by Rudolf A. Kotek
Your business is franchisable if:
• “every City needs one” can be said for your business
• you can handle sharing your ideas with many
• you can handle your role becoming increasingly administrative
• you are people oriented
• you can afford to weather a likely difficult start
• your success rests largely on your product or service
• you can create an ongoing long-term relationship with a team of people.
Before evaluating your business as a potential franchise, evaluate yourself as a potential franchisor. Are you ready to share your success, your system and your profit with other people? Consider your qualities and remember that franchising is more than the business of selling services and products to consumer. In addition, as a Franchisor you will be an educator, Trainor and hand-holder to your Franchisee.
If you think your business might be franchisable then you will need to offer Franchisees a business format which includes you brand business system, training, opening assistance, marketing and support services under the contractual terms of a franchise agreement which will, amongst many other things, set out the financial arrangement.
Considerable development work is required before you will be in a position to draw up offer documents and begin recruiting Franchisees. As a Franchisor you will be building a brand with a reputation that other people will want to buy and invest money into. You will therefore need a brand, which is distinctive and appropriate for all the places you would want to have Franchisees in operation. It will also be your responsibility, and your obligation to Franchisees paying for the benefit of using your brand, to protect it against abuse, both by outsiders and by ex-Franchisees.
If you have a product or service that is unique or in demand, you must capture the trademark for your Company. It is not enough that you have a DTI Business name registration or a SEC registration, in order to license out your trademark to your Franchisee, you have to own it. To get a Trademark, you have to apply at the Intellectual Property Office at Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati or let your Legal Consultant do it.
Each Franchisor has to make a training program for his Franchisee so they will be able to learn the trade as they have to. Length of training always depends on the complexity of the operational procedures of a particular Company.
Rudolf Kotik is the founder of RK Franchise Consultancy Inc, which developed more than 350 Filipino Companies into Franchise Systems. Email: rk@rkfranchise.com; Websites: www.rkfranchise.com, www.franchise.ph
