FRANCHISE LAW
Franchise Law Articles
Plain-English analysis of FDD reviews, franchise agreements, exit strategy, and ongoing counsel for franchisees and franchisors.
477 articles
Franchise Fee Structure Checklist for Franchisors
Before you sell a single franchise, every charge a franchisee will ever pay you needs to be defined, justified, and written into the Franchise Disclosure …
Franchise Fees, Royalties & Item 19: Franchisor Guide
The financial terms of a franchise — the initial fee, the ongoing royalty, the advertising contribution, and any earnings figures you choose to publish — are …
Franchise Financial Assessment Checklist
To assess a franchise’s financial viability, work the numbers from the FDD: total your real investment (Item 7), tally every ongoing fee (Item 6), …
Franchise Legal Compliance Checklist for Franchisors
Franchise legal compliance means meeting the federal and state rules that govern how you offer, sell, and operate a franchise — above all the FTC Franchise Rule …
Franchise Non-Compete Clauses: A Franchisor's Guide
A franchise non-compete clause is only worth what a court will enforce, and courts enforce the reasonable ones — restrictions that are no broader in time, …
Franchise Operations Manual: What to Include
A franchise operations manual is the confidential playbook that turns your business into a system someone else can run the same way you do — and once it is …
Franchise Operations: The System and the Manual
Franchise operations are how a franchisor delivers consistency across every location — and the legal engine that makes it work is the operations manual. The …
Franchise Performance Evaluation Checklist for Franchisors
A franchise performance evaluation checklist is a standing protocol for measuring every franchisee against the same metrics on the same schedule — sales trends, …
Franchise Renewal Process Checklist for Franchisors
A clean franchise renewal comes down to working a fixed checklist on time: confirm the dates, verify good standing, issue the right documents, and close on the …
Franchise Renewal Terms: A Checklist Before You Renew
A franchise renewal checklist walks through the conditions you must satisfy to renew and the terms to scrutinize before you commit to another term. Renewal is …
Franchise ROI Checklist: Calculate Your Return
To calculate franchise ROI, divide your expected annual net profit by your total initial investment — and then pressure-test every number against the …
Franchise ROI Checklist: Tracking Return on Investment
Franchise return on investment runs in two directions at once — the franchisee earns a return on the money sunk into opening and running the unit, and the …
Franchise Site Selection for New Units
Determine the size and location of a new franchise unit by matching the format to a defined trade area — pick the location from demographics, traffic, access, …
Franchise Success Stories and the Item 19 Rule
Franchisee success stories are some of the most persuasive marketing a franchisor has — and some of the most heavily regulated. The moment a testimonial …
Franchise Supply Chain & Approved Suppliers
Running a franchise supply chain comes down to one legal lever: the supplier requirements you impose on franchisees must be disclosed in Item 8 of your …
Franchise Support System: A Franchisor's Checklist
A franchise support system is the infrastructure a franchisor builds to help franchisees open and operate successfully — training, field support, marketing, and …
Franchise System Audit Checklist for Franchisors
A franchise system audit is a structured, repeatable review a franchisor runs across its own network to confirm that every unit is following brand standards, …
Franchise Territory Assessment Checklist for Buyers
Assessing a franchise territory means answering two questions: is there enough demand in the area to support the business, and does the franchise agreement …
Franchise Territory Provisions: A Franchisor's Guide
Fair territory provisions give a franchisee enough room to succeed without boxing in the franchisor’s ability to grow. The territory clause is one of the …
Franchise Territory Rights and Market Saturation
Franchise territory rights are whatever the franchise agreement grants — there is no automatic right to an exclusive area — so the way you define territory …
