To do this, two options were considered:

1. Franchising
2. Licensing Exclusive Territories

Franchising the success of Dawgz’ Dogs was seriously considered. However, managing a franchise is very expensive and a hot dog cart business will only work if you keep the start up costs and monthly operating costs low.

Franchising the Dawgz’ Dogs business model is also wrong because a hot dog cart needs flexibility. Each market is different and a franchise would not allow for the local hot dog cart entrepreneur to tailor the business for maximum success in their respective markets

Finally, selling hot dogs is not rocket science. Because of this, their really isn’t much to franchise. Again, the cost of managing a franchise operation is very costly. Any one with a little bit of ambition and business sense can make a hot dog cart business work, so why would someone pay thousands of dollars to franchise something they can do by themselves?

We at Dawgz’ Dogs believe that licensing is the way to make this work! It’s cost effective, and it gives the local entrepreneurs (territory owners) the flexibility they need to make their hot dog cart business work for their market.

Cutting your teeth in the hot dog cart business is not easy. We made a lot of costly mistakes in our first year of business and we wasted a lot of money.

We also spent and invested a lot of money during this first year that we don’t think was wasted and is directly attributable to our success. Some of the things that Exclusive Territory Owners will receive are as follows:

• The rights to use the Dawgz’ Dogs logo, trademark, and color scheme in your territory.
• This was a great investment. We paid an artist handsomely to create the perfect logo and it works. It gives us credibility and brand recognition. We know the name is silly, but we don’t think you should take the hot dog cart business too seriously. "Dawgz' Dogs" sticks in peoples heads. The logo is appealing it helps to sell hot dogs.

• A website for your local exclusive territory.
• Again, this is very expensive to set up and manage, but a GREAT investment. The leads and credibility a website gives to your sales efforts is AMAZING and worth every penny. We started off cheap by creating our own website. We did an ok job and spent dozens of man hours trying to make it work. Finally, we did it right and paid a professional to do it. Our licensing agreement includes a website for your local Dawgz’ Dogs business, tailored to your market. Our licensing includes server hosting, email with the address extension of @dawgdogs.com, and everything else you will need to maintain your web presence.

• The rights to our library of professional marketing materials, price lists, form letters, proposals, etc.
• These are all things that will get your business up and running quick. These are also things that will continue to keep the leads coming and, and allow you to follow up to leads efficiently and professionally. All of our print materials are editable and can be tailored for your local market. They will be available on-line, 24-7, via a secure website for Territory Owners ONLY.

• Contracts
• Contracts are also things that are part of our success. Our library of contracts will be shared with our exclusive licensees. Again, they will be editable so that they can be tailored for your specific needs.

• Uniforms, Clothing
• A professional image increases sales, and we strongly recommend that territory owners insist on some type of uniform, even if it’s just a visor. Believe it or not, this is also pretty expensive to set up. A screen print shop won’t do anything for less than a minimum order of 10 shirts, and the “set up fee” (whatever that is) is also hefty. We have all of this ready to go. You will be able to buy t-shirts, visors, other uniform items one at a time, so that you can keep more cash in your pocket.

• Support, Advice and Consulting from a team that cares about your success.
• We don’t manufacture carts. We sell hot dogs and that is all we care about! We have seen and used many different carts. They pretty much all have major deficiencies. Then again, each market is local and a manufacturer will never be able to make everyone happy, so they pretty much make no one completely happy. Support from manufactures ends once you pay for the cart. Sure they will take your first few phone calls, but after that you are cut off. We at Dawgz’ Dogs did NOT receive this treatment and this is part of our success. Our manufacturer continued to work with us and coach us. We are very lucky, and our licensees will receive this kind of support from us.
• Our goal is to grow the Dawgz’ Dogs Brand into every county in the United States. We can only do that by doing everything we can to help each of our territory owners succeed. We aren’t worried about selling the next cart. We are worried about selling the next territory and we will only do that by helping to make each and every territory owner wildly successful. We promise to help you make your business work. In the end, that is all we really want!

So how much does it cost?

We have invested thousands of dollars into our little hot dog cart operation and we continue to invest thousands of dollars into our business.   We know that we can’t grow internally.   Hot Dog carts need to be managed locally, by local entrepreneurs.  Therefore, we believe that the best way to grow our brand is to license the rights to our investment with other serious hot dog cart owners across the country.          

We know the hot dog cart business really well, and know that we have to keep our licensing costs low.    As we said before, this isn’t rocket science and everyone with enough ambition will eventually make it work.  However, not everyone has several thousand dollars to invest in soft expenses like marketing materials, websites, and contracts during the start-up years of their business.  This is where licensing an exclusive territory from Dawgz’ Dogs makes a lot of sense. 

Our exclusive territories are sold by county and the licensing costs depend on the population of your county as follows:

The costs above will give you complete licensing rights for an entire 12 months.   Thereafter, each renewal year will only cost $89 and this $89 includes all of the costs associated with keeping your local website active and current.    Hosting alone can cost you in excess of $89 per year, so this really is a great value.

Why so cheap?

The money in what we are trying to license is already spent.   They are some great tools that we use every single day to manage our hot dog cart business.   Since growing organically outside of Northeast Indiana isn’t an option,  we want to share our tools with other serious investors.   Why not?? 

We believe that our dream of creating a Dawgz’ Dogs national brand will come through licensing and through sharing our success with others that are just as serious as we are about this business.   Just the website alone should generate a lead that will pay for the cost of licensing, and we believe that what we are offering is a GREAT value! 

For more information, please email info@dawgzdogs.com    We are looking forward to partnering with you!!