The legal requirement that franchising documents must be understandable to the average person impacts franchisee and franchisor in different ways.

Franchising documents must be understandable to the average person.  That is more than just a cute idea.  It is part of franchise law.  Since franchising documents originate with the franchisee, you take the kick off on making those documents complete and accurate but also so any average person can read them and get what you are saying.

This can be tricky.  Franchising documents are, after all, legal documents that will eventually become signed and binding agreements between you and every small business person who buys a franchise from you. So cannot just lock the doors and not let the lawyers take a crack at making sure the franchising documents are right.

What you can do is to have your franchising documents reviewed by “average people” that you have hanging around your offices to make sure they can be understood by a potential franchisor. Obviously, you have to assume that the concept of the average person means you are writing your franchising documents to be understood by adults with sufficient education to run a business and be successful dealing with the many financial and legal issues that all grown ups deal with.

The idea here is to cut down on the legal mumbo jumbo.  Have your “testers” jump all over any legal terms that show up in those franchising documents.  Let them ask questions about terminology such as, “What does this mean?”  If some legal terminology pops up in your franchising documents that confuse your testers, some rewrites are in order.

A franchise lawyer or no franchise lawyer? That is the question.

For those who are launching out on the adventure of buying a franchise, brace yourselves.  You are going to be seeing a number of franchising documents show up and it is important you read them and understand them. The understanding part is the important thing because what is written in those franchising documents well, in essence, be the story of your life when you own that franchise and you are an active partner with this strange creature called a franchisee.

You can expect those franchising documents to be understandable by you without the aid of a lawyer. If they are not, you should not be afraid to let the franchisee know that you are having trouble because you have the law on your side that the documents should not be a jumble of legal terms.

You may wonder if you should retain the services of a franchise lawyer as well before you sign those franchising documents.  The answer is yes but not necessarily right away. You should be able to read them and grasp the ideas there without the help of a high priced legal team. But since the step of signing those franchise agreements is a legally binding  step, it pays to have your own franchise gurus look over what is there to make sure the documents line up with state and federal franchise law and that there is nothing missing that you need in there to cover your back.

It is just a smart idea to have your own legal eagles on board to watch out for your interests.  Signing those franchising documents is the start of your new life as a small business owner running a very prosperous franchise operation.  Make sure you start it out right by handling those franchising documents with care.