09. What Should You Know Before Buying a Franchise?

Chad Palmer: 00:09
Welcome back to FranCast, brought to you by United Franchise Group. I’m Chad Palmer, and on this episode, we will explore the world of franchising, from how it works to what it takes to succeed. Today I’m excited to be joined by Michael White, Chief Development Officer at UFG, to discuss what he is seeing in the franchise world and to share some valuable takeaways for anyone considering franchise ownership. Michael, thanks so much for joining us today.

Michael White: 00:32
Chad, it’s great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Chad Palmer: 00:34
Great. So so uh let’s let’s dive right dive right in. When people hear chief development officer, uh, you know, they think about just someone that just sells franchises. What does your day-to-day look like?

Michael White: 00:44
Well, really, I mean, at the end of the day, with seven different franchise brands, we have a lot of things going on at United Franchise Group. And and trying to kind of juggle all of those different responsibilities is uh it means that no two days are the same for certain. I mean, we’ve got uh we’ve got about fifty various people uh in a lot of different roles with the development department at UFG. Development really means mm franchise sales, uh for lack of a better term. But when we look at franchise sales, we really view that as kind of a part of the support mechanism that we provide for our franchisees. So there is a component of development that’s also supporting franchise owners. So it’s a it’s quite an undertaking with our company for sure. Especially with that many brands, for sure.

Chad Palmer: 01:26
It is. It is. So today’s prospects, they’re doing very deep research, right? They’re using Google, YouTube, AI tools. Uh by the time they reach your team, uh, you know, they think they know everything. How often is that picture accurate?

Michael White: 01:38
Well, it’s it is a great question because I think a lot of times people are they’re using technology to do their research more and more now, more now than ever. And you’ve seen various research studies that say that when somebody finally reaches a franchise development person, they are they’ve done 70% of the research that uh that they’re gonna do in the franchise. And part of me thinks I understand that, but I also think that it’s really helpful, particularly with UFG, to have relationships with people that can walk you through this process. The the research process for franchising, we’re asking somebody to uh to make probably one of the biggest financial decisions that they’ve ever made. Absolutely. And if they’re looking at doing that just by clicking through and reading what a lot of times is AI generated content, um, that’s not necessarily a good thing. So we structure our process to really connect with people. Uh and we also structure our process to make sure they know that there are a series of steps that you need to go through as you educate yourself on this franchise and determining which one is going to be the best fit for you. And that’s really why we’re so people-centric when it comes to our franchise development process at UFG.

Chad Palmer: 02:55
Awesome. So they’re they’re doing all this research, right? And then they they probably have this image of what owning a franchise looks like in their imagination. Uh what does that gap look like when when they actually become a franchisee? What’s one of the things you think that they don’t realize early on that’s involved?

Michael White: 03:12
Yeah. Well, I I think part of it is when you’re doing research on determining what franchise is gonna be the best fit for you, uh, you really have to dig in with the franchise company to say, hey, what is what is the secret to success? You know, if you do A, B, C, and D, you’re gonna have a high likelihood of success. What is that with this particular franchise? So with us, we really try to kind of give them the good, the bad, and the ugly, so to speak. Like, what does it take to be successful with this brand? For some brands, that means you need to be actively involved in the community. You need to be uh a member of a chamber of commerce, you need to join a lead and referral group. And and so we don’t we don’t want to shy away from that because otherwise you’re gonna invest in a business and then you’re gonna be there day one thinking, oh my gosh, this wasn’t what I expected. And so doing the research to understand exactly what it takes to be successful and what the successful franchise owners are doing, that’s probably the single most important people peop thing people can do going into business to ensure that on day one there’s not this like shock of, okay, I have this business now, what do I do? Yeah. Um and that’s again part of a really good franchise research process is going to expose the candidate to all the things that they need to do to be successful.

Chad Palmer: 04:26
So that that’s a perfect segue to the next question, which is so you have multiple franchise offerings at United Franchise Group. When someone kind of comes in the front door, uh they may have been a corporate refugee, they’ve worked their whole lives, maybe they’ve owned a business before, maybe they’ve thought about it, maybe they’ve worked nine to five their whole life. Uh how do you help them decide what the right brand is for them?

