A key question when considering any franchise is “Would I be better off as a franchisee or just doing the business myself?” This is a great question that every franchise buyer needs to have answered and get the best possible information.
Here is a research tip that can help you get the right answer. Find franchisees that were independent business owners before they joined the franchise. Since they have done both they are really the only people in a position of knowledge to tell you the difference between the two approaches.
Finding such franchisees can be tricky. You should have a list of all the franchise owners in the Franchise Disclosure Document, but this does not contain past experience. This can be a good time to ask the franchisor if there are folks like this. They will typically recommend folks who are happy with the switch, but it is a place to start. Another strategy would be to ask franchisees you are calling if they know of a franchisee that made this switch.
Another angle would be to find someone who has left the franchise and continued in the business. These could be hard to find, but again, you can ask current franchisees if they know of someone like this.
One or all of the above sources seems to me ideal because they are the only ones who have done both. When you ask folks who have always been a franchisee OR folks that have always been independent which is best, they will all recommend the path they followed, but they really don’t know the realities of both options.
By Thom Crimans, FranNet Mid-America
