Finding buyers and marketing a franchise

Brokers aren't all useless, but the ones who mostly sell independent restaurants won't know your franchise agreement from a hole in the wall. You need someone who has closed franchise resales before. Ask for their last 3 deals and call those sellers.

Honestly the franchisor's own approved-buyer list might be your best bet. They often have existing franchisees who want to expand. Have you asked them directly?

FizzBuzz_42 has a point, but be careful — if your franchisor thinks you're desperate, they might lowball or slow-walk the approval to push you into a cheaper sale. Keep your cards close.

Also, marketing a franchise is different from marketing a standalone shop. Buyers care about the transfer fee, remaining term, and whether the franchisor will let them remodel. Put those numbers front and center in any listing. Otherwise you get tire-kickers.

Good call on the transfer fee. It's 4% of sale price, which stings but whatever. And the remaining term is 7 years with one 5-year renewal option. I'll add that to the info packet. What about online marketplaces? BizBuySell etc.

BizBuySell is a dumpster fire for franchises. Half the listings are stale and the other half are vague. But it's cheap exposure. Just don't expect serious buyers.

Second that. I sold a sandwich franchise last year and got two real leads from BizBuySell out of maybe 40 inquiries. The rest were brokers fishing for listings. The actual buyer caume from a local franchisee Facebook group.

Local franchisee groups are underrated. Also, if your chain has a convention or regional meeting, go. People talk. I've seen more franchise sales happen at those things than on any website