These are not normal times. Given what's happened to our capital markets, you'll need to have a clear idea of how much money will be available to you. Unless you're sitting on a mountain of cash, start this process early on because the answers can be quite different from what they were just a few months ago. For more on funding, review my previous article, " 3 Sources of Franchise Financing ."
Now then, if our franchise brand name and our business model was intriguing to that franchise buyer, then perhaps that's why they were there in front of us asking to buy the franchise the first place. We weren't obligated to try to sell anyone anything, they came to us, we didn't go out, and try to find them. This combative style of buyers often shows a sign of future problems. If you are going to do business with someone for the next 10 years, and work closely with them, and they are aggravating you, and challenging you in such a way from day-one, perhaps it might be wise to just walk away.
In this particular incident, I did walk away, I grabbed our brochures, and the franchise agreement and disclosure documents from that particular franchise buyer, and I got up and walked out. In other words, they didn't qualify to buy our franchise, I wasn't interested in selling them the franchise, and quite frankly they wouldn't fit good within our team.
We always had great franchisees with stellar personalities and high integrity - and yes we did have a few rogue franchisees, but over time we learned to look for signs to prevent this. When I saw those signs in various individuals and franchise buyers, I ended the sales process promptly. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on.
