FranchisePicks has a great article by Sean about a franchise gone wrong. And there are important lessons for you if you are thinking of franchising.

I am always concerned about publicity when I work with a client. It used to be hard for franchisees to connect with each other but now it is easy. And if franchisees are not happy, they will gang up on you and sue you.

So here is a snippet of the post:

An estimated 66 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. And while obesity in women has held steady in recent years (33%), there’s been a significant increase in overweight girls in recent years (from 13% to 16%).

Entrepreneurs eager to live off the fat of the land have jumped on this market like a chubster on a cupcake. Curves for Women started it with their 30-Minute-Workout-Then-Back-to-Your-Haagen-Dasz fitness club franchises, which appeared everywhere from strip centers to the spare broom closet at Krispy Kreme. More than 10,000 franchise clubs were opened, until they sold out. Today, it’s likely you can’t get a new Curves for Women for your town (though you can buy one of the 10,000 clubs the owners are trying to sell at a deep discount.)

If you’ve considered jumping on the 30-Minute fitness franchise craze, read these recent posts and the hundreds of comments from fitness franchise owners who wish they’d invested more wisely (like, say, buying a Porsche):

And then, if you check the links, you'll see a ton of complaints.

This is sadly so common. What is extraordinary is how stupid many franchisors are. They don't sell a good product. They don't align their own interests closely with their franchisees. So the franchisees get upset. First they complain. Obviously, if the concept isn't right to begin with, they are going to complain to each other, too.

One thing leads to another. Now, a prospective franchisee, checking the web, will find record of these complaints. It isn't just sites like the Better Business Bureau. It's all over the web.

So the lessons here are clear. Make sure your franchisees are happy. Give them a method of airing their complaints off the Internet. And handle those complaints before they go from small to large.

But the real bottom line is even more basic. Present your franchise honestly. So if it doesn't work out, your franchisees will blame themselves and not you.