Franchise Opportunity - Questions to ask your Franchisor - # 34

Find the right franchise

Whether it's hamburgers, pizza, coffee, telecommunications, Internet, muffler parts, or services for the elderly, there are franchise opportunities available to evaluate. There are great Franchise systems, good Franchise systems and bad systems franchise. The challenge is to ask the right questions to find the right system that fits your goals and dreams. The key is to ask the questions - and listen carefully to the answers. Only then can you determine if the franchise opportunity is the right solution for you. So, if its food services like burgers or coffee, professional services such as Telecom or IT, or services such as cleaning or manual changes of oil, ask questions and record answers.

Who are the competitors?

The Franchisor should have a good knowledge of the competition, and how much market share that control. No matter how big it is if a market is completely saturated, unless the Franchisor has specific strategies to eat lunch with someone else.

The Franchisor should be able to talk with you about specific competitors, what their strategies are, he will probably be in the future, and how the franchise system intends to penetrate that market.

The franchisor must also be willing to discuss the future competitor that may appear on the horizon. They may not be willing to disclose their specific strategies on the management of such cases - at least not without erasing the memory after the debate. However, a general discussion on the issue should give you some consolation that they thought their approach, and that you feel comfortable with their preparation.

Again, if the franchisor is not sufficiently prepared to discuss the competition effect, as well as future competition, then alarm bells should go off.

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