WHAT STEPS DO I TAKE TO BECOME A
QUIK INTERNET  FRANCHISE OWNER?

1. You have taken the first step by requesting information. You should read the material and write down any questions you have. If you are on the Internet now, please print off and read all of the pages at our web site which is http://www.quik.com.au/007
2. If you are serious about this opportunity you should complete the Qualification Profile form and mail it to our Australian Office.
3. Please call us and we will conduct a telephone interview with you in an attempt to discover first, if this is something you are able to do and second, if we feel you will make a successful franchise owner. If we feel you are qualified we may arrange a personal interview with you . One way or the other, we will answer any questions you may have.
4. After the interview, if both parties feel it appropriate, you will have a chance to temporarily tie up a specific territory by completing a Franchise Territory Reservation Application. This indicates your commitment and causes us to stop marketing that area on a temporary basis.
5. We will hand to you or send to you our Franchise Offering Circular which you must have in your possession 10 business days before you pay the franchise fee and get scheduled in for your training.
6. During this 10 day period our executive committee will thoroughly investigate you as a potential franchise owner and will either approve or reject your application. You will be notified either way within 48 hours of their decision.
7. Upon approval of your application and receipt of your franchise fee, Quik International will schedule your training and assist you in the additional necessary steps to get your site up and running.
8. You will be scheduled into a 5 day training seminar usually held in Southern California.
9. Your site equipment package and telephone lines will be ordered and set up by our technical department.
10. When you return from  your training, everything will be ready and in place so that you can commence operations.

Dear Fellow Entrepreneur:

We appreciate your interest in Quik Internet Services. We are the fastest growing company to offer the business person a franchised opportunity to provide Internet services in their community.

How would you like to become a part of the greatest information revolution in our time? The Internet is changing forever the way business is being conducted worldwide. It is estimated the Internet will produce, in the next two years, over $300 billion in sales and that’s an amazing 3750% increase over present sales. According to recent surveys, less than 15% of businesses worldwide have joined the Internet.

Currently there are billions of pages of information online, with millions of new pages being added each month. Over half of all Internet users have joined in the last year alone. This vast new market is virtually untapped, the potential is without limit.

To be a successful provider of Internet services, the most important ingredient is good people skills. You must be able to effectively deal with individuals and businesses who are eager to gain access to, and capitalize on this amazing international computer network called the Internet.

This is why our franchise model is the most effective delivery system for Internet services. We supply the equipment, technical expertise, and training. You supply the local delivery and support in your community.

Our program is built around the concept that direct local Internet access can be offered to the public at a lower monthly fee by one of our franchised service providers, while at the same time offering personalized service and training to local subscribers.

We offer our franchise owners the opportunity to own, operate and build their own business in the most exciting and fastest growing field of our time.

As a "Quik Internet Services" franchise owner you will receive:

• The use of our name "Quik Internet".
• An exclusive territory.
• Complete technical and marketing training.
• Company installation of your equipment.
• Internet and WWW services along with E-mail accounts, Web pages,
  USENET news feed, Shell accounts, PPP accounts, FTP sites and
  DNS services. Marketing packages for Web designers large and small.
• Billing services for your access and web site accounts.
• Advertising guidelines and national support.
• On-going training and head office support.
• License and use of the proprietary software system called CHEETAH.
• Video-On-Demand servers.

The capital requirements necessary to become a Quik Internet franchisee are as follows:

• A franchise fee to cover our training and set-up expenses.
• Ability to purchase approximately $33,000 of equipment.
• Approximate start-up cost including the items above - $73,000 plus working capital.

If you have the necessary capital, some computer knowledge and want to own and operate your own business, please follow the steps listed in the enclosure entitled "What Steps Do I Take To Become A Quik Internet Franchise Owner".

We currently have over 100 franchised locations in 12 countries.

.

THE FRANCHISE OF THE FUTURE

Quik International (Quik) is the first franchisor of Internet access services. In the last 26 months, it has established over 100 franchises in the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador,   Russia, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and now Mexico. These franchises operate as locally owned and operated Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in their respective markets.

Central to Quik's success has been its development of a proprietary technology called "Cheetah." This technology greatly simplifies the process of selling and administering Internet services. Anyone with a good working knowledge of Windows95 has all the skill and comprehension necessary to attend a Quik franchisee training seminar and become a successful franchise owner.

The company owns and operates an International data transmission network which consolidates all the Internet traffic from its franchises into central servers. Quik owns and maintains the equipment that is connected to three Internet backbone providers.

All of Quik's franchises time-share on a variety of computer equipment that is owned and operated by Quik. These computers provide user authentication, DNS, email, world-wide-web, USENET and billing services for all of the franchise owners.

Quik Internet of Guatemala

Quik Internet franchises opened for business in the following order:

Continued...

