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Below is an in-depth analysis and side-by-side comparison of Growing Roots vs Gift Card Monkey including start-up costs and fees, business experience requirements, training & support and financing options.
Start-Up Costs and Fees |
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Investment | $25,100 - $45,100 | $10,950 - $27,600 |
Franchise Fee | $15,000 | $9,900 |
Royalty Fee | 4% | - |
Advertising Fee | 1% | - |
Year Founded | - | - |
Year Franchised | - | - |
Term Of Agreement | - | - |
Term Of Agreement | - | - |
Renewal Fee | - | - |
Business Experience Requirements |
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Experience | - | - |
Financing Options |
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In-House/3rd Party | In-House/3rd Party | |
Franchise Fees | -/- | -/- |
Start-up Costs | -/- | -/- |
Equipment | -/- | -/- |
Inventory | -/- | -/- |
Receivables | -/- | -/- |
Payroll | -/- | -/- |
Training & Support |
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Training | An extensive initial 5 day training at Headquarters and off-site. Before the initial training in Long Beach, CA, you will be sent a package with pre-training materials including manuals, DVD's and books to review in order to get you familiar with interior plantscaping. Training will consist of but not limited to, study materials on plant identification and proper care, hands-on lessons, nursery tours, business training and review of the expansive Operations Manual. | Training is conducted prior to opening your business and it is conducted by our professional team, which may consist of both corporate-based trainers and Regional Trainers. The initial training is typically conducted at our headquarter location in Miami, Florida and is free of charge to you. You are responsible for your travel expenses. We also offer free ongoing refresher trainings which will continue to help you become familiar in modern sales and marketing techniques. When you complete the initial training you are ready to start your business and through this training you have acquired the skills to: Be completely ready to open and operate your store. Be ready to hire and manage employees for your business. Be comfortable with people management. Manage your inventory. Perform effective advertising and marketing campaigns, public relations strategies in order to establish and grow your business. Perform and handle the day to day operations of your business. Command the computer and hardware/software and POS systems needed to operate your business. Implement new sales and merchandising strategies to improve and maximize sales. Understand Gift Card Monkey business reporting & requirements. |
Support | Access to on-going support for all of your questions and concerns via phone and e-mail. Franchisee's will also have the opportunity to attend franchisee meetings and training sessions in order to share ideas and thoughts that will strengthen the franchise system as a whole. We will also set-up franchisee meetings at Industry seminars and trade shows so we can take advantage of the time to learn and grow. | At Gift Card Monkey, we are extremely proud of our franchisee support. Our philosophy is extremely simple. Our franchisee's success translates into our success and their failure translated into our failure. It is therefore to our best interest to support our franchisees without any restrictions or boundaries. One of the main advantages of purchasing a franchise and a main reason why most franchises succeed as compared to individual businesses is the support you will receive from the headquarters. You will never feel that you are alone. You will consider us your partner in this endeavor, every day. As our franchise network grows, with every new franchisee you have gained yourself a new partner. We all go to work every day and we all share the same goals and the same ambitions. Our goal is to grow the Gift Card Monkey brand, constantly provide new products and services and ultimately make the business more profitable for all of our partners (franchisees). There is absolutely no limitation in the amount of available support. You can call us for any reason including advertising consulting, technical help, additional training or sales support. As you contact us, you are always priority. Once again your success directly translates into our success and we take this very seriously. |
Marketing | During the initial 5-day training we will cover marketing and advertising techniques as well as going over the marketing materials we utilize. You will be provided with some of the select marketing materials during training and the information for preferred printing vendors. As part of advertising, we will provide assistance in creating the proper signage for your specific vehicle with the Growing Roots logo using our preferred vendor or an approved local vendor. | *Vehicle rear window decal *Promotional banners personalized for you *An on-line vault for information sharing with other franchisees *Email marketing *Direct mail campaign *Text message campaign *In-store LCD and LED promotional products *Balloons, banners, yard signs, etc. And much more� |
Operations | - | - |
Expansion Plans |
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US Expansion | - | - |
Canada Expansion | - | - |
International Expansion | - | - |
Gift Card trading business is a very exciting business in a very rapidly growing market. It does not target a particular demographic; it targets everyone at any age. Your customers are kids, teenagers, adults, men, women and even the elderly. Gift cards are the most popular form of gift giving today. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, seventy-seven percent of holiday shoppers in 2010 purchased at least one gift card to give as a present to their loved ones. However according to consumer experts, receiving a card to a store you have no interest in is actually the number one complaint about gift cards. Gift Card Monkey provides an opportunity for people of all ages who have received gift cards that they don't need, or people that have gift cards with partially used balances to exchange their gift cards for cash or other gift cards of their choice. Did you know? The total volume of gift cards purchased in 2008 was close to $91 billion. It is estimated that the percentage of unused gift cards is currently 10% of all gift cards purchased and this percentage is growing every year. If you're ready to become your own boss at a very low start-up cost and run your own business in one of the most unique, exciting and fastest growing fields in the industry, then gift card monkey is the answer for you. For just a small investment, you can become a part of an extremely unique franchise program that offers you the guidance, training, marketing, brand and technology you need to achieve and surpass your business and personal goals.