Ready to Own a Franchise? Here’s What to Ask Before You Buy

If you’re getting serious about becoming a franchise owner for the first time, you probably have a lot of questions – and you may be fearful of asking them. You don’t want to risk asking something dumb, or step on any toes by bringing up things that aren’t your concern, right?  

Wrong! I love answering questions from prospective owners; it shows they’re thorough, organized and truly interested in the business. We encourage franchise applicants to ask lots of questions at our Discovery Day events, so they’ll be fully informed when they join our system. 

But what questions should you ask? There’s a lot you probably don’t know about franchising, which can make it hard to come up with the right questions. It’s even harder when you don’t know what you don’t know. So, here’s a little help with what to ask.  

What to ask the franchisor 

First, be sure the brand you’re considering is a proven system. Your questions should reveal how successful franchisees operate within the system. 

• Brand Success: Ask basic questions about the brand and its history. How long has it been in business? You don’t want a startup franchise organization; if you’re going to devote a chunk of your life to this brand, you want it to have been around for years and run by people who know what they’re doing.  

• Training and Support: How much training will you get in the early days? Will it continue? Who provides it? Ask to meet their support team. That’s what we do on a discovery tour; franchise prospects get to meet the people they’ll interact with and do business with.  

• Financials: Find out what kind of volume the franchisees are doing, which you can find in Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). I’d want to know whether the system is growing, both in the number of franchises and in its sales volume.  

• Business: What are the three or four most important items a franchisee sells, the ones that bring in the most money? Find out what kind of jobs or product lines you will be expected to push the most, and who buys these products or services?  

• Franchisees: How many does the brand have, and who has the highest sales volume? What does success look like for a franchisee? I’d compare myself to those franchisees: Would I work harder? Would I run the business differently? Talk to other franchisees to get a sense of what you might experience. The FDD should include a list of franchisees so you can do this.  

What to ask AI 

Use AI to help you research the brand. I’ve found it’s a tremendous resource when making business decisions. I’ve seen it help knock bad franchise companies off from a list of potential acquisitions, and it’s helped prospects find good businesses.  

Before our recent purchase of Black Optix Tint, I went to Microsoft’s Copilot app and prompted it: “We’re United Franchise Group and looking at purchasing Black Optix Tint. Please give me a list of the pros and cons. And at the end, summarize whether we should do this or not.” And it came back and said, “United Franchise Group should buy Black Optix Tint because many Signarama stores get customers who want tint and (Signarama) doesn’t do tint.” The decision was still ours; we didn’t buy the company just because Copilot told us to. And we were prepared to reject the advice if it didn’t make sense. But it gave us helpful insights to confirm we were doing the right thing. It’s a great tool you should consider using when investigating a franchisor. 

What to ask yourself 

The most important question is the one you ask yourself: Are these people that I could see myself working with? That’s always high on my list when I’m looking at companies to invest in. Could I see myself doing business with these people?  

Every company is not for everyone, and it’s okay to bow out if you decide the one you’re looking at is not a good fit for you. To help determine this, you need to take a good look at the brand’s culture. 

You’re not going to buy a franchise unless you visit franchise owners and get a sense of what your relationship with them would be. For instance, could you call them if a problem or challenge arises and be heard seriously? They may not always offer the solution you want, but they’ll at least respond, consider your situation, and try to help you resolve it.  

That’s the kind of thing you don’t get from the FDD – those values that tell you what life will be like working within a particular franchise system. You can get the numbers pretty easily, but values are things you have to dig for. And you have to know yourself, too, and decide what kind of operator you are or want to be.  

Asking the right questions will tell you if you and your franchisor are a good fit.