Franchise regulations are inescapable as they are part of every aspect of the franchising process but you can use that to your advantage.

There is no getting around franchise regulations when you get started on your plan to franchise your company.  It seems that lawmakers and politicians have worked weekends to come up with franchise regulations that can get their noses into just about every aspect of the franchising process from the opening phone call to the celebration cocktail party when the deal is done.

It isn’t like there was not already a lot of hard work to be done to get your company gets ready to launch into the huge change that will come when you begin to sell franchises of your successful business.  Of course, you already knew that much of the process of bringing new raw recruit franchise owners on board was going to mean some communications would have to happen.  Franchise regulations are just there to make sure that for every franchise arrangement, those documents that get presented to the franchise applicants are standardized and that there are no details left out of any of them.

Franchise regulations kick in from the earliest stages of setting up a franchise arrangement.  Franchise regulations get almost ridiculously detailed about what will go into your franchise disclosure documents,  your franchise agreements and your franchise operations manuals.  It is easy to get a little ticked off about how much franchise regulations hog the center stage for a project that should belong to you.  But instead of seeing franchise regulations as a big pain in the neck, look on them as an opportunity.

Putting some spin on franchise regulations

Franchise regulations are far more interested in protecting the new franchise owner than in being a tool to make the franchising company feel happy inside. In a way, you can see why this makes sense in that the rookie franchise investor could be open to a scam or two if they are not dealing with a good clean franchisor like you.  So use that bias toward the franchisee in the franchise regulations to your advantage.

Pile up plenty of good old marketing language in the cover letters to your cover letters for franchise documents making sure the franchisee is informed loudly that these complicated documents are that way because franchise regulations are there to protect the little guy. That spin is not there to fool anyone. Instead it is there to make sure you use those scary and intimidating documents as tools to assure the timid future franchise owner that franchise regulators are their best friend and that you are too.

Also do not try to keep the franchisee from using a franchise lawyer to make sure the franchise documents live up to every comma and semicolon of franchise regulations. If anything encourage them to retain their own franchise lawyers.  By sending that message that “we are in this together”, you use franchise regulations to cement that love affair with your future franchise owner. It is a love affair that will result in lots of success and piles of money in your bank account and for the franchise owner too.  So spin away because it is good for everyone involved in this big adventure of franchising your business.

 

 

The franchise agreement format is a necessary step toward selling a franchise to a new partner so make it a useful tool as well.

You are required to send a franchise agreement format to any new franchise owner within a week of closing that big deal and sealing another great franchise purchase for your company. So since franchise law is not going to budge on insisting that you provide a franchise agreement format to your future franchise owners, it makes sense to put some thought and TLC into it so it really does help the process along.

For one thing, in the same way that you are not allowed to skip out on sending that franchise agreement format as part of the process of preparing for the final signing of the franchise agreement,  the future franchise owner will be expected to know every paragraph and line of what is in there.  So you can put the guns of the law to good use by using the franchise agreement format as a way to force feed some serious franchise training into the process.

There are a number of franchise documents that must be passed along to the future franchise owner and each of them is valuable even if they are a bother for you to create and for the franchise applicants to have to digest.  By the time you put the stamps on the franchise agreement format to send it along the future franchise owner, that poor soul already has had some time to go over the franchise disclosure document that is a virtual encyclopedia of information about your company and what will happen when the franchise process goes full steam ahead.

That disclosure documents can get very large and involved so the franchise hopeful has to do some serious homework to understand that huge document.  So when they get the much more manageable franchise agreement format, they will have already paid their dues. So you know you have a potential franchise owner who is willing to put in the hours to make this business relationship work.

Using the franchise agreement format to create smart franchise owners.

When that final moment comes that you sell a franchise to a new member of your franchise community, it is a big deal.  It is not all about just collecting that fat paycheck when the new franchise owner ponys up his or her franchise fees.  It is about growing your business and making that work.  You want that new franchise owner to hit it big and for that new outlet of your business to take off like gangbusters.  That can only happen when that new franchise manager knows the score.

Sending the franchise owner a solid franchise agreement format is part of showing him or her the ropes.  By the time the checks are written and that franchise owner must translate all of that giddy enthusiasm into the hard work of creating a world class franchise, there should be no more surprises.  Communication is your magic spell book of turning that franchise owner into the big money maker you want them to be.

The franchise agreement format is just one step of many in the process of creating a seasoned old pro at running a franchise out of a raw recruit.  It is your job to mold that fresh young franchising newbie into a rock solid business man or woman who can handle the challenges and jump over the obstacles like a gazelle to steel that franchise to massive success.

