"Buying a Franchise 101", or at least as I see it.
A quick Google search will give you lots of advice about choosing the right franchise for you. Beware, there are a lot of brokers and consulting gigs out there that try to lure you in with a quick Google search, then before you realize it, you're just one click away from giving someone a bunch of money. The bottom line, you need to do your due diligence whether it be with us or anyone else. There are lots of rules for how a franchise can be advertised and presented. There are things we can't say and things we must say. These rules are created to protect you. The FTC has created this system to help you not get sucked into spending your life savings on a really bad time share in Bismarck ND.
3 Parts of Every Franchise
So, first, there's this thing called the FDD, or Franchise Disclosure Document. This bad boy is filled with warnings and references and resources to help you. I wish I had an FDD when I got married the first time. There will be the same 23 topics in every FDD for every franchise for sale, in America. Some FDDs are up to 300 pages long. Not ours. When you read an FDD, you may be a little overwhelmed. Actually......you will definitely be overwhelmed. I was. This document will lay out the ranges of possible investments (cost) needed in every area of the franchise opportunity. It will tell you just about everything in the world, except how much money you will make. After all, you will be self-employed and there is no safety net. It breaks down all the fees and things that may happen..... It also references the second part of the franchise gig. The "Franchise Agreement". This is the document that lays out all the rules to be a franchisee. It is insanely long and redundant, and generally kind of hard to follow. I tried to shorten ours and put it in plain English, but legal mumbo jumbo is part of the gig. You will be provided these two things plenty early to have lots of time to study or seek council on. Unless you are just a blind sheep headed off across the field, you should have a ton of questions after you get to reading these two documents. I like to create an email thread between us so you can ask lots of questions and reference back to the answers as we work through the process together; fewer misunderstandings that way. Then, the final piece....the "Operations Manual." You won't get that until you sign on the line and pay up. The Ops Manual is the bible of the systems and processes that make the business work. It's where many of the trade secrets are laid out in detail. You'll receive your very own Operations Manual when you come to corporate for training and pick up your equipment.
Well, that's enough for now.
Jim
Comments