U.S. Management Team

Jack Reynolds, President - has served in executive level positions at Compaq Computer, Tandon, AST Research, Everex and ACER. During his 15 years in the computer industry, Jack has had national and international responsibility for product distribution through computer resellers such as Computerland, Microage, Ingram Micro, Sears and Inacomp. His interest in the Internet began in 1985 when he used Internet tools to manage software product development in Germany from the United States. Jack opened up several Internet sites in Southern California for other companies under contract in 1994 and opened up a prototype for what would become a Quik Internet site in his garage in 1995.

Murray Mead, CEO - has 30 years of franchising experience to his credit. He has successfully franchised swimming pool companies, restaurants and financial services. Murray has an extensive background in executive management in everything from start-up companies to national hotel chains. Murray became interested in the Internet when the World-Wide-Web was first developed in 1994. He is the architect behind Quik's business model of local Internet service and support delivered through entrepreneurs in their respective communities.

Griff Hamlin, VP of Technical Services - is Quik's Webmaster , a contractor of 3D graphics software and Web-hosting services. With more than 20 years experience in several areas of computing, his list of accomplishments is considerable including graphics hardware and software design, 3D CAD software design and the creation and international distribution of "Math Type," a mathematical equation editor available in four languages and used in Microsoft products. Griff also founded a number of computer service companies after earning a Ph.D. in computer science and has been a college professor. Dr. Hamlin's career has affiliated him with the NASA Langley Research Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Unicad Software in Bolder, Colorado and Stellar Computer in Massachusetts.

"Quik’s great franchise support allows me to spend more time supporting my customers" says John Nance, owner of Quik Internet of Reno, "By pooling my resources with other Quik franchise owners, I lower my cost of doing business and stay on the front of the technology curve."

Quik Internet Products and Services

Internet Access ( 56 K )

• $39.95 / month ( one time setup fee ).
• 50 hours per month with no download limits and only $1.00 per hour for additional hours.
• Free 10mb WWW secure-server site with REALAUDIO.
• Unlimited email & full uncensored USENET feed.

Internet Access (ISDN)

• Unlimited Access.
• Free 10mb WWW secure-server site with REALAUDIO.
• Unlimited email & full uncensored USENET feed.

Internet Training

• Using the Internet for fun and profit.
• Group discounts and custom courseware available.
• Free monthly user-group meetings.

Basic Website

Features:

URL is:
10 megabytes disk space.
100 Mb/month WWW traffic.
Unlimited Hits.
Customer creates/maintains web-pages.
FTP access to server.

Cost: No extra charge, comes with Quik dial-up account.

Basic Virtual Website

Features:

10 megabytes disk space.
Domain name. URL will be: 
500 Mb/month WWW traffic.
Unlimited Hits.
Customer creates/maintains web-pages.
FTP access to server.

Deluxe Virtual Website

Features:

50 megabytes disk space.
Domain name. URL will be: http://www.customer_name.com.
Unlimited* WWW traffic.
Unlimited Hits.
Customer creates/maintains web-pages.
REALAUDIO server for streaming audio
3 POP email boxes. 
Unlimited email forwarding.
FrontPage Extentions
"Hit" statistics.
CGI Scripts

Premium Virtual Website

Features:

100 megabytes disk space.
Domain name. URL will be:
Unlimited* WWW traffic.
Unlimited Hits.
Customer creates/maintains web-pages.
REALAUDIO server for streaming audio
VDO Server for streaming video
Unlimited POP emailboxes.
Unlimited email forwarding.
FrontPage Extentions
"Hit" statistics.
CGI Scripts
Shell account
SSL and server authentication

Virtual Machine

Features:

Ideal for Website Resellers.
Includes 10 Premium Virtual Websites
For resale only.
No end-user support.
Customer creates/maintains web pages.

*Quik Internet reserves the right to review content.

Quik conducts five day intensive training seminars

Quik operates a franchise site in every location in which it offers services. The key to its success is that it offers local service and support from entrepreneurs in the local community. Quik's services are, in fact, very similar to those offered by other ISPs. The important differences are realized in its localized availability and specialized support.

The Internet is a decentralized communications network that is best supported by a decentralized business model. Franchising gives entrepreneurs the economies of scale and brand name recognition they need in order to compete with large centralized Internet service providers like the phone companies. Service and pricing being equal, people will always do business locally with people they know.

A typical subscriber recently wrote:

"Dear Jack: I am most pleased with my Quik account. I recently switched over from Netcom and the difference is amazing. I have yet to experience any log-on delays due to busy signals or whatever, and the speed of the connection blows me away. Thanks again for the prompt reply".

Industry Analysis

We are interested in reviewing applications from persons who are able to see an opportunity, enjoy working, are people oriented, have a working knowledge with computers and want to own and operate their own business. You must have the ability to invest approximately $70,000 plus working capital.

