Your retail franchise agreement should be offered to the best of the best of the retailing world but how to you sort out the good from the bad?

The act of giving a retail franchise agreement to a franchise applicant is a risk for you and the future franchise owner as well. For the new franchise owner, a lot of money, time and effort goes into opening a new franchise outlet of your business. But when you franchise your company,  you want every one of your franchises to be a blockbuster success.  The key to making that happening is to go the second mile in checking out every one of those eager applicants who want to secure a retail franchise agreement from you.

There is a routine amount of due diligence that has to happen before you ever sit down to sign a franchise agreement with a new franchise owner. Part of the reason that the franchise application is such an involved document is that the franchise applicant has to show to you that they have the financial resources and the experience to take your retail franchise agreement and run with it and turn it into a major money making machine.

Don’t just take the information provided on the franchise application on face value before you offer a retail franchise agreement to that franchise applicant. You have every right to check out that the person who might sign that retail franchise agreement with your company to make sure they have the financial resources either on account or as viable credit accounts to carry off the size of transactions needed to start a new franchise.  You also have the right to check their resume, references and history of success in running a knock-your-socks-off retail outlet.  Running one of your franchises is no place for rookies and you want a seasoned old pro that can take that new franchise from start up to a hugely profitable franchise in the shortest time possible.

Double check who should get that retail franchise agreement before signing day.

When you sit down on the appointed day to grant a retail franchise agreement to that hopeful new franchise owner, you want to look across the table at someone you trust and someone you feel that you know.  The various ways to validate that each franchise applicant is up to snuff should be considered SOP or standard operating procedure whenever there is a retail franchise agreement on the table.

Take that SOP to the next level.  Do not find yourself in the position that the first time you lay eyes on that potential franchise owner is the day they take ownership of a fully operational retail franchise agreement.  Someone in authority in your business should meet with each franchise applicant sometime before that retail franchise agreement is finalized.

This is a great time to ask those subtle questions that will surface if this franchise applicant is excited about the challenge of putting that retail franchise agreement into action and has the confidence, the leadership skills and the many other personality traits of a great future franchise owner. If you do that and you did your due diligence before the singing of a retail franchise agreement, you and that new member of your franchising family are in for a long and very productive life together.