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Franchise Development Services

We provide efficient and comprehensive franchise development services to business owners, like you, who have a passion to teach others how to successfully set up and operate your business in other markets. All at very reasonable and affordable rates.

According to the most recently published data from Statista, there are over 800,000 franchise businesses in the United States generating an estimated economic output over $860 billion dollars. Are you ready to be part of it? If so then let’s talk. We create franchise programs that are driven by you! We hold you hand every step of the way, provide you with one-on-one attention when building your franchise program and we never leave you alone.

Each franchise program that we build is fair, attractive in the marketplace, contribute to the success of the economy and protect you against liability. Our mantra is to bring accountability and integrity into the franchise industry and to franchise only the best and say no to the rest.

Our objective is to be known as the most respected and sought after franchise development company in the United States.

True Franchise Development

The words "franchise development" can get confusing, very fast. So many people have put their own spin on franchise development and started calling themselves franchise developers (take a look at "Franchise Development Services Let's Clear the Smoke". These terms can be just as confusing as say for example the term "graphic designer".

Yep, you could search for a graphic designer thinking that is the solution you need only to find out that everyone is calling themselves a graphic designer and soon you run into people who say they are graphic designers but just create logos. They are limited in scope and cannot help create any other type of marketing materials, just logos. And so you wonder, why doesn't this person just call themselves a logo maker? Makes sense right? Worse is when you run into a person or company who is proficient at making logos but in order to capture your business says "sure we can slap some marketing materials together for you" only to find out you wasted a ton of time and money on marketing materials that reads terrible and looks like a four year old put them together. So what does franchise development really mean.

What Franchise Development Really Means

Franchise development means that a carefully thought out plan is crafted along with all the required documents to turn your business into a franchise not only abiding by all the federal and state franchise regulations; but also crafted in such a way to protect you and your business. This means building a franchise program and identifying all the key components of what will make the franchise relationship work. In other words, the technical side of franchising. Franchise development is the framework that defines the franchise relationship and if done right affords you the protections you need when it comes to how you operate your business, your trade secrets, etc.

A true franchise development company fully understands this framework and works with you hand-in-hand to put a franchise program together that is unique to your business. This type of work is not just something that can be slopped together or plugged into some template because it is this framework that in the long run protects you and everything about your business. That's right not just anyone can perform franchise development work. It would be like giving a first year medical student permission to be the lead surgeon on delicate procedure. Sounds silly, right? Who in their right mind would let a first year medical student be the lead surgeon on a delicate procedure where their life in the balance. Maybe someone who wanted to save a few bucks?

Don't Be Fooled by Franchise Marketing Companies

However you would be surprised. There are people and companies out there who are proficient at marketing and selling franchises (technically called franchise brokers who typically masquerade themselves as “franchise marketing professionals”) but in order to capture your business say “sure we can slap some franchise framework together for you”. Ask yourself, would you really let the balance of your franchising future lie in hands of a salesperson or sales organization whose ultimate goal is to make money off every franchise you sell? Is it worth the risk to find out a few years later that the framework built does not fully protect your interests resulting in tons of money spent later to try to defend your claims? It is not unusual for us to receive calls each week from business owners who are seeking recourse against these types of companies who they thought specialized in franchise development only to realize it was all a sales pitch with empty promises.

The Franchise Maker is a true franchise development company, all we do is make franchises (hence our name). We collaborate with you to build a franchise program specific to your business. All we do is strategize and craft franchise programs resulting in franchise documents that protect you and your business in more ways than you can imagine. We will never say we can do something just to capture you as a client. Our commitment to you is that we stay true to what we do and will never misrepresent who we are or what we do!

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franchise development services

The 3 Step Process to Franchise Development

The franchising process is similar for all businesses in all industries. Even though it is important that your franchise program is unique, there are still similar steps that every business will need to take when launching a franchise. The franchise process can be confusing. It's our job at The Franchise Maker to make this process simple, quick and easy for you. In general, this process can be broken down into three simple steps.

Step 1: The Education Phase

The education phase is ongoing. A good franchise development company should take the time to learn about your business. This includes asking important questions that will help to lay the foundation for what is yet to come and define the relationship between you and your future franchisees. The answers to these questions will guide us when figuring out the "magical formula" that makes your business successful.

During the education phase, we will teach you about franchising, define your future franchisee’s responsibilities, your responsibilities and your deliverables. That’s right, identifying how you are going to earn the money that you expect your future franchisees to pay you. This includes:

  1. Identifying your franchise fee, royalties and territory (if giving one) for your franchise opportunity;
  2. How long the term of your relationship will be with franchisees and what happens at the end of the term. Defining your obligations to each franchisee;
  3. Defining what products and services the franchisee is required to offer, perform, use and sell in their business Defining the franchisee’s operational responsibilities;
  4. Spell out if there is an opportunity for your franchisees to offer additional products or services and if so, will it need to be approved by you.

This is just a very short list to give you an idea. This is explained even further when understanding the characteristics, of a franchise as we explain the steps to franchise.

Step 2:  Regulating the Relationship

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires businesses to file a franchise disclosure document (FDD) before you can start offering franchises (see our FAQ page to learn more). The FDD is a document that regulates the relationship between you and your future franchisees. This package must be submitted to the proper state regulators and approved before you can even start offering franchises.

Some of the topics a good franchise developer should address in the FDD include:

1. Intellectual Property

We will identify what is your intellectual property, how you are giving franchisees the right to use your intellectual property, how your intellectual property is protected and what happens if your relationship with franchisees ends. We will provide you attorneys who specialize in registering your intellectual property.

2. Trade secrets

We will identify what are your trade secrets, who owns the trade secrets, how you are giving the franchisees the right to borrow your trade secrets, how your trade secrets are protected and of course what happens if your relationship with a franchisee ends. Besides your methods, processes and strategies, all the little nuggets of wisdom you have accumulated over time are also part of your trade secrets and need to be protected.

3. Indemnification

We will spell out how: the franchisee is expected to operate its business, how the franchisee is responsible for every aspect of the business and how the franchisee is obligated to keep you out of any type of claim (lawsuit) that could happen while operating its business. The beauty about franchising is that franchisees are independent business owners responsible for daily operations, employee management,insurances, taxes, etc.We will cement how the franchisee, who is given the right to operate your business in their market, is expected to keep you out of trouble.

4. Disputes

We will identify what happens if there is a dispute between you and your franchisees, where are disputes handled, if there is a process to handle disputes before litigation, etc. We never want things to get messy if there is a disagreement between you and your franchisees, but if a dispute does happen there should be a clear path to resolution.

5. Termination

We will identify what happens if this arrangement does not work out between you and your franchisee, how you divorce from each other, if there is any type of non-compete so they cannot just go out and open another business copying their former franchise business (your business), etc. We will also identify what are the non-negotiables (meaning that if franchisees do certain things it means immediate termination), if the franchise arrangement ends are you entitled to any money, etc.

This is just a very short list to give you an idea. There is a whole lot more to these steps! During this phase, everything we do is with you. That is right WITH you. We explain every topic so you understand it and can later answer questions about it. You will be surprised how many franchisors out there who do not even understand their own document. And yet they expect others to buy into their franchise, to us that simply makes no sense.

Step 3: Filing and Approval

Step three is the end of the franchise development road and just the beginning of your franchising journey! One we have put all the pieces together, we will provide you with one of our franchise attorneys who will edit, make changes and submit everything to your state so you can be approved to offer franchises. We will quarterback the entire process, all communication and ensure all deadlines are met.

Yep we will handle all of the final details working closely with the franchise attorney so that this step is as efficient, simple and painless for you as possible.

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