The franchise documents you have to deal with are complicated and confusing but the effort you put into conquering them will more than pay off.

One might think that in a perfect world, complicated franchise documents would not be a part of what it takes to own your own franchise small business.  If you just got your first big bundle of complicated franchise documents from the franchising company in preparation for going into business with them, you are not the first one to think you are going to drown in paperwork.  From the franchise agreements to the other documents that you are expected to know like the back of your hand, the whole process can get a little overwhelming.

Before you throw the whole stack of franchise documents in the drawer and give up and go to the movies, think twice. There are good reasons why those franchise documents are so long and detailed. In most cases, it is for your own protection. That is because of a little thing called disclosure.

Franchise disclosure documents are a big part of the purpose of so many franchise documents start filling up your mailbox. The franchising process has been refined over many years and many problems have been flushed out of the brush that can cause good franchise relationships to go bad.  And one of the big reasons things go south for a franchisee is when you do not know up front what will happen when the legal documents are all signed, huge sums of cash exchanged and you are ready to fire up your franchise.  So franchise documents are there to give you a peek into the future so there will be no surprises.

Franchise documents are long for good reasons.

The franchise industry has found it necessary to make franchise documents as long and complex for good reasons. They are not trying to impress you with how much paper they can send your way or snow you with a mountain of legal mumbo jumbo.  When a company sets out to create franchises, the franchise laws they have to cope with are nothing short of phenomenal. So a lot of the franchise document creation that goes on is to jump through the hoops of so many franchise laws that are in existence that gum up the system considerably.

One top of franchise laws coming out of their ears, franchisors have to think about the possibility of lawsuits that can come out of a botched franchise relationship. There is a lot of dough that trades hands as you get moving on buying a franchise and when that much money is involved and there are lawyers anywhere near, there are going to be some lawsuits when things go wrong.

The good thing is that there are some franchise document laws that stipulate that the franchise documents you have to read and sign must be written in language you can understand. Even at that, it pays to get some help from a good franchise lawyer and/or a franchise consultant to make sure there isn’t anything buried in those franchise documents that can come back to haunt you later. But if you take your time and read those franchise documents and make sure you understand every paragraph you find there, you will be prepared in every way when the time comes to launch your franchise and start raking in the big bucks.