One of the best things about franchising is the ability to acquire a serious volume of specific franchising information.
Specifically, the data and facts you need to make a smart business decision on whether or not you should buy the franchise you’re interested in owning.
But where are you getting your information?
More importantly, who’s providing it?
And it’s the “who” that this important* post is about.
*It’s only important if you feel getting your franchise facts from a trusted, proven, and unimpeachable human source is crucial to your success as a (future) franchisee.
Wait. Human?
Franchising And AI: Things Are About To Get Scary
In the next 6 months, some of the franchising information you’re going to find online isn’t going to come from a human.
Instead, it’s going to be computer-generated. What?
Welcome to the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
If you don’t (exactly) know what AI is, watch this super-short video:
Now that you have a better understanding of AI, here’s what you need to know about AI and franchising.
Franchising And AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly popular tool in the world of franchising. Franchise businesses are known for their replication of successful models, and AI can play a crucial role in enhancing and scaling those models.
For instance, AI-powered algorithms can help franchisees to better understand their customer preferences, optimize pricing strategies, and improve supply chain management. In addition, AI can aid in streamlining the franchise operations by automating routine tasks, which can save franchisees time and money.
That’s some awesome news, right?
But guess what?
I didn’t write those two paragraphs. An AI writing tool similar to ChatGPT did. In 12 seconds flat.
Go ahead and read those two paragraphs again (or one of them). They’re pretty good, right?
That’s a problem.
Here’s why.
A 14 Year Old Can Now Write About Franchising And Sound Like An Expert
It’s true.
Using ChatGPT*, a 14 year old can now write articles about franchising. Good articles. It gets worse.
*Let me tell you about ChatGPT
What Is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a technological wonder.
Simply put, it’s a state-of-the-art chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched to the world in November 2022.
Based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models, this impressive tool has been fine-tuned with both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques, making it capable of holding human-like conversations and more.
As a natural language processing tool, ChatGPT is driven by advanced AI technology that can answer your questions and assist you with a wide variety of tasks, including composing emails, essays, and even code. It’s an all-encompassing tool that can potentially make your life a lot easier and more efficient. Let’s continue.
Instant Franchising Websites Can Now Be Created. And More
Using AI, entire websites can now be created in 2 hours. Even franchise websites.
As a matter of fact, if I wanted to, I could come up with a new moniker for myself, build a website, and pump out 30 well-written franchise blog posts in a day or two.
Wait. Let’s have a little fun. Here’s the new me.
The Coyote of Franchising
(I generated that image in 15 seconds using AI)
Website: www.coyoteoffranchising.com
“Hi! I’m the Coyote of Franchising.
My franchising experience includes owning and operating a 15-unit food franchise, and being on the board of two franchise-focused investment firms. I helped them analyze potential multi-unit franchise acquisitions.
With that in mind, I encourage you to subscribe to my blog and my weekly Coyote Franchising Newsletter, so you can stay ahead of the game as you look to buy a franchise business.
My goal is to help you make an informed decision on a franchise to buy.
Finally, check out any of the 30+ articles I’ve written by clicking this link, and if you like what you see, go here to buy my booklet on how to analyze franchise documents.
Contact me via email: coyote at coyoteoffranchising.com“
Note: I just made that up. Everything you see above is right off the top of my head.
See?
I can “say” I’m a franchise expert.
Without proof.
Franchising Information: Back To Reality
So, would you visit my new “Coyote of Franchising” website?
Read my franchise blog posts? Get my newsletter?
Buy my guide on how to analyze franchise documents?
Really?
What if you only knew me as the “Coyote of Franchising?”
In other words, what if I didn’t include my name on my website, newsletter, or the product I’m trying like heck to sell you?
Think about it for a moment.
Now think about this.
What if every blog post on coyoteoffranchising.com was written by a robot like ChatGPT (AI)?
And what if the “booklet” the Coyote is selling for $35 was written using AI?
How would that make you feel?
Especially if some of the information in the blog posts and the booklet weren’t true?
AI Isn’t Perfect. Franchising Isn’t Either.
Most of the information AI tools like ChatGPT gather is from 2019 and earlier. That’s a problem.
Especially if you’re using some of that information to make a major financial decision-like buying a franchise this year.
Let me be blunt.
If you’re relying on information you found on a franchise website that doesn’t include the name of the person who owns and operates it-and who writes articles and sells franchising information products…
Do you feel me?
Slow down.
That means you need to use the incredible power of the internet in a smart way.
Because franchising isn’t perfect.
You could make a mistake.
You could end up buying a franchise you’ll never be able to make money owning because you got the wrong information before you wrote The Check.
How To Be Smart Online
Here are a few tips to help you be smarter online.
- Only use the information you find online about franchising (or anything else), from trusted resources.
- Do a quick check on the person who wrote the franchise blog post/article you read. That means typing her name in the Google or DuckDuckGo search bar, and seeing what comes up. Hint: you want to see at least a dozen or more well-written articles and/or informational videos. Better yet, a book or two written by the author of the article.
- Only use franchise-related websites to gather information that provides the name of the person running it and writing articles on it. No name? Move on to another website. Why? Because the entire website may have been created and have articles written on it by an AI tool. A robot. Of course the person’s name may be hidden because he was involved in something nefarious. Hey. You never know!
- Is there a way to reach the person providing the information? In other words, can you email, or better yet, call the person who provided the info?
- Does the franchising website provide lots of franchisee numbers, including potential earnings? If so, are you able to verify the numbers are correct? Do you even know how? I do.
The Bottom Line
The future is here.
Teenagers can create legit-looking business websites in less than a day.
AI tools can write legit-sounding franchise articles faster than a greyhound can chase a rabbit.
But most importantly, these tools don’t care about you.
They don’t care that you may about to invest $150,000 or more into a franchise business. Why don’t they care about you?
Because they’re not real.
So be careful out there.
Don’t use only one source of information.
Because you never know who’s real and who’s not a who.
But an “it.”
