It’s a myth that buying a franchise is a risk-free way to start a business, so careful consideration is always vital. When looking to buy a franchise, you’ll no doubt have plenty of questions. You may be wondering what level of involvement your franchisor will have. Do they just drop you in the deep end? Is there ongoing support?

Buying a franchise isn’t a simple case of just getting to use a brand name and then going it alone – or at least, it isn’t with a good franchisor. 

The more helpful a franchisor is and the more they offer, the greater the chances of turning your new franchise into a success. If you’re currently shopping around for a franchisor to deal with, make sure they guarantee the following unless you want to be left in the deep end.

Ongoing business support

Good franchise programmes will have solid ongoing business support and a network of people you can turn to for help and advice. If a franchisor takes your money and runs without giving any support, you’ve probably already overpaid.

Without support, it’s hard to share in the success of the brand and you’d probably be better off building your own business.

Training programmes

Standardised training is key to maintaining brand consistency and quality control. A good franchise programme will have training programmes for you and the staff you hire. It’s bad news for the franchisor if customers get a completely different experience in every franchise, so it’s in their best interest to provide training, as well as yours.

Key data

Any information the franchisor has about demographics, market research, marketing, operations – all those facts and figures should be handed over. This is good for you, and also good for the brand as it will ensure consistency across each branch.

Technical support

This is a big one if you use any kind of technology. Where do you turn to if something goes wrong? What if there’s a bug in the system which means you can’t take card payments?

If you don’t have the answer to this immediately, then you’ll be left scrambling around when disaster hits. Before you agree to anything, make sure technical support is addressed.

Marketing support

The best part about having a franchise is that the brand is already out there, meaning that marketing should be less of a struggle. Unless of course, there’s no marketing support. You can try and get by on brand recognition alone, but ideally, all ongoing marketing help should be provided.

Launching a marketing campaign alone can be pricey, time-consuming and also risky. It’s so much easier to carry out with tried and tested methods already used by the brand. For example, when the brand offers promotions in their main store, they should offer support, advice and marketing materials to all their franchises too.

Overall, if you’re looking into investing in a franchise, the best thing you can do is get guarantees of what you will receive in exchange for your money. The key benefit to a franchise isn’t in the name, it’s the training, support and all those tried and tested methods behind the name.

Are you interested in franchise investment? What other things would you want to see in a franchise agreement? Let us know your thoughts below.