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Tahir's Tips: How to Franchise from a Legal Perspective

Tahir Basheer
27 March 2015

A company franchising their business – the ‘franchisor’ – in essence provides another party – the ‘franchisee’ – with all the building blocks required to create a successful business. For example, they will provide the brand – the trademarks, designs and marketing materials as well as project management, buying and operational support. The franchisee uses those building blocks in exchange for the risk in the business – they rent the premises, pay their staff and so on. They are often found in the food industry with big brands like KFC. But the franchise model can also extend into the fashion industry. A good example of a successful franchise is Tommy Hilfiger – a third of their 1,000 stores are run by franchise partners. In their own words, the Tommy Hilfiger franchise “merges global brand management with local retail excellence”. Another successful example is Gap. Gap don’t franchise in their major markets, like the US and UK where they have company owned stores, but they do franchise in other countries as a way to enter the market.

A franchise is obviously a major decision for a business to make. This article outlines the main advantages and disadvantages of a franchise business model from the perspective of the brand owner (i.e the franchisor). Next week I will give my thoughts and tips from the franchisee’s perspective.

 

Advantages of franchising:

 

1. Cost-effective growth – The main benefit for a franchisor is that they can utilise a franchisee’s capital and manpower to expand its own business and increase its presence in the market. As the franchisee will contribute the bulk of the start-up costs, franchising allows the franchisor to increase its outlets faster than if it were directly financing its own expansion.

 

2. Motivation and incentive – Franchisees are responsible for their own franchise and are likely to be more committed to success than an employee would be. Franchisees are often entrepreneurial-minded individuals who have invested a considerable amount in the franchise. They have a strong incentive to make your business a success.

 

3. Streamlining – A franchisor is able to focus on other aspects of their business. This is particularly true once the franchisee is experienced and able to operate with minimal control – then the work of the franchisor is merely managing the franchisee. This provides the franchisor with more time to focus on other aspects of the business.

 

4. Advertising – Under the terms of the franchise agreement, the franchisor could insist on the franchisee contributing a certain amount of gross sales towards the advertising of the business. This would assist the franchisor in increasing public awareness of the business.

 

Disadvantages of franchising:

 

1. Loss of ownership and control – The franchisor has to share ownership of the business product/idea/concept with the franchisee. Although the franchise agreement would impose restrictions on the franchisee, the franchisee will have a degree of freedom which could cause further issues as outlined below.

 

2. Confidentiality – franchising will inevitably involve the disclosing of confidential information and know-how from the franchisor to the franchisee. The franchise agreement should always contain a confidentiality clause, but in any event it is difficult to monitor and enforce such a clause.

 

3. Management – The franchisor will need very different skills and experience to run and control a franchise than it would operating a normal business and controlling employees. Accordingly, and even though the franchise agreement would impose certain controls over the franchisee, the franchisor will often have to negotiate and co-operate with a franchisee rather than instruct and manage them.

 

4. Rogue Franchisees – Although the franchisor will monitor the franchisee, it is possible for things to go wrong. For example, the franchisee may not reach the franchisor’s quality standards or they may act in such a way that damages the overall reputation and brand of the franchise business.

 

5. Flexibility – It often takes longer to implement change and introduce new products to a franchised business in comparison to a normal business network.

 

To create a franchise it is vital for brand owners to have a formal agreement of the terms of the relationship. A major positive for brand owners is that much of the bargaining power in the relationship initially belongs to them, especially if there is a strong concept. So they can seek to exert maximum control over the relationship in order to avoid some of the problems discussed above.

 

Keep an eye out for the second part of “How to Franchise from a Legal Perspective” published on The Industry next week.

 

For more information on Industry member, Tahir visit his personal partner page on the Sheridans website. To contact him directly, visit The Industry Directory, email [email protected] or telephone 020 7079 0103. 

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