The McDonald’s franchise agreement model should be a model for any business that wants to make it big in the world of franchising.

You really cannot go wrong looking at the McDonald’s franchise agreement as a model for how to get it right when it comes to franchising your company.  The McDonald’s people have had such an explosion of success that when you say the word, “franchising”, you almost automatically think of McDonald’s.  So when you begin to get serious about starting your own very successful company out on the exciting adventure of franchising, you do not have to look too far past the McDonald’s franchise agreement as a model for how to grow a business to the empire level and run it like a well oiled machine.

You don’t get to where you are running thousands of franchise outlets and keeping them all profitable and happy overnight. That is why the McDonald’s franchise agreement that they set up with their franchise owners is an evidence of how to do it right. It is a tricky balance to make sure there is conformity in all of your franchise outlets and still give each franchise owner plenty of room to make that franchise outlet his or her own.  But when it comes to a franchise that is a rock solid choice for fast food for millions of customers because they know they will get the same quality of food, service and dining experience from Boston to Seattle to Hong King, McDonald’s pulls it off.

Every aspect of how this massive franchise chain grew up from one store to tens of thousands deserves attention.  From the McDonald’s franchise agreement to their operations manual and their army of field managers, knowing how they got it right over and over again would be pure gold in terms of franchising wisdom. If you are just starting out in planning now to launch your first franchise outlet, it is not too early to think of yourself as a massive franchising success like McDonald’s.  Even if you are not franchising inexpensive fast food and Happy Meals, the principles of running a big chain that are represented by the McDonald’s franchise agreement deserve respect and study.

To say that McDonald’s wrote the book on how to hit it big in franchising is an understatement.

There is an art to running a highly successful franchise chain and the relationship between McDonald’s and their thousands of franchise owners is a modern marvel. Much of that success is in the structure of the documents such as the McDonald’s franchise agreement that set up the franchise to succeed.  But there is no question that McDonald’s has set up a field operation to keep that vast army of spread out small business people operating at peak performance.  It is a network that is so efficient that any modern army would be jealous.

The documents that are the backbone of the stunning success of this massive fast food chain include the McDonald’s franchise agreement along with the franchise operating manual and their system of communications that keeps their thousands of loyal franchise owners all marching to the same tune.

The lesson is clear. To launch a franchise operation that targets phenomenal success, the McDonald’s model has plenty to teach any new franchising operation.  That means learning the nuts and bolts of how the McDonald’s franchise agreement helps to set their franchise owners on a path of success. It also means picking the brains of those in the know about how McDonald’s runs this amazing operation day in and day out. This is the kind of field research that will pay off big time because even if you are not setting out to become a billion dollar multinational franchise chain, the people at McDonald’s have plenty to teach us other than what is in their secret sauce.