Ahead of IFA’s 2026 Emerging Franchisor Conference in Nashville, a question for founders whose brands are growing more slowly than expected. Where did actual experience first depart from the plan?

Imagine sitting down with your leadership team to review the growth plan you wrote three years ago. You expected to have 20 locations open by now. You have six. Someone at the table says, “We need more franchise leads.”

Before I’d agree to spend another dollar, I’d want to hear from the person who took the last serious candidate’s call. I’d also want to hear from the franchisee who signed nine months ago and is still looking for a site. Those two people may have very different explanations for why you have six locations open today.

Yesterday at Acceler8Success Café, we put the founder’s calendar next to the P&L to see what it really takes for another owner to run the business. Today, I’d put two other documents side by side: the original growth plan and a dated list of what actually happened, from the first qualified inquiry through opening day.

Where Did 20 Come From?

I’d start by asking whoever wrote the plan to walk us through how they arrived at 20. Did the team work backward from a desired number of openings? Did someone estimate how many candidates the brand could attract, how long they’d need to make a decision, and how many openings the operations team could support in the same quarter?

Consider a founder who expected each franchisee to open within six months of signing. The first owner needed four months just to find a site. The second found a space quickly, but the landlord delivered it three months later than promised. By the third opening, the brand had enough experience to revise its timetable. Did anyone go back and change the plan? Or is the development team still being measured against an assumption the first three owners have already tested?

I’d give those six open locations some attention, too. How long did each one take to open? Which owner had the smoothest opening, and what did that person have going for them? Maybe they secured a second-generation restaurant space with a usable kitchen. If the forecast assumes every owner will find one, someone ought to ask how many such spaces are available in the markets you’re offering.

Where Did the Last Three Candidates Go?

“Lost interest” is an easy entry to make in a prospect file. It tells the next person reading it very little. I’d ask the development team to pull the files for the last three qualified candidates who stepped away. Where was each person in the process? What question were they trying to answer? What did they actually say?

Suppose one candidate wanted to keep her full-time job. After speaking with two franchisees, she realized how often they covered shifts themselves. She made a sensible decision. The question for the brand is why someone seeking that kind of ownership got so far into the process before the work schedule came up.

Now suppose another candidate was ready to operate the business personally. He withdrew after learning what it cost a recent franchisee to open in a market much like his. That deserves a different conversation. How current are the buildout assumptions your team uses when evaluating a market? When an actual opening comes in over budget, who finds out, and what changes for the next candidate?

If too few qualified people are finding you in the first place, a change in marketing may well be warranted. Looking at the people who did find you helps answer a question before you make that investment: Who should the next campaign bring to the table, and what do they need to understand earlier?

Who Is Helping the Franchisee Who Already Signed?

Imagine calling the owner who has been looking for a site for nine months. Your development report says “site search ongoing.” The owner tells you, “I sent over three spaces. Two were turned down. I’m still waiting to hear about the third, and I don’t know what to tell my broker to look for next.”

That owner has given you something you can act on this afternoon. Get the person responsible for site review on the phone with the franchisee and the broker. Explain why the first two spaces fell short. Make a decision on the third, or identify the information needed to make one. Before the call ends, agree on who will follow up and when.

Then look across the other signed locations. If several owners are having trouble finding space at a rent the business can support, revisit the territory and site assumptions. If acceptable spaces are sitting in someone’s inbox, look at how the home office handles approvals. To the founder, both show up as delayed openings. To the franchisee paying bills and waiting to earn revenue, the distinction matters a great deal.

Final Thoughts

If I were sitting at that leadership table, I’d ask everyone to set the number 20 aside for the last ten minutes of the meeting. Pick one decision that would help a real person move forward this week. Call the candidate whose reason for withdrawing you never quite understood. Review the stalled site with the franchisee and broker. Ask the owner of your sixth location what you could have done to help them open a month sooner.

Then come back to the growth plan. Knowing what you know today, how many locations can you reasonably expect to open over the next year? Which people, dollars, and decisions will those openings require? That’s a number I’d be willing to take into the next leadership meeting.

Tomorrow at the Café, we’ll look more closely at a conversation the founder rarely gets to hear firsthand. When a prospective franchisee calls one of your existing owners, what does that owner tell them?

Whether you’re attending the 2026 Emerging Franchisor Conference in Nashville or following along from home, I’d welcome a discussion. If growth has fallen short of your expectations, where did you first see it happening? And if you’ve worked through a slowdown, what finally helped you understand the cause?

DM me or email me at Paul@Acceler8Success.com.