Film Stars Crestcom franchisees use video and live presentation to bring management training to life.

The Mind like the body, can grow soft if not put through itspaces, and idle brains diminish productivity. Businesses thatrealize this know management training can provide a competitiveedge and propel stagnant executives to greater success. CrestcomInternational Ltd. offers a franchise that serves thisbusiness-to-business need.

Primarily, Crestcom franchisees sell and facilitate trainingprograms supported by proprietary videotaped lectures featuringwell-known talent such as Zig Ziglar. The bestselling program byfar is "THE BULLET PROOF Manager" series, a yearlongcourse that meets monthly for half-day sessions. Thefranchise's primary audience comprises middle managers fromcompanies large enough to afford the suggested retail tuition of$3,000 but too small to have in-house training personnel. One ofthe great benefits of this training is that it's offered on acontinuing basis, voiding one-day motivational-seminar syndrome inwhich enthusiasm is pumped up but quickly wanes. "Trainingisn't an event-it's a process," says Crestcompresident Hal Krause. "In order to be effective, training mustbe ongoing."

Crestcom offers franchises in two flavors: standard orexecutive. Interestingly, everyone who's joined the U.S. systemsince 1995 has purchased the executive franchise, with an initialfranchise fee of $52,500 compared to $35,000 for the standard one.If anything, this is a testament to the fact that the people atCrestcom know how to sell . . . or perhaps to the long-termper-spectives of franchisees. (Executive franchisees pay"distribution fees" of 34 percent of gross revenue;whereas 44 percent is charged for standard franchises.)

Crestcom franchisee Robert Arthur in San Diego, who has beeninvolved with the program since 1996, describes himself as a fairlytypical Crestcom franchisee. A middle-aged former corporate vicepresident of sales and marketing, Arthur says one of the best partsof being a Crestcom franchisee is "watching the participantslearn and grow over the year."

Philip Friedman, a franchisee in Minneapolis, Minnesota, agreesthe company has its benefits, but points out that franchisees spenda lot of their time selling the program rather than con-ductingseminars.

Running the franchise from home makes for a great commute. Thehard part? Even after you've made the investment and beenthrough the indoctrination process, all you have is a product, yourtraining and a newly ingrained good attitude to put into play. Inother words, if you can't burn up the phone lines to getclients, you could quickly become a "part-time"participant in this system. Translation: You may still need to makea living doing something else.

Crestcom makes earnings claims in Item 19 of their UFOC butspecifically excludes part-time franchisees by only listing"active" U.S. franchisees operating on a full-time basisduring the 1998 fiscal year. After applying this qualifyinglanguage, Crestcom only reports the gross revenue of 18 locations,although the advertising literature boasts over 100 franchisees inmore than 45 countries. It's certainly fair to excludeinternational locations, but you need to question whether theearnings presented are statistically skewed.

If you decide this opportunity's for you, the estimated costto open an executive franchise ranges from $61,855 to $72,360. Thatincludes additional funds for three months but doesn't includeyour salary. Once they got past the break-even point, thefranchisees I spoke with found this to be a rewarding business thatutilized their previous corporate experience.

Entrepreneur's 2000

Management Training Programs

1. Crestcom International LTD. (NO. 229 overall)

2. Sandler Sales Institute (No. 368 overall)

3. Priority Management Systems (No. 402 overall)

4. Turbo Management Systems (Not ranked)

5. Promemtum LLC (Not ranked)

Contact Source

• Crestcom International Ltd., (888) CRESTCOM, www.crestcom.com.