Expectations and Angry Franchisees

by Jeff Northrop

Among all of the lessons I've learned probably the most interesting is that even the franchise systems with the happiest franchisees have dissatisfied owners. The reasons why these people are unhappy are a varied as the people themselves. Usually however the reason boils down to unmet expectations. Somewhere along the lines these folks though they were going to get one thing and they ended up with something else.

Keep that in mind when you're doing your due diligence and calling on franchisees. Work hard to find those unhappy franchisees and, believe me, with enough calls you will find them. Then work even harder to understand exactly what it is that makes them so unhappy. Once you find out what that is do a careful self-assessment to figure out if you can adjust your expectations to avoid this same situation yourself and if you can't then the system might not be a good fit for you.