Franchise Research Suggestions:

What the franchise owner will generally tell you or do:

1. They will tell you mostly about all the good things regarding the franchise.  They won’t tell you about seasonality and the highs and lows, or what costs the business the most money;
2. They will give you their own version as to why other franchise owners sold and not always the real reason, so rather call current and previous franchise owners to ask about strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as of the franchise owner. If the same reasons keep coming up, then this will be a sign for you;
3. They will generally blame everyone else for failures except themselves. They will not look at what they could’ve done differently;
4. Franchise fees and all other operational costs are due regardless of whether your business sales are at an all time low. So save money for rainy days/months for all those operational costs;

What the franchise owner won’t generally tell you or do:

1. All the things that can go wrong and will go wrong while you own a Franchise;
2. They won’t tell you about additional costs that you will incur while running the business;
3. As a business owner, you are not allowed to think for yourself even under pressurised circumstances;
4. Check if the Franchisor issues fines, what they issue fines for, how much the fines are? Then find out when they last issued a fine and what they issued a fine for, but also speak to that franchise owner to determine fairness;
5. What their expectations are upfront. So ensure that you both document any expectations upfront;
6. Some Franchisors will expect you to have a bottomless pit of money which is only to go toward the franchise and nothing else;
7. They won’t tell you if they don’t have enough staff at Head office to fully provide the support needed to a new Franchise owner;
8. You will have a lot of admin to do after hours;
9. Ensure that you have a surplus of money for quiet months or for when things go wrong;
10. If you are buying an existing business and the equipment is not new, be sure to keep a surplus of money for breakages;
11. Respect your staff and they will respect you. You have to work together daily so make it an environment that is conducive for all;
12. Find out when are the quiet months and be sure to save money for those quiet months to ensure you have money for the rent and staff salaries and any other regular operational costs;
13. Your working hours will be much more than just the trading hours so be sure that you will love what you are about to invest all your money into;
14. They change the rules as they go rather than have a guideline of rules to follow;
15. Some franchisor’s do not have any idea if you are really the right person for the franchise or not and once again do not have your best interests at heart. A high turn over of franchisee’s is more beneficial to their pockets than a good solid franchise owner;
16. They generally won’t be there to support you should things go wrong during the sale of the franchise as they prefer to look the other way, so rather have legal assistance through the process of buying and selling;

Please come and see me for a Career Assessment before you spend all your life savings

on a franchise you may lose interest in after a few months