Learn How to Franchise Your Own Business: We Can Help!

What is a Franchise?

A franchise is operated by an independent business owner that has permission by you (under a contractual relationship) to operate the same type of business you created, offering the same services and products in the same manner as you and under your same name (learn more about what it means to franchise a business).

Franchising is a marketing strategy that can help you to expand your business by way of other people operating your exact same business in other markets. Whether you want to franchise a service business, a business that requires a license, a restaurant or even a home-based business franchising can help expand your footprint.

Franchising provides other people with the benefits of owning their own business, using your name and logo, system and know-how while benefiting from your experience and being provided with training and ongoing support. This allows you to grow and build your brand faster compared to expanding on your own. Read on to learn all about what it takes to become a franchisor so you can decide if franchising should be included in your growth plans.

How to Make a Successful Franchise

The linchpin to your franchise program lies in how well it is structured, particularly in your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). How your franchise program is put together will dictate the relationship between you and your future franchisees. While franchising does come with a set of rules for the person buying into your business to follow, and while those rules are important, they do not need to be excessively harsh. In fact, to make your franchise program successful you will learn from us some of the industry best practices which includes creating a franchise-friendly program. We believe your FDD can be franchise-friendly, which benefits you immensely when awarding franchises later. It is important that you work with someone who embraces this philosophy and not just slap you into some template.

Things to Consider For the FDD

Franchise Documents Should be Simple: Your FDD should be readable and approachable, not daunting where someone feels intimidated or their head starts to hurt when cracking it open.

Startup Costs: Consider all the costs you incurred in setting up your business and getting it operational. Everything from build-out, purchasing and installing equipment, furnishings and fixtures to startup inventory that had to be purchased.

Operational Costs: Take a look at all the fees you pay on a regular basis that you pay to third-parties and are necessary to keep your business up and running.

Geographical Reach: Think about where you currently operate your business and if that is a factor in your success. Consider if your business will work anywhere.

How Long Will the Franchising Process Take?

The Franchise Maker has created a QUICK, EASY & AFFORDABLE way to take your business into the franchising arena. We create your franchise program with you, prepare your franchise documents and orchestrate all the activity necessary for you to offer franchises nationwide. The franchising process can be done in as little as 90 days or at whatever pace is comfortable for you so long as it does not exceed one year (too much momentum is lost if it takes that long). Bottom line is we will work at your pace. Our franchise development services are designed to be flexible.

How Much of My Time is Needed?

Our franchise development program takes into account you are super busy and time is hard to come by. So all we need from you is one hour a week. Yep, you read this correctly one hour a week or one hour every other week (take a look at "How Much of My Time is Needed to Franchise"). Since we put together a custom franchise program that is unique to your business, your involvement is necessary every step of the way. Once your franchise documents are prepared by us, then you are on auto-pilot once we introduce you to one of our franchise attorney firms who will review, make changes and file these documents in your state.

Designed for You to be Self-Sufficient

Our franchise development program is designed for you to be self-sufficient without you having to depend on or be handcuffed to anyone afterwards. We will hold your hand, direct and quarterback your entire franchise process, from start to finish by leveraging our experience, industry best practices and the expertise of our teams of professionals. After we are done you are not tied to us, we do not keep our hands in your pocket or make any money off your future activities.

Our focus is to build a solid franchise program for your business that addresses: what your franchisees responsibilities will be, what franchisees will be authorized to offer, what your obligations will be to franchisees, what will be your fees, what will be your deliverables to justify the fees you charge, and most importantly identify the protections that are afforded to you to keep you out of trouble. We will provide you with all the facts, unbiased information and mentorship you will need to survive, grow and be successful!

Easily Franchise Your Dog Grooming Company

How to Franchise Your Business
in 8 Easy Steps When You Are Ready

There are several steps to franchise development. Below is a simple outline of the various steps necessary in order for you to start franchising immediately. As we begin to talk, you will realize that we have broken each step into easy, manageable phases. Our job is to make franchising your business QUICK & EASY for you.

By the way when we say we make franchising EASY for you we mean it! The Franchise Maker provides you with a very comprehensive and proprietary hand-holding process to teach, coach, mentor and guide you through the entire franchising process.

1. Create an Entity

We will guide you on how to create an entity for the parent company. This is the company that will be in the business of offering franchises.

2. Register Your Trademark

Register your trademark (logo and word mark) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. That's right, we have exceptional and very talented trademark attorney firms who will get all trademarks filed for you (learn how we have attorney firms who specialize in trademark filings).