Franchising has long been recognized as a proven vehicle for:

A. Raising capital rapidly in industries that require a large investment in facilities.

B. Recruiting highly motivated talent that has a vested interest in the success of the company.

C. Providing focused local presence in industries that are geographically diverse.

D. Quickly building brand-name recognition for products and services.

The above components all apply to Quik's strategy. However, there are additional factors at play in the Internet business that further reinforce Quik's Internet franchise model:

• Economies of scale - Many of the costs associated with Internet services are subject to economies of scale. For example: a E-1 line to the Internet typically costs about $18,000 per month. However, $200,000 per month of total E-1 purchases qualifies for a 40% discount, which allows Quik to offer lower E-1 costs to each franchise location. Similar cost savings for volume purchasing apply to media buys, printed materials etc. The average retail price Quik franchise owners charge for access is $39.95 per month. In order to operate profitably at this low price point, it is necessary to bill customers efficiently. The cost-per-customer of billing and tracking 1,000 customers is much higher than the cost per customer of billing and tracking 100,000 customers.

• More efficient use of bandwidth - In order to offer a full suite of Internet services, it is necessary to host a variety of Internet servers that place heavy demands on E-1 bandwidth. If run locally, these servers compete with the local access traffic. Therefore, the choice comes down to either increasing E-1 bandwidth or reducing server services such as USENET.
  
  Quik franchises operate server services from a pool of servers in Sydney. These servers operate independently from the local E-1 loop, therefore dramatically improving efficiency and reducing cost without sacrificing services.

• Technology transfer - Internet technologies are developing rapidly. It is becoming more difficult for independent ISPs to maintain staff that have expertise in the newer technologies such as REAL AUDIO, Java, SSL etc. Quik franchise owners are supported by our corporate office which maintains a highly skilled technical staff whose cost is shared between all franchises. Our staff is available for franchise support and contract work to third parties through the franchise owners.

• Brand name image recognition, and standardized pricing and services - No nationally recognized brand name is associated with Internet services. The franchise model has always proven the best model for rapid development of a service related brand name. "Quik Internet" is now being recognized coast to coast.
  
  Quik is dedicated to the franchise model. All Quik franchises operate under the Quik name and offer similar products and services at a competitive price. Uniform levels of high quality service are guaranteed contractually and by frequent inspection.

• New products - Quik is continually coming out with new and innovative products. Quik's Virtual Machine is very popular and still the only product of its type. A popular product for Web designers

Cheetah

Simplifying the Delivery of Internet Services

A primary barrier to deployment of Internet products and services is that they require a high degree of technical knowledge to implement and maintain. There are simply not enough people who understand UNIX system administration, IP addressing and routing, domain name service, and wide area networking using the telcos (to name a few of the technical issues). In order to cross the bridge between our franchise owner’s limited technical knowledge and the high degree of technical knowledge required to sell and support Internet services, Quik created Cheetah.

Cheetah Site Management Software

Quik has developed a browser-based software package for the franchises that automatically configures and maintains their accounts and services. This enables them to run every part of their business from any browser from any location on the Internet. All they need is the right password.

The following options are available on the Cheetah home page:

A. Add a new Basic account.

1. Adds the dial-up access.

2. Adds the email address.

3. Adds the website.

4. Initiates the billing.

B. Delete a Basic account.

1. Deletes the users account.

2. Tracks the reason for quitting.

C. Add a new Virtual Web-site.

1. Adds a virtual site to the server.

2. Assigns the site a dedicated IP address.

3. Sends the registration email to Internic.

4. Initiates the billing.

D. Delete a Virtual Web-site.

1. Deletes the virtual site on the webserver.

2. Sends the email to Internic to cancel the registration.

3. Re-allocates the IP address.

4. Tracks the reason for quitting.

E. Add a new Virtual Machine Web-site.

1. Configures the server for 20 domain names.

2. Allocates 20 IP addresses to the customer.

3. Notifies the webmaster via email.

4. Initiates the billing.

F. Add an additional email box to an existing account.

1. Adds an additional email box for a user.

2. Adds $5.00 per month to the customer billing.

G. Delete an additional email box.

1. Deletes user email box

2. Tracks reason for deletion.

H. Modify your franchise e-mail forwarding addresses.

1. Allows franchise to forward email to any address.

I. Your Router.

1. Shows who is online.

2. Allows franchisee to knock people off-line.

3. Shows modem traffic.

4. Shows T1 traffic.

5. Remote reboot

J. View customer usage.

1. Shows time and date of all logins

2. Shows amount of data transferred by each customer.

K. View customer billing.

1. Shows customer billing amount along with fee schedule.

2. Automatically debits accounts on appropriate days.

3. Shows all account credits.

4. Ages all accounts.

L. Your Customers.

1. Lists all customer information.

2. List individual customer.

Cheetah software enables a franchise owner with average knowledge of Windows95 to be able to configure and maintain all common Internet services after five days of training. A franchise can train a Quik Agent to configure basic access, email and web accounts in two hours.

