Assuming that a franchise candidate has found the system that matches their needs, their lifestyle, and they can see themselves owning that business, the questions of evaluating financial performance quickly arises.
Majority of people have little experience when it comes to buying a franchised business, new or existing.
They often heard that franchising is a safer way to go, and; once they identify a franchise, they expect for financials to sort of "fall into place".
Franchise buyers often get confused by the numbers presented to them during the due diligence process.
During discussion with the franchisor and current franchisees they get exposed to all kinds of convoluted data and quickly become confused and hesitant.
They start to realize that each franchise owner, even in the same system, has a number of circumstances (costs, location, taxes etc.
) that make that business look, financially, different from the rest of units in that system.
There is a way to cut to through most of that.
In my experience, the key to evaluating most businesses is the ability to identify key metrics (preferably one) that drive the business under evaluation.
For example, in most large retail clothing stores, it could be revenue per square foot.
In most fast food businesses it maybe customers per day/week/month (assuming you know average sale numbers per customer).
In service businesses, it's probably revenue per customer.
In marketing franchises, it's likely revenue per ad/placement.
Once that one key number has been identified it is relatively easy to use those findings in building a basic cash flow spreadsheet on the way to incorporating it into an all-around business plan.
Most importantly, that key metric will enable the potential franchise candidates to compare stores in the same franchise system to one another.
Plus, it will provide them with key to understanding what drives that particular franchised business.