3. Develop Your Franchise Structure

We will structure your franchise system and put together the magic franchise documents (your Franchise Disclosure Document (also known as FDD) package that is required by the FTC together so you can start offering franchises. Read more about why you need more than just documents when franchising.

4. Franchise Attorney Review and File

We will give this package to one of our many franchise attorney firms to review, make edtis, changes and file it with the proper state regulators (learn why you do not have to worry about working with an attorney when working with us). You will have a direct relationship with the franchise attorney firm we give you. No need to worry because we will provide you with a franchise attorney firm that best fits your personality and concept.

5. Fund Your Franchise Company

We will provide you with instructions on funding your franchise company. This is the easy part. Funding your franchise company is a requirement necessary to show prospective franchisees that your are funded enough to support them and your franchising activities.

6. Financial Statements Prepared

Yep, you need them and we will introduce you to one of our accounting firms who will prepare audited financial statements (learn more about audited financial statements). You will have a direct relationship with the accounting firm we give you. Financial statements is one of the required exhibits for the FDD package.

7. Manuals and Support Materials

We will provide you with all the necessary resources and support materials you will need once you are approved to start franchising. This includes the different manuals necessary to present your operational procedures, systems and proprietary information in an organized fashion to your future franchisees. And yes this includes franchise operations manual materials. Yep we make it easy, so there is no need to panic or be scared about the franchise operations manual.

8. Franchise Applicant Approval Process

We can create and define your franchise applicant approval process, explain the Discovery Day concept and provide you with ongoing assistance as you award franchises. It is important for you to know that for someone buying a franchise it is a complex investment for them. The Federal Trade Commission has published "A Consumer Guide to Buying a Franchise" to educate franchise buyers the risks and benefits of owning a franchise that you will need to bring to their attention. As we work together we will teach you about these franchise rules and regulations. And you may even come to conclusion that despite all the hype, you really do NOT need someone to manage your franchise sales process.

That is it. Do you need a large staff for the parent company? In a word: No (see our Learning Center article on the topic of hiring people when starting to franchise). We encourage you to start out slowly and expand as your franchise business dictates. We always recommend that you begin to offer franchises in your own state and surrounding states for the first year to keep things at an arms-length distance.

Franchise Documents That Are Simple to Understand

Your FDD should be readable and approachable, not daunting where someone feels intimidated or their head starts to hurt when cracking it open. You can still have all the required language, protections and teeth in the document without it being too harsh. Avoid using overly complex language or dense legal jargon that may deter readers resulting in them just giving up. Instead, you should want to strive for clarity and conciseness. It is a balancing act, but working with someone who understands how to achieve such goals could be the difference between people jumping onto your franchise program or walking away.

Total Amount of Money You Spent to Open Your Business

Consider all the costs you incurred in setting up your business and getting it operational. Everything from build-out, purchasing and installing equipment, furnishings and fixtures to startup inventory that had to be purchased. Go back in time and see if you can identify the expenses it took to get your business up and running. Even if you have a service business operating out of your home, you still had costs associated with starting up your business. Identify the what, where and why money was spent (and don’t forget about the less tangible expenses like marketing and training) so that we can explain what someone's total investment will be when starting their business. This will be helpful when putting together your FDD because we are required to provide all the expenses you incurred when you started your business and this has to be based from your experience.

Fees You Regularly Pay

Take a look at all the fees you pay on a regular basis that you pay to third-parties and are necessary to keep your business up and running. Besides merchant service fees, most businesses have fees that they pay on a regular basis and it is important to identify them (for example maybe you pay software fees because you use a specific POS system or customer relationship management program). In most cases the fees you pay on regular basis are necessary to not only to maintain your business and also to maintain your brand standards (for example maybe you play music in your business for ambiance). Transparency about ongoing financial commitments required by you to keep the business operational will clearly be outlined in the FDD. And do not to worry about any identifying any fees that you will collect from a franchisee, as we will identify those fees and the deliverables that come along with them as part of our franchise development process.

Is Your Business Contingent on Area

Think about where you currently operate your business and if that is a factor in your success. Consider if your business will work anywhere. For example if you are operating a business that provides a service is there a demand for that service in other markets. Does your business work best when focused in a specific area or when limited by geographic scope compared to operating with limitless boundaries. If you are a brick and mortar type business (operate out of a location which more than likely will require a lease) ask yourself if your business is a destination place or more of a convenience where you could have a location in every suburb of every city. Versatility is important to take into consideration because when we put together the FDD we will identify if there are any geographic or demographic characteristics that are critical to your business to determine whether or not you will be providing any type of protected territory.

