What’s the best way to prepare for a franchisor’s discovery day?

Alan Wilkinson writes:

A discovery day should provide an opportunity for a prospective franchisee to find out all the details about a brand and give them enough information to start to make an informed decision on whether or not to invest.

It’s also the franchisor’s opportunity to sell to you and find out if they think you meet their ideal franchisee profile.

A prospective franchisee should properly prepare for the meeting. This should involve doing a lot of research on the brand and preparing a list of questions.

These questions should be about the operational aspects of the business and also about their franchising protocol and system. You want to know if the business itself would work for you and also how you would be supported as a franchisee.

In addition, you should research other franchises in that sector and compare and contrast the benefits of each. This often throws up some good questions to ask during a discovery day.

A franchisor will always be impressed if you know your competitors, both franchised and non-franchised, in your local territory. At the end of the day, the franchisor may be the expert in their field, but they’re unlikely to know and understand your local region as well as you do.

Alan Wilkinson is head of franchise development at The Franchising Centre and has been in franchising for over 24 years.