Case Study: The Stalled Consultant Deal That Shouldn't Have Died

This is a representative scenario drawn from years of franchise consulting experience. Identifying details have been generalized to protect privacy.

The Situation

A franchise consultant had been working with a candidate for several months. The candidate was a mid-career executive with strong financial qualifications and a genuine interest in building a business. He had been through the discovery process with three different concepts, liked what he saw, and had real momentum. On paper, he was a strong franchisee candidate. In practice, there was one problem that kept resurfacing: he traveled constantly for his corporate job and was unwilling to reduce his current income to become an owner-operator.

The Problem

Every concept the consultant presented assumed some level of owner involvement. The candidate kept asking the same question: "Who runs it if I'm not there?" The honest answer in most models was that the owner managed the manager — still a meaningful time commitment. The deal was technically alive but practically stalled. The consultant had done everything right. The candidate was real. But the structure didn't fit, and neither of them knew how to fix it.

The Resolution

The consultant brought the deal in for a structural review. The candidate's profile was reassessed not as a franchise owner-operator but as an investor — someone whose value was capital and whose constraint was time. An operating partner search began immediately. A qualified candidate was identified within three weeks: an experienced multi-unit manager looking for an ownership path. The two were introduced, structure was defined, and the deal was resubmitted to the same franchisor the consultant had originally pitched — this time as a complete ownership team.

"The deal wasn't broken. It just needed a piece that the standard consulting model couldn't supply. Once that piece was in place, everything moved quickly."

The Outcome

The franchise was awarded. The executive candidate is the investor and majority owner. The operating partner runs daily operations. The consultant received their commission — on a deal they had essentially written off. The franchisor gained a well-structured franchisee instead of a stalled pipeline entry. And a deal that had been technically dead for two months closed within sixty days of the structural fix.

If you are a franchise consultant with a candidate who can't quite close because the standard model doesn't fit — bring the deal to Built to Run. There is no cost to you, and the commission is yours.