You’ve decided to turn your business into a franchise. After doing some research to figure out how to franchise your business, you decide to “do it yourself”. You figure may be able to find or buy a template for the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and knock it out. Seems simple, right? Perhaps you can find a fill-in-the-blank style document or get an artificial intelligence program to find a template for you.
Many business owners believe they can franchise their business themselves. While parts of the process may appear straightforward, successfully franchising your business involves much more than preparing legal documents.
Unfortunately, such templates do NOT address all aspects that are unique to your business, your services or products. A template does not offer you any guidance, real-world experience, best practices to keep you out of litigation, evaluate other similar businesses already franchising or help you with all the other aspects of franchising. Of course, that’s the challenge with ‘one-size-fits-all’ template documents (see more on this topic “Franchise Templates are Bad“). In contrast, when you are looking to work with someone to help you to franchise, you will want to be sure that your FDD is put together from scratch, and NOT from a template!
But you’re determined. You somehow manage to put together an FDD and figure out how to submit it in your state. (Good luck with that!) You mail it off and a few weeks later, it comes back ‘DENIED’ with a bunch of comments. So now what? You’re stuck!
Hiring a Franchise Attorney is Only Part of the Solution
“Alright,” you say, “I’ll hire a franchise attorney to help me.” So you hire an attorney; one you found on the internet. More than likely the attorney will need to rewrite your documents, so the first thing they do is hand you a 50+ page packet to fill out, asking YOU to detail everything that you want covered in your FDD (check out our article “Working with an Attorney to Franchise Your Business“). This catches you off guard. It sounds like you are starting over. And you are paying this firm A LOT of money. Why are you filling out a huge packet? At this point, it almost feels like reverse delegation. Aren’t they supposed to work WITH you to provide guidance and insight into this whole process? Aren’t they the experts? You quickly find out that is not the case and before long, you find yourself working with an associate at the law firm rather than the attorney you originally hired.
“We are a legal office,” they say. “We don’t provide services to research like and kind franchise businesses or provide real-world franchise operations experience. You tell us what you want, and we will write it up.” An attorney is UNLIKELY to be of much help with the basics, such as data on other like-and-kind franchise models, how to position your franchising fees aggressively, how to realistically define your term, franchise territory, etc. That’s where a franchise development company, such as The Franchise Maker, really plays a critical role (take a look at this article titled “What to Look for in a Franchise Development Company”).
Franchising Your Business Involves Much More Than an FDD
Completing Your Franchise System
Finally, your FDD is done and the attorney’s office is prepared to submit it for state approval. However, it’s not done yet because there are still a bunch of pieces missing.
Successfully franchising your business requires coordinating every aspect of your franchise system, not just preparing legal documents.
What about help with trademarking? Who will prepare your audited financials? Where will you learn how to qualify franchisees? It’s easy to see how quickly the list grows. For example:
- Trademark protection and filings
- Audited financial statements
- An operations manual for franchisees
- Franchise marketing collateral
- A franchise website
- Guidance on marketing and selling franchises
- Ongoing guidance and a mentor to help you as your franchise system grows
The attorney’s office offers legal consultation at an hourly consulting rate, but is that really the best option for you?
Why Expert Franchise Development Matters
The process of franchising your business involves much more than preparing your Franchise Disclosure Document (take a look at “You Need More Than Documents to Franchise Your Business“. There are specific steps and lots of projects that lead to the successful completion of these documents. The Franchise Maker has proven strategies which result in comprehensive franchise documents that not only meet federal requirements, but are easy to read and understand. Beyond these basics, we bring to the table several relationships that will help you far beyond your initial franchise development.
Think of it as building a house. Yes, you could build your own home. But an experienced general contractor will build it faster, better and with fewer headaches than you could do on your own simply because they know their craft; they know how to lay the right foundation and they make what can be a confusing project, simple. Turning your business into a franchise is exciting and when you have the right team beside you, can quickly take your business to the next level.
Ready to Franchise Your Business?
Save yourself the grief!
If you’re serious about wanting to turn your business into a franchise, then you really need the help of an experienced franchise development company to get it done for you.
Our proprietary franchise development process walks you through every step of how to franchise your business, from planning and documentation to preparing your business for long-term franchise growth.
We have teams of attorneys, such as transactional, patent, trademark and franchise attorneys waiting to service you (see this article “Need Attorneys to Franchise: Don’t’ Worry We Have Them”). You will have a direct attorney-client relationship with the franchise attorney firm we provide for you while we coordinate the overall franchise development process. Call us at 1-877-615-5177 for a full overview of how we make franchising your business Quick, Easy and Affordable.
- Requirements to Franchise a Business
- Registering Your Franchise in Other States
- What Are Franchise Development Services
- What is in the Franchise Disclosure Document
- What to Know Before Starting the Process to Franchise
- Our Customized Approach to Franchising Your Business
