FREE ADVICE.
Do not initially hire a franchise company or group to help you until you’ve done some of your own work. It is our belief that with a solid and franchisable concept, including a thoughtful name, brand, and model, a great franchise attorney, and a few good forms, including your FDD, Franchise Agreement, and Operations & Employee Manuals, you’ll be in great shape and on your way. If you have the documents and have already given your concept the thought required to complete the above forms, you’ll have a better understanding of your concept & brand, and how you want it operated AND spend less money as you move to implement, either with a “to franchise” company or your small team of professionals.
Hire a franchise attorney! It’s not going to cost you anything for a consultation. They will start charging you when they start working for you, but you will be well aware of what their rates are in advance, and plan for it. Hire someone with franchising and general contract experience, if possible. If and when you do encounter trouble with a franchisee, you will want to ensure you have an attorney that is able to move quickly and ensure they protect your concept and brand, at all costs, as this will set the tone for any future challenges with franchisees.
We are not attorneys, so any form or template you obtain from Franchise Resource Hub must be reviewed by legal counsel. This will ensure tightened language, specific to your concept and location. We do not, under any circumstance, recommend you join Franchise Resource Hub and attempt to franchise your business alone, without an attorney. The largest mistake we made, from the beginning, was not having a franchise attorney for document review. We relied on less-than-acceptable documents and less than stellar franchise business coaches to advise. We ended up in a legal kerfuffle just over three years in, specific to a territory dispute, which an attorney would have caught.
Hire a trademark attorney! You can not franchise your brand without a trademark, plain and simple. And we don’t recommend you try to do this on your own. If you can’t afford a Trademark Attorney then you may not be ready to franchise your business. Refer to the information above about taking a small, conservative business loan.
Work hard on your territory and license area, as will be defined in your documents. Don’t just make up a number; do the work to figure out what your territory should be based on a multitude of factors. There is lots of information out there and you should get it all and noodle the heck out of it every single day for a month, minimum, before you decide what your territory size will be. Some things to consider: population density, average household income, over and under-saturation, and purchasing & traffic patterns.