Don't know if Ian is still around or whether he's enjoying his retirement but wondered how you came up with your agreement. Did you have something to work off or was it from ideas you had whilst thinking the format through?
Thanks.
I'm still around
My first agreement was one I wrote myself. It took me about three years of thinking and refining, based on the agreement I had when I owned the fryer cleaning franchise. I tried to think of every single issue that might arise, what my responsibilities are to the franchisees, what theirs are to me, etc.
It was fine for the first three years after I appointed my initial franchisee, but as the network grew I decided I ought to have proper legal advice. I'm glad I did, even though it cost me some thousands of pounds, as there were issues with my terminology which meant that had a disagreement gone to court, various parts of my agreement were not enforceable and therefore the entire agreement could have been thrown out.
Now I have a proper watertight agreement drawn up by a professional franchise solicitor which gives both me and my franchisees the protection we need.
The other important document is the Franchise Manual. This sets out how the franchisee is to run his business in great detail. It is intended to show the franchisee how the agreement applies to him in practical terms, and to ensure there are no misunderstandings in the way our business activities relate between franchisees and franchisor. This also took me some years to perfect, and even now issues arise that no-one had come across before, so by agreement with all concerned the manual is being continually updated.