Do I need management experience to be a successful franchisee?

You may not need management experience, though it will undoubtedly be an advantage if your role as franchisee will include managing staff, but you will certainly need management skills, whatever type of franchise you are acquiring. Even what is called a man-and-a-van franchise, or a one-man-band white collar franchise, requires you to manage your time, marketing and money, and one would expect the franchisor to train you in all the relevant aspects of this before you start trading.  If you are going to be managing staff, it will be a serious disadvantage if you haven’t done this, and done it well, before. Most franchisors would look carefully into your history and experience of such matters and would be likely to reject anyone without the right credentials. Even someone who has managed several staff before, in an employed situation, has often not managed a business as such - ie they have not had full responsibility for developing and implementing a business plan, nor for the ongoing management of profit and loss and cash flow.  It is essential that any franchisee appreciates how to do all of the latter, but in my experience many franchisors fail to include this in their initial training, though some have now started to outsource such training provision to The Franchise Training Centre.