Business Incorporation

Going into the franchising business can be very exciting for the first-time franchisor. On the other hand, thinking about all the legal matters that need to be considered and the required documentation to be submitted, may seem intimidating and can be overwhelming. Hiring a Franchise attorneys - a legal expert in this field - can make your goal of owning your first franchise easier to achieve.

A Franchise Attorney can help you in many ways, starting from the very first step of the franchising process. Your attorney can help you create a franchise program and draft the necessary legal documents. He or she can also give you advice on day-to-day business matters and regulatory compliance, and help enforce the franchise agreement terms in the event of a dispute. In addition, franchise attorneys can also give advice on matters relating to franchising and distribution: secured transactions, bankruptcy, intellectual property, employment law, antitrust, and vicarious liability.

Franchising attorneys can also provide legal counsel on contracts and application of franchise statutes, if your goal is to put up a franchising company that distributes products through networks of wholesalers or dealers. Your lawyer will also be in charge of negotiating and reviewing franchise and master licensing agreements, and help with the contracts that concern international franchising, strategic alliances, and branding programs.

Some other situations may arise during the course of running a franchise business that may warrant the services of a franchise attorney. Such cases include: terminating the franchise relationship, vicarious liability cases, and statutory compliance. In the case of termination of the franchise relationship, your attorney will ensure that the terms of the franchise agreement are upheld. For vicarious liability cases, your lawyer can have the case against you dismissed, or negotiate a nominal settlement. And for statutory compliance, your attorney will act as a liaison between you and the federal and provincial regulatory agencies to resolve andy issues or concerns related to allegations made by the franchisee. Your attorney will also represent and defend you during legal proceedings.

Franchising Canadian Franchise Lawyer, franchise, Franchise Attorneys, franchise lawyers, Franchising, law

When looking to start your own business, one of the options that you can consider is buying a franchise. Although purchasing a franchise will likely cost more than putting up a business from scratch, in general, franchises have a higher success rate than start-ups. This is because you are actually paying for the product’s proven track record, as well as the franchisor’s training, marketing, and business support. Before you consider signing a franchise agreement, it is a good idea to consult with experienced Franchise Attorney who is a specialist in the field and is knowledgeable in all aspects of the franchising business.

A franchise is actually a legal agreement between a franchisor (seller) and a franchisee (buyer). Through this agreement, the franchisee is granted rights by the franchisor to distribute certain goods or services developed by the latter, in a specific way, a particular location, and a specified period of time. When you enter a franchise agreement, you are not actually purchasing a business, but only the rights to operate the business under the said agreement for a limited, pre-specified period of time. This agreement may also have the option for renewal.

Buying a franchise has its advantages. First, the franchisor will provide the training necessary for you to run the business successfully. This training encompasses all stages of the business - from establishment, to running, and even expansion. The franchisor will also provide regular supervision and ongoing advice on business operations. In addition, most franchisors also have the buying power to fund regional and national advertising campaigns, as well as provide financing options when needed. Franchise attorneys will be able to assist you by drafting, negotiating, and reviewing the franchise agreement to ensure that these terms are all specified, and will be duly enforced.

One of the disadvantages of buying a franchise is cost. Having to pay ongoing fees and royalties can add up and prove to be quite expensive. Other disadvantages of franchising include limited possibilites for expansion, and restrictive guidelines and regulations which can confine the business decisions you can make as the franchisee. Your Franchise Attorney can help explain important points in the franchise agreement, make you understand your rights, and inform you of any legal restrictions that you need to be aware of.

Before you decide to purchase a franchise, make sure you are aware of the pros and cons involved in putting up this kind of business. Although more start-up businesses are prone to fail, franchising is not 100% risk free. In fact, one study showed a 35% fail rate among franchises.

Franchising Canadian Franchise Lawyer, franchise, Franchise Attorneys, franchise law, Franchise Lawyer, Franchising

Obtaining a consummate understanding of a business’s current marketing performance becomes doubly difficult for franchise businesses. For franchises, the integration of a call tracking solution provides a wealth of information benefiting both the franchisor and the franchisee. Outlining some of the features of this call tracking solution should provide a clearer picture of the power of this tool.

Gaining accurate feedback on the performance of one’s franchisees is often a difficult and inexact science, relying on highly-variable sources of information and opinions within different franchises, customer feedback on the franchisee’s performance, and so forth. Because call tracking logs instantly the data surrounding the call (e.g. call recording, call duration, individual sales and leads), this becomes a far more exact and judicious process.

