Dear all,
I wish to start up a business with a budget of 400k. I wish to get a preferable low risk investment, may i know is franchise a good choice for me to start up my 1st business?
actually I am interested to get tealive franchise. Is there any Tealive franchise onwer can chare your experience?
Is Tealive a good business to start with? Or can anyone recommend me any other franchise with is more potential than tealive?

Million thanks

i don't like tealive...for its business ethic..
sorry will not help...

400k? Last time I heard even subway sandwich also 600k.

Not sure if there is any franchise with 400k investment. Might be wrong though

"cry wolf" & setup "david vs goliath" story for popularity contest when sendiri in breach?
if true, dangerous to have relationships with these types - biz relationship is about trust..

This post has been edited by wongmunkeong: Nov 1 2018, 03:21 PM

I have done bookkeeping before for a franchisee. Owner says too much restriction and it was closed down after few years due to bad business and not much marketing from franchisor.

He lost the legal case even after various appeal anyway.
Finally had a private settlement with La Kaffa, pretty sure La Kaffa managed to recover all past, present & future losses or else they'll still insist for TeaLive to shut down.
Nevertheless, I don't support tealive too.

Got, there's plenty but pretty sure you've never heard of them before or very likely would not consider taking up their franchise even if you do know them

1. Daily Fresh - Franchise fee of RM25k in 2017
2. Each A Cup - Franchise fee should be the range of RM30k, total start up cost is RM100k+
3. Hot & Roll - Franchise fee varies but can go as low as RM15k
4. Nelson's - Franchise fee varies but can go as low as RM15k
5. CrazyPotato - Franchise fee around RM50k

400k can take waffle waffle franchise only

or some vending machines

just my personal opinion: I don't consider tealive to be safe or low risk.

Yeah, heard some of them before, as u rightfully mentioned, I would not take up their franchise as these franchised products is quite generic, easily copied and I don't see much A&P on their brand. Therefore, unethical it might be, I can operate similar biz on my own without relying on them as their products is simple, raw materials is generic which can be easily obtained.

End of day, paying franchising fee is in addition of having a tried and tested SOP of operating a biz, but, also pooling money to promote the brand, which any stand-alone individual brand might not have the financial capacity.

That's why franchise model is quite a sad thing.

People who looks for a franchise wants a safe business & wants to be spoon fed by the master franchisor. But the reality is often that franchisee ends up being guinea pig for the master franchisor or there's hardly any support from the franchisor even though they collect various fees every month. All the good & profitable franchise will be kept to master franchisor themselves instead of opening to public like Starbucks, Family Mart, McD, KFC etc.

I agree. It's rather sad to be manipulated like this. I've several friends who fell for these traps. Well, most of the time they ended up in a stale position as they've poured in more than half a million. What to do...

It's always good to create your own brand with that $400k budget (According to this thread's author).

Normally those who are seeking franchise, don't have much business sense or knowledge. So they're hoping by joining a franchise, they'll get to gain those. It's very unlikely that they dare to use their money to start something from ground zero.

Tealixe owner is unethical. If he could cheat his franchisor, he could similarly cheat his franchisee and customers. Better to donate the money to charity than give to him.

As for milk tea franchise, kamu and chatime are a better bet.

This post has been edited by icemanfx: Nov 2 2018, 04:22 PM

why dont consider to do something on ur own with that budget? franchise seems a lot of limitation in terms of control. you got to follow their rules..

A low risk investment would be to buy shares in a blue chip company that gives high dividend. A recession is coming, you might want to hold your money for 6 months and then dive in once share prices fall 20%

A franchise is still a business. Just that your are paying fees for a premade brand, so your company is already known.

I think it would be safer and cheaper if you operated an ice cream machine stand. The cheap ice cream that mac donalds sells for RM1 to RM2 (upto RM4 for more fancy ice cream)

Just find a shopping mall with a lot of foot traffic and young children.

Starting your own business is a high venture.

20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business. Finally, 70% of small business owners fail in their 10th year in business.

Huh, 400k cash available to set up a low-risk franchise?

When you mention low-risk, you are referring to very popular and established brands like McD, Old Town, 7-Eleven, Subway, Teh Tarik Place, etc just to name a few. Securing franchise rights from these brands isn't an easy process as they will screen through your financial background (first criteria). I doubt you will be accepted if you say you have 400k cash as investment.

Furthermore, getting a franchise fee will cost anywhere from a quarter or up to half of your 400k cash. Setting up your store will cost another quarter, which leaves you with only a quarter for maintaining your operations and raw materials. Basically you will not turn in profit immediately, and will take at least 3 months to breakeven. Spending close to or more than 3 quarters of your cash and leaving just 100k in hand will be worrying to many businesses.

I believe you currently have a wonderful job to be able to have 400k in hand (which many people never had in their entire lives), I suggest you to stay on and continue building up your savings before moving away from the norm. Your question in your first post already suggested that you are clueless on your own path, so you should just continue with what you are doing until you have a focused path to follow.