Anyone know investors for a new franchise?

searcher profile

March 08, 2024

by a searcher from Morehouse College in Washington, DC, USA

Hello Funders,

I was connecting to see if anyone might have resources or know of investors who may be interested with investing into a new franchise.

Thanks in advance for all advice and suggestions!

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commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Bowling Green State University in Surrey, BC, Canada
I am very cautious when it comes to 'new' franchises.
If it's me, I would look for a concept that has developed its own corporate store network before they have moved into franchising.
In my experience, small/early-stage franchisors have a difficult business model. It takes scale to generate a sustainable business based on the royalty streams from franchisees. I have seen a number of these smaller franchisors sort of try and cheat their way to a business model through the generation of up front franchise fees, but as a franchisee what are you really paying for? - if the franchise has no footprint, no brand, and no marketing reach, you are less likely to realize value in that franchise system relative to a more established concept.
Furthermore, their need to bring in the up front fees to basically fund their own solvency can create an incentive for the franchisor to sacrifice quality of franchisee (ie. anyone with a pulse and a credit score), and will lack support for the franchisees as soon as the cheque clears because they are off chasing the next one.
All that to say, be careful, do your diligence, and dive deep - the franchisor will be selling you just as hard as you are selling them.
Best of luck, and apologies for the rant
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from University of Notre Dame in Charlotte, NC 28277, USA
Others have already asked good questions on what specifically the situation and ask is here, but I'll point out a contrarian perspective - when I bought and sold a new franchise years ago, I quickly lost trust in the franchisor. I began asking them for recommendations on various topics so I could avoid those resources. In this case, I would ask them if they had preferred lenders and then purposely avoid those to work with others who are independent/neutral (there are a lot of great lenders and resources here on SF).
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