How Much Can I Make?: Actual Sales and Profit Potential for Your Small Business

137 Earnings Claim Statements in their entirety are included for the 3 major franchise industries. Thinking about starting a fast-food outlet? Enclosed are 16 examples, including McDonald's, Manchu Wok and Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits, of how you might expect to perform. How about a maid service 5 examples, including Molly Maid and The Maids. How about a printing franchise there are 7 examples, including Alphagraphics, Minuteman Press and Sir Speedy. Auto services see AAMCO, Meineke, Valvoline or any of 11 other franchise opportunities.

It would be a colossal mistake to arbitrarily assume that you will generate $80,000+ a year in profits from your new business, simply because you have a good "feel" for the business and are willing to work hard. Your chances of reaching your goal are greatly enhanced by taking full advantage of the thousands of franchised operations that are the underlying basis of the franchisor-provided data. As a result of reviewing these historical results, you will gain invaluable insights into the true economics of running a franchise, or your own small business.

Because publication of earnings claim statements is at the sole discretion of franchisors, only 1520% provide this critical information. "How Much Can I Make?" includes roughly half of the total universe of earnings claim statements available. Any serious prospective investor would be short-sighted not to fully exploit this extraordinary resource.

What you will get is some type of financial statements for franchises that provide them. There is nothing special in this book! Most franchises do not provide financial information, so most of the franchises in here are no name franchises you probably haven't heard of (some are recognizable though).

Also they do not all follow the same format. Looks like the author took the information the franchiser sent and just reprinted it. You will not necessarly find cash flow in all of them. Some may just show expenses, etc.

Overall I was disappointed. All the information in this book could be obtained directly from the franchiser. For example if your interested in buying a dairy queen and dairy queen wont give you any financial information, dont expect this book to have it.

I found the "How to buy a good business at a great price" book (...) much more valuable. (...)


Too Superficial to be beneficial   July 17, 2001
This book can either be good or very bad depending upon what you want out of it.

If you are looking for a book to help you strategically help you decide upon which franchise that would be most suitable and profitable for you, then skip this one.

This book will best serve those people who are at the very beginning of thinking about openning up a franchise. In fact, those people may even be disappointed as well.

This book gives a very quick synopsis on the different franchises available. There is very little differentiation between the different franchising, with the exception of product type. For example, you can examine the different pizza franchises, but don't get enough information about which franchises are best.

So, if you are looking for just a few thumbnail sketches at the highest level, then you will probably enjoy this book. If you are looking for something more, then keep looking.