Interview Franchisees Before Buying A Franchise

About.com:

Why Interview Franchisees?
Buying a franchise is an increasingly popular way to start a business. Before you buy a franchise, however, you need to perform due diligence to be sure that the franchise is a viable business and that you will be able to work well within that franchise’s organization. Interviewing franchisees is an important step of the franchise investigation process because of the light it will shed on the franchise’s operations and on the franchisor - franchisee relationship.

How the franchisee has been treated by the franchisor and how he feels about it will say a great deal about the kind of working relationship with the franchisor you can expect if you buy that franchise.

Finding Franchisees To Interview
The franchisor will provide you with a list of franchisees and their phone numbers if you ask. (If they won’t, that’s a huge red flag in itself.) If a franchisor supplies you with only a partial list of franchisees, be sure you don’t only talk to franchisees that are on the list. Search out others. With some established franchises, finding their different locations can be as simple as visiting their web site and clicking on ‘Locations’.

When you’re selecting franchisees to interview, be sure you interview owners at a mix of franchise locations. You don’t just want to talk to those at the busy outlets, but also those at the average or poorly performing outlets, too.

Try as well to interview a mix of newer and more experienced franchisees.

Questions To Ask Franchisees… carry on reading.