Article on Business Expereince of UFOC

UFOC sections on Business experience and bankruptcy

Business experience:

In this section of the UFOC will be the various business experiences of the major players in the corporate office. These include directors, trustees and general partners. Additionally principal officers and other executives or subfranchisors with management responsibility. Each person should have principal occupation and employers for last five years. Principal Officers include the chief executive and chief operating officer, the president, financial, franchise marketing, training and franchise operations officers.

It’s important that as a prospective franchisee you enter a system which is successful. A large part of this success will be down to the experience of the people at the corporate office. This section of the UFOC will give a brief synopsis of each of the major corporate people outlining their individual experience. When buying into a franchise also look at when they began franchising. General business experience is good, but specific franchise experience is very important. The UFOC may not always show this so always remember to check when a company began franchising. Be very wary of any real new system as there may be a lot of problems with it.

According to Franchising 101 there are a number of things to consider when looking at this section of the UFOC.
• What level of experience do the franchisor’s personnel have in franchising?
• How experienced are they in the industry?
• What is the support network like?
• Is the franchise system built around the founder?
• Try and find ways to check out business experience prior to those initial five years?
• Independently research the franchise, don’t just take their word for it.