Sarah Whitlock-Ade
franchise lawyer
Careful; reads every clause
Buying a Business
A franchise café, an independent hardware store and a broker who says both are bargains.
Planned · not started yet
Business & entrepreneurship Ambition Money under pressure Hard choices Small town Workplace Bracing Reflective
The premise
A franchise café, an independent hardware store and a broker who says both are bargains. Ken learns due diligence before he risks everything, and finds the problem that would have sunk him in the third set of accounts.
The protagonist
Ken Abiodun-Price — Former bank clerk in Melbourne with a redundancy payout
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Raj Mehta-Lowry
multi-site franchisee
Experienced; talk to franchisees who left
Fiona Drummond
business banker
Numbers-first; banks lend on cash flow
How the story moves
Two businesses investigated and one bought; the first year tests whether his diligence was enough, and a lease clause he nearly missed returns to matter.
What readers take away
- Franchise disclosure documents
- Franchising code protections
- Valuing a business
- Due diligence on accounts
- Leases and lease assignments
- Financing a purchase
- Settlement and handover
- The first year after buying
- Calculate a valuation from earnings multiples
- Check a franchisor’s financial health
- Understand restraint-of-trade clauses
- Plan working capital after purchase
The books
- 1The listings Planned
- 2The disclosure Planned
- 3The accounts Planned
- 4The decision Planned
- 5Year one Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.