Franchise validation
Franchise validation is the process of interviewing franchise owners by someone who is interested in investing in that franchise. It is a best practice for prospective franchise owners. During the validation process, the prospect franchisee conducts Interviews with current franchise owners. As an alternative, there are companies and consultants that provide validation services for prospective owners.. Self validation. For prospective franchisees doing their own valuation, the first step is to contact the franchise owners. Contacting franchises can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience because franchisees are typically busy people. As a consequence, many prospective owners drop the  validation process. However, once contacted, many franchisees will openly and honestly share the lessons they've learned. A prospect should expect some negative feedback from franchise owners in interview. These perspectives can help prospects identify potential pitfalls and set appropriate expectations. Some of the topics for a franchisee interview include: Validation services and consultants. It can be difficult to get a hold of enough franchisees to gather enough information for a proper validation process. Many franchise systems recognize this and hire third party validation services to assist their prospects through this stage. These validation services survey existing franchisees about their  satisfaction on a wide variety of topics and publish the results. Typically the information provided by the service answers many questions for the prospect who can then focus energies finding answers to more specific questions, saving time and effort with all parties involved. Be certain to review the methodology used by the research company before using the data for making decisions. There are franchise consultants who as part of their services will arrange for phone calls with franchisees not presented by the franchisors. Generally franchisors will facilitate introductions to franchisees that our performing well and have a positive working relationship  with the franchisor. A consultant can also arrange phone calls with franchisees who have left the system due to non-renewal (after the initial franchise term), closed location or sold their franchise to someone else. Speaking to current franchises and former franchises is important for franchises especially those that are investing a significant amount of capital into the franchise.