How franchise consulting works
It starts with your life, not a business. We figure out what you want your life to look like, I build a plan around what you tell me, and we narrow it to two to four companies that fit. Then I coach you while you talk to those companies and to owners already running them, so you decide with your eyes wide open.
We start with your life, not a business.
The business comes later, and honestly, it’s the easier part. First I want to know your story: what it’s been, what it is now, and what you want it to be.
The first call
The first call is just a conversation. I want to know what made you reach out, what you want more of in your life and less of, and why you’d want to own a business at all. Being sick of working for somebody else isn’t enough. There has to be something you’re running toward.
If you have a spouse or partner, I want them in the conversation early. This decision affects both of you.
The questionnaire
Next you fill out a questionnaire that takes about twenty minutes. It goes deeper into your background, and it’s where you share your financial picture with me. That tells me early what’s realistic, because every company has its own requirements, and nobody should get overextended.
You get a plan built around you.
Then we sit down for a consultation and build what I call your personal model. It isn’t a list of everything for sale. It’s a picture of the business that fits the life you described.
We work through the questions that actually decide it. Do you want to keep your job and build something on the side, or go all in? Do you want to work in the business every day, or on it, with a manager running the day-to-day? Where does your family need you, and how much of your time do you want this to take?
Then I narrow it to two to four companies chosen because they fit what you told me. Enough to compare, few enough to go deep. I’m not going to shotgun you with a list and hope something sticks.
They might be very different businesses. That’s fine. Franchise companies all follow the same rules for how they present themselves, so you can compare a home services business and a restaurant on the same terms.
You have someone in your corner while you decide.
Once you start talking to companies, I stop consulting and start coaching. I prep you before each conversation, debrief you after, and help you hold to the model we built.
Talking to the companies
The companies have salespeople. My job is to make sure you’re asking the right questions and getting real answers.
Every company gives you a Franchise Disclosure Document. It’s long, and you won’t read it all in one sitting, so I’ll point you to the parts that matter first: how the company started, who’s running it, and whether it has a history of failures, lawsuits, or businesses changing hands. None of those is automatically a no, but I want you to know what happened and why.
Small pivots along the way are normal. You learn about the businesses, and you learn about yourself. Maybe the one you were sure about isn’t it, and one you never pictured is. We can add companies, take them off, or pivot. It’s your life.
Talking to owners
The company will tell you about itself, and I’ll tell you what I know. But I want you to hear it from owners already running the business. They’ll tell you what the work is really like, what surprised them, and what they’d do differently.
Every business has challenges. Anybody who tells you it’s easy isn’t being truthful with you.
Meeting the team
If you move forward with a company, the last step is meeting their team in person, usually at their headquarters. By then you know the business. This is about the people, and whether you want to build something with them. You own the business, but they own the brand, so you need to be on the same page.
Nobody’s trying to close you. It has to be a good fit for both of you. Your eyes go in wide open, or we don’t go in.
It costs you nothing.
You never pay me. If you want to know how I get paid, I explain it in the FAQ.
There’s risk in doing something. There’s just as much, or more, in doing nothing.
The people who never make the call are still in the same place, and they’re still stuck.
