When franchise companies are moving fast in the market place they must pay attention to the details. If a franchisor fails to give the required items as outlined in the franchise agreement to the franchisees on the prescribed timeline they risk legal issues and regulatory issues. In addition even if they do provide the items on time, there is a chance later that a franchisee may claim that something was not provided and they will use this to break the franchise agreement, sue or file a complaint with regulatory bodies at the state level or even the FTC, Federal Trade Commission. But if you keep proper records and have checklists and monitor dates and deliveries you can win a law suit or force a regulatory agency to backtrack. Below is a checklist we use in our Company, The Car Wash Guys, and as it turns out it came in handy as we had a regulatory agency attack us after false declarations and complaints were made. In fact had we not had these detailed documents and checklists in place with constant monitoring we would have been force to pay up to $800,000 in fines, as it turns out they settled out of court with us after seeing the facts. I recommend that you have a checklist in place for compliance as you cannot trust the regulators, lawyers, competitors or those who want something for nothing. Please be smart and copy this outline and modify it fit your business model and then make the supporting forms and documents to cover your company from dishonest humans and lawyers. New Franchisee Checklist Designated Territory Name Statement Business License Chamber of Commerce Membership Mailing Address/P.O. Box Checking Account/Merchant Account Pager Credit Card Machine Liability Insurance Make initial payment Health Insurance Make initial payment Truck With Body Modifications Initial Equipment (See Attached Form) Initial Supplies Inventory (See Attached Form) Uniforms Supplies Stationary Copy of Confidential Operations Manual Computer Computer Software Microsoft Windows QuickBooks 5.0 Proprietary Software Printer Computer Desk or Office Filing Cabinets Training Bonzai and Blitz Marketing Mission |
