The 10-Step Franchise Evaluation Guide Every Emerging Founder Should Use

In this solo episode, I walk you through a 10-point franchise evaluation checklist you can use whether you’re a prospective franchisee deciding what to buy, or an emerging franchisor trying to pressure-test your own system.

Most brands don’t stall between 10 and 100 units because the concept is weak. They stall because the founder is drowning in chaos and the systems aren’t built yet. This checklist helps you cut through hype, get clarity fast, and make smarter decisions before time and money are on the line.

Key Takeaways

• Why your personal motivation matters more than the concept itself
• How to assess whether a model scales through systems and people, not hustle
• What to look for in market demand, industry outlook, and competitive landscape
• The real way to evaluate franchisor leadership and whether they have skin in the game
• How to validate startup support, ongoing infrastructure, and franchisee satisfaction
• Why transparency in discovery and FDD access is a non-negotiable trust signal
• How emerging brand founders can use this same list to identify weaknesses early
  
  

Time Stamps

• 00:00 Introduction: Defining Your Goals
• 00:12 The Franchise Scaleup Show: What to Expect
• 00:56 Franchise Evaluation Checklist
• 01:20 Motivation and Business Model
• 01:56 Market Demand and Company History
• 03:09 Leadership and Support
• 05:14 Franchise Fit and Validation
• 06:37 Reputation and Feedback
• 08:10 Advice for Emerging Brands
• 10:05 Conclusion and Next Steps

If this checklist helped you, don’t keep it to yourself.

Share this episode with one founder or franchise buyer who needs clarity. You might save them months of pain.

And if you’re ready to go deeper — whether that’s building support infrastructure, accelerating territory sales, or preparing for private equity — book your free Franchise Growth Strategy Call at guycoffey.com.

I only partner with founders who are committed to scaling without losing control. If that’s you, I’d love to connect.

Connect with Guy Coffey:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/guycoffey
Website: www.guycoffey.com
Instagram: @guycoffey
YouTube: @guycoffey

