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

July 30, 2011 by  
Filed under Franchise Articles

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.