Taking your proven small business into a franchise should not take place without putting strong legal protections in place. Your brand is the glue – protect it at all costs.
Trademark Registration First
Trademark your business name, logo and any special slogans in the period prior to franchising. Protecting your brand identity and ensuring that your franchisees are not able to use the intellectual property of your system once they exit from it. Without appropriate trademark protection, you may be at risk of losing the very brand that you built.
Comprehensive Franchise Agreements
It must clearly articulate the brand usage rights, operational standards and termination procedures for your franchise. Insert language regarding logo use, marketing materials, and quality control provisions. This paper enables you to maintain the uniformity of your brand across many locations, and it becomes your primary instrument.
Operations Manual Protection
Inside your operations manual you’ll have all of the secrets to help run your business – recipes, procedures and customer service protocols. Guard this intellectual property with confidentiality agreements, and do remember to register the copyrights. All sensitive information must be kept confidential and franchisees should execute non-disclosure agreements. For help to Franchise My Business, contact www.ashtonsfranchise.com/franchise-my-business/
Territory and Competition Clauses
Establish exclusive territories and add on a non-compete, such that if the franchisee doesn’t succeed with you they can’t in turn open up another of your same concept nearby. This will protect not only your brand, but also the invested capital of existing franchisees.
Regular Legal Reviews
Franchise law evolves constantly. Have yearly meetings with franchise solicitors to vet your agreements for updated content and protection. Proper legal legwork = reduces disputes and holds the hard earned brand reputation together.
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