What Are Qualities to Look for in a Franchise Buyer?
You need to look for the same characteristics has the person you would hire for opening another location. Like managers, individual franchise owners should have leadership, sales, and people skills, as well as physical stamina and job experience. Unlike managers, they will put up the capital as well. When the time comes to select franchise applicants, don’t be shy about
asking for detailed personal information such as school transcripts.
Ideally you are seeking A students. A students often work for companies
managed by B students owned by C students. You are not looking for the person who likes to do things on the fly.” Nor do you want an entrepreneur eager to put his or her stamp on everything. Most A student candidates will have worked in structured environments for relatively long periods of time. They will tend to be comfortable following rules and regulations.
A good franchise prospect will have held jobs for at least three or four years and will have had several promotions. It’s helpful if the applicant has been married for a long time (it shows they can withstand pain). And indeed, individuals who have withstood the ups and downs of business and personal
relationships stand a good chance of being successful franchisees.
Check their driving record. This may not only reveal the tendency to speed and break other laws but alcohol or drug problems will show up. Their credit history should be checked.
Prospects who fail to make credit card or mortgage payments and other commitments on a timely basis may not pay their royalties on time either.
Have the person describe a typical day in their life. Someone who rides the train at 5:30 am train to work every day, returns home at 6:00 p.m.sits down for dinner, watches the news, surfs the web, goes to bed and on the weekends sits home and watches sports is not a good choice for a franchise buyer.
You want candidates who bowl on Monday nights, coach little league on Tuesday nights, serve on a church committee on Wednesday nights and on weekends are active with their families in the community.
Your franchisees will have to hire, train and motivate employees, interface with customers, vendors, and community organizations, unload boxes, be on their feet for long periods of time, and work long hours. Even though a franchise has a structured system like most new businesses will require this amount of time and effort to succeed.
You should always look to sell to an owner operator and not an absentee owner. Absentee ownership defeats the very purpose of franchising. An absentee owner just adds more to the cost of operation and takes away the advantage of an onsite owner. Owners – operators working in the business every day is the key to franchising.
Identifying and looking for the qualities listed above in a franchise buyer is absolutely necessary when considering the sale of a franchise. Your success as a franchisor is determined by the quality of people you sell too.
