The truth is that I have a very strange Love/Hate relationship with the concept of franchising.

I have enjoyed and still enjoy very strong franchise relationships. 

I have also been misled and abused by members of the franchise community.

Reflecting on the many franchise agreements that I’ve entered into, I begin to see that this Love/Hate yoyo puts me in a unique position to help people all over the world who are considering signing a franchise agreement. 

I recently ran into some research by a Professor at Wayne State University, Timothy Bates.  In the early 90’s he studied approx. 20,000 business ventures.  His research found that 38% of franchises failed within the first four years. 

I realize that there are 1000’s of bad ways to run a business, and 1000’s of ways to fail…but the above statistic suggests that it is important to take a real hard look at any franchise agreement you are about to enter into. 

It is difficult to blame “franchising” in general for the above failure rates, but I’ve been told many times by franchise sales people about the research showing that 90% of franchises make it past the first year.  No one has ever mentioned the Bates research though.

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