I was recently on a website where franchisees can go to complain about there franchisors. The common  theme amongst the complaints was that the franchisor made a lot of promises that they didn't keep, the numbers weren't adding up like the franchisor said they would and they weren't being trained properly. Read More

There are lots of moving parts to a franchise, including your franchisor's opening assistance, training and ongoing support. All of the aforementioned are important to your success as a franchisee, and the best way to measure these are to talk to current franchisees.  Read More

I was floored recently when I talked to a friend of mine about the franchise she bought. You see this wasn't what  I would call your "typical" franchisee. Jane (as I will call her for the sake of this blog) has been in the franchise consulting business for 25 years. She has trained and taught both franchisees and franchisors about what to look for in a franchise, how to run a successful franchise business and what makes franchisees successful. 

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I recently attended a webinar with one of the largest franchising financing lenders in the United States. I would like to explain all the graphs that they showed us but the bottom line was this: all the signs point to the next recession hitting sometime in the next 24 months. 

• Credit Card debt and margin buying of stocks are back to record levels.
• The small business optimism indicator  is at record levels (this is a contrarian indicator). 
• Retail rents are at extreme levels causing over building, even though demand is decreasing  for retail space! 

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I was recently looking through a research report about what types of people make the best franchisees. The answer may surprise you, although intelligence, business skill, and former experience as a business owner are highly valuable characteristics. However, the fact that you have an  MBA did not get you to the top. Neither did the fact that you may have been a CEO of  a fortune 500 company. Instead, the report listed  Sales Executives  as the top candidates to become successful franchisees.  Read More