Writing a business plan for a franchised outlet of a larger company to get funding or find investors is difficult because the franchisor already has a plan which is working, but until you are privy to it upon purchase you actually know relatively few details. The franchisor must keep this information proprietary to insure competitors do not steal the information, but the franchise buyer needs the information to prepare a business plan to get a loan from a bank. Thus a catch 22 exists and is further exacerbated by the fact there are laws against some types of disclosures, which many franchisors due to the litigious nature of franchising do not wish to disclose based on advice from their attorneys. So what do you do? Well, you do the best you can using the UFOC, uniform franchise offering circular or ask the franchisor to send in a business plan directly to your banker who, signs a waiver of non-disclosure and you cannot see it until purchase.
Yet if you are seeking private investors they will want to see a business plan and therefore you will have to try to put one together. I have bought 12 books on how to write a business plan with hundreds of complete business plans inside; none of the samples have anything to do with a franchised business. So, below please find a sample of an executive summary, which is the most important part of any business plan and probably for the most part all a banker will read. Some entrepreneurs accuse bankers of not being able to read and I am in that group. I recommend you read this and use it as a model to develop your own executive summary for your franchised business outlet business plan. This particular example was written for a mobile car wash franchise outlet, but serves as a fairly good example for you.
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The Car Wash Guys of Fairfax, VA is an owner/operator service firm. This will be a franchised business of Car Wash Guys International, Inc. This sole-proprietorship company is in the mobile car wash business.
Our mission is to achieve a minimum of 2.5% and a maximum of 10% market penetration while simultaneously uniting the entire community. To reach this goal we will use unique local and regional marketing tools provided by our franchisor who has much experience in this field.
Our franchisor has over twenty years of experience in the mobile washing industry. We will purchase from Car Wash Guys International, Inc. a turnkey business for $65,380. This purchase will include: