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One of the key differentiators of the franchise model is the ability to understand what other franchisees are doing and what their results are. Whether it's making money or what their activities are the fact that you have live case studies that you can go and investigate makes owning a franchise a straightforward exploration.
Prior to buying a franchise you are going to want to call a myriad of franchisees in the system that you are investigating. If you think of this like a survey, your job is to figure out what is the range of results the owners of these businesses are getting and why. You're going to want to speak with top performers and ones who aren’t doing so well. You're going to want to speak with people who've been doing this for one year, two years, five years and 10 years. Get a good understanding of what makes a top performer fall into that category and why someone else may not be achieving those results.
You're also going to want to have an understanding of what that franchisees backgrounds are as well as the markets that they are in. For instance if you are speaking with someone who has a background very similar to yours in a market that is very similar to yours it's likely they are going to have a lot of components and experiences that that you are going to find in your business as well.
Of course, one of the key items you need to figure out is what kind of money can you make? Franchisors are only allowed to discuss what they publish in their Franchise Disclosure Document under item 19. This is known as an earnings claim and they cannot deviate from what they have published and registered with the Federal Trade Commission. If they violate this they can be in serious trouble. Often times clients will remark don't the franchisors know what their franchisees are making? The answer is of course they do! Most franchisors collect a royalty that is a percentage of the gross revenues of their franchisees. So in reality they all know what franchisees are making but for them to say to you this is what you could or should or might make constitutes a forward-looking earnings claim. If you don't achieve the results that they have promised you then it's likely going to turn into a court case. This is why they don't talk about this.
However, franchisees are certainly able to tell you what they have done if they so choose so you are going to want to get good at asking questions and connecting with franchisees to figure this out. My recommendation is to put yourself in a franchisees shoes. What you, as a prospective franchise owner, are going through right now in trying to figure out what kind of money you can make is also the same journey that they took. Remind them of that and ask them how you can figure out what their experience has been with the franchise. If you speak with enough people you are likely to get a good understanding of what the range of results is and if that is something that is acceptable to you. Remember your job as an investigator of the franchise is to figure out what are you getting yourself into and is it going to give you the kind of return that you need to make it worth your while.
If you would like to learn more about investigating a franchise or what else is in a Franchise Disclosure Document, please reach out to me at 800-321-6072 or nick@thefranchiseconsultingcompany.com
Nick Neonakis