About Matt
About Matt
Matt Stevens is a franchise consultant based in Dublin, Ohio, and the founder of The Franchise Guy. He has been matching candidates with brands since 1992 and has worked as a FranChoice consultant since 2001, guiding more than a thousand people through the process across nearly every state.
His perspective comes from the inside of the business. He entered franchising in 1988 and has since been a franchisee four times over, a franchise trainer, a general manager, a brand developer, and a vice president and partner in a multi-billion-dollar international franchise holding company. That mix of owning units and running the corporate side is what he draws on when a client asks whether a concept's unit economics, support model and territory actually hold up.
He describes his role plainly: he is not tied to a short list of brands, and franchisors pay his fee, so the advice is meant to serve the buyer. His process moves in stages, starting with a short introductory conversation, then a deeper consultation about goals, capital and the kind of work the client wants to own. From there he narrows the field to a handful of concepts worth real research, and stays alongside the client through validation calls, the FDD review and the final decision, with regular check-in calls while the evaluation runs.
Most of the people he works with are not career entrepreneurs. They are executives, engineers, teachers and healthcare professionals at a career crossroads, looking for ownership, equity and more control over what comes next. He also writes and speaks about franchise evaluation and hosts conversations on choosing a business that fits a life, not just a budget.
Work With Matt
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