Being Franchise Consultants, Francorp has become an expert in recognizing the good and bad traits of franchisees. In fact, Francorp Consulting and DePaul University conducted a survey of franchisors to gain more insight into what they were looking for in their franchisees and which characteristics were most critical to their success.

Eagerness to Learn
For a franchise system to be successful, Franchisors need to teach their systems of doing business to the franchisees. Having franchisees be open to learning the system of doing business that has made the franchise program successful is critical.

Willing to Work Long Hours
There is no easy road to success. Running a franchise business is hard work and franchisees that expect to achieve success should anticipate that their involvement is critical especially during the early days of operating their business. It is this fact that makes this number two in the list of important traits that franchisors look for.

People Skills
As a franchise business owner, you will have interactions with several groups of people whether they are clients, customers, suppliers, employees, or franchisor personnel. This means that you will need to be able to communicate your needs and wants in a wide variety of situations. This not only means the ability to communicate it also means the ability to listen. Accordingly, franchisors look for individuals who are at least somewhat outgoing, communicative, and able to instill confidence in those around them. The good news is that this skill, as rare as it may be, can be taught.

Sales Ability
Whether it is pizzas, pets, or web sites, every franchise sells something. Franchisees need some level of sales ability. Again, this is a skill that can be learned - just notice how many sales seminars are conducted every year.

Resistence to Stress
Before running a franchise business becomes second nature, a franchisee is likely to face many stressful days with customers, paperwork, and employees. Franchisors know that being a franchisee is often stressful, which is why want to know how well their franchise candidates handle stress. (This is another skill that can be learned and probably should be by most businesspeople!)

Ability to Take Directions
In franchising, faith and trust must be placed in the methods the franchisor has developed; directions and requirements are not made capriciously, but rather to benefit the franchisee and the rest of the franchise system. Consequently, franchisees must be able to subordinate many of their personal opinions and desires to those of the franchisor. For example, an unyielding "my way or the highway" type of person who chafes at taking suggestion or orders is not a good candidate to become a successful franchisee.

Having Money in Reserve
This may contradict the common perception of a franchisee that has his "last dime" invested in his business (and, therefore, in himself), but it just makes good business sense. Yes, franchisors want their franchisees to be committed, personally and financially, to the success of their units. But they also want the franchisee to be able financially to weather any hard times, either early on in the life of a particular unit or during an uncontrollable economic downturn. A franchisee with some money in reserve will be better able to deal with any hard times that may be encountered. Adapted from How to Buy and Manage a Franchise by Joe Mancuso and Don Boroian