Michael White: 04:47
Yeah, so it really just kind of starts with what uh what type of business they’re looking for. Uh and that’s what I love about what we’ve created and kind of built here at United Franchise Group, because I can sit down with somebody and say, what kind of things are you interested in? And what kind of things more importantly are you not interested in? You know, some people may say, I don’t want to have a retail location. Okay, great. That helps me to kind of start to look at we have some non-retail offerings, right? So, okay, that’s good. Or you know what, employees, hiring employees and training employees and managing employees, man, that is not something I’ve done that in my work life. I know that’s not what I want. Okay, now we can kind of start to narrow down the opportunities. And then a lot of them come to say, I want to build an empire. I I want to have multiple locations. I want eventually to be able to step away from the day-in and day out operation and hire a manager, in which case, hey, we have a lot of franchise companies that you can layer and structure and build a little mini empire for yourself. So the first thing starts with what do you look for? What are you looking for, Mr. or Mrs. Potential franchisee? And what does that look like to you? What does success look like to you? And then from there, we can really kind of move people from looking at this brand to looking at that brand. But at the end of the day, it is about what they’re looking for, not what I want to put them into, right?

Chad Palmer: 06:06
Yeah, you want to set them up for success, but you want them to be happy in the business for that. That’s exactly right. Tom, so so you’ve spoken at this point to hundreds, really thousands of prospects. Um What do you think are the strongest indicators that someone’s going to be a successful franchisee?

Michael White: 06:20
I love, man, I love that question because to me, it doesn’t, you do not need to have an expertise in an industry. In fact, I almost would prefer you not have an expertise in the industry. Because we want somebody that is willing to learn. And a lot of times people come with preconceived notions of what success is going to look like in the field. And and if they already have some experience, that’s not necessarily a good thing. But to us, to answer the specific question that you have, it really is how well and how comfortable are they in following processes? Because at the end of the day, like I said earlier, if you follow a pre a prescribed process, you have a high likelihood of success. So it starts with us is let’s let’s see how well they are at following processes and systems. Because if they follow that due diligence process, is their research in a franchise really well, chances are really good they’re going to be very successful in a franchise where following a program is probably the most important thing you can do. Probably the number one thing, right?

Chad Palmer: 07:24
So so what are the biggest mistakes do you think the prospects uh make when they’re evaluating uh a franchise opportunity?

Michael White: 07:31
I think prospects too quickly jump straight to how much money can I make. I think that if they go straight to how much money can I make, they miss out on the what does it take to be successful? And how can the franchise support me to hit my goals? And is this industry one that I could see myself waking up every morning and being involved in to whatever degree they want to be involved? And when the question pops up of how much money can I make early on, we inevitably want to turn it to we wouldn’t have this many franchise units if our franchise owners weren’t incredibly successful. But let’s take a step back and let’s look at the brand. Let’s look at the industry, let’s look at the concept to see if it’s a good fit for you and your family first, trusting and knowing that the money’s gonna be there, just take it one step at a time. And eventually, I think we we get to the point where they do see that the opportunity is there from a financial standpoint, from a flexibility standpoint, from a quality of life standpoint. But that’s probably the most important thing is learn the process and learn the business first, and understanding the financial elements of it will come.

Chad Palmer: 08:39
Do you think in those early stages they’re kind of evaluating franchises? They’re they’re looking at yours, they’re looking at others, right? We’re not the only game in town. Do you think there’s any questions that they should maybe be asking that they often don’t?

Michael White: 08:52
That’s a tough question to add to answer from a general standpoint. Um, because I think uh again, I think talking to other people that are in the business are really, really helpful. But until you know what questions to ask those people, that’s also a challenge, too. So um to me, the question that I want to know, because we look at concepts. I mean, we at United Franchise Group, we have people come to us every day with maybe they’ve got a a small franchise company that they’re looking at growing and they need our help or they want our advice. And so I always look at it to say, you know, at the end of the day, have them have them look at you need to understand the brand before you know what questions to ask the franchise owners that you’re gonna research. And and that’s that’s the other piece. Again, if I could say something you’re starting to see a common trend here is trust the process. Trust the process when you’re a franchisee that it’s gonna work. Trust the process when you’re a franchise candidate when you’re researching franchises. And even if you’re looking five or six or seven of them, um you’ll start to see the gut feeling and the understanding of what’s gonna be the best fit for you just as you walk through the process.

Chad Palmer: 09:57
Absolutely. So we have to we have to address AI. So AI is kind of changing how these prospects are are researching uh franchises. In the next three to five years, how do you think AI is gonna change both how the prospects are getting information and as you as a franchise or how you’re using AI?