Along with the franchise agreement format, you will support that evolution with a franchise operation manual that will become the bible of what to do in every situation in the life of that business. Armed with these great documents and your phone number to call anytime that franchise owner needs some help, you simply will not let that new franchise fail. That is the stuff success is made of.

Once you invest in a small business, your goal is to expand franchise revenues and customer base fast so don’t be afraid to use your relationship with the franchisee to its fullest.

It makes sense that a goal to expand franchise earnings is part of your mindset as a new franchise owner.  You have a right to expect success after jumping through all the hoops it takes to sign a franchise agreement and put down the investment to buy a franchise from a major chain and set up business for yourself. Just the steps to go from interested franchise owner to running that business takes a lot of effort, stubborn perseverance, hard work and piles of money.

It is good to see that obstacle course you went through to grab that lucrative franchise ownership as just the beginning.  It is going to take plenty of hard work, money and even some of that stubborn perseverance to make your franchise a major profit machine that you want it to be.  Another trait all great franchise owners seem to share is an unshakable dissatisfaction with the status quo.  So even if you have a robust business, pretty good revenues and a great staff, that is no time to sit on your thumbs.  That is when you take your success and kick it to the next level to expand franchise success even more.

As a seasoned business person, you know there are many ways to skin a cat when it comes to methods to expand franchise success and earnings.  Before you go it alone, though, remember that the company that sold you the franchise and that collects franchise royalties from you each month wants to help out.  They have an army of season veterans of that know exactly what it takes to expand franchise customer base and earnings.  The franchisee benefits when you make more money so tap every resource they make available to you including signage, promotions and good solid business advice on how to get more customers and keep them.

The company that you bought the franchise from may have much deeper pockets and bigger ideas for marketing to take advantage of them to the fullest.

One of the best types of franchise help that the franchisee can provide is in the form of advertising. One thing that large national chains like McDonalds or Starbucks have going for them is they are well known and their advertising reaches millions of people.  When you see one of those slick and fun commercials for the franchise chain you are a part of, not only is that exciting but it means that the big money they are spending to generate business is going to come right in your front door.

Along with cashing in on the deep pockets that your franchise mother ship can use to create very effective advertising, they can help you put together advertising and promotions that will expand franchise business for your store or outlet directly.  There is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to finding ways to expand franchise success. Let your partners in franchising help you skin that cat and make your franchise small business even more profitable than ever before.

Business franchise templates are great tools for businesses that are creating franchise documents but they also can help hopeful franchisees get ready for their new adventures.

Business franchise templates have been developed for a specific crowd to use.  They are a good tool for a business that wants to get into franchising to jump start the process of developing their franchise documents. But there is a little trick that people who are interested in buying a franchise can use to tap the franchise information that is buried away in those business franchise templates.

It isn’t a very difficult trick to master.  By downloading some very basic business franchise templates and doing a little research and snooping around, you can get the lay of the land about what lies ahead in your grand quest to land a franchise. By simply looking over these samples of the kinds of franchising documents that you will see come your way once you are up to your ears in the franchising process, you can get your franchising sea legs in a hurry.

While any franchising documents that you get once you have started the ball rolling to buy a franchise will be customized to the specific business, there are a lot of common elements that you can pick up on by looking at business franchise templates.  If you are just starting the process of picking a franchise or two to open talks with or filling out franchise applications, you can get access to quality business franchise templates online that will help you learn more about the process. These information rich documents can serve as your crash course in franchising 101.  By studying them, you become a smarter franchise applicant and you can chase away the butterflies out of your stomach too.

You can be ahead of the game getting your information gathered by learning from business franchise templates.

When a business and a potential franchise owner start that delicate process of feeling each other out, a lot of information has to come to the table. Its all about that one word – accountability. You want to know that the franchising company knows what they are doing and that the franchise you spend your life savings to buy will be a massive financial success. But look through their horned rimmed glasses for a minute. The franchising company wants to know that you are for real too.

You can be ahead of the game by knowing what kinds of documentation you should have ready when you start actually having that back and forth dialog to buy a franchise.  By looking at business franchise templates, you can get a good idea what will be expected of you on that fateful day when you sign that franchise agreement to get the party started.  You can also know what you have to be able to demonstrate to show to the franchising company that you are a management guru and will own one of the most profitable outlets in their franchising chain.

A simple step of taking a day to review the various business franchise templates can become that crash course in franchising. It can school you in the terminology, the time frames and the responsibilities that lay ahead in your quest to own your own franchise.  That education alone is worth the effort to review a few business franchise templates just to get the lay of the land.

