Generally franchisors would require their franchisees to be the owner and the operator, which means that the investor needs to be full time involved. Funders as a rule have the same view as they need the operator to be vested in order to reduce risk, especially with larger businesses.

There are however smaller less complicated franchise models where the level off skill required to manage the business is not that high and such businesses can be manager run. In such instances, the investing franchise owner needs to understand the risks involved and accept that the manager needs to undergo the same Entrepreneurial Assessment process as would be required by the franchisee.

It would further be suggested that the manager has an equity interest in the business which could always be transferred back to the franchisee in the event of the business not achieving certain milestones. In order to proceed with the process, we suggest that both the investor franchisee as well as the manager goes through the application process with a view to consolidate once an opportunity has been identified.

As with any introduction in life, the party introduced to assumes that the person doing the introduction is acquainted with the person being introduced.

For this reason it is important for SA Franchise Warehouse to have a fair understanding of the profile of the candidate being introduced, not only to protect its own reputation with the franchisor but also to assess if such introduction could be potentially fruitful.

There are a number of personal attributes associated to an applicant which impact on a decision to introduce a candidate to one franchisor or another such as experience, education, age, gender, race, health, financial means, credit record, lifestyle, intended involvement, number of dependents, location, entrepreneurial flair, appetite for risk, communication skills and the list goes on.
Knowing a candidate better puts SA Franchise Warehouse in a position to make optimum recommendations.

Once the application is completed, it does not have to be recompiled for the franchisor or for a funder. It can even be transferred to another franchisor if need be.

The final argument is that the ability of a candidate to navigate his or her way through the application process demonstrates an ability to follow procedure - a very important characteristic any franchisor would be looking for in a franchisee. The successful completion of the five steps of this on-line application serves as a first step in convincing a franchisor that you are a team player and would respect the rules of the franchise business system.

Any application for funding pivots around two sets of information;
Personal information relating to the operator and the shareholders of the company that will apply for funding
Information on the business case (business plan), making reference to the brand, applicant approval from the franchisor, location details, set-up cost, profit projections, etc
It is not possible to submit an application, and get approval for funding, without the above mentioned information provided.

The challenge is how to approach a franchisor without any indication of whether you would be able to raise funding or not because you require the franchisor's cooperation in compiling a business plan in order to be able to apply for funding.
This is a chicken and egg situation and it is for that reason that most franchisors would require an applicant to provide proof of own cash contribution of 50% of establishment costs before engaging. The reason for this is that in case an applicant do have access to 50% own cash, the chances of funding being declined is smaller. Funding is never guaranteed with a 50% own contribution but the chance of decline is relative small if the brand is accepted by the funder.

The question is how do I approach a franchisor and what are my options if I do not have access to 50% unencumbered cash ?

In this instance we refer you to the top of the page where we explain how SA Franchise Warehouse can assist in the process of guiding you to a franchisor or brand we believe may suit your position or if you already have identified a brand, we can guide you in terms of funding options if we know more about you.
You are encouraged to register and proceed with the 5 Steps below which will put us in a strong position to be able to advise you on the way forward both in terms of choice of brand as well as funding.

SA Franchise Warehouse looks forward to your registration by clicking the REGISTER button at the bottom of this page.

A person's credit record is made up of various elements such as judgements, adverse entries, bounced payments and even loans in arrears. The extent to which these may impact on the decision of a funder depends on the circumstance.

Isolated smaller occurrences of undesirable financial behaviour, especially if they are not recent, will have a lesser impact on the decision but large judgements probably would.

Any funder has the view that if an individual is not capable of managing his or her personal finances properly, the changes of managing a business bank account in future, is small.

SA Franchise Warehouse would be able to advise if an individual's credit record would disqualify such person from any funding or if the circumstance could be explained to the funder. This could be done through registering at the bottom of the page and completing Steps 1 to 5 upon which we will revert with recommendations.

In some instances it is possible to "clean up" a bad credit record before an application for funding is submitted.