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My Process

The Candidate evaluation process may vary slightly Franchise to Franchise, but will be quite similar regardless of what brand.

Getting to Know You

You and I will start with a few talks so I can get to know you and understand what it is you’re looking for. We’ll figure out what industry or industries interest you, which ones would fit your interests, skills, experience and your financials, etc. The better I understand these things about you, the smoother the franchise matching process becomes.

Franchise Presentations

Next I’ll begin Franchise presentations with you. These are brief 5 minute overviews of the brand where I’ll show how and why these brands fit the wants and needs you’ve we’ve discussed.

Brand Introductions

Once we’ve narrowed to 1-3 brands you are excited about I’ll introduce you to the Business Development / Brand Representatives.

Candidate and Brand Mutual Evaluation

You and the brand will begin getting to know you and vice versa. They’ll want to understand more about you and why you’ve chosen to look at their business. They’ll evaluate you to see if you’ve got the proper skill sets and if you’d fit in well with the management and franchisee teams. Of course this is your opportunity to size up the brand to make sure it’s right for you and if they’re a good fit for you.

FDD Review

The Franchisor will release the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) to you. This document contains all the Legal aspects of the Franchise. I’ll give you more information about the FDD and the importance of it during our calls together.

Validation

After completing the FDD review you’d typically begin the Validation stage. This is usually a candidate’s favorite part of the process. The Franchisor will provide a list of existing Franchisees to you.

You’ll reach out to anyone on this list and set up a meeting (online, phone call, perhaps even an “in person” lunch meeting if they’re close enough to you) where you can discuss any and all aspects of the business. Down the road, you may be called as a validator.

Discovery Day

You’ll typically head to the Corporate Headquarters to meet the brand leadership and look behind curtain. Due the pandemic, many Franchisors transitioned to a “Virtual Discovery Day” that was done through online meetings. Most are transitioning back now to live Discovery Days but some are still virtual.

Franchise Agreement

If you complete the entire process, still like everything you see and the Franchisor still likes you, you’ll receive the Franchise Agreement. Sometimes it may even be presented to you at Discovery Day depending on the individual Franchisor’s process. This is decision time for you. Is this the opportunity you’ve been looking for? For most candidates it’s a pretty simple decision by this point. Most candidates that go this deep in the process are ready to move forward. Congratulations.