The franchise documents phase of forming a new franchise relationship can be tricky so do all you can to make your franchise documents understandable.

When you prepare the various franchise documents that must be used to bring a new franchise owner onto your team, step back for a minute. It is easy to get caught up in the challenge of preparing those many franchise documents when you are franchising a business. Creating workable franchise agreements, disclosure statements and the other types of documents take time, thought and some amount of consultation from your team of overpaid franchise lawyers.

It is easy to get in a hurry to wrap up the preparation phase of putting together your franchise documents because once you have them in the can, you can move on to the more interesting and fun steps of actually selling franchises and getting your empire growing.  There is a good reason, however, to take that step back before wrapping up the preparation of franchise documents.  These important legal documents live a double life.

The secret life of franchise documents is that they can make or break the delicate relationship that you are nurturing with your prospective franchise owners. Keep in mind that until that franchise agreement is signed, delivered and set in stone, the act of selling that franchise to that potential franchise owner is still a priority.

If you think you were intimated by the massive franchise documents you prepared and all of the legalize that was in them, think of how easily those complicated contracts and disclosure statements can scare the life out of potential franchise investor. So before you call your franchise documents done, go back and think of how they come across to the reader.  That review may lead to some revisions to put a human touch on those scary franchise documents.

Put some of the love into your franchise documents.

There are two important ways you can put a human face on those scary franchise documents.   Part of how you can make them less prone to send the franchise investors you are romancing running to the hills is simply to organize them well.  A good example is the franchise disclosure document.  There are as many as 23 different types of disclosure that can fill up that document and turn it into quite a monster for a franchise investor to read.

By organizing a franchise document like that with a simple 3 page overview and the dirty details laid out in appendices, you take the fear and loathing out of a tough franchise document.  If the franchise document is delivered both digitally and as a paper document, links to the longer dialogs can make it easy for a future franchise owner to navigate that big document and be able to come back to it and pick up where they left off.

The second but just as important tip for putting a human face on your franchise document is to write them like people write.  It is true that the franchise documents have to bow down to franchise law but that doesn’t mean they have to read like a lawyers brief. Write with some personality and remember that you are still building that relationship with that franchise owner.

It is entirely possible for franchise documents to scare off a franchise investor and that is what you want to avoid.  While you cannot make your franchise documents marketing brochures, there is a lot you can do to make them much less scary and to put a human face on those franchise documents as well.

Using the master franchising concept, you can take great franchise owners and turn them into master franchisers and expand their success and yours along the way.

It is hard to say if master franchising benefits the franchising company or the franchisee more. The concept is an elegant one to be sure.  Instead of developing a small army of franchise owners, each of which operates one franchise per owner, you take the real winners in from your franchisee elite and let them operate many franchises by offering sub-franchisees that they train and run based on their vast experience and expertise. In exchange, you fork over a little bigger piece of the pie from the profits of those sub-franchises and with that exchange, you pass to the master franchising candidate a boat load of headaches, costs and risks.

The changes to the franchise agreement can be handled by your legal eagles who know the in and outs of franchise law.  It is all very legitimate and it is a beautiful way to kick your franchising program into the next level. You can continue to grow your empire through franchising but the results in terms of reduced effort, overhead and risk to the franchising company plummet even as your profits sour.

The control of risks alone should make master franchising a very sweet deal to the big bosses in your company. As much as we put a sweet spin on the business maneuver of franchising, there is always a risk.  When you sell a franchise to a new partner, you do all you can to snoop around and make sure that he or she has the right stuff to make it big running one of your operations. By try as you might, some people can’t cut it. When a franchise fails, that is terrible for the franchisee and you lose a bundle too.

Master franchising turns over the risk of opening new franchise to the master franchising guru.  You know that the partner you are signing a master franchising agreement knows his stuff because there is a track record of stunning growth and profits that you already get from that franchisee. So why not mine that huge experience and let him or her make you even big piles of money through master franchising.

Master franchising means everybody shares in a bigger pot of money.

When you bring in that candidate for master franchising to negotiate a deal with, it isn’t hard to dangle some sweet profits out there to wet his appetite.  Along with taking over the recruitment, the training, the management and the risks of handling sub-franchise, you will be able to put a nice increase in profits into that master franchising agreement.  You get to still keep raking in the big profits from the anchor franchise your master franchising candidate runs because that isn’t going away.

The change is that all of that seasoned knowledge about how to turn a franchise into a cash cow is now gets spread to man sub-franchises. Not only can that master franchising guru train his or her charges to run serious profitable outlets of your business, he or she can jump in there and fix things when they break and fine tune each sub-franchise until it is a money generating machine too.

