Become a Franchisor
Your concept works. Franchising it is a finance project.
Founders think of franchising as a marketing decision: a logo, a manual, a sales page. The buyers and their banks see a finance decision: unit economics that survive scrutiny, disclosure-grade financials, and a royalty model that leaves the franchisee fundable. Get the finance layer wrong and the system stalls at three units, every time.
We build the finance layer, and then we fund the franchisees who buy in. That second half is the part nobody else at the table offers.
The Gate
Most businesses are not ready to franchise. Some are.
The assessment runs three questions. Do the unit economics work for someone who is not you, after royalties, at a second-rate location, in a slow year? Can the operation be taught: documented well enough that a competent stranger replicates the result? And is there capital for the franchisor build itself, because selling franchises costs money before it makes any?
Two yeses and a no is a not-yet, and we say so with the gap named. Founders who franchise on top of thin unit economics do not get a growth story; they get litigation with their own franchisees. The gate exists to keep your name off that list.
The Build
Four pieces turn a business into a brand.
The Payoff
Your franchisees inherit the machine.
A franchise system lives or dies on whether its operators can finance units. Brands that partner with PFG hand every prospective franchisee a working desk: a financing assessment read against the system’s own numbers, CPA plans their lenders recognize, and accounting that keeps royalty reporting clean from month one. That is the machinery several established brands already route their franchisees through.
For a new franchisor it solves the cold-start problem: your first franchisees are your hardest, because no bank knows your system yet. A financing partner who built your disclosure financials can walk a lender through them. The brand sells the dream; we make the file underneath it fundable.
The Sequence
How a franchisor engagement runs.
Questions, answered
What founders ask us.
How do I know if my business is franchisable?
Three tests. Margins: the unit must pay an operator, the royalty, and debt service, and still produce a return at a location worse than your flagship. Teachability: if the result depends on you personally, you have a job, not yet a system. Capital: the franchisor build (structure, financials, legal, sales) costs real money before the first franchise fee arrives. The assessment scores all three and shows the math.
What financials do I need before selling franchises?
Disclosure-grade statements for the franchisor entity and defensible unit-level economics, because two audiences read them: prospective franchisees deciding whether to buy, and their lenders deciding whether to fund. CPA-prepared numbers from PMG are built for both reads. Weak or founder-prepared financials are the most common reason early systems cannot get their franchisees financed.
How should I set my royalty rate?
From the unit P&L upward, not from industry averages downward. The royalty has to fund the support you are promising and still leave the franchisee a business their lender will finance. A rate that looks great in your spreadsheet and breaks the franchisee’s debt service coverage has priced your system out of bank financing, and you will feel it as slow unit sales.
Who finances my first franchisees if no bank knows my brand?
This is the cold-start problem and the reason the flywheel matters. We finance them: the same desk that built your disclosure financials prepares and places their files, and can explain your system to a lender from the inside. Each funded unit adds history; by the time outside banks know your brand, the early operators are already open.
What does becoming a franchisor cost?
It is a scoped advisory engagement, quoted before it starts, with the legal work (franchise agreements, disclosure obligations) carried by franchise counsel we work alongside but do not replace. The honest budget conversation includes the costs after ours: sales, support, and the months before royalty revenue covers them. Anyone quoting you a single small number for the whole journey is selling a logo.
Find out if the system is ready to sell.
One assessment scores the unit economics, the teachability, and the capital plan, and ends in a verdict: build it now, or the named gaps that come first.
Franchisor development is scoped advisory work, quoted up front.