11 Things You Must Know Before Investing in a Franchise

Hire Yourself Podcast with Pete Gilfillan

Pete Gilfillan tackles one of the most critical questions for aspiring franchise owners: What should you consider when investing in a franchise? In this episode, Pete walks through 11 essential factors to evaluate before making one of the most important decisions of your entrepreneurial journey.

In this episode, Pete discusses:

• The Leadership Team’s Experience

Understanding the expertise of the franchise’s leadership is crucial. Pete emphasizes the difference between leading a single business and managing a scalable franchise network.

• Franchisee Satisfaction

Validation through conversations with existing franchisees is key to understanding their happiness, financial success, and satisfaction with the support they receive.

• Customer Acquisition and Marketing Models

Pete explains the importance of knowing how a franchise helps its owners acquire customers and whether the marketing strategies are effective and adaptable.

• Ongoing Support and Training

Franchise success is often tied to the support you receive after launch. Pete highlights the importance of regular coaching, KPI reviews, and operational guidance from the franchisor.

Key Takeaways:

• Do Your Homework

Thorough due diligence ensures you understand the franchise’s leadership, systems, and overall value.

• Talk to Franchisees

Validation is one of the best ways to gauge a franchise’s reputation, support quality, and profitability.

• Focus on Long-Term Support

Successful franchisors don’t just get you started; they guide you throughout your business journey.

"Investing in a franchise is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make—take the time to evaluate the details and align them with your goals." — Pete Gilfillan

CONNECT WITH PETE GILFILLAN:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petegilfillan/
Website: https://www.hireyourself.com/

CONNECT WITH HIRE YOURSELF PODCAST:

Website: https://www.hireyourself.com/podcast
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hire-yourself-podcast/id1472038217
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7eTKOLjuUWbf7BRtGtp6dP?si=eb2f7b38bd884804
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@hireyourself7642
Email: info@hireyourself.com

CONNECT WITH PETE GILFILLAN:
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petegilfillan/
🌐 Website: https://www.hireyourself.com/

CONNECT WITH HIRE YOURSELF PODCAST:
🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hire-yourself-podcast/id1472038217
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7eTKOLjuUWbf7BRtGtp6dP?si=eb2f7b38bd884804
▶️ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@hireyourself7642
📅 Meet with Pete: https://go.hireyourself.com/gilfillan?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=IR

Transcript

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Welcome to the Hire Yourself Podcast. Are you stuck in the corporate rat race, worrying about layoffs, and longing to take control of your destiny? This is the place for frustrated executives like you who want to escape the grind, live life on your own terms, and build wealth. Whether you're ready to make a full transition into franchise ownership or wanna start building a side business along with your corporate job, Pete guides you every step of the way. He'll talk about how to create career and income security, diversify your assets and income, and live life on your own terms. Your path to controlling your own destiny starts now.
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Welcome to the Hire Self podcast. My name is Pete Gilfill, and I am an entrepreneur. I'm the international best selling author of the book, “Hire Yourself”. I am a nationally recognized franchise consultant and I'm a proud corporate escapee. My mission as a franchise consultant is to really help executives. Help executives take and tell their destiny to live life on their terms and to build wealth. And that is my mission. And as the podcast goes, I always like to answer a question. And, the question I want to cover today, and it's a big one, is what things do I consider when I'm looking at investing in a franchise? So I'm thinking about investing in a franchise. I'm evaluating those franchises. What things do I look at? So let's get into it. The first thing as we evaluate a franchise is we want to understand the experience of the leadership team. You see, it's one thing to be a leader of a one company, one location, one unit, a start up. It's another to be a leader of a franchise concept that has a 100 franchise locations open. So we want to have a very good understanding of the experience of leadership of the franchise company that we're considering. The second thing we want to look at is, you know, when I become a franchisee, what support do I get in terms of launching my business? What kind of training do I get? So what happens when I sign? What opens up the doors? What happens, in terms of training and support? Number 3, as we evaluate franchises, we want as part of our due diligence to understand franchisee satisfactions. And we wanna understand their satisfaction. We do this through what is called validation. These are conversations with the actual franchise owners within the franchise system. And you're really using this to find out if they're happy and if they're making money. Another thing we wanna consider when we're evaluating a franchise is the image and the reputation of the franchise concept. You know, are they do they have a good reputation out there? So we want to look around to make sure that they they have a good image and a good reputation because we're buying into their brand. And then we also wanna consider is what's the size of the franchise system? Do they have 5 franchisees or 500 franchisees? Right? So it's it's much different, when there's 5 or there's 500. We also wanna look at are they an upcoming concept or an established concept? Meaning, did they they just just launched their franchise system or they've been around for 20 years? Another thing is we evaluate franchises is we wanna look at the culture in the field of the organization. Does it feel like you're joining a fortune 1,000 company or you're joining a, family business? Right? So we wanna kinda understand what's the culture. Is it a culture that I want to be associated with or I identify with? And then what's the marketing model? What is the customer acquisition model? We wanna understand if we invest in this franchise, how do we acquire customers? What is the model? What is the technique that they use? Right? So we wanna understand it, and you can validate it with franchisees to make sure that that marketing model. And like all marketing models, of course, they always have to be adjusted adapted. That's just the way it works. But we truly want to understand the marketing model that they use to acquire customers or you'll use to acquire customers once you become a franchisee. And then as we become a franchisee, a great thing about being a franchisee is they provide ongoing support. So you get all that launch support, all that launch training and stuff like that, but they're there by your side as a franchisee. So does that mean as you're as you are going through business, do you have a coach that meets with you on a regular basis, like once a month to go through all your KPIs to give you core coaching? Do they come out and visit your location? So we wanna know what is that ongoing support we get as a franchisee. And then if it is a franchise that you're building out the space in that strip mall, we'll call it a facility based franchise concept. Do they help you? Do they help you identify the location? Do they help you optimize the space? Do they help you build out? In fact, some franchise companies will actually even build out the space for you. Now you pay them to do that, but they kinda handle the whole project. And then we want to also look at as we evaluate franchises. What's the financial strength of the franchise company? And this is a hard one. You know, in the f d d, they'll have to list the certified financials for that franchise company. But in many cases, this may be a company that is a subset of a larger company. So it's harder. So sometimes you have to have a direct conversation with the leadership team to truly understand the financial strength of the franchise companies. So as we look at to evaluating a franchise, there's many different ways in which we look at it. But these are 11 core things that you really want to kinda dig in and evaluate the franchises. Because this is gonna be one of the most important decisions you ever make is investing in a franchise, and we wanna make sure we do our due diligence. In another podcast, we'll talk a little bit about the franchise investigation procedures. The steps that you go through as part of the due diligence to evaluate franchises. But these are the 11 things you need to consider when you're looking at investing in a franchise. And with that, have a great day.
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Thanks for joining us on the hire yourself podcast. Pete's here to help you break free from the corporate rat race, take control of your destiny, and finally live life on your own terms, whether that's jumping into franchise ownership full time or starting it as a side hustle. If this episode resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share it with a fellow frustrated executive, and leave a review to let us know your thoughts. Ready to start building your bridge to freedom? Visit hire yourself.com for resources, insights, and a clear path forward. Until next time, take charge, build your future, and live life on your own terms.