Transcript

0:00

Why are you getting into this? What are your top three goals? Is it lifestyle? Is it income? Is it growth? Is flexibility? Why are you doing this? Why are you considering it? Get really clear on that. If you're an emerging franchise founder, you already know this. The jump from 10 to 100 units is where most brands stall out, not because the concept isn't strong, but because the founder is drowning in chaos. I'm Gee, coffee franchisor, franchisee, and growth strategist. I've been where you are and I know what it takes to build a brand that scales without burning out, selling out, or losing control. That's why I created the Franchise Scaleup Show. Every week I'll share the playbooks, the red flags, and the mindset shifts that separate the brands that stall from the ones that scale. So if you're serious about protecting your vision and multiplying your brand, hit subscribe right now. This is the Franchise Scaleup Show. I'm Gee, coffee. Let's get to work. In this episode, I am going to provide a franchise checklist, evaluation checklist that people can use to evaluate franchise options that they have. At the end, I'll also share with how brand leaders can use the same checklist to help improve their system. So without further ado, I'm just gonna get into the checklist and go from there. Number one, your motivation. Your why. Why are you getting into this? What are your top three goals? Is it lifestyle? Is it income? Is it growth? Is flexibility? Why are you doing this? Why are you considering it? Get really clear on that. Number two. A franchise concept and business model. What is the core product or service? Who's the customer and what drives demand? Things like this, you have to ask yourself, is this model scalable through the systems, the people or, and not just more hustle because you're only gonna have so many hours in the day. Number three, market demand and industry outlook. Is it growing? Is it super stable? Or is it declining? Think of examples in your marketplace where you would see any of those. You know, what, what's growing, what's stable or declining? What? What drives demand for this, and what's the competitive landscape in your area for this particular product or service? Number four, the company history slash its track record. How long has a brand been operating and franchising? I don't really like to discount anything that hasn't been going for a long time because that's how you get on the emerging brand when it's smaller and growing. So don't discount it just because it's not old, but um. Look at how many units are open versus closed? Is it growing or is there attrition in the system? And has the brand been around to survive economic cycles and market changes and things like that. So just take that into account. But remember, emerging brands, which I particularly like aren't gonna have, they're not gonna check the box on on this particular question. So there's other questions that you can go deeper on. Number five, this is important. The franchisor leadership team, who leads the franchisor? Is it founders? Is it an executive team that was hired by a private equity company? Neither one is better or worse. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages. But are you gonna be working in the beginning with experienced founders, operators, or corporate builders? There's two different personalities, two different skill sets, and it's a different relationship. Um, you know. Does the, do the people that you're working with have skin in the game on this brand? Are they, um, what they call, uh, founding members of, of the team that have some skin in the game? Are they gonna benefit from this thing getting bigger and more and more successful, which means they're more invested into your success? Number six, the startup support and launch process. What does onboarding look like? What is their training? What is their site selection? What is their build out, what's their vendor sourcing? Um, get all that information so that you can compare apples to apples when you're looking at multiple systems. Number seven, the ongoing support and infrastructure. This is gonna be harder to find out when you're on the outside of the system. Unfortunately. So what you have to do is talk to people on the inside, but make sure there's dedicated support, team, field operations, marketing, vendor relations, things like that. Sometimes in smaller systems that might be, some of those things might be all, um. Under one person, you know, because they're, they're dealing with a small number of units to, to support, um, and they're trying to grow really, really efficiently. Doesn't mean it's bad, but find out who that person is and how they're doing. And the other thing, this is a key area for you to talk to current franchisees and see what their experience is with it. Always knowing that there's gonna be some franchisees that love the system and some that aren't performing well in the system for one reason or another. It could be the system's fault, it could be their fault, whatever. Um, but there's always gonna be naysayers. So don't discount something just because there's one or two comments that are negative. Um, number eight, has more to deal with you as a person and what you bring to the system rather than the other way around. And that's the franchise fit and the requirements to be a franchisee. So it's more than just the financial, although there's usually a liquidity and a net worth minimum for, for each system. But there's also things like your experience, your background. Do your skills match up with? What would, what it would take to really grow this business? And can you handle the daily operations or do you have really, really good experience managing a team? So those are things to consider the validation and discovery process. Do they provide full access to the disclosure documents, the p and l, the item 19? Um. Are you encouraged to speak to existing and former franchisees? You know, how transparent are they and what's it like to get information from them? If it's super easy and it's very clear, that's a good sign. This is a quick break to thank you for listening. Every week, we are getting more and more people listening to the show, and this growth is helping me to improve it and make it even more helpful to you. My intention for this show is to help more people win in business and life. To that end, I have a favor to ask. If you know of an entrepreneur that would benefit, please hit the share button and shoot them a text with the link back to the show. Make this a great day. Number 10, the reputation, the brand, and the franchisee feedback. We already touched on this with talking to franchisees, particularly for, what their experience has been. But, um, what are they saying about profitability? What are they saying about support? What are they saying about their overall satisfaction? Those are really important from. From your perspective to hear what people that are in the shoes that you're about to step into are having. But also what does the public say? What do the clients say? Are they raving about this brand or are they lukewarm or are they negative on it? So, take a look at that and, does this brand have a lot of momentum? Are they growing really fast? That's exciting. Um. You wanna get in on that early. But, it's a little bit more risky, but it's sometimes the excitement. I always call those people pioneers. Does the brand have staying power? Has it been around for a really, really long time? So it's like, hmm, okay, as long as I follow their recipe, it's, I'm gonna do fine. Um, you know, does it have some. Legitimacy or is it right now? Is it just hype? Because if all they're talking about is how fast they're growing, um, how many units they're selling or how many territories they're selling, to me, that's a red flag. It should be followed up by like, this is how many are opening and this is what's going on with the franchisees, and talk to some of the franchisees. So those are the 10 points to consider with the questions associated with them. Now. As you know, I'm not, I'm usually, I'm not a franchise consultant, meaning I don't. Go out and find brands and work for buyers to help them, put them in a brand or anything like that. There's a lot of people out there that do it. Some are excellent, um, and some are not just like any other industry. So be, very, very careful with who you choose on, on, on that decision point, I work more on the brand side. Work with emerging brands, founders, entrepreneur, leaders. In advisement and, investment and things like that. So normally I wouldn't have this list. But for specifically for prospective franchisees. But I also think this list is a fantastic thing for the leaders of an emerging brand to sit around a table at one of their meetings and go through this, this list and see how they would measure up. To what they think a real perspective franchisee would say, or what their current franchisees would say. And it's kind of a time to be super candid and vulnerable. And it's not a time to point fingers or anything, it's just a time to look at where you need to shore up. Every system has its areas that needs, needs improvement. So there's no shame in your game if you get through this list and you're like, wow, there's, there's a few points in here that we need to really work on. So I would encourage, um, emerging brand, um, leadership to also use this list as a way to, kind of assess your system from a different perspective. So whether you use this list as a prospective franchisee to good measure, I hope you do. Or if you're an emerging brand and you use it to kind of measure where you guys are right now. I hope that helps too. So something to consider here. Take a look at it and if there's anything I can do, always feel free to reach out to me directly. Thanks for listening. That wraps up today's episode of the Franchise Scale Up Show. This gave you a strategy you can put into play. Please share it with one founder who needs the help. You might save them months of pain. If you're ready to go deeper, whether it's building your support infrastructure, accelerating territory sales, or preparing for private equity, go to gee coffee.com. That's G-U-Y-C-O-F-F. EY and book a free franchise growth strategy call. I only partner with founders who are committed to scaling without losing control. If that's you, I'd love to connect. Until next time, protect your vision. Move fast and scale smart. I'm Gee, coffee Talk soon.