One way of growing a business is to put it in a box for other people to make it their own, and for a franchisee it’s an oven-ready business to get on with. To grant a franchise and allow someone else to come and operate the way you do takes a great deal of preparation but if you front-load the work and get it right, you will have a winning formula on your hands!
As a potential franchisor, you will need to create your manual or ‘bible’ which sets out the precise methodology you want all your franchisees to follow and a franchise agreement that details what intellectual property and other items your franchisees will be paying you for together with their obligations around protecting your business, paying you, any performance requirements and so on.
This is a lot of hard work but the idea here is that you get to watch your franchisees grow your business for you.
As a potential franchisee, you will need to pay a great deal of attention to the franchise agreement to ensure that you can not only fund ‘getting in’ but that you can operate in accordance with it and flourish. Franchise agreements tend to be lengthy and can be pretty onerous because you are being trusted with someone else’s baby. You also need to think about the right fit for your personality: a franchise is somewhere in between being employed and stepping out into the wide world creating your own business from scratch – you are not free to run things how you want but, on the other hand, you will have a great deal of support. That you’re paying for.
With the right fit, a franchise works fantastically well for everyone but we would always suggest a fully advised service for both parties because there are just too many potential pitfalls.