Franchisee Support in Belarus: What to Promise After Opening

In an established business, problems are often resolved with a personal call to the owner. When launching a franchise, this approach becomes a weakness: the partner expects help, while the owner is busy running their own outlets. To build a sustainable franchise network, you need to decide before your first sale what support franchisees will receive after opening, who will provide it and how you will check that promises are being kept.

1. Turn your support promise into a list of services

The phrase ‘support at every stage’ works well in a presentation but is almost useless in day-to-day operations. One partner may take it to mean advice on operating standards; another may expect ongoing recruitment and help with every operational issue. The business owner’s task is to close this expectations gap in advance.

Start with enquiries from managers at your company-owned outlets. Collect actual questions over a chosen working period and group them into categories: following technical procedures, organising shifts, managing the product range, equipment faults and unusual customer situations. Define a specific outcome for the support provided in each category.

For example, ‘advice on shift planning’ might mean reviewing a proposed rota and providing written recommendations. This is not the same as requiring the franchisor to draw up the rota or find cover for an absent employee.

Create a service description for each type of support:

• what issues the partner can raise;
• what information they must provide;
• who reviews the enquiry;
• how the response will be delivered;
• what is included in standard support;
• which actions require separate agreement and payment.

Separately identify matters where the franchisor does not replace a qualified specialist. Helping a partner understand a standard does not mean keeping their accounts, providing legal representation or repairing equipment. However, you cannot exclude duties expressly required by law or already accepted under the contract.

2. Set out support in the contract without overpromising

In Belarus, franchising is specifically regulated by the Civil Code, which includes a chapter entitled ‘Comprehensive Business Licence (Franchising)’. There is no separate franchising act, but this does not mean there are no specific rules. Article 910 defines an agreement under which a rights holder grants a user, for a fee, a package of licensed rights for business activities.

Belarusian rules require the rights holder to supply the necessary technical and commercial documentation, provide information and instruct the user and their employees. Support therefore cannot be described solely as voluntary help from the brand owner. Work with a lawyer to distinguish the rights holder’s mandatory duties from additional services whose scope the parties agree separately.

The agreement must be in writing and registered with the National Centre of Intellectual Property. An unregistered agreement is invalid. If support terms form part of the agreement, any subsequent changes should be formalised in line with the requirements for amending and registering franchise agreements.

The contractual terms should usefully specify support hours, permitted contact channels, the procedure for involving specialists and the scope and limits of chargeable site visits. State whether advice is included in the fees payable under the agreement. Avoid a situation where the presentation promises unlimited help, but every enquiry attracts a separate charge after opening.

Avoid guaranteeing a specific commercial outcome. A commitment to assess a problem and recommend action is different from a promise to restore revenue or ensure profitability. Franchisees should understand this distinction before signing.

3. Set up an enquiry process and define urgency

Support becomes unmanageable when questions arrive simultaneously in private messages to the owner, a technical specialist and a manager. Choose a single channel for logging enquiries: a dedicated email address, a form or a ticketing system. What matters is not the name of the tool, but the ability to see who is responsible, the correspondence history and the current status of the issue.

Classify enquiries by their consequences, not by how emotional the message is:

• Critical: operations have stopped or there is a potential safety risk.
• Significant: the outlet is operating, but an important process is disrupted and prompt action is needed.
• Routine: the partner needs advice, a proposal reviewed or a standard explained.

Set a realistic initial response time for each category. Do not confuse this with the time needed to resolve the issue: a repair may depend on an external service provider, while a complex question may require more information. The first response should acknowledge the enquiry, identify who is responsible and explain the next step.

Provide an escalation procedure for cases where a response is delayed or the initial recommendation has not helped. For dangerous situations, make clear that contacting the franchisor is no substitute for calling the emergency services and complying with mandatory safety requirements.

Close a ticket once the outcome has been recorded: what was recommended, what the partner did and whether any issues remain unresolved. This record helps reconstruct what happened, but should not automatically rule out further assistance.

4. Test your team’s capacity before selling

Appointing a manager is not enough. Check which questions they can answer independently, which they need to refer to a technical specialist and who provides cover when specialists are absent. Support that depends entirely on the owner does not scale well as the number of partners grows.

Before selling a franchise, try handling enquiries from your own outlets using the proposed process. Track not only time spent talking, but also time spent identifying causes, preparing recommendations, holding follow-up discussions and making site visits. This tests the support service specifically, not the entire business model.

Use the results to assess staff time, travel costs and the need for a back-up specialist. Compare these with the scope of support you intend to promise. If the team cannot cope, adjust your working arrangements and the terms of your offer before signing contracts, rather than after taking payment.

Practical takeaway: before selling a franchise, prepare a list of support services, an enquiry-handling process and contractual terms. Promise partners clearly defined help that your team can genuinely deliver consistently.