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Should You Make an Earnings Claim?

By Lee R. Dickinson

If there is one question in the minds and on the lips of potential franchisees, it is “How much money can I make with this concept?” Franchisors may answer this question, of course, but with great care and consideration as to what, how, and when they answer it.

Under both the UFOC guidelines and the FTC Rule, a franchisor is not required to make any representations concerning the actual, average, projected, or forecasted sales, profits, or earnings likely to be realized by operation of the franchise. If a franchisor does make such representations, it must do so in strict compliance with the “earnings claim” requirements of the FTC Rule or Item 19 of the UFOC Guidelines. In short, an “earnings claim” is any information given at the direction of the franchisor to a prospective franchisee from which a specific level or range of actual or potential sales, costs, income, or profit from franchised or non-franchised units may easily be ascertained. Currently, approximately only 25% of franchisors make earnings claims, but this is not uniform across all types of franchisors. Some industries have substantially greater earnings claims rates.

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