Michael White: 10:15
Yeah, well, uh obviously different industries are gonna be impacted to various degrees with AI. I mean, there are a lot of people that say AI is not going to um install your sign, AI is not going to embroider your shirt, AI is not going to make your uh Mediterranean salad. So there are certain elements of it that AI are not gonna replace because we’re still at its core, a human business, and we we do business with people in local communities. But at the same time, I look at the advantages that franchise companies are going to be able to provide vis-a-vis or as opposed to independent businesses are tremendous. I mean, you you and I have been in multiple meetings, Chad, as as kind of running our development arm and our advertising arm of how advantageous a new franchisee can be when their website is already optimized for AI searches, where if you started an independent business, how much work you’re going to have to do to learn about AI and how to optimize your business online and maintain that not on a monthly basis, not on a weekly basis, but on a daily basis as fast as things happen. So the benefits of franchising, I think, from helping our franchisees advertise their businesses locally, um, the way that we’re spending time, effort, money, and research to really drive that is a daily challenge for us. And I think that’s where the biggest benefit’s gonna be for franchisees uh moving forward.

Chad Palmer: 11:41
So that that’s great. So put yourself in a prospect’s shoes just for a second and and think about what advice would you give them before they come and talk to you? Like what what should they kind of have already researched or decided or or really thought about uh before they start the conversation with you as a brand? Start it. Start the conversation.

Michael White: 12:00
I think too often now, especially younger generations, they’re so used to doing so much research online that they get a little um analysis paralysis. Make the phone call. Like we still answer a phone when somebody calls and and we’re gonna call you. If you click the button online that says, yes, I’m interested in information, we want to talk to you. Sure, we’ll send some emails and we’ll send you an electronic brochure that you can look at. But at the end of the day, we want to talk to you and answer your questions. And even if you don’t have questions yet, because most people don’t want to answer the phone because they don’t know what they need to ask, well, we don’t need to worry about that because we already have a very structured process to share information with you, and we’re not gonna overshare or give you too much information up front. So the best advice that I could give somebody that’s looking at franchises is make the phone call, take the phone call, take the meeting, and go through that first conversation because you’ll have a pretty good gut. And as you go through it, some questions are gonna be generated that you’ll be able to ask.

Chad Palmer: 13:03
Yeah, and like you said, that you have to kind of trust that process, right? So that the team that’s on the other end of the phone not only has answered hundreds, if not thousands, of those questions over and over and over, but they’re gonna be able to guide that prospect correctly to help help them answer the questions, even before they think of the question.

Michael White: 13:20
Yeah, and the questions, when you do ask questions, they’re going to be customized answers for you. They’re not going to be some maybe it’s an AI generated response, maybe it’s an auto text that’s coming back that you don’t know if you’re talking to a robot or an individual. So that’s probably our biggest frustration on the franchising side, particularly when it comes to early stage prospect researches. We can’t get them on the phone, which all we want to do is share information with them to help them to determine whether our concept is a good fit. Because the good thing is, if we help them to determine that it’s not a good fit, we might have something else we could suggest to them that would be a better fit for what they’re looking for.

Chad Palmer: 13:57
Yeah, that they may not even be aware of at all. That’s exactly right. So after all the years you you’ve kind of spent helping people get into franchising, are there any beliefs about just franchise ownership that you hold today that maybe you didn’t originally when you started? Something that’s changed in the franchise world.

Michael White: 14:14
Well, first off, I think we always used to look at a franchise as part of a national company. Uh and and in my mind, yeah, that was always that was the the local branch of a national company. And it is still very, very true. But the one thing that has continued to evolve over time for me is the importance of a franchise owner being a member of a local community. Uh and we saw that. We saw that through the COVID years, we’ve seen that as economies have rebounded after COVID. Um, franchise owners are local business owners. Uh they get back to the community. Most importantly, they hire local people in the community. Uh they sponsor the local high school, they participate in religious organizations locally, uh, and that’s something that’s probably the most rewarding thing to us is uh is helping put people into business that then they can give back to their own community.

Chad Palmer: 15:00
Love it.

Chad Palmer: 15:01
Beautiful.

Chad Palmer: 15:02
Michael, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it. So there were a lot of great takeaways in today’s conversation. I know our listeners are gonna find tons of value in here. If today’s episode got you thinking about franchising in a new way, be sure to join us for future episodes. As that’s what this podcast is really all about giving you a behind the scenes picture of franchise ownership. Thanks again for tuning in to FranCast brought to you by United Franchise Group. We appreciate you being part of the conversation. Look forward to having you back for the next episode. Until next time, I’m Chad Palmer. Thanks for listening. Thanks again, Michael.

Michael White: 15:32
Thank you. Appreciate it.