Know-How Exchange : Other

Other than the franchise shows and magazines, I don't know what the "usual channels" are for selling franchises, so I don't know if these are fresh ideas -

... but if I were trying to sell such a franchise, I'd call Bill Gaul of The Destiny Group (I'd done a small project for him some time ago...).

Bill helps veterans transition to the workforce, and has a number of informative and helpful sites... including information about franchises. It seems to me that this sort of opportunity could be idea for a retiring veteran... and they represent a large class of folk who are looking for something to do and a place to live... he's a helpful sort of fellow, and well connected... and so if this is a great opportunity, he can probably help you get the word out.

... along a similar line, outplacement agencies could be worth a call... as well as retirement counsellors in the Federal Government... as well as personnel offices of large companies offering bonuses for early retirement...

Tell Bill I said hi... his site is https://www.destinygrp.com/destiny/index.jsp
Good luck.

Well, the first thing I would do is to go to other current Carvel franchise owners and see who wants to double their business.

I am also in thinkmor's camp ... if this is really going for less than $100k, which is $300k less than a new one (?????!!!!!!!!), then there must be something seriously wrong.

So if there are no other current Carvel or maybe even Subway franchise owners who are not interested (and if this is the case, there must be something really, really wrong), the next thing I would do is:

Raise the price. A lot.

I just read the rest of thinkmor's response, and I think he is saying the same thing. If you found a $400,000 house in seemingly great condition going for less than $100,000 what would you do? Some jump at it, others would never touch it, thinking there was something wrong. Remove the image of there being a problem, and maybe this sells a lot faster.

If that does not work, then get the owners to get a "due dilligence" done on the business. This will help your unqualified leads to become qualified at banks ... if they have this in their hands when they go for financing, there should be no way they will get turned down, unless they have a terrible credit history.

A decent broker should not have a problem selling this, their email distribution list should already contain several buyers.

Cheers!

Randall,
A good place to sell a business like this is by networking with the folks who handle outplacement of high power sales and executives. I have worked with these people in setting values for distributors and dealer organizations. There still seems to be a lot of these guys floating around.

Randall

Have you read the franchise agreement your friends signed when they bought the place? Maybe there's a "put" option back to the head office of Carvel?

If it's profitable, but it really isn't working out the way they wanted, I'm sure the company would take it back at a good price to give them the opportunity to resell it to another punter at full price... That way Carvel gets two licks of the ice cream!

If it isn't as profitable as it was represented to be in the pro-forma disclosures, they may be able to force Carvel to take it back anyway and refund their purchase price.

Worth investigating... Sometimes those lawyers can be on your side too, you know...

Cheers good buddy.

Chris B