Maintaining and monitoring a franchise’s advertising campaign is vital for insuring that one’s ROI on each campaign is sufficiently high to warrant the investment being spent, and as some call tracking solutions offer a unique telephone number to be applied for each advertising medium logged in the system, to diagnose potential problems where an advertising campaign seems to be failing to reach its potential.

Furthermore, the implementation of call tracking can hugely improve performance from the sales team of a franchisee. As franchisors are expected to train their franchisees in sales technique, call tracking can show both the franchisee’s progress and sales ratio; franchisees can see for themselves the success rate of conversions made from offline calls.

But call tracking can provide improvement in other areas of the franchise business. Its call recording function can lead to the improvement of a franchisees telephone sales by allowing salespersons to listen back to exemplary calls. The progression in productivity therefore works at the level it is needed most, at the customer’s actual contact with a representative of the franchise. Call tracking also allows companies to utilize e-mail notification to identify missed calls – this is incredibly beneficial to both reclaiming that lost percentage, and allows that extra quality of service to be conducted for the customer.

The information that call tracking provides for the franchisor is integral to an interpretation of offline conversions in the same manner as an analytics tool would present online conversions. The information logged for call tracking allows potential slumps in productivity to be rectified quickly, with minimal loss to investment, and furthermore the franchisor can feel justified in making alterations to the marketing campaign, having the information in an ordered and pliable medium. Combining all these elements together, the implementation of phone tracking allows a greater level of surety in properly interpreting the complex data needed to build and maintain a growing conversion rate.

Franchising analytics, call tracking, franchise, franchisee, franchises, franchisor, phone tracking

He or she should be the same type of person you would hire if you were opening another branch and seeking a manager. Like managers, individual franchise owners should have leadership, sales, and people skills, as well as physical stamina and job experience. They will not only manage but put up the start up capital as well. When the time comes to select franchise applicants, don’t be shy about
asking for detailed personal information such as school transcripts. 

Ideally you are seeking A students. A students often work for companies
managed by B students owned by C students. You do not want the person who likes to “wing it.” Nor do you want an entrepreneur eager to put his or her stamp on everything. Most A student candidates will have worked in structured environments for relatively long periods of time. They will tend to be comfortable following rules and regulations.

A good franchise prospect will have held jobs for at least three or four years and will have had several promotions. It’s helpful if the applicant has been married for a long time (it shows they can withstand pain). And indeed, individuals who have withstood the ups and downs of business and personal
relationships stand a good chance of being successful franchisees.

Check their driving record. This may not only reveal the tendency to speed and break other laws but alcohol or drug problems will show up. Check their credit record.

Prospects who fail to make credit card or mortgage payments and other commitments on a timely basis may not pay their royalties on time either.

Ask the potential buyer about their life. Someone who rides the train at 5:30 am train to work every day, returns home at 6:00 p.m., eats dinner, watches TV and goes to bed, then on weekends “chills out,” is probably not a good candidate for a franchise.
You want potential franchisees who are busy and active outside of their current workplace.

Your franchisees will have to hire, train and motivate employees, interface with customers, vendors, and community organizations, unload boxes, be on their feet for long periods of time, and work long hours. Even though they will have a system of operations to follow within their franchise program they will still need to devote the time and effort to make the business work.

You should never sell a franchise to someone who plans on being an absentee owner. Absentee ownership defeats the very purpose of franchising. It adds an extra layer of expense while diminishing its principal advantage: motivation. Owner-operators are the backbone of franchising.

Identifying and looking for the qualities listed above in a franchise buyer is absolutely necessary when considering the sale of a franchise. Choosing the right franchisees will determine your success as a franchisor.

Franchising franchise, franchise a business, franchise consulting, franchise sales, how to franchise

The cost of franchising is often a smaller investment than the cost of establishing even one new outlet. After paying the cost of the franchise program, the remaining costs of expansion (as well as most of the risk) are assumed by franchisees. And since franchisees usually pay the franchisor an up-front fee and royalties, the right strategy for selling your franchise idea can become an immediate high-impact low-risk revenue source

In addition, the fixed and variable expenses involved in running a franchise company are much lower than operating a similar number of company-owned facilities.

You probably already know how much you would pay to establish a new company-owned copy of your existing business. 