The result is the master franchising guru gets to use his or her hard fought experience to get very rich indeed. The sub-franchise managers begin to get a taste for serious money that they can enjoy working in a tightly run franchise and you see the cash flow from the chain of operations run under the master franchising agreement explode making you huge amounts of money.  That is a win-win-win situation.

The franchise application is not too early to start to sell yourself to the franchising company as someone they want on their team.

The franchise application step is the first significant document you will fill out on your quest to buy a franchise from a popular business. In the last few years, buying a franchise has become one of the Cadillac ways to strike it rich when starting your own business.  If you can land one of the primo franchises that everybody wants, all that stands between you and tremendous success is a bunch of investment capital and even more hard work.  The name recognition, explosive customer base and amazing corporate good will all comes with that franchise name that you are buying into will do all the rest.

The downside of that much potential wealth just laying out there is there is a lot of competition for the good franchise opportunities. Whether you want to buy a franchise in Starbucks, Wendy’s or some other very successful business, you can bet that when you submit your franchise application, it is competing with hundreds of other money hungry entrepreneurs who want that franchise just as much as you do.

The key is to know the tricks for how to get your franchise application picked so you move on toward the franchise agreement that you want. One thing that a franchising company looks for is that you are a person who loves to deal with the public and that you have a lot of success doing so.  Look for ways to brag about the success of your current business and putting a big and bright spotlight on how well you have done making customers love you. That is what will set your franchise application apart from the rest.

Look on the franchise application as a type of job interview and be who they want you to be.

When you start to fill out your franchise application, it is not too early to think about getting your ducks in a row financially.  When you state boldly that you are floating in the capital and credit that you need to afford the franchise fees, royalties and start up costs, be sure you really are that financially healthy. Be honest on the franchise application because overstating your financial health will only come back to haunt you later.  There is no getting around it that when you turn in that franchise application and you make the cut as a franchise owner they want on their team, they are going to check your credit rating. So make sure it is four star before you even start filling out a franchise application.

When a franchise company is ready to franchise a small business and set you up for great success, they want to know that you know exactly how to take the ball and run with it. That means you know how to be a team player and create a franchise the bosses back at the mother ship will be proud of. But it also means you can run your own ship as an independent business person and solve problems and come out the other end smelling like a rose.

Your success in running your own business before you started the franchise application should scream out that you are just the guy or gal they are looking for.  Make sure your franchise application shouts those qualities of sound judgment, good business savvy, the ability to get on board with the bosses and still make it big as a small business franchise owner all wrapped up in one neat package. If that is the song your franchise application sings, you can bet your paperwork will cause you to get the call that they want you to take the controls of their next successful franchise outlet.

The franchise contracts that legally define the roles of franchisee and franchisor are not above questioning.

When you sit down to sign franchise contracts with a company that is selling the franchise, be sure you have already reviewed every concept in that document so your expectations line up with what they really will do for you.  Because many of the franchise documents such as the franchise disclosure document are very involved, complicated and large, it is easy to think that buying a franchise is all about franchise contracts. It is also easy to get intimated by the fact that the franchising company has a small squadron of lawyers who put together those scary looking franchise contracts.

Don’t let them hustle you with slick marketing, lawyers in expensive suits and glossy looking franchise contracts and promotional literature. A franchise relationship is all about two businesses negotiating a deal.  Negotiation is a two way street and even though you are “the little guy”, you still have the right to say yes or no to franchise contracts right up to when you click that pen and put your autograph on the dotted line.

The company selling you that franchise has just as much on the line as you do.  Those franchise contracts must line up with the promises both made and implied when they sold you the idea of buying a franchise from them. Those words “sold” and “buying” are important.  The franchising company is selling you a product. You are not a new employee of theirs. You are a customer so you can expect every promise that was used to “sell” you that franchise to show up in slick lawyer language in the franchise contract.

Know what you are obligated for when you sign those franchise agreements.

Next to holding the franchising company accountable for what is in the franchise contracts, be sure you know what you are promising when you take out your pen and sign that franchise agreement.  When that franchise contract is signed, you will be in a legally binding relationship that comes with obligations that are spelled out in detail in the various franchise contract documents.

There are financial obligations that come due the moment the franchise contracts are signed. So you should understand down to the last dime, nickel and penny what you are paying and what that buys you.  You may be responsible to subscribe to the franchising company’s advertising and to pay a share of other costs of running your franchise.

So before you stand up from the table after signing those franchise contracts, get a firm understanding of who pays for what, when and how much. If you need to get your own swat team of high priced lawyers and accountants in on the act, do it.  Far better to go overboard before signing those franchise contracts than to regret it after when nothing can be done to change those contracts in your favor.

