Depending on the local market breakfast trend and night habits, in the franchisee territory, as well as on the competition & the traffic.

Normally, opening between 8:00 am to 8:00 pm is recommended.

Of course, it should be in harmony with the Market opening hours for similar or competing operations, and may vary per location.

This will vary depending on the area of the shop.

Normally for a 150 to 250 sqm, the morning shift would require 3 sales people & the shift would require at least 3 sales people. (Assuming Rush Hour is in the afternoon/ night shift)

One of these three sales people in the morning and night shifts will be the supervisor

One manager is also required who will be present in the afternoon/ night shift.

He can play the role of the Fourth sales person during that shift

In the Middle East and North Africa area, we recommend that the Manager be a Local if educated in the interior design business and trained by the Franchisor, or Lebanese, considering that Lebanon is well known for its interior design expertise.

As for the sales people, we also recommend that they are either local or Lebanese. If the salary of the Lebanese sales people will be prohibitive, we would recommend to hire at least one highly experienced Lebanese sales person (who can eventually be trained to become a supervisor or a manager) and the rest may be hired from nationalities who may accept lower wages.

It should be in harmony with the Market pay for similar or competing operations, as an average.

We may need to consider overpaying the existing staff at the competition to attract them to come & work with Linea Verde.

This will reduce the training period to our staff & will help the operation proceed with more self-confidence by the staff.

In any case, we recommend that a detailed Market research be conducted with the territory Franchisee after the signature of the Franchise Development agreement for the territory in order to determine the market parameters on this issue

As a Maximum, a healthy Linea Verde operation should run at a payroll less than or equal to 25% of sales per showroom.

For the initial decoration and set up itself, this will depend on the territory.

The territory franchisee would most probably be in a better position to evaluate the initial Decoration cost per sqm.

As for the cost of :

1. Cost of Equipment.
2. Cost of Furniture.
3. Cost of décor.
4. Cost of signage.

The total expected investment can be anywhere from $250 000 to $750 000. It depends on several factors; chief among those - construction costs.

In practice, the franchisee should budget an approximate capital of 175 000 USD per shop, for a 100 sqm area. Of course, this would vary upward or downward depending on the economic parameters of the territory.

With regard to remodeling with time, we don't think that remodeling and decoration renewal should apply heavily before the end life of the franchise except for general maintenance & furniture re-purchasing, upgrading or repairing.

Normal Estimates of up to 5% of the initial cost of the FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures & equipments) may be considered as an acceptable renewal cost, over time

1. What would you estimate the total weekly sales to be?
   
   Of course, the territory franchisee will eventually need to conduct a serious market evaluation after the Franchise Development agreement is signed.
   
   A healthy traffic should hover around 24 tickets daily, at an average of 2 Tickets per hour, at 1000USD average. In any feasibility study, we recommend to consider 18 Tickets per day.
2. Percentage of sales per:
   1. Curtains
   2. Upholstery
   3. Home accessories
   4. Home furnishings
   This will vary greatly depending on the territory. Again, the territory franchisee will eventually need to conduct a serious market evaluation after the Franchise Development agreement is signed.
   
   For a Linea Verde showroom in general, 50% of the consumed items are the curtains, with 30 % going to upholstery, and up to 20% going for the other Linea Verde items.
3. Percentage for cost
   
   Of course, some products will have a higher profit margin than others, but the Linea Verde franchisee must carry all the products recommended by the franchisor and the items on display themselves will vary by location
   
   This will finally be determined after the location of the Linea Verde showroom is selected in the franchisee territory
4. What would be the cost of paper and consumables?
   
   Their cost should be 0.5 to 2 % of sales, as a maximum.
   
   The normal should be around 1%to 1.5% of sales.
5. What about depreciation?
   1. Furniture and fixtures.
   2. Equipment.
   3. Signage.
   4. Leasehold improvements and décor.
   This will vary depending on which accounting principles the local auditors will recommend to use and depending on the franchisee’s company policy.
   
   We recommend a 10-year depreciation approach
6. What would you recommend for the percentage of sales for marketing and advertising and would that include point of sales?
   
   For marketing & advertising, the franchisee should consider 7% of expected sales per point of sales with an initial budget of 100 000 USD per shop for corporate level advertising
   
   We also have an international / regional advertising fund that is not currently collected from franchisees
   
   
7. How to reflect the Head Office expenses (H.O) per shop?
   
   The head office (H. O) expenses cannot be really reflected in the profit & loss of one shop only.
   
   H.O expenses would include, among others, the salaries of the Operations Manager, Public Relations Manager, Accountant, Personnel Manager, Store keeper, Secretary, etc….) as well as the cost of the consultants (auditors, lawyers, etc…).
   
   The territory franchisee will need to open a number of shops in order to cover the H.O Overheads.
   
   This number will vary depending on the territory.
   
   Still, in any feasibility study, we recommend to allocate 2 % of Sales, per shop, as contribution to the H.O expenses

The franchise fee is $ 75 000 USD per shop

The royalties are 7% of sales.

We do not choose your location. We do provide general site criteria and evaluate and approve each specific location.

The timeline depends on the site. The time can range from 60 days to six months. It depends on how much construction work is required and how fast our franchisees want to move.