Franchise contracts represent a big investment for franchisee and franchisor alike.

You are not being a party pooper if you ask some tough questions before you sign any franchise contracts. Don’t let anyone accuse you of not having the enthusiasm and optimism to make a great franchising operation work just because you are smart enough to read the fine print before you sign your life away. You can have enthusiasm and excitement coming out of your ears and still be a smart business person at the same time.

Let’s not kid ourselves here. Franchising a small business is a big deal. It is a big deal for the franchisee and you can be sure that before they are willing to sign any franchising contracts with you, they checked you out soup to nuts. So you be just as fussy and make sure the franchisor who wants you to own a chunk of their success really will live up to those franchise contracts and is not blowing smoke up your pants.

When a franchisor sets out to “sell” a franchise in their business, it is a big profit making operation for them. The franchisor is setting up a sweet deal for themselves where you do all the hard work day in and day out and they show up once a month and take away the bags of money that come to them from those fat franchise royalty fees.

It is the franchise contracts that make this sweet deal work for them. This is not to say that those same franchise agreements will not pay off big time for you. Franchising is a great way to jump start your small business because in exchange for the investment you make, you open a business that has a built in name recognition and a customer base who want to spend money with your small business.  That can be a guaranteed success if you work hard and know what you are doing.

Franchise contracts are not set in stone.

If you are a little intimidated by those fat franchise contracts that just showed up on your desk, those butterflies in your stomach are your friends. They are telling you not to just turn to the last page and start signing where the franchisee put the big red X marks.  Every paragraph, line and comma of that fat document will have a big impact on your daily life once you are in bed, so to speak, with that franchising company.  Make sure that you agree with every paragraph, line and comma before you so much as take the cap off of your pen to sign up for the deal.

You are not in this alone. Investing in the services of a good franchise lawyer and a franchise consultant is a savvy move on your part.  Be sure that someone takes that franchise contract apart piece by piece and knows exactly what it says.  Then make sure those high priced franchise gurus explain every concept on the pages of that franchise contract to you in language you understand.

You deserve to know what those franchise contracts say and you deserve to have it written in language you understand.  If the franchise contract is written in a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo, send it back and ask for it to be returned without the dog and pony show.

Nothing is set in stone. If you don’t like something in that franchise contract, change it. Your high priced franchise gurus know how to make those changes.  Don’t let the franchisor push you around. If you negotiate so those franchise contracts lay out just like you want them to, you will walk away with a sweet deal for yourself and a sweet career ahead running a very profitable franchise small business to call your own.