What do I need to worry about when buying a franchise?
When you are thinking about setting up your business as franchise, you have to give a lot of thought to the advantages and disadvantages inherent in running your business this way, and really weigh those pros and cons (which includes determining if a franchise even makes sense for you on a financial level). You should also do as much research as you can on the overall franchising business itself - how does it run and operate, how successful have other franchises been, what types of trouble other franchises have had, etc. In doing this research, you should review the franchise offering circular, provided to you by the franchising business, very carefully.
Finally, when talking with the franchisor, you need to make sure that any promises or assurances they make are written and included in the final franchise agreement. At the end of the day, oral promises are difficult to prove and rarely enforceable, and the franchisor may make all sorts of promises in an attempt to entice you, and then be able to avoid having to live up to those promises if they were not included in the written agreement.