These are just a few thing to consider when building a franchise program and putting together an FDD. But not to worry, you do not need to come to the table prepared with all these answers. Through our proprietary franchise development process we will flush out all these details while putting together a custom FDD for your business. All of this is just food for thought, starting point and a preview of what we will tackle when taking you through all the steps to franchise.

How Long Will the Franchising Process Take?

How Much of My Time is Needed?

Designed for You to be Self-Sufficient

What is The Cost to Start Franchising a Business?

The cost to start franchising a business is not as much as you think. We are sensitive to your needs to minimize costs and would rather see you spend money on advertising and marketing your franchise when we are finished.

Our fees are minimal and all costs to franchise your business are a fixed FLAT RATE. Compensation for our services are broken down into different phases and you can choose to pay when each phase is completed. You can take advantage of our Pay-As-You-Go program where you do not have to commit to a large sum up front. We will be happy to explain this program to you in greater detail when you contact us. Our Pay-As-You-Go program was created to give you added confidence in our services since the risk is shifted on us to perform for YOU.

Yep, you are really going to be surprised at how little it will actually cost you to franchise a business, keep reading.

You can expect the absolute total cost to franchise your business to be $2M dollars (just kidding) it is actually a lot less than $50K with The Franchise Maker. Unlike other costs you may have seen on the internet or heard about, this represents a true comprehensive cost. Yep that’s right, no bait and switch here. As mentioned above everything we do is a flat fee. And yes this cost includes the fees for all work performed to prepare your documents, franchise operations manual materials, filing fees in addition to the attorneys and accountants that are necessary and part of the process.

Don’t let the costs of franchising hold you back from growing your business. By the time you are ready to offer franchises, you will have spent less than the amount listed above. It’s that simple! Want to know specifics, call us.

Franchising is a way to grow your business through a network of independent business owners that you essentially give permission to use your name, methods and processes to operate your business in their area. So rather than you opening more locations or servicing other areas yourself, you are allowing someone else to do it using their own resources and talent. To get more of a basic understanding and a deeper explanation of what is franchising visit our home page.

Franchising can offer a quicker way for you to grow and get into other markets, increase your brand recognition and provide you with additional revenue streams without the capital expenditure typically associated with opening multiple company-owned locations.

The business needs to be up and running, there is a demand for the products or services being offer, an ability for the business to be scalable, teachable and there is a commitment to providing franchisees with support with a passion for them to be successful are a few characteristics that make your business franchisable. To see more read this article “How do I Know if My Business is Franchisable”.

The timeframe is up to you, but typically it could take just a few months or up to a year to get everything in place. This includes all the necessary legal documentation and getting registered in your state so you can offer franchises all over the United States.

The document you need so you can start offering franchises is the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), which is a road map to the relationship. The FDD provides potential franchisees with a comprehensive overview of who you are, your deliverables, franchisee’s responsibilities and the terms of the agreement.

You can expect the absolute cost to franchise your business to be $2M dollars (just kidding) it is actually a lot less than $50K with The Franchise Maker. Yep this represents the entire cost, no bait and switch and no surprises. By the time we are done you will be in position to offer franchises all over the United States (with the exception of a few registration states).

The franchise fee and royalties are mostly based on the deliverables you provide to franchisees. We will also take into consideration industry standards, market research, competitor analysis and understanding the costs of ongoing support and training will help determine these figures.

When building a franchise program, we will identify what your franchise training program will look like and provide you with a blueprint so that you can put it together. You will also be provided with a franchise operations manual package that you are able to customize so you can provide franchisees with all the difference checklists, forms, agreements, etc. in one place for them to reference later.

Working with the wrong company to put a franchise program together that could lead to hidden agendas or leaving your franchise program exposed to claims. The number one biggest mistake when franchising is growing your franchise program too fast. Other common mistakes include: aligning yourself with the wrong company to help you sell franchises (franchise brokers), entering into a partnership too prematurely and failing to adequately interview potential franchisees are just few.

Once you are approved to offer franchises you can award as many franchises as you want, however we strongly encourage you temper your growth. As a franchisor you are responsible for helping someone to get your business started in their market and training them on the intricacies of every aspect of operating your business. Need to be careful not to over commit yourself! Take a look at The Biggest Risk When Franchising.

Learn How to Franchise Your Own Business: We Can Help!

What is a Franchise?