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Franchise Financial Performance

Written by: Sebastien Page

Article Overview: Your status as either a potential purchaser or merely a curious member of the public partially determines the amount and quality of information you'll be able to discover about the financial performance of a specific franchise. Potential purchasers are able to find out about a franchise's financial performance via the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Franchise and Business Opportunity Rule. Under the Franchise and Business Opportunity Rule, franchisors are required to make a series of detailed disclosures to potential purchasers, either in the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) form or in the form provided by the rule.

Franchise Financial Performance

Your status as either a potential purchaser or merely a curious member of the public partially determines the amount and quality of information you'll be able to discover about the financial performance of a specific franchise. Potential purchasers are able to find out about a franchise's financial performance via the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Franchise and Business Opportunity Rule.

Under the Franchise and Business Opportunity Rule, franchisors are required to make a series of detailed disclosures to potential purchasers, either in the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) form or in the form provided by the rule.

There are three basic parts in a UFOC:
1) 23 sections that describe the aspects of the franchise program.
2) A set of the franchisor's audited financial statements.
3) A copy of every form or contract you will sign if you decide to purchase the contract.

The rule requires companies to include a list of the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of at least 10 recent purchasers geographically closest to a potential franchisee in their disclosures – this way, the franchisee can obtain legitimate references. Once you have this information, you will be able to contact recent purchasers and ask them questions regarding the financial performance of the franchise you are looking into.

Be aware that the FTC does not require that disclosure statements be filed. While franchisors do provide information to potential purchasers, they are not required to file that information with the FTC. It is possible, then, that only a potential purchaser would be able to obtain detailed information about a particular franchise.

However, even if you are unable to glean information from the FTC because you are not a potential purchaser of a franchise, it may still be possible to find the information you're seeking if that franchisor has filed a UFOC. Fifteen states require franchisors to provide presale disclosures, and most of these states do not provide copies of these disclosures but permit review of the documents in person by appointment.

These states are:
California (filing required)
Hawaii (filing required)
Illinois (filing required)
Indiana (filing required)
Maryland (filing required)
Michigan (only notice required)
Minnesota (filing required)
New York (filing required)
North Dakota (filing required)
Oregon (UFOC filing not required)
Rhode Island (filing required)
South Dakota (filing required)
Virginia (filing required)
Washington (filing required)
Wisconsin (filing required)

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  Franchise Solutions Named a Top 5 Portal for Overall Performance and Lead Quality by Franchise Benchmark
  How to Finance Your Franchise Business Opportunity

Article Tags: business opportunity, curious member, disclosure statements, disclosures, federal trade commission, financial performance, financial statements, franchise program, franchisee, franchisor, franchisors, ftc, purchaser, telephone numbers, uniform franchise



Related Forum Posts
Re: Enticing Franchises - Top 9 List - All Franchise listed above are in millions of dollars. Do you have the list of Franchise in thousands
Re: Info for would be franchisers... - [quote="Sebastien":1d29sdv1]Like Franchise Times, Franchise Update is a very practical magazine. There is no blah blah, just straight facts that anyone in the franchise community can relate to. I just want to mention that all these magazines are NOT franchisee oriented. I mean these magazines are for franchise professionals. If you're looking to buy a franchise, you won't find much information in there. To answer your question, getting published in Franchise Times was fairly easy. I don't want to brag too much but I think I am known in the franchise industry. I was the marketing guy at Franchise.com for a few years before joining my new company, the World Franchising Network. So people know me and I have a very good relationship with Nancy Weingartner, the Managing Editor at Franchise Times. I was talking with her at the last Franchise Expo South in Miami and she mentioned she'd like me to be profiled. I was like "ok, sure!". I like this franchise executive profile thing in Franchise Times as it is rarely BS. People are usually really natural in there.[/quote:1d29sdv1] Thanks for the follow up Sebastien! And I can't say that I'm surprised that networking with the right people and managing your relationships with them properly are the keys to being published. I guess the old adage holds true of "it's not who you know, but who knows you" that's important.
how much for a franchise fee? - Dear Colleague There is no easy answer to this question. Things to consider: [list=] The sizeof the Franchise Clent base Expected Turnover Intellectual Property costs (recoup) Number of Franchises Number of employees Original Set up costs Franchise admin costs An example: A franchise that I was involved in setting was to a simple "lawn mowing/home repair" franchise. The Franchise included national/local advertising - preparation of client lists - general admin - central accounting etc The Franchise involved 300-500 clients - and an annual turnover of about $300,000 . The annual franchise fee was $30,000. Hope that this gives you some idea Take care Ian[/list]
These maybe the coldest franchises out there: - Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops. WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure % 1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56% 2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94% 3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18% 4 COPY CLUB 36.36% 5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71% 6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71% 7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59% 8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78% 9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48% 10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33% 11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33% 12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33% 13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33% 14 BLIMPIE 31.39% 15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77% Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
Re: Franchise Surveys - Another good tool to researching a franchise is to speak with their existing franchisees. This contact information is included in most Franchise Disclosure Documents. In order to get a Franchise Disclosure Document or FDD as it is often referred to, you will have to complete a basic franchise application. The franchisor will then usually provide you with the FDD at that time. Included in that book of information is a list of the existing franchisees, the contract, the investment information etc... This information is required by Federal Law to be disclosed to your prior to making a purchase. So be sure to do your research and start with the Franchise Documents to get the initial information.


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