Asking “Can I franchise my business?” is just the first step to buying a franchise and getting on the road to success and owning your own business.

When a small business person asks, “Can I franchise my business?”, that question alone means a lot.  It means that you have the ability to dream big and you have the backbone to dare to think that there is a way to blow past the limitations of your current situation to become even more profitable.  It means that you understand that franchising a business is a huge opportunity but that it will come with plenty of challenges as well.

But you never passed out in front of a challenge.  So if you have the question in your mind, “Can I franchise my business?”, hold onto it.  Just starting to wonder about the potential could be that first big step toward owning a franchise of your own.  The best reason to start researching the huge opportunities that may lie in buying a franchise is that you are ready be launch out on a new business adventure because you have conquered all of the current challenges before you.

“Can I franchise my business?”  The first step, of course is to learn all you can.  The great news is there is so much franchise information out there that you will have no trouble getting the low down on how to start on your quest to success and huge money in franchising.  The second great news that you will be happy to hear is that businesses who sell franchises hand over fist are eager to talk to you and they can help you understand everything that is involved when you sign a franchise agreement with them.

There is very little cost and no risk to just asking the question, “Can I franchise my business?” As you dig deeper, you will find out the financial resources you will need and the amount of work that goes into becoming a franchise owner and running a very profitable franchise of a large national chain. There is no sense sugar coating it that when you stick your hand out to shake hands with a company that is selling you a franchise, it is going to mean a big investment of cash and hard work.

If you ask yourself, “Can I franchise my business?”, you owe it to yourself to find out the answer.

It is impossible not to notice that more and more successful small business people are taking the plunge and asking themselves, “Can I franchise my business?”  The potential profits that can be made when you take your considerable business and management savvy and sink it into a growing franchise opportunity are huge.

On top of the wealth that is waiting for you, there is a lot of pride and prestige that goes with being an owner of a successful franchise of a well known company.  You still are a small business owner because you bought that franchise. You do not work for the franchising company. You work with them to make both of you very rich. At the same time, the sign on your building is one that everybody knows and it alone will bring customers rushing to use your products or services.  It is the best of both worlds because you have all the clout of a big business and all the freedom and pride of owning a small business.  So if that question, “Can I franchise my business?”, flits across your mind, don’t let it go out the other ear. It may be stage one of a new and exciting and very profitable new world for you.

 

 

 

Creating franchise disclosure documents is required by franchise law but the focus of your work in writing them is to turn good franchise managers into great ones.

Franchise disclosure documents are required to be sent to any potential franchise owner well in advance of when the franchise agreement is signed.  That is not just a friendly reminder from your neighborhood franchise lawyer.  That is the franchise law and to not do it would bring your franchise program to a grinding halt. It is easy to see this requirement that you give to your future business partners such an in-depth and detailed amount of franchise information as an imposition and a burden.

These franchise disclosure documents will be one of the biggest challenges that will face you as you prepare to put your business into a new level of expansion through franchising.  Many disclosure documents become very large and there is no getting around the fact that you, the business owner, must be involved intimately with every page of those documents.

There is no passing this task off to a low level clerk or a ghost writer.  Franchise disclosure documents become part of the legal paper trail of your franchising effort.  To put it bluntly, what you hand over to future franchise owners in franchise disclosure documents becomes legally binding. So it is crucial that you approve and edit every page, every paragraph, and every line.  The best case scenario is that you write every word of the franchise disclosure document or at least that every thought in that massive documentation project are your thoughts.

Look at franchise disclosure documents as an opportunity rather than a problem.

There are two reasons to fight off the urge to look on the preparation of franchise disclosure documents as a nuisance and a burden that the government has come in and heaped on your already too darn busy schedule.  For one thing, if you resent having to prepare your FDD franchise disclosure document, you will probably do a shoddy job of creating this crucial document. That is not a good idea both because it is lazy and because of the negative impact it will have on your hopes and dreams for great success in franchising.

The second reason to put some tender loving care into creating franchise disclosure documents is because the franchise buyer is required to know inside and out what you put in there. That makes franchise disclosure documents valuable training tools.  Here in this one piece of required reading, you can put each and every new franchise owner through a virtual basic training in what it takes to be a great representative of your business.

The old, worn out saying that it is an opportunity instead of a problem applies truthfully to writing your franchise disclosure documents.  There may be no step in the process that is so full of potential to convert raw recruit franchising hopefuls into highly trained franchising experts ready to get out there and make big money for you. That is reason enough to work hard making franchise disclosure documents that you can be proud of.

 

 

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