FRANCHISE LAW
Franchise Law Articles
Plain-English analysis of FDD reviews, franchise agreements, exit strategy, and ongoing counsel for franchisees and franchisors.
477 articles
How to Negotiate a Franchise Agreement: Key Terms
You can negotiate a franchise agreement — but only at the edges, and only before you sign. The franchisor’s core system is fixed by design, yet specific …
How to Negotiate the Initial Franchise Fee
The initial franchise fee is sometimes negotiable — but rarely the way buyers expect. Franchisors protect the headline fee to keep the system consistent, so the …
How to Read and Understand Your Franchise Agreement
Read your franchise agreement clause by clause, with the disclosure document open beside it, and treat the signed contract — not the sales pitch — as the thing …
How to Review a Franchise Agreement Before You Sign
Review a franchise agreement by reading it against the matching FDD items, flagging the clauses that decide fees, territory, and how the deal ends, and having a …
How to Sell or Transfer Your Franchise
You can sell your franchise or transfer the agreement to someone else, but almost always only with the franchisor’s written consent and on the conditions …
How to Vet a Franchisor's History and Track Record
A franchisor’s real history and track record live in its FDD — specifically Items 1, 2, 3, 4, and 20 — not in its marketing. The brochure will tell you …
Insurance Requirements in Franchise Agreements
Almost every franchise agreement requires the franchisee to carry specific types of insurance, at minimum coverage limits, and to name the franchisor as an …
Leasehold Improvements in a Franchise Build-Out
Leasehold improvements are the permanent changes you make to a leased space to turn it into your franchise — interior build-out, fixtures, signage, lighting, …
Liquidated Damages in a Franchise Agreement
A liquidated damages clause in a franchise agreement is a pre-set dollar amount the franchisee agrees to pay if they breach the contract — most often by closing …
Managing Franchise Relationships: A Franchisor Guide
The franchisor–franchisee relationship is governed first by the franchise agreement and the operations manual, then by a patchwork of state franchise laws — and …
Multi-Unit Franchising: The Operator's Cheat Sheet
Multi-unit franchising is owning and operating more than one location of the same franchise brand under a single owner — and it almost always means committing …
NDAs in Franchising: What They Cover and Why
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) — also called a confidentiality agreement — is a contract requiring the parties to protect each other’s confidential …
Negotiating Your First Franchise Agreement
You can negotiate a franchise agreement, but only parts of it — and knowing which parts move is the whole game. Franchisors keep the core economic and brand …
Passing a Franchise to Your Heirs: How It Works
You can usually pass a franchise to your heirs, but not automatically — the franchise agreement controls the transfer, and it almost always requires the …
Post-Termination Non-Compete in Franchise Agreements
A post-termination non-compete is the clause in your franchise agreement that bars you from running a competing business for a set period and within a set area …
Post-Termination Obligations in Franchise Deals
When a franchise relationship ends, your obligations do not end with it — post-termination obligations are the duties that survive the franchise agreement, and …
Schlotzsky's: An Overambitious Franchise Expansion
Schlotzsky’s grew from a single Austin deli in 1971 to 759 restaurants by 2001 — and then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004. The sandwich was never …
Succession Planning in Your Franchise Agreement
Succession planning in a franchise agreement is the set of clauses that decide what happens to a franchise unit when the franchisee sells, retires, becomes …
Technology and Software Clauses in Franchise Deals
The technology and software clauses in a franchise agreement can require you to buy specific systems, pay recurring technology fees, and accept mandatory …
The Decline of Baja Fresh: Lessons for Franchise Buyers
Baja Fresh is one of the clearest lessons in modern franchising on what it means to buy into a declining system. Wendy’s International paid $275 million …
