Is a franchise salon really for us?

Some time ago we began looking into options for opening our own salon.  We thought the most logical place to start was with franchise salons.  After all, the large companies like Regis, Great Clips, and Fantastic Sams have the experience and walk you through the process.  We looked at them all and narrowed it down to Fantastic Sams and Cost Cutters (a Regis chain).  We did a lot of research, talked on the phone a lot, and met with regional developers.  Fantastic Sams was our first choice and seemed to have a terrific program.  All the while, however, I had been running numbers in excruciating detail again and again.  Something just did not add up, but we were still collecting information.