In 2004, a man named Eric Stites worked at a franchise marketing company. The company’s focus was to help brands acquire investors for their franchise. While working to recruit new franchisees, Eric realized how challenging it was for candidates interested in buying a franchise to hear from current franchisees. For example, candidates would call a Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee to hear about their experience. But no one was returning calls! Franchisees are business owners, so not having time for a stranger’s call makes sense. Yet, candidates deserve to get answers to their questions. Buying a franchise is a huge commitment, and one of the important steps to franchise ownership is talking to franchisees.

Identifying a problem

There was a gap between candidates and franchise brands that needed to be filled. How could people considering buying a franchise get real, authentic information about the experience of owning a particular franchise? If you’re a candidate, there are so many questions to ask a franchisor and franchisees. How are you supposed to get that insight in an unbiased way? Certainly, a franchise brand would sing its own praises. But how could a candidate trust an answer from a brand seeking their investment? This is when Eric left his job at the franchise marketing company to begin Franchise Business Review in 2005.

Franchise Business Review is a market research company that specializes in franchisee satisfaction. What does that mean? Think of FBR as the “Consumer Reports of Franchising”. We survey hundreds of franchisees yearly to determine who is the happiest with their brands.

Shortly after starting FBR, Eric hired Michelle Rowan to help with business development. She is now FBR’s President and COO. Since 2005, Franchise Business Review has served franchise brands with invaluable data about their franchisees. In turn, FBR offers candidates unbiased insight that was previously so elusive.

Who is Franchise Business Review to you?

If you’ve come across this website, chances are you’re considering buying a franchise. We’re here to serve YOU with our extensive market research. A little about the scope of our work:

• We’ve worked with 1300+ brands.
• We survey 40,000+ franchisees a year.
• We’ve been around for 20 years!

We offer third party research you can trust. While brands pay us to do their surveys, they can’t pay us to fudge the data. Every scrap of info on our website is come by honestly. We have no skin in the game when it comes to you buying a franchise. You do you, boo! What Franchise Business Review wants to ensure is that you make your decision with as much helpful information as possible. We are data nerds with a passion for franchising and it’s our business to share that passion.

20 Years and Counting

While 20 years passes in a blink, unbiased franchise data is forever. The world is different now than it was 20 years ago and FBR changes along with it. While we’ve worked with some brands for 20 of those years (looking at you Two Men and a Truck, Miracle Method, Truly Nolen, Wild Birds Unlimited, FASTSIGNS, and Our Town America), we’re forever learning new things in the world of franchising.

We wish you the best of luck on your entrepreneurial journey. We hope we can help along the way!

Check out these resources we think you might like:

• Franchise Cost Breakdown
• 10 Questions to Ask Franchisors
• How to Evaluate Franchise ROI Before Investing
• Your Franchise Side Hustle: How to Turn Your Passion into Franchise Ownership