Validation: the step most franchise candidates rush

There's a step in the franchise evaluation process called validation, and it's the single most underused tool candidates have. It's simple: you call existing franchisees and ask them what ownership is actually like. And yet I regularly meet people who are ready to sign before they've made more than one or two of those calls.

Why this step gets skipped

Part of it is momentum. By the time someone reaches validation, they've already spent weeks getting excited about a concept, and picking up the phone to hear something that might complicate that excitement is uncomfortable. Part of it is simply not knowing how many calls is enough, or what to ask once you're on the phone. I get it. Nobody teaches you how to do this before you're doing it for the first time.

Talk to more people than the franchisor suggests

Franchisors will often give you a starter list of franchisees to call. That's a reasonable place to begin, but it shouldn't be where you end. I encourage candidates to ask for a broader list, including newer franchisees and ones who've been in the system for years, in different markets, with different backgrounds. A pattern that shows up across ten conversations tells you something. A pattern that shows up in two curated conversations tells you a lot less.

What to actually ask

The most useful validation questions aren't about revenue, though people always want to start there. They're about the day-to-day: What does a typical week actually look like? What surprised you after you opened? What do you wish you'd known before you signed? How responsive is the franchisor when something goes wrong? Would you buy this franchise again, knowing what you know now? That last question, in particular, tends to produce the most honest answer of the whole conversation. I keep a fuller list in Twelve questions to ask an existing franchise owner.

Franchisees are more candid than people expect

This surprises so many candidates: franchisees tend to be straightforward about the hard parts. They're not being paid to sell you on anything, and most of them remember what it was like to be in your seat, trying to make this decision with incomplete information. The honest ones will tell you about a rough first year, a vendor issue, a market that underperformed expectations. That's not a red flag. That's the process working the way it's supposed to.

What a strong validation process actually protects you from

Validation isn't there to talk you out of the deal. It's there to make sure the picture in your head matches reality before there's a signature involved. Sometimes that confirms everything you were hoping for. Sometimes it surfaces a concern that changes the decision entirely. While going through the process myself, I eliminated several franchises based on my conversations with franchisees. Either outcome is a win, because you found out before instead of after.

A question worth asking

What are franchise validation calls?

Validation calls are conversations with current or former franchise owners about their actual experiences. They help prospective owners test what they have heard from the franchisor and better understand operations, support, and challenges.

I ran three franchises myself, and I remember exactly what it felt like to be the person other prospective owners were calling for validation. I always tried to give it to them straight, because I knew what it was like to be on the other end of that phone, trying to figure out if I was about to make the right decision. That's the same standard I hold candidates to now: talk to enough people, ask the real questions, and let the answers do their job. Let's talk.