The title of this blog post is of course a shameless play for search engine optimization. But it also serves to illustrate a point. At Einbinder & Dunn, we have become deeply immersed in the business of franchising and the franchising of businesses. The concept is familiar to many people but typically not fully understood. Many people approach us with the idea that they have a business model or idea that they believe or hope can be developed as a franchise. Our job as attorneys is to evaluate each concept and advise people on whether that is a prudent path to take and how it might be accomplished. That becomes an educational process, one that has actually become one of our favorite parts of our practice.
A franchise is usually the business unit that is being sold or purchased: defined in different ways but most commonly as a brand name and a business system accompanied by the payment of a fee or fees to the seller. If you have successfully sold a number of units of such a replicable business unit, then you have franchised it. The process of creating that model and presenting it in the format that is required by federal authorities and various state laws is typically called franchising. Because of prior abuses, this has become a highly regulated area, with a format of documentation known as a franchise disclosure document (FDD) that is akin to a securities offering. We are well versed in all of the federal and state requirements and nuances in creating the appropriate offering documents.
But the threshold question, the one that brings people to our door, is can your business be franchised? Is your business the type of operation that is both unique enough to capture the public’s imagination and yet easily enough reconstructed to be sold to that public in discrete units?
We really enjoy that discussion and that analysis. And we can tell you honestly what your prospects are. Come and talk to us about it. There are no charges until you hire us and we would not commit to that or require you to commit to that until we know your concept is viable.