Complaint Review: iFranchise - Nationwide

This company is nothing more than a front for ifranchise.  the leadership - Matt Jonas - is a pure puppet for mark seibert and sacrifices client service and quality of work to please his boss.  the staff could not be any less happy or motivated to put good work out into the market and to actually help clients succeed.  it's a horrible shame that this company has the opportunity to take anyone's money.  Mr. Jonas, you should go get a job working as a bank teller, your work quality and business intelligence might be better suited in that environment and you may not ruin as many people's lives from behind the bank desk.  to say that TopFire media is a PR firm is laughable.  Do not work with Topfire media or ifranchise, you will only be lining the owner's pockets, complete scam stay away. Topfire has lost almost their entire staff and in my opinion will be gone in the next year or so. 

 Mark great responses to upset customers....deny, claim innocence and point to one client who responded on your behalf. It's time you take accountability for the lies, misinformation and incredibly poor service you provide. You made me and other clients I'm sure sign agreements that prevent them from saying bad things about you and the experience preventing direct confrontation. Man up.

My name is Mark Siebert and I am the CEO of the iFranchise Group.

I would like to start by saying that reading these reports online is very disheartening.  We here at iFranchise Group take our reputation for integrity very seriously.  So I feel compelled to respond to these reports – despite the fact that my response alone may increase the visibility of all of these erroneous posts.

Let me start by saying that, as much as I wish the contrary, not all of our clients succeed.  Try though we might and despite the best efforts of our clients, success in business is just not that simple.  Nor is it guaranteed.  And if any prospective franchisor ever heard such a guarantee from any consultant in the franchise industry, they should be rightly concerned.  But they will never hear that from us.

Unfortunately, we have no control over people who post anonymous negative reviews online.  In this case, given our inability to identify the companies that claim to have worked with us, we suspect that one or more of them may have been posted by a competitor.  But regardless, much of what was posted is factually incorrect. 

The first review on Rip-Off Report was submitted by an individual who we’ve never heard of and have never worked for.  Hank Lazarius is not in iFranchise Group’s database and we have never worked with anyone by that name.  The name of the company is also not identified.  If we could identify the company, we could at least try to rectify the problem.  Unfortunately, we could not find this gentleman on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google.

Since I cannot identify Mr. Lazarius, there are a number of material misstatements that I would like to address in the first post:

The review cites “a trampoline franchise system who worked with the iFranchise sales team and his words were that he felt like they bled him dry with fees and expenses in everything they did and that all the sales came from them but iFranchise still required commissions.” 

For the record, the franchisor that is being referred to is SkyZone.  The president of SkyZone, along with another 80 or so of iFranchise Group’s clients, can be found on our video testimonial page saying great things about us:  ifranchisegroup.com/testimonials/.  When SkyZone first worked with us, they had one location.  Today, SykZone has about 200 locations with last year’s system revenues in the range of $260 million.  They recently sold to a private equity firm CircusTrix.    I believe their huge success -- and their video testimonial – speaks for itself.   pehub.com/2018/02/pe-backed-circustrix-buys-sky-zone/#

It is difficult to factually defend a claim of “no moral compass” other than to say that iFranchise Group takes pride in its integrity.  And, in fact, on the testimonials page cited above, some of the testimonials are from companies that we turned down (or returned money to) once we found out that they were not ready to franchise.  And we can document that we turn down the vast majority of people who approach us about franchising. 

The review went on to talk about Face to Face Spa, who paid us “almost a million dollars and had nothing to show for it.”  First of all, Face-to-Face Spa has sold franchises and they continue to franchise.  Secondly, Jennifer Abraham, the founder and president of Face-to-Face Spa, saw this post and publicly responded to it saying that she spent less than $100,000 with us, that we did great work, and that “there is a reason iFranchise is rated the best in the world,” as you can see from one of the responses listed here. 

It also talks about “another iFranchise client did hair and wigs based out of Kansas City who spent over one hundred thousand with iFranchise and never sold a franchise at all!”  Yes, we did work with a wig company.  But they were located in a different state.  They spent significantly less than $100,000 with us initially.  And, the same month that Lazarius posted this comment, they signed a contract with us to do more work for them – so apparently, they were pleased enough with the work we had done and the progress that they had made that they gave us more business.  And, by the way, the location in Kansas City is actually one of our client’s franchisees.  So yes, they have in fact sold more than one franchise.  And since they are early in the process, we expect that they will continue to sell many more.  We checked in with this client just yesterday, just to be sure, and they told us that they were very happy with us and with the progress that they have made. 

