What owning a franchise really means

Yes. In franchising, you’re a business owner, make no mistake about it. It’s your business, and there’s risk. People think they’ll just do what somebody else tells them, but the platform is there for you to see value in and follow. You lower that risk by validating the model along the way.

There are thousands of franchise companies, and it’s far more than food service and hospitality. At the core, each one has a business foundation that lets you start further along than you would from scratch. Instead of starting at home plate, maybe you’re starting at second base. That doesn’t mean there’s no work, but the foundation is there.

You also need to see a competitive advantage, because you’ll be the owner of that brand in your local market. It’s the same question I raised on Get Business Smart: what does the company actually add?

Talk to them. Validation, what current franchisees say about the company, is the most important thing to look at, and most people don’t see it on day one. The Franchise Disclosure Document lists the name and contact information of every franchisee in the system, so you can ask them what’s really going on.

Federal rules require that document, and the company updates it every year. Because every franchise company reports under the same structure, you can set a mental health business, a restoration company and a quick-service restaurant side by side. I covered what to read first in it on Partnerships For Profit.

Then you measure what you hear against your personal model: what you want your life to look like, and what role you want to play as an owner. In some businesses a manager runs the day to day and you work on the business. In others, you’re in it running it. Neither is right or wrong. It depends on you.

Look for validation and proof of concept: locations already built, ideally including some the company owns and runs itself. With a newer brand, I prefer leadership that has already built other franchise systems, so you’re not dealing with rookies. Nobody has a crystal ball, but experienced people know how to pivot.

Getting into an early-stage franchise can mean being a big fish in a small pond, and that has upside. But if you don’t have experience working through those growing pains, it may not be the right path for you.

A lot of times, yes, though it can be a challenge, and it depends on the person and the business. Some businesses take a lot of your time and some take far less, so we cover that early. The best way to know is to talk to franchisees who made the same move and ask how they managed it.

Time is one of the most common goals people bring me. They don’t own their schedule, and they want relief from that. So it matters whether a business needs ten to twenty hours a week or fifty.

There’s more than one way to make the move, and we look at all of them. It’s an investigation, not a straight line: this is my favorite company, this is my second, this is my third, and we look at each one. I spent twenty-one years in the corporate world before I made my own change, so I know how much rides on it.

Because the company is approving you while you’re approving them, and you want it that way. When things get tough, you want people working with you, not just alongside you. A company that’s picky about who it brings in is a good sign, because that franchisee might be your neighbor someday.

It comes back to knowing where you’re headed. It’s like driving down the road: you hit a bump, it moves you around, but you keep going in that direction. Without that, the bump throws you in the ditch. The ones who come back out are the ones with a clear vision.

That’s how I work with candidates, too. Nobody wants to be sold, so I start by listening: what your story’s been, what it is now, and what you want it to be. Franchising is the vehicle, not the goal.