug and Mindy but if they aren’t selling franchises why do they need three people to train them?
-And what is wrong with keeping the people employed that helped you get off the ground? I have owned businesses before and guess who worked for me? My cousins, sister and in-laws. They are willing to take a pay cut to help out.
-Also, what is the need for Grand Opening coaches Like tracy (love her and wish her well) and eric when there are not new stores opening?
-And as for the “maytag man.” He keeps rolling out his initiatives, he follows through on them and implements his plans andmany of them are WORKING. Same store sales are up and the relationships with corporate partners are bringing in business and exposure.
-So DD stores are closing, all MA stores are seeing closing stores! Maybe nowthe zors will learn that saturation was not the best way to utilize the market. (Hence the exodus of the Starbucks crew?)
-Obviously some of the people that were employed at DD did not want, nor belong to be there. If you can expouse such hate for an organization weeks after they leave the company, and don’t deny it, these people do hate DD or what ever MA they worked for. It’s one thing to give advice it’s another to bash people.
So any way, hopefully the owners that visit this site that still own their stores can try to still be “hopeful” I know I am. I like my house too much too lose it because of wasting time wringing my hands over what HO is doing worng. I would rather keep it because I am able to still be excited about my store and it’s future.
I am not going to say I won’t visit this site any more, it’s like a drug and I am addicted to the gossip, but I will keep on trying to think positive!
So all current DD owners that are still visiting this site…
“keep ya head up, things are gonna get easier…”
September 5th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Still Hopeful:
I love that you are (still hopeful), but let me just give you the outsider’s perspective on the most important thing you said in your post:
“no, we haven’t come close to our target this month but we are hopring after our one year anniversary party next week that we will”
My advice to you–take it or leave it–is to have a plan. If you don’t hit your target next week, what is your next milestone? December 31? Two year anniversary? Five year anniversary? Start with the end in mind. Have an exit strategy.
I’m offering this in a friendly way, so please don’t take it any other way. Sometimes, when we are invested in an idea that we want with all our hearts to succeed, we stop being logical. Sure, DD’s HO continues to roll out the initiatives. Will it be enough? I don’t know.
All I’m saying is pick a date or a dollar amount and stop the losses after that point.
Good luck.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Still Hopeful,
I’m actually encouraged by your comments. It seems that Dream Dinners knows there is a problem at they are willing to act upon it. If some of these initiatives are starting to pan out then I doubt anyone will deny that it’s good news.
My comments were made in that I don’t believe Dream Dinners is streamlining out of good business planning, they are doing it out of necessity. As you agree, stores are closing, there are no grand openings, no need for coaches or trainers. That is partly because of the over-saturation that occurred. It’s not a clever business tactic, it’s survival.
And when you get to the point of turning your company into a multi-million dollar franchise you need to make sure you’re buddies, cousins, neighbors and friends who helped you start the company are really the right people for the job. Since you are impacting the lives of hundreds of families and thousands of people you need to have the most qualified people at your disposal to make things work for all parties. You need to be honest with yourself. And if these people are the best for the job then so be it.
Here is a question, if this were a publicly traded company would you invest in it? Would you have confidence that your invested money would return a profit?
But all that aside, my main comment was that the business itself is not making money or at least not like it was 2 years ago. And the idea that a franchise company that is losing money because of their own actions turns to forcing owners to pay to break their contract seems such an unruly thing to do. You have to pay to get in the door and pay again to get out again? That was the crux of my original post.
Hopefully Dream Dinners is starting to make a profit for its stores. Hopefully they are finding ways to get the attention of customers and help some owners carve out a niche for themselves.
I just don’t like the idea of buying your way out of a situation your franchisor put you in.
Regardless of all that, I hope you and the other DD owners can see more profits coming your way.
September 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I can’t agree more with Go West….
If you didn’t have an exit strategy when you entered, GET ONE NOW. I didn’t, because I never thought I would have to exit (silly Zee, profits are for Zors).
My lack of exit strategy meant this:
I held on until the bitter end (regardless of personal consequence).
If I’d had an exit strategy:
I could have exited smarter, sooner and with my home, 401(k) and both kids’ college savings accounts intact.
I could have avoided personal bankruptcy.
I could have avoided damage to my “providers.” This means the guy who cleaned my store every week, the company that serviced all my freezers, refrigerators and stations, the law firm that TRIED to help me out of this, my accountant, my landlord, my business lender. TIMES TWO, since I owned two stores.
Not to mention my extended family who worked for free day after day; and my husband and children (who put up with more nights and weekends away from me than I can stand to count).
It’s hard to believe that our first store grossed $980k in our first year.
Listen to Go West… get an exit strategy now.
Happily Dreamless,
Sarah Rivers
Former Owner, Dream Dinners Raleigh, NC
Former Owner, Dream Dinners Cary, NC
September 8th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Sarah,
It’s hard to fathom going from sales of $980k to out of business. What do you attribute the decline in business to? Was it the change in pricing that DD did, competition, people cooling off on the idea, opening another location?
September 16th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
You went from nearly a million in business the first year to closing both stores? I can only hope Dream Dinners took an interest in why your stores closed. That must have been a huge hit to their financials, I would expect there to be some concern.
What would be your thoughts on why things came apart? Was it an oversaturated market or was it an over extension in getting the second store built?
Again, that’s very disappointing to hear what happened with your store.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
To address both NC Owner and Tuckerbox:
Yes, it’s hard for me to believe, even now, that we were, perhaps, another 10 sessions short (for the year) of one million dollars for the year. Just one more session per month for the 10 months we had the market to ourselves would have pushed us over the $1m mark.
On the other hand, we were working ourselves to death.
Dream Dinners was interested in our closing because they were culpable in it. IMHO, they were waiting for us to close, pretending to be our allies (which, sadly, we believed), hoping we wouldn’t be too loud about it, and hoping we wouldn’t sue their stinkin’ socks off (which we didn’t). I believe they recognized (even before we did) thier liability in our closure (which is a long and complicated story, but ask any early DD owner about the “corporate architect”).
As to our plunge: competition for sure. Every competitor in our area was once our customer. We could see them coming a mile away (the badly veiled questions during a session about capital investment and how many hours we worked were a dead giveaway).
Second: failure to morph. As an obedient Zee, I towed the party line. When my HO said, “Prepping meals for guests to pick up is a violation of your franchise agreement and OUR VISION,” I didn’t do it. In the end, I figured out Dream Dinners HO didn’t care about whether I made my mortgage payment, so I offered assembled meals anyway, just to stay open one more month. Unfortunately, we saw the light too late.
And finally, greed. Need I say more?
For those of you still in, I wish you great good fortune, full sessions (or sold out freezers) and prosperity. But, if you don’t already have one, PLEASE MAKE AN EXIT PLAN.
Happily Dreamless,
Sarah Rivers, Former Owner
Dream Dinners Raleigh, NC
Dream Dinners Cary, NC