I agree with your points. People buy franchises because they not feel confident enough on what they know to run a business. Thus, they prefer to take the “easy” way.

But, guess what? There is no easy way, running a business -franchise or not requires that you know the business.

I have seen the same in Internet marketing. People run to buy the latest “business in a box” (like ready-made membership sites where you sell subscriptions and all the other work is done for you, resell rights e-books, etc.) believing they will make millions without much work. And of course many entrepreneurs are developing more and more “businesses in a box” to serve this hungry (and maybe lazy) people.

Thus, as you said, research, learn and understand the business, estimate the risk and make a go/no go decision to start it.

Gilbert