Top 10 Resources for Franchise Investment

You need to educate yourself before investing in anything.

That's especially true about a franchise investment. 

They can bring huge returns, but you need to know what you are getting into first!

Pete and Nat are discussing what they believe the best resources are for you to find the most success.

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Transcript

 Good morning, Nat! Good morning, Nat! 

Good morning, Pete! Woo hoo! I'm excited! What do we got going today? Well, 

I'm excited because  the upcoming FranChoice conference, right? We get together with a hundred different franchise concepts. How exciting is that? 

Yeah, it's gonna be  franchise overload for a few days.

Yeah, it is. It's just awesome from that standpoint. It's, it's fun to get together with old friends, learn about new franchise concepts and stuff like that. So today, what I thought we'd talk about is the top 10 resources available to somebody that's looking at investing in a franchise.

Sound good? Yes, let's do it. All right. So what do you think would be the first resource, if I'm looking to invest or investigate and invest in a franchise, what do you think the first resource, what would be a great resource for somebody to use? 

Well, if it was me, I would definitely want to connect with an expert. So somebody that spends a lot of time researching and learning more about franchises.

Kind of like what you just talked about with the FanChoice conference, right? So I think,  franchise consultant would be my top choice because, you know, when in doubt, right, go find an expert that you can kind of help, help  shorten, shorten the 

research. Yeah, I'm a little biased as a franchise consultant, but absolutely right.

There's somebody that can help them, guide them through the process, and it doesn't cost anybody to use that resource. So you're, you're crazy not to leverage a franchise consultant. What would be a second resource somebody would have available to them? 

You know, a lot of people I know at some point have gone to one of those franchise expos or trade shows, you know, for me, that can be a little bit overwhelming because, you know, there's like 1000 places and they're all like trying to get your contact information.

 But I mean, that can be a pretty good. Kind of, if you want to go a mile wide and an inch deep 

type thing. Yeah, it's a macro thing, and it could be a painful one, but it is a resource. I mean, they don't, most people don't realize that when they register, most of that information is sold. But then I, I went to a one where I literally walked through the center of the aisle.

And I tried not to have any contact with people and I thought some people are going to come out. Some of the franchise companies were going to come out and tackle me. They were trying to get my attention so much, you know, right. Throwing Chotskys at me and, and  so it was a bit overwhelming, but it is definitely a, a resource.

What would be a third resource? 

 The. One of my favorites is the franchise disclosure document because franchise is pretty heavily regulated, which is, you know, it's beneficial to the consumer. So if people that are looking to buy your investor franchise  the FDD or the franchise disclosure document can be super helpful.

Yeah. Well, so I just want to say you, you get excited about a 200 page document, a legal document. I 

get excited about like  you know, consumer protection, I guess. That's what I think. Oh, 

okay. Very good. Well, I think it's a great document. It makes sure that somebody is an informed investor that they're, that they look to invest in a franchise.

 And it's a set format and it's a lot of information, but it is a great tool for people as they go through the process of investigating franchises for sure. All right. We'll be a fourth one. Well, 

even like in that franchise disclosure document, one nice thing is there's a complete list of existing franchise owners.

So existing franchise owners can always be a good resource too  because they've walked the path, right? 

And that's the term is called validation, right? It's your opportunity as somebody that's investigating the franchise concept to talk to actual franchise owners that are operating the business to find out if they're happy and if they're making money.

Right, right. Yeah. Excellent. All right, what would be a fifth resource? 

Well  of course people that we work with over the years, you know, they like to, you know, tell me the top, tell me the best franchises. So, you know, there's all these online franchise directories  which I kind of have a love hate relationship.

It's kind of like a, a virtual trade show, like put it, put it in your email and then next thing you know, you're, you're getting spammed to death. But that's definitely, you know, another good way if you want a 30, 000 foot view of things, I suppose. 

We'll call it good. Maybe not great, right? I mean, yeah, you get some information, but you are also trading your personal information to 

get that.

Yeah, sometimes, yeah, the online can be a lot. 

So, well, you know, it's just you get overwhelmed with people reaching out to you had no idea that your information may be sold. So for sure. All right, we'll be another one, a sixth one. I think 

within the industry, there's  you know, trade association. So like for franchising, there's the IFA, which is international franchise association.

 So that is actually pretty good. There's a lot of resources  opportunities to network, connect with franchisors. So I think a lot of people kind of like the IFA. 

Yeah. Well, just kind of different publications, blogs, and we'll even say podcasts. Like the hire yourself podcast, right? That would be a great resource for people.

Yes, that would be one of my top ones, I think. 

I'm sure it would be. I'm sure it would be. Alright, what would be another one? Speaking of 

Hire Yourself. Exactly. You know, I've heard about this pretty infamous author that wrote a book called Hire Yourself.  So the hire yourself book is, is  can be an excellent resource for people that are kind of starting this search.

I 

think maybe the person that wrote this, you know, the points  might've been a little biased towards the book, hire yourself, but absolutely, 

you know, I love the, I love the name. How did you come up with that? Pete? 

That's a long story, but it's, it's fun.  You know, Having it be a bestseller. It's a good informative tool, but there's so many great books out there.

 But you know, I had to throw in hire yourself for sure. Yeah, so all right, that won't be another resource.  You know, it 

seems like through the process, somebody always asked me, Hey, do you have a franchise attorney that I could talk to? So I mean, I think that that's some, you're looking to spend some money.

 You know, legal counsel is always a good option for you to get another point of view. Yeah, it could be 

a great resource if you can understand that the limited scope of what a franchise attorney could do what it pertains to the franchise agreement. So it could be a resource if you kind of understand, is it right for you?

All right, what would be the last one?  Most. People at some point want to investigate financing. So I think whether it's the SBA or whether it's some of the  franchise or Frank financing  companies that specialize in franchising, you know, we've had a lot of them on the podcast over the years. But those guys are super familiar, obviously, with franchising because they, you know, they look under the hood at the franchise or the, you know, the unit levels.

They really understand what's going on. 

Sure. And I think they can also help you figure out, okay, if I'm going to do this, how would I take the capital I have and leverage it the most efficient way to start a business? Exactly. 

Yes. I mean, at the, at the end of the day, there really are, you know, we probably could come up with a bunch more resources, but you know, there's quite a few.

Yeah, there's a ton of resources. And, and again, most of them are free, right? So they're, they're free. So why not use resources, good resources, as you look to invest in a franchise? Well, with that, Nat, I got to go pack to get ready for the franchise conference. 

All right, go do some research.