Perhaps more interesting, the article states, “I was fortunate to sell a couple of franchises and get some people into my brand, but the recommendations I had put into place from Seibert and iFranchise didn't make sense and none of my franchisees wanted to stay in the model any longer based on how it was set up.“  So according to the post, this company sold franchises and the franchisees quit the system after executing the contract with the business terms they say we recommended.  If this actually happened, the author appears to be implying that their franchisees knew the contract terms, signed a deal, but then decided to quit because of us?  Are we to believe that they did not know the business terms when they signed the contract?  While we develop tools and strategies for franchisors, we do not implement their franchise programs.  They do.    Franchisees cannot simply “quit.”  They do not have a contractual right to terminate.  If franchisees did walk away, it was in all likelihood because the franchisor failed to perform, not because they did not like the business terms in the contract that they had originally agreed to sign.  Franchisees who have signed a binding contract walk away because their business is not working – not because they do not like the contract or the business structure. 

Aside from the main post, the “Consumer Comment” from Lisa was too vague for me to identify the company from which it came, assuming it was in fact, one of our clients.  If it was, I would invite Lisa to reach out to me directly so that we can attempt to resolve any issues that she may have had. 

The comment from Joseph, however, does not appear to be from a legitimate iFranchise Group client.  While “Joseph” also speaks in broad generalities about the nature of his company, he states that “we have a home inspection business that has done very well” and mentions that they had worked with both me and David Omholt.  We have looked over the entire list of our clients dating back to 1998 and found one home inspection client.  The home inspection client’s name was not Joseph and, since we track all of our interactions with every client, I can say with certainty that this specific client did not work with David Omholt or with me.  But if I have missed something, I would also invite “Joseph” to reach out to me directly. 

Finally, we have worked with three different companies that had either landscaping or irrigation as part of their core offering in the last 10 years, but we never worked with anyone named Wilson at any of these companies from what I can tell.  One of the three companies had unrelated financial issues and decided not to franchise before we finished working with them.  We have called both of the other two companies and asked them if they posted here, and both of them stated emphatically that they have not.  So I am again at a loss for how to explain this post, other than to say that I cannot identify this poster among my clients, if, in fact, it was from a client.      

When it comes to our services, we let every one of our clients know, if they did not already, that franchising (like any business strategy) does not come with any guarantees.  As much as we wish that every one of our clients were successful, sometimes clients fail.  We cannot guarantee success.  But I can promise that we will work diligently with any client to provide them the tools and advice that they need to succeed in the franchise marketplace. 

I feel strongly that our track record is the best in the business.  If the 80+ video testimonials (and we shoot more every year) at the link above do not tell that story, then I am happy to provide anyone who is interested with a list of three dozen franchise attorneys with whom we have worked with over the years.  Attorneys are bound by their code of ethics to speak truthfully in matters such as this, so if any reader would want to speak to these folks, they are welcome to contact me directly and I can provide dozens of impartial references.  We’re proud of our ethics and professionalism as a company, and the vast majority of our past clients and professional associates we’ve interacted with in the franchise industry over the years would reinforce that perspective.

If any of the authors of the above posts would like to resolve any issues that they have had with iFranchise Group, I would again invite them to reach out to me directly and we will do whatever we reasonably can to address any shortcomings.  If, on the other hand, we do not hear from the authors, we intend to pursue the arbitration process provided by RipOff Report in an attempt to determine if these posts were planted by a competitor – and if they were, we will take appropriate action from there. 

Mark Siebert, CEO

The iFranchise Group

hired seibert for the ifranchise client list and the big talk about what clients have done in franchises, saw videos of big name people who were raving about their work with ifranchise and how incredible seibert was. I get nothing from the deal and fell flat with my franchise. top fire and matt jonas are even worse and talk a gross game about web marketing and website builds hes done for people his work stunk and everyones attitude was even worse. I cant say i didn't get what i signed up for, i just should have read the fine print more carefuly, we had no help and no one seemed to care. jonas and seibert you are taking hard working peoples money and hurting business owners, hopefully someone reads this who is talking to you now.

