{"id":51,"date":"2011-08-23T20:51:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T20:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefranchisemaker.com\/blog\/i-built-the-business-myself-why-cant-i-franchise-it-myself"},"modified":"2026-07-15T19:41:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:41:24","slug":"i-built-the-business-myself-why-cant-i-franchise-it-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefranchisemaker.com\/learningcenter\/i-built-the-business-myself-why-cant-i-franchise-it-myself\/","title":{"rendered":"Turn Your Business Into a Franchise with Expert Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve decided to turn your business into a franchise. After doing some research to figure out how to franchise your business<\/a>, you decide to \u201cdo it yourself\u201d. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many business owners believe they can franchise their business themselves. While parts of the process may appear straightforward, successfully franchising your business<\/a> involves much more than preparing legal documents.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s the challenge with \u2018one-size-fits-all\u2019 template documents \u00a0(see more on this topic “Franchise Templates are Bad<\/a>“). 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!<\/span><\/p>\n

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!
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Hiring a Franchise Attorney is Only Part of the Solution<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u201cAlright,\u201d you say, \u201cI\u2019ll hire a franchise attorney to help me.\u201d 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<\/a>“). 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\u2019t they supposed to work WITH you to provide guidance and insight into this whole process? Aren\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a legal office,\u201d they say. \u201cWe don\u2019t 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.\u201d 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\u2019s where a franchise development company, such as The Franchise Maker, really plays a critical role (take a look at this article titled \u201cWhat to Look for in a Franchise Development Company<\/a>\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

Franchising Your Business Involves Much More Than an FDD<\/span><\/h2>\n

Completing Your Franchise System<\/span><\/h3>\n

Finally, your FDD is done and the attorney\u2019s office is prepared to submit it for state approval. However, it\u2019s not done yet because there are still a bunch of pieces missing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Successfully franchising your business requires coordinating every aspect of your franchise system, not just preparing legal documents.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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:<\/span><\/p>\n