This question gets searched a lot so we figured we would address this item directly.
A pyramid scheme is where there are a few people at the top and everyone who signs up below them pays a little bit of what they earn to the lucky men and women at the top. We are absolutely not that! Student Works is a franchise.
There is the franchisor and the franchisee. That is it. We are sure you can think of many other famous and successful franchises such as Tim Hortons, Subway, A&W, 1-800-Got-Junk. They are far from pyramid schemes!
Every franchisee can do well. Just because one business (franchisee) does great doesn’t mean all are doing great. You get what you put in and sadly some people don’t follow the systems, don’t put in the effort – then don’t see success and may say negative things about our model.
As a franchisee it is not your responsibility to recruit other people at the same level of the business and there are no initial fees to sign up. Franchisees often make more money for their hard work of selling an actual service or product than some of the managers from the Franchisor.
In a pyramid scheme, you often only make money from signing people up and can traditionally never make more money than anyone above you. You don’t end up selling a product or service but rather the emphasis is just on signing people up and have them pay fees. Something we are not even remotely close to.
Thanks for taking the time to ask about us and understand our structure!
What is a Business Franchise?
A business franchise is a business model where the franchisor grants the franchisee, the right to market goods or services under the franchisor’s business systems and trade name, in return for fees and royalties. Business systems may include; sales and marketing. accounting, supplier relationships, service delivery procedures.
What is a Pyramid Scheme?
A pyramid scheme funnels earnings from all participants on lower levels of an organization to participants on higher levels.
Pyramid schemes rely on income from recruitment fees and not from the sale of actual goods or services with real value.
The emphasis is on recruiting new members. Seldom is the sale of any product or service actually involved, though it may have been implied to attract recruits. There is no identifiable source of income other than that coming from those recruited.
According to the hard-sell pitches made at recruitment events, those bold enough to take the pyramid plunge will receive substantial cash from the recruits below them.