I purchased a franchise back in 2010, early in my professional career. The reason I purchased a Franchise is because I knew it would have a system and that my role would be learning the system and implementing it in my local area. Here are 5 things I recommend asking your future Franchisor:

1. View the operations manual or training schedule

There is usually a wealth of knowledge in these operations manuals. It’s really important to go through to come up with your ideal business, in terms of operations as well as marketing activities. The initial training schedule is also important to understand the various topics that will be covered and who the hosts are. Ideally, you want the leadership team involved in the training rather than a training department, so you can learn from those who have a pulse on the market and hopefully those who have been in your shoes. Accessing this information is also going to be critical, so you will want to know if you can access them on-demand if they are audio/video, online or hard copies. Each one learns differently, so having these available in various formats does help.

2. Investigate the corporate marketing activities

In any business, sales is the most important aspect and to support sales efforts marketing plays a critical role. In a franchise, you will be responsible for both sales as well as marketing in addition to all the other functions. The more you can align your marketing activities with your Franchisor’s marketing activities, the better. This can get you better results and also be more cost-effective as you can potentially leverage some of the content/material already created. It’s also good to meet the marketing team early in the process to see if you can build a rapport with them.

3. Find out the story about how the franchise came about-and its vision

The more you understand about the Franchisor’s history and the vision, the more you will be able to talk about it with passion and that passion will lead to excellent customer service which will then lead to word of mouth referrals, etc. Your success is going to impact the Franchisor’s success and a vision can only be achieved if everyone is working towards the same goal. Understanding this and believing it is going to set you up for success.

4. Learn about the Leadership Team  

An organization is only as good as its people. It’s wise to spend time with the leadership team, and learn about their backgrounds, why they joined and how they can assist you. If you get a chance, meet multiple people within the leadership to get a sense of the culture and values and see if that’s a match.

5. Ask about the Franchisor’s revenue streams

The financial stability of your Franchisor is important. You will want to know how long they operated before commencing their franchise system. The minimum should be 5 years. You also want to know their revenue streams and ensure they are not reliant on franchise fees or franchise royalties. They should ideally have corporate revenue streams from their corporate outlets/services.

The above questions should give you a good idea if the franchise is right for you. As a caution, do not judge your decision based on someone else’s success either in the same franchise or a similar franchise, as everyone’s success is going to be different based on several factors including the level of activity, experience in a related field, goals/motivational factors, work-life balance preference and also luck.

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