A franchise contract template serves a valuable function of moving you into the document preparation phase and the rest is up to you.

The franchise contract template is sometimes referred to as a franchise kit. The preparation of franchise contracts and documents is often one of the baffling phases that you must get through when franchising your company. But get through it you must to get to the fun part which is recruiting new franchise owners, getting them up and running and, of course, collecting those fat franchise fees.

Three questions often come up when a business is faced with putting together their franchise documents. Should you use a franchise contract template?  Should you prepare the contract documents yourself? Should you have franchise lawyers involved in the process as well.  The answer to all three questions is, yes. Each of these elements has a roll to play in preparing your important franchise documents.  But none of them are sufficient as the only way to accomplish the goal of having an arsenal of franchise contracts ready to roll out to your prospective franchise owners.

There are some that claim that a franchise contract template should not be part of the process because it is not specific to your business or even to your specific area of business.  It is true that franchise agreements and the other contracts will be very unique depending on your line of business.  A franchise disclosure document for a dry cleaning company will be drastically different than the same document for a grocery store franchise chain.

Nonetheless, you could use the exact same franchise contract template for both of these industry specific franchise efforts.  That is because the franchise contract template is not the end of the process, it is the beginning.  If you use the franchise contract template to give you a general structure that you then take and customize and make your own, then you are using the tool correctly.  If that same franchise contract template gets you off of your hands and overcomes that “stalled out” place many people hit when they try to create franchise documents, then that franchise contract template is doing you a tremendous service and that is how it fits in the cycle of developing a new franchise campaign.

The franchise agreement is a legally binding document so let there be lawyers.

The franchise contract template is no substitute for your involvement in creating those franchise documents.  It is your business and how well those franchises run reflect on your good name and affect how quick the franchising boom will cause your bank account to overflow. Neither the franchise contract template nor the lawyers who help you will write any of the franchise contract or operations manual documents.  You simply are going to have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself or it will never get done right.

But you also should not think about saving a few bucks and leaving the lawyers out of the process.  When that franchise agreement is signed, it is a legally binding document.  Franchise law is nothing to sneeze at so be sure you have a crack team of franchise lawyers that understand franchise law inside and out and who understand every nook and cranny of your business and market as well.

Letting the lawyers give their final blessing on the franchise documents is the last step after you start with a franchise contract template and after you do all the hard work of writing those documents yourself.  But when everybody does their job well, you will have a vault full of outstanding franchise contract documents you will be proud of and that will support your attack on the franchising world in grand style.