While the franchise application form is the starting place for a small business person who may want to buy a franchise, it should only be a small part of the larger process.

It makes sense that you will have a franchise application form that becomes part of the package of forms that will be used to take a potential new franchise owner through the process of qualifying to own a piece of your business. On the surface, it might seem that the franchise application form has a very basic function. It would seem that it is similar to an application for employment that you are using to start evaluating whether an applicant will qualify to buy a franchise from you.  However, there may be another way to view the franchise application form differently that has an eye on the goal of making big money for your business through franchising.

Let’s step back and look at this thing called the franchise application form a different way.  When you decided to franchise your company, that decision was made with the goal of making a ton of money by expanding your business rapidly letting franchisers buy into the organization.  It is a sweet deal. You are able to open dozens, maybe hundreds of new outlets and let the franchise buyer to all the hard work selling your products while you sit back and let the cash roll in. And if that wasn’t sweet enough, you sell the franchise buyer the franchise in the first place for a nice chuck of change so they are giving you money for the right to make you more money.

Taken in that light, the franchise owner is not your employee at all.  He or she is a customer who is buying your product which in this case is a franchise of your business. Instead of seeing the franchise application form as a way to eliminate unqualified employees, see it as the first welcome mat to a new franchise buyer and one that ushers them into the process with warmth, humor and above all, plenty of franchise information.

When a franchise application form is not a franchise application form.

When you use the franchise application form like this, you can gather some basic facts about the franchise buyer but you do not design the form to make the potential franchise buyer feel judged at all. The language and feel of the franchise application form is designed to virtually read like a brochure to sell the idea of buying a franchise from you.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of other franchise documents that are going to be presented to the potential franchise owner.  They will be looking at sample franchise agreements, franchise disclosure documents and franchise operations manuals as well. Instead of putting so much emphasis on information gathering in the franchise application form, get enough information to make contact to sweetheart that potential franchise buyer in grand style.  Then you can use a series of interviews and franchise orientation meetings to gently coax the qualifying information from the potential franchise buyer.

Do not worry as much about disqualifying franchise buyers using a franchise application form early in the relationship.  Instead, put the emphasis on qualifying and bringing into the family as many potential investors as possible.  The process of working through the interviews and other franchise documents will flush out the bad eggs if you put your tests in the process so the buyers do not even know they are being evaluated.  Meanwhile, many more potential franchise buyers will make it through the screening process and be eager to give you their money to buy a franchise from you because you did not make the mistake of alienating them with a hostile or tedious franchise application form.