Coffee and Analytics: Do Younger People Buy Franchises Faster?

This month, I DECIDED to focus on what I believe to be the second largest hurdle when it comes to buying a franchise: the decision (the first being you want to even consider buying a franchise, period).

The decision is something I watch a lot of humans struggle with – not just franchisees. Where should we go for lunch? What time do you want to leave? Should we do this? When faced with making a decision, even the simplest of ones, the most commonly used phrase is, “I don’t know, what do you want to do?”

So, how can buying a franchise become an easier and/or faster decision making process? And who should we target for age demographics?

Before looking at the data, let’s recognize that a franchise is arguably the most complex thing for a human to buy. They are going to invest their life savings into a brand they have little to no control over and during the buying process are only provided financial information within the FDD, specifically, Item 19, where limitations and marketing adjustments could have been made. Oh, and along the way, should they use a broker coach, many have told them they coach for free – earning fake trust that is then never corrected through the buying process. 

Get it? It is tough.

And you thought deciding what you wanted to eat for dinner was tough.

I think through my own decision making process. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t need a ton of time to make a decision. Maybe that’s because it’s the career I chose. I have to be the leader. I am quick with what’s for dinner but easy should someone else make it. The blind spot for me, however, is if my decision is too fast there is plenty of room for errors.

I once invested in a business too quickly without truly vetting the founder I was investing in. My speedy trigger has given me tremendous experience that I have used in my next decision – this, however, is not a luxury for many franchisees. They MUST get it right.

So, decisions. I went back to our data with two questions in mind. How fast are people going from impressions to inquiry (not purchase) over the last month; and secondly, what is the age of those decisions?

Below 40 (42.8 week average - if you remove the 3 over a year, 4.5 week average)

• 20, 1 week, low investment
• 24, 1 month, low investment
• 32, 4 months, low investment
• 35, 1 month, low investment
• 37, 1 week, low investment
• 23, 1 month, high investment
• 23, 2 weeks, high investment
• 30, 2 years, high investment
• 35, 2 years, high investment
• 39, 3 years, high investment

40-50 (57.2 week average - if you remove the 2 over a year, 11.875 week average)

• 40, 4 months, low investment
• 41, 1 year, high investment 
• 44, 1 month, low investment
• 44, 3 months, low investment
• 44, 3 months, low investment
• 39, 3 years, high investment
• 42, 6 months, high investment
• 42, 2 months, high investment
• 44, 1 month, high investment
• 49, 3 months, high investment

50+ (122.4 week average)

• 50, 1 year, low investment
• 53, 6 months, low investment
• 55, 5 years, low investment
• 60, 3 years, low investment
• 62, 3 years, low investment
• 50, 2 years, high investment
• 50, 2 years, high investment
• 53, 5 years, high investment
• 56, 2 years, high investment
• 57, 2 years, high investment

So, it’s easy to conclude that younger folks are quicker than older folks to decide on franchising. Perhaps this is because more life/career experience creates more complexity to making the giant life change. Now, this is where the unfortunate part of the data comes. This is to sell a franchise, not to drive great royalty. Because what this data doesn’t do is connect performance and scale with the individuals. Thus, if 50+ makes franchisors 10X, wouldn’t they be willing to wait longer for the right candidate? Perhaps not.