The relationship initiated with David Omholt, one of ifranchise's consultants who through a series of discussions and meetings acted as though he was reviewing whether my model could or should be franchised. Mr. Omholt promised incredible things including a successful franchise model, I then worked with Mark Seibert and others from the ifranchise team. The professionalism, client list and seemingly effective franchise modeling process were alluring and kept me in the work with them.  I spent a small fortune on documents that I had to basically recreate. I was provided little to no value from the entire consulting process that ifranchise touted as being my secret weapon for the franchise model to work. We have a home inspection business that has done very well, fortunately, because we've had to lick our wounds for the last two years having had no results from anything ifranchise did for us. I'm not sure whether we will continue to be involved in franchising any further, but I do know that Mr. Seibert and Mr. Omholt are people you should avoid. Frustrating to say the least and a collossal waste of capital. 

I come from the landscaping and irrigantion business and maybe am not the best CEO on the planet,. but I am confident I was taken advantage of by Seibert and iFranchise.  His cronies with Top Fire Media and Matt Jonas are just as bad and should be ashamed of the work they put out.  No offence to someone who has clearly had a good experience with Seibert, but mine mirrors that of this reviewer, paid a lot and got virtually nothing from Seibert or Matt Jonas.

Hello, My name is Jenny Abraham, Founder & CEO of Face to Face Spa. I am giving a rebuttal to your claim because you have posted untrue statements about my company's experience with iFranchise. This is libel and I demand you remove my company's name and the 'fake' example from your report. This appears to be a viscuous attempt at disgracing iFranchise and I will not tolerate you advantageously using my company name to facilitate your tirade. You have made an absolute false claim about my company's experience with iFranchise. I'm not sure where you received your information regarding a 'spa consultant' telling you I spent nearly "a million dollars to iFranchise and had nothing to show for it". This is completely untrue. I have two spa consultants and both of them have denied ever making these statements, so I'm unsure why you would make something like this up. It is unprofessional. I also would have appreciated you contacting me to verify information before naming my company publically. It's peculiar that you feel warranted to post lies about my company's experiences with iFranchise, yet you refuse to even admit your name or the name of your own company in your review.

For the record, I have spent over a million dollars over the last 6 years developing my franchise, but that was not a charge from iFranchise. iFranchise charged me less than $100,000 for a full development package and prepared me to launch a successful franchise. There is a reason iFranchise is rated the best in the world. There is a reason Massage Envy successfully launched (iFranchise was responsible for their franchise development too). If you believe scaling a Franchisor business is going to be inexpensive, you are incorrect. Did you think it was going to be cheap? There are several financial obligations you must make in efforts to launch a successful franchise business, especially if you are an emerging franchise. Expenses include legal fees, marketing fees, franchise conventions, lead generation, site development, payroll for a corporate team, franchise training seminars, etc. iFranchise will give you the tools you need to launch your franchise system but they aren't going to do it for you.

If you are unsuccessful at launching your company, perhaps you are not following the guidance they gave you, including the franchisee marketing plan. Perhaps you need to consider replacing your CEO who should be responsible for scaling your franchise sysyem. Unfortunately, CEO service is not a role that iFranchise promises. It sounds like you are playing a 'blaming game' for your company's inability to reach your growth expectations. iFranchise helped me develop a fully loaded operations and training manual, provided me and my team with advanced training on franchising. They also created a franchise marketing plan, business development plan, and even did a thorough investigative analysis for my franchise system to give me an inside scoop of what my competitors are doing. I interviewed several franchise companies that were less expensive but they had little to show for themselves in regards to successful franchise systems. Many have a cookie-cutter ops manual template, or are trying to find a way to gain a piece of ownership of your company. iFranchise is not this type of company. The reason I chose iFranchise: integrity & quality. I can't say enough positive things about iFranchise. Mark Siebert, David Omholt, Tommy Clark, and Dan Levy were all wonderful mentors to me, and I feel comfortable calling each of them at anytime for advice on my franchise system. They have guided me in the right direction any time I have questions or concerns. My only regret to iFranchise? Not responding to your review sooner. Remove the false statements you made about me and my company, or please expect to hear from my attorney with a demand letter to do so. Libel is illegal and I will not tolerate you using my company's name to feed your quest to harm Mark Siebert's reputation. Thank you. Sincerely, Jenny Abraham, RN Founder & CEO Face to Face Spa Face to Face Franchising, LLC facetofacefranchising.com