Seriously Looking Into Buying an Existing Franchise.

[ary]

I'm currently in the due diligence stage in buying an existing Franchise that is 20 Years old that is in the business of Leather and Vinyl Repair.
The current owner just concentrates on Furniture repair, but the market and is vast as I would be able to scale it to do Boats, Restaurants, Vehicles, Airplanes, etc.
My main concern with this business is that I want to be able to scale it to a Million dollar business, but I don't see any anyone that has done that.

I would love to get some thoughts on this and also see if anyone has any experience with business such as this.

Thank you.

 

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[Bounce Back]

Why?

What are the numbers and is it hands off? Would you be just buying a job really and one that pays some franchise or locked into certain things (material vendors, operating areas, etc.) by being part of a franchise?

I've learned (having been part of one and selling that business) that you really could learn everything a franchise is going to teach you on youtube or even pay someone to teach you from another market where they don't think you will be their competitor. Then you owe no one anything and are free to do as you wish.

 

[ary]

Why?

What are the numbers and is it hands off? Would you be just buying a job really and one that pays some franchise or locked into certain things (material vendors, operating areas, etc.) by being part of a franchise?

I've learned (having been part of one and selling that business) that you really could learn everything a franchise is going to teach you on youtube or even pay someone to teach you from another market where they don't think you will be their competitor. Then you owe no one anything and are free to do as you wish.

Thank you for your reply.

The numbers are not that great, but the person is nearing retirement age and scaled back the business quite a bit. It's not hands off unless I hire a technician which is my plan.

My thoughts are right in line with what you said regarding starting your own. I'm considering the Franchise model or this particular Franchise because of he amount of time its been in business and the name recognition which could help me land big commercial accounts. Plus the support from other Franchisers I think is good and believe it can accelerate my success. What are your thoughts?

As an ex Franchise owner you didn't see any benefits?

 

[Bounce Back]

I could ramble for a long time and it really there is no point as it is highly specific to the industry and franchise but for me I very quickly grew out of any benefit the franchise provided it very quickly became something that held me back in some ways. Not saying there wasn't some nice elements of it but not worth the cost of the franchise fee, limits on what I could do, control of my marketing, a cut of my sales, etc.

Anyways especially if you are saying this is a one-man show currently I'd personally run away from this.

Sounds like you are buying a job from day 1 in an industry that it appears you don't know yet (assumption on my part). If you step back from being excited about this for the concepts it represents to you and think about it like a complete outsider I think common sense says nobody is buying leather repair based off of "name/brand recognition" and most are probably not even repeat buyers enough to care anyways. Then whatever recognition/repeat there would be are most likely going to be based off the guy's previous quality/keeping his word and guess what? You'd be Mr. New Guy who they have no relationship with anyways.

 

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[smackenzie]

I agree with @Bounce Back,

Sounds like you are buying a job from day 1 in an industry that it appears you don't know yet (assumption on my part). If you step back from being excited about this for the concepts it represents to you and think about it like a complete outsider I think common sense says nobody is buying leather repair based off of "name/brand recognition" and most are probably not even repeat buyers enough to care anyways. Then whatever recognition/repeat there would be are most likely going to be based off the guy's previous quality/keeping his word and guess what? You'd be Mr. New Guy who they have no relationship with anyways.

If leather repair isn't your dream gig, maybe take a step back and look at what really excites you about the idea of the business, especially if it's not making much money.

If leather repair is your thing, you'd be better off hiring the guy as a consultant (after he's sold the business of course) and use his name, with permission, to build a reputation/relationship.

Paraphrasing here: A franchise will always fail the commandment of control, unless you're the one selling them.