Cheetah also has an end-ures component. Configuration CD-ROMs for Window95 allow an end-ures to configure their Internet account automatically update and install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.

Quik’s proprietary Cheetah Site Management software is an example of Quik’s dedication and ability to keep Quik Internet franchise owners on the cutting edge of new developments and technologies in our fast changing business.

Internet Education for The Public

A July report from American College Testing, a surveyor of 2,564 colleges and universities, found that the first-year dropout rate at private colleges rose to 26 percent, up three points since 1983.

In a recent survey conducted by the Olsten Forum on Human Resource Issues and Trends, more than half of the company executives surveyed said their employees' lack of certain skills resulted in increased production costs. More interesting still, these same companies, while acknowledging a deleterious skills gap in workers, scaled back their in-house training programs.

While no positive inference seems possible from these reports, both surveys uncovered the common fact that increased computerization was leading the drive for increased basic training in computer skills. The question still remains, however: Who will deliver the necessary training, and how?

Quik sees such gap in skills as an opportunity to participate at the community level by providing basic computer training through its franchise network and, at once, encouraging new access customers to choose Quik before they are influenced by other national providers. Indeed, to Quik, the perfect access customer is one who has benefited by our network of community "information outreach" in advance of becoming a customer. They will have already participated in a local Internet Training meeting or attended a basic skills workshop conducted by the local Quik franchise owner.

A two-point strategy, advanced by Quik management, includes maximizing ease-of-use of all systems and equipment, whether by franchise owner or end-users, and providing accessible, topical and affordable (often free) basic computer training to customers and non-customers alike.

• Maximize Ease-of-Use: Quik proprietary applications, such as Cheetah, will assure that anyone --however new to computing --will find little to discourage their first-time experience on the Internet.
  
  Additionally, Quik's Agent sign-up program will provide yet another way of buffering the technological shock to first-time Internet users.
  
  Quik and its franchises know that first-time users with enjoyable Internet beginnings will become the company's preeminent lobbyists.

• Ubiquitous Training: Quik is intent upon training for training's sake. Train the entrepreneur to become a successful Quik Internet franchise operator; train the franchise operator to train its staff; train the staff to train users in the course of helping solve a problem; train satisfied customers to train family and friends prior to themselves making choices about Internet access; and above all else, train the franchisee every day in some way that keeps them equal to the jet-paced technology of the Internet.

One of the most successful training forums in Quik's growing arsenal is the user-group meeting, a collection of Internet customers linked by community geography through their Quik Internet service provider. Typically, the Quik ISP will hold one meeting a month until demand from a growing base of customers, driven largely by regular user-group meetings, requires multiple meetings in order to contain the size for maximum effectiveness and participation by attendees.

QuikNET

QuikNET is an International Internet communications network designed, built, and maintained by Quik. QuikNet is specifically designed to carry Internet traffic for geographically dispersed ISPs and their customers. It is the only Internet network we are aware of that separates server traffic from access traffic. The savings to Quik's franchise owners is huge.

QuikNET Architecture

The main gateway for network traffic is in Australia. This is where QuikNET links to first tier Internet backbone provider. In addition we have connections to public Internet exchanges at MAE-LA and MAE-West as well as Internet ports from BCTell in Vancouver, Canada, and BBN Planet and UUNet in the United States. The links to the remote cities are accomplished by using a virtual private network (VPN) from WorldCom and Sprint.

The network is supported by IBM RS/6000 servers in Canada, the United States, Guatemala, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. These servers are used by the Quik franchises exclusively. They support Cheetah, DNS, USENET, email, WWW, FTP, and Unix shell accounts. Sharing centralized Quik servers reduces by 70 percent the capital equipment expenditure needed to start an ISP. The average ISP spends $150 per customer on hardware and software. A Quik franchise owner spends $18 per customer on capital equipment and software.

Average up-time for QuikNET (communications and servers included) is more than 99.9 percent.

Target Markets

Quik is targeting successful entrepreneurs who have good people skills. Almost all of the current Quik franchise owners have operated successful businesses in the past. 15 percent are currently active with other franchisors in other industries.

If you believe, as we do, that the Internet is a watershed event in it’s Model T development stage, have the  investment capital and feel qualified to develop a Quik Internet franchise, we want to talk to you right away. We can help you get your share of the profits to be made as the information Superhighway develops. You can send us information on yourself by filling in the online form following this page, or call us at 02/ 66 287 644.

In business, as in sports, the ones making all the money are on the playing field. Don’t let this revolution leave you watching.

"We plan to be the McDonalds of the Internet business."