Starting a franchise in Belgium: write practical work instructions

An established business often runs on habits that have never been written down. Your staff know what ‘ready to open’ means, but a new franchisee probably will not. If you want to grow your business into a franchise network, you need to turn that unwritten knowledge into practical guidance. So rather than starting with a lengthy manual, begin with work instructions that explain one specific task from start to finish.

1. Choose tasks where ambiguity has consequences

A franchise operations manual is not a collection of every idea you have ever had about your business. It should help franchisees and their teams put your business model into practice each day. Start with tasks where differences in approach affect the customer experience, safety or financial record-keeping.

Examples include receiving a delivery, handling a return, cashing up or preparing for a customer appointment. Do not try to describe an entire process such as ‘customer service’ in one go. That is too broad to serve as a quick reference during work.

For each task, briefly establish:

• What exactly triggers the task?
• What should the observable outcome be?
• What information or tools are needed?
• What mistakes regularly occur in your existing business?
• At what point does the person carrying out the task need help?

Next, observe how the task is actually performed. Ask an experienced member of staff to explain their decisions aloud. Comments such as ‘I always check this first’ often reveal knowledge that would otherwise be missing from the manual.

2. Use a standard template for every instruction

A consistent structure makes instructions easier to find and use. Give each instruction a recognisable title, a named person responsible for keeping it up to date, a version number and a date. Avoid titles such as ‘General Procedure 7’; ‘Receiving a delivery with damaged packaging’ immediately tells the reader what the document covers.

Then use the same sections each time:

Purpose and scope. Explain the expected outcome and when the instruction applies. Identify any situations that require a different approach.

Preparation. List the documents, access permissions or materials needed. Nobody should discover halfway through a task that an essential form is missing.

Steps. Use active verbs: check, compare, record, confirm. Put decisions at the point where they arise, rather than in a footnote at the end.

Exceptions. Describe what to do when the normal procedure cannot be followed. State who should be available to help and what information is needed when asking for assistance.

Completion. Make clear when the task is complete and what must be recorded.

For a damaged delivery, for example, the instruction might require the person receiving it to record the damage, save relevant photographs and notify the agreed contact. Distinguish between your internal procedure and any reporting deadlines set out in supplier agreements. Do not invent a blanket deadline that does not apply to every delivery.

3. Make the distinction between instructions and contractual terms clear

A work instruction explains how to perform a task. It is not the right place to slip in new payment obligations, investment requirements or other significant contractual terms. Clearly identify which requirements are mandatory franchise standards and which tools are merely recommended.

Belgium has specific rules on pre-contractual disclosure for commercial cooperation agreements, including franchise agreements. These appear in Title 2 of Book X of the Belgian Code of Economic Law. General contract law rules also apply, among others.

Under Article X.27 of the Code of Economic Law, the prospective franchisee must receive the draft agreement and the pre-contractual disclosure document at least one month before entering into the agreement. Article X.28 specifies the information that the disclosure document must contain. An operations manual replaces neither document.

Seek legal advice on how the manual is incorporated into the agreement and which significant obligations must also appear in the pre-contractual disclosures. An instruction that assumes mandatory use of a paid system, for example, deserves particular attention. Make sure the prospective franchisee can understand how such requirements work and what they entail. Keep the documents consistent with one another and use plain language.

4. Test the instruction in day-to-day work

Ask someone who is not yet familiar with the task to follow the instruction at your existing premises. Give them only the information that will also be available to future users. Observe without immediately stepping in whenever they hesitate.

Note where the tester turns back to an earlier section, asks for clarification or interprets a step differently. Afterwards, do not simply ask whether the text was clear: ask them to show which passage prompted each action. This helps you uncover missing decision rules and unclear terminology.

Revise the text and repeat the test. A photograph or short checklist may be more useful than extra paragraphs. Keep approved instructions in one central location so that outdated copies do not continue circulating alongside the current version.

Practical takeaway: choose one error-prone task, describe it using a standard template and ask an inexperienced person to follow it. Then build your franchise operations manual from instructions that have proved useful in practice.