What, exactly is a Franchise? What is Franchising? How to Franchise Your Business

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you probably already know that many of the businesses you buy from are liable to be franchises. The average franchise is owned and operated by someone who lives in your home town, yet its image, marketing and products are virtually identical to those you’ll find in the same franchise in any town or state. Why are franchises so popular?

Franchising, by definition, is a method of expanding a business by licensing other business owners to use its name and its system in return for a royalty fee.

It’s become one of the fastest growing business systems in the world today.Franchising has revolutionized trade in America, although the concept of franchising dates back to the Middle Ages, the practice is not really very old. Franchising was first seen in the United States around 1950, with the growth of the fast food industry, spurred on by McDonald’s lead. Recent years have seen the attractiveness of franchising rise even more notably. Currently, franchising accounts for more than one trillion dollars in sales each year in the United States. At last count I read that some thirty nine too forty two   percent of all retail trade were made in a franchised business system.

Franchise-Documents-Online

Discussion between Franchise the Easy Way and a Prospective Franchiser

When comparing Franchise Documents Online, I found documents on many sites were just, wretched; appearances suggested someone without legal training converted files, they had found somewhere. Reasons: in many cases - spacing between letters appeared to be incorrect, spelling and grammar, lack of clauses and recitals, no tables, no references internally, very plain, lacking of many standard contractual statements between franchiser and franchisee, lacking in proper design, many more could be mentioned, but this should alert or as we say, “set off alarms” for any would be purchaser.

Given the child likeness of the Franchise Agreements which can be seen on many of these sellers of Franchise Documents Online, I can only think the Operations Manual and other documents must also be lacking in major detail. The outline of these Franchise Documents suggests, someone was aware of my outline, but the content I see, is not my writing and differs significantly.

It is important in all Franchise Documents that the relationship and obligations of the two parties are clearly defined. It is very apparent upon quick analysis of most Franchise Documents Online (displayed content) that the author didn’t have a background in law; and because of this over simplistic writing, it would leave the Franchiser open to legal proceedings, of which there may be no end. It is a very sad thing to watch a Franchiser, who had great aspirations, and was off to a great start, spiral into a quagmire of litigation between his franchisees  

To illustrate my point, look at any well known major US Franchiser’s Franchise Agreement and Disclosure Document. My Franchise Disclosure Document and Franchise Agreement are similar. Franchise Documents Online are often half backed forms and will show upon quick examination the difference in writing styles, formatting, and the major use of clauses and recitals. There is an old saying, “you get what you pay for”, and this point is seen very well, in these companies’ products!

The Franchise Operations Manual sold by Franchise the Easy Way, as any sold material like this should be, is based upon an outline of the relationship between the Franchiser and the Franchisee, and their needs, as well as standard business operational guidelines.  You will have to be able to edit and write procedures, add content and many directions. An Operations Manual used in franchising, to be of service, to the parties concerned must be written on site or by someone very knowledgeable of the business operation. An Operations Manual purchased for the purpose will only assist in the writing of the material needed and cut down on the time needed to complete a usable Franchise Operations Manual. A Franchise Operations Manual written for a business could take a writer with no starting material, perhaps as long as a year, to complete. Therefore, the need of as much “filler material “as possible, but this filler needs to be “publishable” content. Otherwise, when a franchisee examines your Franchise Agreement and Operations Manual with an attorney, you the franchiser are not embarrassed for lack of content, or for the content being overly simple.

All attorneys are looking for a type of writing which is used in legal documents, referred to as “jargon”.  Example, “clauses” and “recitals” they simply mean a formal statement or setting forth of a relevant fact in a deed or document, often they are preceded by the term “whereas”.  Used most of the time to the extreme, but a document without such terms, would be laughed at by anyone in the legal profession. A prospective franchisee would also be aware of the lack of legal “jargon”, and would feel something was wrong, he would be right.

My guess is, after examination of the sample Franchise Documents Online, is that they are mostly obtained from a very unusable and outdated partial sample, transformed from a PDF file by a software program, and then edited, “ad hock”.

Having said all of this, my material, found here on Franchise the Easy Way website, is and will be, professional and give a good money saving start, but must be edited by the prospective franchiser, and then by a local attorney, who will charge much less for reading and editing 500 to 600 pages, after the franchiser has edited the contents. If he, the attorney, had to write them himself, it would require an armored car full of money.

The best answer is to hire an attorney in your state/country which specializes in Franchise law and, if you intend on expanding outside of your state/country, then one who also specializes in national/international law. Such things as employment law must be edited differently in-between our 50 different states! Employment law must be edited to include the “clauses” and “recitals” described above. Example: Is your local area “hire by contact” or “hire by will”, under what conditions can an employee be fired? What are the local laws dealing with hiring? Now this will most likely cost $250,000 US dollars by the time you finish.

The next best answer, is the Do-It-Yourself route, but beware of the short comings of most Franchise Documents Online. Even using the very best documents, as found here on our website, you must be very knowledgeable in business, to take the Do-It-Yourself route. When you are finished you should also have the documents examined by an attorney in your location, but as explained above this should cost you much less, and the better you do, most likely the less it will cost to be reviewed.

One of my largest customer bases are attorneys purchasing my materials. To my knowledge there are not any commercially available documents for attorneys to purchase, save mine. Question, do you think any attorneys would attempt writing such a volume of material? A volume which two books could easily be written from, no! They even keep to themselves much less sophisticated documents, and do not share them among themselves, feeling they are propriety in nature.  In order to attempt to assist someone in franchising they will use my documents. It isn’t even unusual after attempting to edit these documents, the attorney purchasing these documents will email me asking me to assist him in finishing them correctly. 

Yes, I am a specialist in writing legal documents, having done so for years. My documents are written only to save the franchiser tens of thousands, but not as an answer “in and of” themselves. You must be a very knowledgeable Do-It-Yourselfer or a knowledgeable attorney. Most attorneys will step back in fear of 500-600 pages of legal documents, they only take a few courses in contract law, and they themselves are intimated.

Best affordable answer, hire me, (Franchise Planners) and I will write all of the materials. I will assist you, in developing your business into a successful franchise at a “fraction of the cost” of hiring specialized attorneys, consultants, and even the cost of time lost to you attempting to learn the process.

Please, allow me to guide you through the, “Franchise a Company” process. The more you are prepared, the less headaches, litigation, and trouble you will have with your franchisees.