Contacting other franchisees
Oct 10 2007
It is reasonable to ask, but not all franchisors will allow this. It can be for good reasons, such as a rotation system to make sure that each franchisee does not have to answer questions too often.
However, if you are refused a full list, you should always ask why, because there is the potential that unhappy franchisees are being hidden. It is normal to have at least a couple of unhappy franchisees in a network, just because of individual personalities and success rates, but you do need to find out if there is a widespread problem. It might be worth asking to see the financial results of the worst and best performing franchisees even if you can not speak to them.