If I go ahead with my franchise and then, say, eight months down the road I go through a sticky fina

However well one puts together the original plan for a business, the unexpected can happen and leave you without enough working capital.  Provided you have established a good working relationship with your bank manager, you alert them to the problem as soon as you recognise it and you have an idea for how to solve it in a reasonable period of time, then the chances are they will be willing to help you through it, subject to all their usual requirements of course.  The relationship aspect is the most important and is the reason I would recommend you meet your bank manager and tell them about the business when you are starting it, even if you don’t require them to provide finance for the start-up. It’s much easier to go to someone you know and talk about a problem than it is to turn up out of the blue requesting urgent assistance from someone who has never heard of you.