eSignature Legitimacy for Franchise Contract in United States

How to eSign a document: eSignature legitimacy for Franchise Contract in United States

we're a boutique franchise law firm with a nationwide practice focused on the needs of franchisees whether you're looking at buying an existing franchise starting a new franchise revealing a franchise agreement we've dealt with just about every transaction in the franchise space for entrepreneurs buying a franchise is a very important decision for many people this is their first entree into small business they've looked and they thought about this for many years now they're getting to the point where they've met with a franchisor they've looked at a few systems and they're ready to sign a franchise agreement by law of franchisor is required to provide them an fdd the fdd is the franchise disclosure document within the FTD is the franchise agreement itself many people get confused by these two different documents and they do very different things the FTD is a disclosure document prepared in compliance with the regulation so whether you're looking at a McDonald's a subway you know a start-up franchisor the franchisor is required to put certain things in certain items so you can compare from one system to the other when you're looking at that document initially it can be very intimidating it's a very large document it starts with the disclosure requirements in the front end that's laid out in a very uniform matter in the back end one of the exhibits is the franchise agreement many people many people who are franchise doors and prospective franchisees get confused of the difference between an fdd a franchise disclosure document and a franchise agreement the fdd is there to do that to disclose to explain to the prospective franchisee things about the franchise war but keep in mind that's not the contract that's not the agreement that you're signing the franchise agreement that's in the back of the fdd is what you actually sign so we sort of reverse the process when clients come to us will read the franchise agreement will go through that in a couple our process page by page clause by clause and many people will tell you Oh franchise agreements aren't negotiable you can't change they're partially right depends on the size it depends on the scale of the franchisor you have to recognize the kind of relative bargaining power you are as a franchisee especially if you're joining a large mature system but we have found the franchisor is if you point out certain things development schedule default language how fast it's going to take you to open you know you can get some clarity and some movement in some of those things you're not going to change the franchise fees or the terms because it has to be a uniform system you have to think of the franchising relationship as franchisee franchisor and the system itself so you're joining a system the strength of the franchisor is just as important to your investment we never charge for an initial consultation we welcome to have that call with you to understand what your goals are what your aspirations are of becoming a potential franchisee will explain our fee structure will explain the time the process and we'll decide together whether or not this is a good fit and whether or not you know you'll choose to work with us as a law firm we welcome having that conversation look forward to it