How I Bought the Wrong Franchise So You Don’t Have To

With roughly 8,000 franchises on the market, finding the one that fits your life is a genuinely hard problem — and the wrong pick can cost you years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. On this episode of Unscripted Small Business, host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower talks with Rich Potter, a franchise consultant who runs Franchise Heroes and represents more than 500 franchise concepts across 37 industries.

Rich learned the value of a guide the hard way: he bought a gym on his own in 2019, discovered it didn’t fit his life, and sold it within nine months. Now he helps 15 to 20 people a year avoid that exact friction — matching them to the right industry, the right model, and the right everything.

What a Franchise Consultant Actually Does

Rich’s first job isn’t to sell you a franchise — it’s to figure out whether franchising is right for you at all, then use budget, personality, experience, and a science-backed entrepreneurial assessment to narrow the field. The goal is to avoid the sinking feeling of realizing you bought the wrong business.

“There’s like 8,000 franchises out there. So trying to find the right one for yourself on your own can be very difficult.” — Rich Potter

“Not everybody’s fit to own and operate a franchise. Some people are just better being employees. Some people are better doing a startup. But franchising for a lot of people is the right way to go, just because of the support and the trainings and everything that comes along with it.” — Rich Potter

The Biggest Myth: Franchising Isn’t Just Food and Beverage

The assumption Rich busts most often is that franchising means McDonald’s and Subway. In reality there are more franchises outside food and beverage than in it — and the big-name brands are often the worst financial bet. He also pushes back on the idea that you need half a million dollars to start.

“It’s gonna cost you $2 million to buy a McDonald’s. You’ll be lucky if you net 80, $90,000 a year on something like that. I can show you a franchise that’s 150,000, 200,000, and you’re gonna make a lot more than you would with a McDonald’s.” — Rich Potter

“There’s a lot of really good ones that you can start for under $200,000. There’s even some you can start for under $100,000. And you can replace your really good corporate income within a year or two.” — Rich Potter

Buying the Wrong Franchise: A Cautionary Tale

Rich’s own story is the reason he does this work. He bought a local Snap Fitness as a resale in early 2019 — no broker, little research — and although he loved fitness, gym ownership didn’t fit the life he was building. He sold it by the end of the year, and becoming a consultant eventually turned him into a franchise owner again.

“You can definitely tell when you buy the wrong business. It’s got to fit your skills and your personality and the type of lifestyle you want to create around this.” — Rich Potter

“As is the occupational hazard that we hear about when you start becoming a franchise consultant, you end up being a franchise owner eventually.” — Rich Potter

Who Actually Thrives as a Franchise Owner

Two profiles stand out to Rich: veterans, who are trained to operate within a system, and burnt-out executives who are ready to make money for themselves instead of for someone else. The common thread is a willingness to follow the playbook.

“I’ve actually found that veterans make incredible franchise owners. I think the stat is something like one in seven franchise owners are veterans. So franchisors love veterans because they’re used to operating within a system.” — Rich Potter

“If you’re well-capitalized, you have the right amount of money, and if you follow the playbook, it’s going to work.” — Rich Potter

Why Home-Based Beats Brick-and-Mortar

Rich steers most clients away from full retail build-outs and food and beverage toward low-overhead, home-based, and mobile models — a shift COVID accelerated. Lower overhead means a faster return on investment and quicker profitability.

“A lot of these businesses can be run home-based, so your overhead’s low. You can get a return on your investment a lot faster. You can get profitable a lot faster.” — Rich Potter

“Once you learn the business, once you build out systems, once you build out a team, the team can kind of run the business for you. And then you can go sit on the beach.” — Rich Potter

The Industries AI Can’t Replace

As tech jobs get automated, Rich sees tech professionals moving into franchising — and he points them toward work that’s hard to disrupt. AI helps with efficiencies, but it isn’t replacing the trades or the personal touch of hands-on care anytime soon.

“I think we’re a long, long ways out from AI replacing your plumber and your HVAC technician, and even the home service care provider with senior care. A lot of that stuff, I think, is fairly AI-proof.” — Rich Potter

“They could provide the mechanics of a lot of the stuff, but not that personal touch. And that’s a lot of what they want. They want to be able to talk to someone.” — Rich Potter

You can connect with Rich Potter on LinkedIn as “the franchise consultant,” at his website franchiseheroes.co, or by email at rich@quantumfranchisegroup.co through the Quantum Franchise Group brokerage. Listen to the full conversation on the Unscripted Small Business podcast.