How it works
Six steps, and you can stop at any one of them.
No part of this commits you to the next part. Most people who start a conversation with us do not end up buying a franchise, and we would rather help you reach a clear no than a slow maybe.
- 01
15 minutes, by phone
The intro call
Dave opens every one of these with the same question: what is the result you are looking for? Not which franchise, not what budget. What you actually want the next stretch of your life to look like. Everything after this hangs off that answer.
Plenty of people finish this call and decide franchising is not for them. That is a good outcome. It took fifteen minutes instead of a year.
- 02
One longer conversation
Your profile and goals
Where you want to be in five and ten years. What you can invest and what you will not risk. Whether you want to run the business day to day or hire someone who does. What you are good at, and what you would rather never do again.
This is also where we say the number out loud: three to five years of focused effort before a franchise business pays out what you went in for. If that lands badly, better to know now.
This is the step most people skip when they search on their own, and skipping it is why most searches stall.
- 03
We do the work, you review it
A short list of brands
We go out and find franchises that fit the profile, then bring back a small number of them with our reasoning for each. A short list you can actually evaluate beats a catalogue you cannot.
We do not start from the product. Liking the food is not a business case.
- 04
You lead, we stay alongside
Introductions to the franchisors
We introduce you directly to the brands worth your time and you take the calls yourself. We tell you what to ask and what the answers usually mean.
The franchisor is selling. Knowing that going in changes how you listen.
- 05
The longest stretch
Validation and due diligence
You call existing franchisees and ask them what their weeks look like, what they earn, and what they wish they had known. You read the Franchise Disclosure Document. You talk to a franchise attorney and an accountant.
Be suspicious of any earnings claim that sounds impressive. If a brand leads with one, that tells you something.
- 06
Yours alone
Your decision
You decide, and we are still around afterwards. Several of the people quoted on the testimonials page came back years later with a question, which is the part of this job we like most.
What it costs
You pay us nothing. Here is who does.
Franchisors pay a referral fee when someone we introduce becomes an owner. That is how this business has worked for decades, and it is why our advice is free to you. The franchise costs you the same either way.
The part worth saying out loud is the incentive. We are paid when someone buys. You should ask any advisor how they are compensated, so we would rather answer it before you have to ask.
What it costs you in time
Four to six weeks from first conversation to decision, and around five to seven hours of your time in total. Spread across a month or so, that is an evening here and a phone call there.
The heaviest stretch is validation, when you are calling existing franchisees. That part cannot be delegated and should not be rushed. It is the best predictor of whether you will be happy two years in.
We are also both shareholders in FranChoice, the network we work through. You should know that, weigh it, and ask any advisor the equivalent question.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
What does this cost me?
Nothing, at any stage. There is no fee for the intro call, the profile work, the introductions, or the support through validation.
Then how do you get paid?
The franchisor pays us a referral fee if you end up buying one of their franchises. That fee is already built into the franchisor’s cost of finding owners, so the price of the franchise is the same whether you come through us or walk in off the street.
Worth knowing so you can weigh it: we are paid only when someone buys. It is a fair question to ask any advisor, and it is why we would rather tell you plainly than have you wonder.
What actually happens on the first call?
We ask what prompted you to look, what you do now, and roughly what you are able to invest. We explain how the process runs and answer whatever you want to ask. It takes about 15 minutes and there is nothing to prepare.
How long does the whole process take?
Two different clocks, and people tend to conflate them.
The investigation: four to six weeks from the first conversation to a decision, and about five to seven hours of your time across the whole of it. That is genuinely all it asks.
The build: three to five years before a franchise business pays out what you went in for. That is the number Dave sets with every candidate, and he says it early on purpose. If you are fifty and you put five focused years in, you have built something by fifty-five that can pay you back for the next twenty or thirty.
How much do I need to invest?
It depends almost entirely on the model, and the spread is wide.
- Owner operator concepts start around $75,000.
- Service brands generally run $120,000 to $300,000.
- Retail runs $400,000 to $600,000, and can climb to $1.3 million.
Those are total investment figures rather than the franchise fee alone, and they include the working capital you need to carry the business to profitability.
One thing holds across the market: be careful at the very bottom of the range. A great deal of what is advertised as a cheap franchise is a sales pitch rather than a business.
Is owning a franchise easier than my corporate job?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. It is a different kind of hard.
In a corporate role there is infrastructure underneath you. Payroll runs itself, HR exists, IT picks up the phone. In your own business you are the infrastructure. Every problem lands on your desk and there is nobody above you to escalate to.
That is not meant to put you off. It is meant to calibrate you, because the people who go in expecting a gentler life are the ones who struggle.
Surely a big-name brand is the safer bet?
It is the most common reason people give for wanting a franchise, and it is worth turning around. Brand awareness is a result rather than a starting point. It is what consistent execution produces over years, location by location.
So the question is not whether people recognise the name. It is whether the system reliably produces that consistency. There is also a practical catch: the well-known brand in the good neighbourhood already has an owner in that neighbourhood, so it is often not on the table anyway.
Do I need experience in the industry?
Usually not, and for many brands it is actively unhelpful. Franchisors train you in their system, and they would often rather teach someone with no habits to unlearn. What matters more is whether you can follow a system you did not design.
Can I keep my job while I do this?
Yes, through the whole search. Some franchises can also be run semi-absentee with a manager in place, so you keep the salary while the business establishes itself. That has to be a deliberate choice up front, because it narrows which brands make sense.
Can I buy with a partner or my spouse?
Most franchisors allow it. Some want the operating partner named on the agreement, some are relaxed about a purely financial partner. It is one of the first things we check against your short list.
How do I know I will not lose money?
You do not, and nobody honest will tell you otherwise. Franchising removes some of the ways a new business fails. It does not remove risk, and it does not do the work for you.
If anyone makes you an earnings promise, treat it as a warning about them rather than a reason to trust them.
What if I decide franchising is not for me?
Then you have your answer and it cost you nothing. We would rather you reach that conclusion in a few conversations with us than after signing something.
Not sure where to start? That is what the first call is for.
A 15-minute conversation, no cost, no obligation. We will tell you honestly whether franchising fits what you are after.
Whichever of us you pick, the call is the same.