The Step Most Franchise Buyers Skip

Early in my time as a franchise owner, I made the same mistake most first-time buyers make. I treated franchisee validation as a formality instead of the most important step in the process. It cost me.

My wife and I ran a Pool Scouts franchise for two years. We were one of the top new franchisees in revenue. We also left after 2 years because it was the wrong fit for our lives at the time. A proper validation process would have surfaced that before we signed, and I carry that lesson into every client engagement I run today.

What That Step Is

Franchisee validation. Picking up the phone and calling existing franchisees to ask the questions that go unaddressed in any document the franchisor hands you.

Most first-time buyers either skip this entirely or treat it as a box check. They call one or two franchisees, have a pleasant surface-level conversation, and walk away feeling confident. That is a formality. It leaves the most important questions on the table.

What the FDD Tells You and What It Leaves Out

I want to be clear about what the FDD actually does and where it falls short, because I see people over-reliance on it constantly.

The Franchise Disclosure Document covers what the system requires, what fees look like, litigation history, and what Item 19 reports about financial performance when the franchisor opts to include it. 

Where it falls short:

• What it actually feels like to run this business in year three

• Whether the corporate support team responds when something genuinely goes wrong

• Whether the unit economics translate to a market like yours

• Whether franchisees who signed five years ago would sign again today

That picture only comes from the people inside the system.

What Proper Validation Actually Looks Like

Here is how I structure this for every client I work with. Proper validation is a structured process, not a casual conversation.

That last group, the exited franchisees, gets overlooked by most buyers. They are listed in the FDD. Calling them takes ten minutes and often surfaces the most useful information in the entire process.

Why Most Validation Conversations Fall Short

Two reasons most buyers walk away from these calls with surface-level answers.

First, preparation. Going in without a clear question list produces a general, pleasant conversation. The franchisee gives the same answer they give everyone who calls.

Second, interpretation. Even when a franchisee says something meaningful, the prospective buyer can miss it entirely. A vague answer to "would you buy in again" is a signal. An answer about corporate support that focuses on the training program and sidesteps what happens during an actual crisis is a signal. Recognizing these requires some experience with the process.

What Red Flags Actually Sound Like

Red flags in validation calls are rarely obvious. Here is what they actually sound like in practice:

• "The ramp was longer than I expected." Ask how much longer, and why.

• "Corporate is responsive, but they're busy." Ask what that looks like when you have an urgent, real problem.

• "The Item 19 numbers are accurate, but..." Follow the "but."

• Silence or hesitation before answering questions about profitability.

Red flags also live in what franchisees leave out. If you call ten owners and none of them mention unit economics on their own, that is worth examining.

How I Structure This with Clients

Part of what I do in my process is prepare clients specifically for these calls. That means developing the right question set for the specific brand they are evaluating, coaching them on how to interpret what they hear, and helping them recognize patterns across multiple conversations.

One call tells you very little. Patterns across 8 to 10 calls tell you a great deal. Getting that picture requires knowing what to ask and understanding what the answers actually mean.

This step is where the real due diligence happens. I watched myself skip it with my own franchise, and I can tell you firsthand that the buyers who prepare for it make very different decisions than the ones who treat it as a formality. Schedule a free introductory call here. Preparing clients for validation is one of the most valuable parts of the process, and it often changes what people decide to pursue entirely.