Running a discovery day without the gloss
Candidate owners should see the dish pit and the 6 a.m. prep — not only the tasting flight and the brand film.
Franchisee Recruitment Support often begins with rewriting the discovery day. Founders want to impress; candidates need to decide whether they can live the roster.
Show a normal block, not a showcase
Invite serious applicants to a midweek open or a restock morning. Let them watch portioning, staff briefings, and how a complaint is logged. If they leave early, you learned something useful.
Score what you saw
Use a simple scorecard: comfort with labour planning, questions about supplier lead times, reaction to quiet-hour tasks, and clarity about capital. Gut feel still matters; undocumented gut feel is how friends become mismatched owners.
Keep sales separate from observation
Your brochure and your observation hour can share a day, but do not let the brand film replace the dish pit. Candidates who only want the story rarely survive the first school-holiday week.
Discovery days that feel slightly uncomfortable tend to produce owners who still call with precise questions months later — which is a healthier relationship than silence followed by a crisis.