If you are thinking of buying a Focalpoint International franchise - you should read this and carefully consider all the information before you spend your money.
We have dealt with these gentlemen and have paid dearly. You don't have to.
The three main characters (The Three Stooges) involved in Focalpoint are:
1. Richard Verkley
2. Francois Perreault
3. Steve Thompson
As far as we can establish, Brian Tracey's only involvement is to lend some credibility to this operation.
By using such a well known name, the Three Stooges hope that nobody will dig and find them behind all this.
We have no information about Brian Tracey and make no allegations as to his character!
The company is registered in Delaware with the only officers being Verkley and Perreault.
Delaware is an offshore haven - onshore! Very difficult to sue.
The Three Stooges hold their shares through front companies - more difficult to sue.
The Three Stooges owned the master license of the Action International Business coaching franchise in Canada.
There are currently (Oct 04) three lawsuits filed against the Three Stooges and their company Action International Canada Inc.
1.By the Master franchisor from Australia
They accuse them of violating a non-compete clause in their contract, of using Action International's material in Focalpoint and of renewing their license while all this was going on. The case is ongoing and will probably be settled out of court. This is public information.
Although they have not been found guilty of anything - yet, you don't need to be a lawyer to know that you cannot buy a franchise and then go and open exactly the same franchise next door.
If they do this to their franchisor, what will they do to you - their franchisee?
2.By 6 franchisees - in two cases
The main accusation is that they lied to their potential franchisees in order to entice them into a contract.
In their Disclosure Document they stated that not one franchisee has left their system since inception, for whatever reason.
The fact is that to date at least 26 franchisees have failed and left the franchise. Thats 26 out of about 70 franchises sold or 37%
So they deliberately lied because they knew that nobody would buy into such an unsuccessful franchise. The law in Canada unticipated this and hold every officer of such a franchisor personally liable, both to return all fees and for damages.
Are they lying to you?
Action International Canada
The Three Stooges bought the master license for Action International for the whole Canada 5 years ago.
They sold about 70 franchises for $70,000 each. The monthly franchise fee is $1,500 plus 5% of revenue for the marketing fund.
Thats about $5 million plus $100,000 a month!
Franchisees were told they should make $12,000 to $20,000 per month. That "Nobody has ever failed at this"
Problem is - all this is untrue.
The average coach makes only $3,500. After the royalty of $1,500 and marketing fee it leaves less than $2,000 per month before expenses. Not close to $12,000, right?
That caused at least 26 coaches to abandon the franchise.
The collapse
With 3 lawsuites against them and most coaches unable to survive, it bacame impossible to sell more franchises. (like all Ponzi schemes)
So now they are trying to do the whole thing in the USA.
They created Focalpoint International Inc. On January 20.
Then, in April, they convinced the Action International master franchisor to renew their license for Canada for 5 more years.
Without telling him they are in the process of setting up a competing business coaching franchise in the US (in contravention of a non-compete clause in their contract).
This venture was launched on a franchise show in May as Focalpoint International.
During this time they spend very little time on managing their Action International business and concentrated on developing their new venture.
Some of the personnel were redirected to Focalpoint
The sales team was dismissed.
No marketing was done (there never had been)
John
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
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