If you own a restaurant, for example, the cost of buying land and construction, or even the cost of leasehold improvements and furnishings in an existing building, could easily run between $100,000 and $200,000 or more.   What you may not know is that for the same amount, or less, you can have a complete franchise development program.  And whereas the new company-owned unit might require a year to establish and might not be profitable for another year or two, your franchise program will probably take less than a year to put together and enable you at the end of that period to sell franchises and immediately begin to recoup your investment.  If your franchise fee is $35,000—an average nowadays—and if in your first year as a franchisor you sell seven franchises (another average for franchisors according to a study by DePaul University) you could have your program paid for by the end of that first year. 

Some businesses are standing by and waiting for this economic storm to blow over while others are positioning their companies to succeed in spite of the downturn. 

What are you going to do with your business?Are you going to push forward and expand your business despite what your competitors are doing?How can you take advantage of this opportunity without having to spend your own money to fuel expansion?  You need to leverage your intellectual property.Expanding your business by franchising may be the only option for you. 

With all of the highly skilled people out of work franchising companies are taking advantage of the greatest supply of highly educated individuals that they have ever seen.  With unemployment believed to continue to rise over the next year, this opportunity will continue on for a while.  Though, once this recession is over and companies stop laying people off and start hiring them again, you may well have missed your window of opportunity to sell franchises in this fertile environment.

The fact is people have lost faith in what have become accepted as “safe” investments.  In spite of losses in 401k’s and home values, people still have money that they can access.People will still borrow funds from family and friends that willingly contribute to a new business venture which has always been a source of new business capital.This will not stop in spite of the economy.

The challenges of today’s economy may have just created the “perfect storm” and the best opportunity for franchising your business. The greatest fear you should have is sitting back while one of your competitors pushes forward.

Franchising franchise, franchise my business, franchise your business, Franchising, how to franchise

Here are beginner pointers on finding a worthwhile franchise opportunity:

- Once you purchase a franchise, you sell goods and services that are already recognised and are given training and support that helps you succeed in your enterprise. However, not all concessions can be a guaranteed success. Acquiring a franchise permits you to operate a business and on coughing up a franchise fee of a few grand, you follow a format stipulated by the franchisor and not your own.

- Look for discounts that numerous franchisors have acquired and look for additional benefits. Starting a franchise has the benefit of not beginning from scratch because five percent of enterprises succeed in the first five years while seventy-five percent of franchises succeed in their first five years.

- Expect to cough up significantly more if you purchase a franchise since it has a brand name that will draw in customers. A lesser-known franchise might be less expensive but still costly. If you’re low on cash you can start on the ‘net and advertise on free advertising sites. There is no miracle franchise and even if it’s well known, it won’t work without hard work on your part. You will require personal qualities and skills to make a good franchise store bloom.

- More established franchises cost a lot more but proffer the guarantee of a higher rate of success. Less established franchises cost much less and pose a greater investment-risk to the investor. Careful research is required.

- Reputation. The greater the amount of reputation your franchise seller has the easier it will be in starting a franchise. Everybody who dwells in a developed country is aware of McDonalds and most folks believe that a McDonalds restaurant anywhere in the world is owned by a single company. By starting a franchise with a high reputation you get customers by not even trying but by the name of the franchisor alone. That’s a good enterprise. You should find a franchisor with a reputation to match the money paid for the concession brand.

- Starting a franchise is like trying to ride a bicycle with assistance. Starting an independent venture is like doing the same except without assistance. Taking on a franchise is a simpler way to becoming a businessman without taking on most risks other entrepreneurs undergo.

- Name Recognition. A franchise business often comes with an easily recognisable and well-known name. The brand-name of a franchise enterprise is one of the major reasons for getting a franchise in the first place. Without an easily recognisable brand you may be much better-off saving yourself the money and founding your own business from scratch.

- Competition. The threat of competition to a venture is all too real. The competition can knock your company out of the running before it even starts. A franchise enterprise in a region with tough competition has the potential to succeed more easily due to the name-recognition factor. People will readily identify with a popular venture even if there are other available alternatives.

- Franchisors are always willing to train their franchise buyers in all aspects of the enterprise. Their job is making business-owners out of their franchise purchasers, proffering operations-training and an established enterprise model. You can choose the venture you want, get educated in it and then set to making money.

I hope these few basic pointers will help you in purchasing a worthwhile franchise business.

About the author: N. Svengali is an author for finding a franchise and cheap auto insurance internet sites in London in the UK.

Franchising business, buying a franchise, finding a franchise, franchise, starting a franchise