What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Franchise Consultant Before You Invest?
Initiating the franchise investment process typically begins with market observation in your local area or conducting general online searches for potential opportunities. However, this reactive approach typically overlooks the advantages offered by engaging a professional franchise consultant, particularly during the initial phase of research.
What’s Wrong With This Process?
When you seek franchises that are already in your community, you force yourself to open shop in another town, which is okay if that was your intention. It also exposes you to fierce competition from the outset. Worse yet, you might miss a prime up-and-coming franchise that sets itself apart from the crowd.
Starting a search on your own, you jump right into a recruiting sales funnel before you get a chance to compare other opportunities available that might be a better fit. Even more importantly, you may not yet understand what industries align with your goals, budget, lifestyle, and long-term plan for business ownership. This is where the benefits of hiring a franchise consultant become clear.
Why a Franchise Consultant?
A franchise consultant’s first focus is you, which is exactly what you need as you jump into this unfamiliar way of doing business before anyone tries to sell you anything. Here are some specific reasons that highlight the value of hiring a franchise consultant before investing.
1. They Take Your Lifestyle Into Consideration
Your franchise consultant considers your lifestyle desires. What kind of lifestyle would you like while owning a franchise business? They have inside knowledge of what life would be like as a franchisee and can help paint a picture of what that looks like for you and your family.
A consultant also helps you evaluate how hands-on you want to be. Full-time operator? Semi-absentee? They also help you understand what a strong long-term plan looks like, including your ideal franchise exit strategy so you can build toward an ownership timeline that makes sense for your goals.
Your consultant also considers how each generation approaches franchise ownership, helping you choose a model that aligns with your motivations, working style, and expectations for freedom, structure, and flexibility.
2. They Help You Understand Your Financial Options
Another significant factor is finances. Your franchise consultant helps you determine your financial qualification based on available liquid funds, credit opportunities, and obligations as a franchisee.
They also know about the small business programs, grants, and loans available to aspiring franchisees. Your franchise consultant provides a cost-benefit analysis of potential franchise opportunities and can help you develop a financial plan for reaching your long-term financial goals with franchising.
3. They Match Your Personality to the Right Franchise
Of course, personality comes into play when considering investing in a franchise! Your franchise consultant works with you to find franchise opportunities that best fit your business personality. They want you to love your franchise business.
Some franchises rely heavily on sales skills, while others lean toward operations, technical work, or people management. Identifying your entrepreneurial personality helps reduce mismatched investments.
4. They Give You a Realistic Picture of Franchise Ownership
A franchise consultant helps you understand the advantages (and disadvantages) of owning your franchise business, in general, and specific to many business models. They will help you find the best fit for your business personality, lifestyle, and financial goals. This includes realistic insights into staffing challenges, operating expenses, territory constraints, and franchise support quality.
5. They Do the Research You Don’t Have Time For
Part of finding that perfect fit is through analysis of available options. Your franchise consultant helps you research the franchise opportunities based on your interests and goals. They will acquire the facts and figures to aid in your decision.
This includes reviewing Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs), assisting with validation calls, and assessing franchisor financial strength—critical steps given that the International Franchise Association reports over 830,000 franchise establishments operating in the U.S.
6. They Guide You Through the Entire Investment Process
The most significant advantage to a franchise consultant is their guidance and experience through the entire process. They guide you through each step of the discovery process to select your perfect match and remain at your side through the whole purchase process.
7. They Protect You From Sales Pressure
Approaching a franchise directly often places you in a sales-driven environment. A franchise consultant acts as a buffer, helping you avoid aggressive tactics and ensuring decisions are based on alignment, not pressure. This is why it’s also important to know what to look for when hiring one.
This protects new investors from choosing a franchise based on charisma rather than data and reinforces the real-world benefits of hiring a franchise consultant.
8. They Give You Access to a Wider Range of Franchise Options
Most franchise buyers initially consider fewer than five franchise brands. A consultant opens the door to hundreds of vetted franchise opportunities across dozens of industries, including emerging sectors you may not know exist.
This dramatically improves your chances of choosing a high-fit, high-potential opportunity and represents another major part of the benefits of hiring a franchise consultant that most new buyers overlook.
Hundred Acre Consulting – In Your Corner
At Hundred Acre Consulting, no question is unanswered, and no detail unrevealed. We bring value to clients by making their franchise investment a positive experience and guiding them through the process of becoming a franchisee.
Our services are also free to franchisees. New experiences are always best with someone to guide the way. Book a call today to get started and discover what your future holds.
