The Dark Side of Franchising: How to Avoid Being Swindled and Make an Educated Buying Decision

I’ve been a fan of Robert Edwards YouTube channel for years, finding his focused critical analysis of franchises to be informative and fun. My career isn’t franchise focused, nor would I ever buy one, but I find his point of view on technical details to be refreshing. His whimsical, acerbic tone is a hard line to walk, but is alive within this title as well.“The Dark Side of Franchising” sounds ominous, if not a bit melodramatic. But after reading this book, I actually think it underplays the threat bad consultants and franchises play in purposefully leading uninformed investors to ruin. It really could destroy a person’s life if they aren’t very careful.Edwards uses a common business book parable style, telling the story of Susan who is searching to own a business and the calamity that befalls her. She gets sold to by a shady consultant, lied to about key details, signs documents that both bind her while making her an indentured servant, ending in disaster.There is a “can you believe this” tone throughout, because it really is shocking. Franchise 500 is mostly marketing? Leading franchise books are really pay to play? 98% of franchises succeed came from the 1980’s (40 years ago) and is really about franchise happiness? There is really no oversight in this industry?It concludes by teaching you how to be a smart investor. What mistakes to avoid. How to find and read a FDD. How to make an educated decision, while understanding that even a smart call can lead to ruin. Don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose.This book was a fun, surprising read. While many of these individual topics are covered on his YouTube channel as individual videos, they align nicely here to paint a clear picture of the actual danger here. The content is focused and well edited, never staying too long on a topic.My only content hope would be that he could speak without the layer of anonymity for both franchises and for the industry. I understand why as people can be quite litigious, but in the cases where tangible examples are used it elevates the point. Baskin Robins is 13 on the Franchise 500 but makes the lowest revenue? Crazy! Franchise 500 is decided on by an English major and an SEO guru? Absurd! I wish I could say the same for the top list books or the association which pumps out bad consultants. While they may be trademarked, there are ways around this that would give this weight without needing to decode the meaning here.My only editing recommendation (as of 11/16/20) would be to run this through a proofer to fix up some of the rough patches. There are spelling errors throughout, an overuse of “quotation marks” in the first few chapters, multiple paragraphs in a row that start with ‘And’ alongside other challenges. These don’t ruin the book, but are noticeable and having someone take a second pass at this could smooth out the bumps in this first edition.This was a wonderful, insightful read. Thanks to Robert and team for creating and I hope it helps spread the word about the current reality of franchising systems!

Great book for those intrigued by the world of franchising but looking for a realistic view of the pitfalls. With so many people out there with a vested interest in having investors "drink the kool-aid" and jump in with only a rosey view to guide them, this is some necessary cold water to cool off your red-hot excitement!Bottom line, if you are focused on franchising... This is a sobering look but a great opening tool to give you the other side of the coin. If you are smart, it wont deter you but prepare you for the next step!

As someone new to Franchising, this was a refreshing quick read to understand what to look for and what Franchisers or Brokers wont tell you. The read is easy and informative and offers just what it says on the cover.If your like me and want to know as much as you can before getting into "territories" unknown, this book will give you insight in case you come along a shady brand.

It’s a relatively quick read, but it is straight to the point. Franchises can be a dangerous investment. The Agreement is stacked against you and favors the franchiser. You are putting up all the money, taking all the risk and personally guaranteeing everything. Buyer beware.

This book is a must-read for anybody considering purchasing a franchise. Seriously, a must read.It's not intended to scare you away from franchising (though in many cases, perhaps one should be scared away from such) -- after all, the author runs a business focused largely on advising individuals on franchise purchases, and making money from commissions when they do make such purchases. But the book will open your eyes as to what to look for, and to look out for, and generally educate you on franchising and the franchise sales process.It will also open your eyes as to stark differences in profitability across different franchise/business types--which is likely to be valuable even if you are looking to buy (or build) a business that's not a franchise. Not that this book itself provides comprehensive data on such, it's really more by way of example, but it may motivate you to research such, and looking at franchise data for a target industry might be illuminating.