Writing your own franchise agreement document can be intimidating so don’t be afraid to get some help from the experts.

Creating a solid franchise agreement document is one of the big steps any business has to get past to launch a major franchising effort.  It is not hard to get excited about how franchising your company can put your expansion plans into high gear. But it can be intimidating if not downright scary to think about how to draft a workable franchise agreement document because the franchise agreement is a legally binding contract between you and those who invest in your franchises.

You do not want to make a mess of this document. At the same time, do not fall into the trap of stalling out in the process of creating a franchise agreement document.  The drafting of the significant franchising documents should be done early on in your plans to start selling franchises of your business because without them in place, you really cannot move forward.  So make a plan and carry it out with courage. It may not be a difficult as it seems.

Creating a great franchise agreement document is best done as a three step process.

There is an old saying that goes, “Don’t try to eat the whole elephant.” It is a goofy image but the meaning of the saying is to take on a big challenge by breaking it down into little challenges. So we can apply the elephant eating idea to writing a franchise agreement document.  The best approach is to separate the process into three steps.

Step one is to find some reliable franchise agreement templates to study.  These templates will lay out exactly what kind of information you need to cover in the typical franchise agreement document. You can even take this step to the next level and hunt up franchise agreement examples from similar companies as you so you can see what industry specific types of topics that must be covered.  After all, a franchise agreement document for a hardware store chain is going to differ significantly from a franchise agreement document for a fast food chain. So try to narrow in on what you need.

Step two is to “brain storm” your own franchise agreement document.  Now that you schooled yourself in the basics of what goes into a franchise agreement document, tap into that industry expert that lives inside of you.  Create a draft of the franchise agreement document that reflects in words your vision of how your vast network of franchises will work.  The key to what makes this step work is to not worry a bit about if that draft is legal or correct.  Just get your ideas out of your brain and then organize them into a rough format of a franchise agreement document that you learned from step one.

Step three is to get some help.  If you ever wondered if you will need a franchise lawyer or other experts in this peculiar business step, the answer is yes! So spring for a good franchise lawyer and don’t just take the first name in the yellow pages. Your franchise agreement document gurus can fine tune your brain storming from step two into a great franchise agreement document that lives up to every detail of franchise law and that covers your back nicely.

Be sure that franchise lawyer has a resume of success in setting up franchise operations and that he or she knows your industry niche well. By doing that, if you are franchising a fast food chain, you won’t end up with a franchise agreement document for a hardware store.

Using a franchise agreement PDF template allows you to take advantage of the experience of experts in how to launch your own franchising empire.

Creating franchise documents takes work which is why a franchise agreement PDF template will put you hours if not days ahead on the work you need to put in to start franchising fast.  Nobody ever said that going from a single location business to a vast empire of franchises was going to be easy. That transition is going to take a lot of work and study to learn the nitty-gritty of how to set up new franchises and how to keep it all working well within the context of franchise law.

One big advantage of downloading a good franchise agreement PDF is that you will have in that template a virtual “Franchising 101” education in what you need to cover when offering franchises for sale.  The last thing you need is to come up flat footed in some area of how to set up your franchise once you have real customers on the line who want to buy into your business. When you start negotiations with potential franchisors, you want to come off like a genuine expert in the area of franchise documents and procedures. This is not to say that just studying a franchise agreement PDF will make you a PHD in franchising. But it is a great start on becoming the guru of franchising that you want to be.

You may find that the sheer size of the franchise agreement PDF is intimidating and that it doesn’t seem to fit your particular business niche.  That is expected and that does not mean you hit the delete button on a very valuable document to your franchising effort.  The franchise agreement PDF is a template which means you are expected to customize it, tweak it and have your team of franchising consultants and lawyers make sure every paragraph is in line with franchise regulations at the state and federal level.  The franchise agreement PDF is just a starting place.

Why wear yourself out reinventing the wheel over your franchise documents when a franchise agreement PDF does all the hard work for you?

Creating the franchise agreement for your business is a huge step forward in your ambitions to become a successful and wealthy franchise. So take your time when you download that franchise agreement PDF to review every section.  The process of turning a generic franchise agreement PDF into a franchise document that is a work of art for your partners and future franchisors is going to take some time.

The variety of areas of franchising that you will discover in the franchise agreement PDF will be pretty amazing once you start working your way through the document. You will find sections that will cover all of the legal and financial issues that must be handled when you shake hands with that new franchise owner and become business partners.  That franchise agreement PDF will help you complete sections of the document that deal with the obligations your franchisors must live up to as well as what you are responsible for to make the franchises or your business a big success.

You cannot go wrong taking a look at some example franchise agreement PDF templates to see if they can help you begin to get an idea of how you want the agreements you offer to your franchisors to look like. You are not locked into the format or contents of the franchise agreement PDF except that you must make sure your franchise agreement satisfies the details of what the government needs your franchise to look like.  So take that franchise agreement PDF and make it your own.  When you are done, you will have a better document because you started with a good guideline and made it better.