BP Boycotts And The Effect On The Small Business Owner

The BP Oil Spill may now be the largest accidental oil spill in our lifetime. It is, even bigger than the estimated 140 million gallons spewed by the 1979-1980 Ixtoc spill off of the coast of Mexico, which eventually washed up on 170 miles of Texas beaches. The American public’s reaction has been one of outrage and is understandably so. People are even boycotting BP stations all over America. The topic for today is what do you do if you own a BP gas station and no one wants to come to your station because of something you, personally had nothing to do with? Franchise owners are in this very position. Today I will be interviewing Todd Weiss, CEO of Sunshine Consulting Ltd. in regards to the BP boycott of individual stations across America in response to the BP oil catastrophe. Todd is a Chartered Financial Analyst and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Franchise Brokers Association. In 2009, Todd was named the Franchise Broker Association’s Franchise Consultant of the Year. Granted, while no one approves of the irresponsible way British Petroleum has been handling the whole situation, is it fair to punish the small business owner? This was clearly not something the franchisee signed up for from day one and had no clue that something like this could even possibly happen. To boot, there is no built in “escape clause” for the small business owner for unpredicted catastrophes. The small business owner cannot just get out of their franchise contract that easily. So, is this boycott sending a message to BP or simply hurting the small business owner. Stay tuned to decide.