6 Questions to Ask While Interviewing Franchisees for Your Business

Selecting a credible professional as your franchisee is very crucial for the success of your franchising business. He is the person who primarily holds the responsibility of establishing the new franchised outlet while taking the blueprint of your business model into consideration. So, while evaluating the various aspects of how to franchise a business, it is important that you act prudently while choosing the right franchisee. 

Having a franchise consultant to help you in this process is ideally the most viable option. With relevant expertise and business knowledge, he can help you to decide on the parameters you need to focus while assessing the credibility of your franchisees. Without wasting anytime further, let us dig deeper on the most probable questions you should ask while interviewing prospective franchisees. 

Entering into the world of franchising is very different from self-employment or joining a corporate job as it’s lot more liberating and freeing. Being a franchisee is after all similar to running your own business but, by abiding the rules and regulations stated in the franchise agreement. Make sure that the franchisee has got a clear idea about the business structure and have no problem in working as per the same model. Also, he must be clear of the structured freedom this mode of business allows him as a franchisee and the responsibilities or duties he needs to perform with due diligence. 

With a huge number of brands to associate with, the prospective franchisee must have a clear and well-defined reason why he is interested in your business. Asking this question will also help you understand what kind of expectations does he have in return of joining your franchise business. His passion for your brand and industry is something important while judging his interest in joining you as a franchisee. 

Though it’s not mandatory to have relevant work experience in the same industry to become a franchisee of a particular business but having the same is surely an additional advantage. In fact, that’s the reason you don’t need to spend too much time in the process of training the prospective franchisees and giving detailed franchise advice. If your league of franchisees has a parallel work experience, it becomes easier for them to get hold of the industry knowledge, work structure, and more. 

  

It is very important for franchisees to be competent enough of leading or managing the entire franchise unit starting from finance, sales, purchases, human resources, supply chain, and more. He must be able to give orders to employees, manage the operations, and even train the new employees as and when required. He should be aware of his strengths and weaknesses which, would further help in understanding that whether he can handle a specific task on his own or he needs to assign the job to someone else. 

It is expected that the franchisee won’t be able to achieve substantial returns in the first year and it will take some time to start earning moderate profits. Thus, he must have a well-defined plan while focussing on the financial sources he has to invest in the business during the initial phase. After all, apart from the capital for buying the franchise rights, he should have ample funds for incurring the start-up costs comfortably. 

You must ask this question to find out whether your long term plans and future goals of your franchisee are on the same page or not. There are franchisees who often look for buying one franchise with the future objective of buying additional units while passing down all those businesses to the heirs. Considering these things, you must ask right questions to the franchisee to understand his long term motive and his zeal to initiate improved practices for betterment of the business as well. 

Key conclusion

Apart from the above-mentioned, you must also ask him about the amount of capital he wants to invest initially, the location where he’s about to start up the franchise unit, and his commitment to success. Judging the credibility of your franchisee is crucial in making your first move towards building a successful franchising empire and thus, always seek advice on how to franchise a business from a reputed consultant. 

Author Bio: The author works for a highly acknowledged franchising consultancy firm that offers specialised guidance to various successful entrepreneurs on how to franchise a business. Apart from giving skilled franchise advice to clients, he is a prolific writer and blogger who likes to pen down various blogs and articles on a number of related topics. 

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