Working in your own franchise: agree the rules for cover

Buying a franchise does not always mean you can manage the outlet remotely. Your chosen brand may expect the owner to be personally involved, and employing a manager may not be enough to meet the terms of the agreement. Clear rules for cover help maintain business continuity and protect relationships within a franchise network. Before signing, check what will happen if you are ill, take a holiday or need a longer period away.

1. Establish what running the outlet personally means

Terms such as “personally running the business”, “day-to-day supervision” and “full commitment” can describe very different obligations. Do not assume they simply mean answering calls from your franchise support contact. Ask the franchisor to specify which tasks you must carry out yourself and which you can delegate to employees.

Before buying, establish:

• whether the owner must be physically present and, if so, for how much time;
• whether the owner must personally open the outlet, accept deliveries or handle financial reconciliations;
• whether an employed manager is allowed to run the outlet;
• whether you can also run another business or hold a job elsewhere;
• who must attend compulsory meetings and training.

Distinguish responsibility for the outlet from an obligation to do the work yourself. You may be responsible for ensuring the business runs properly even when a team handles the daily tasks. However, if the agreement also requires your presence, maintaining good results will not necessarily remedy a breach of that obligation.

Also ask how the requirement for personal involvement applies when the franchisee is a company. The agreement should specify whether it applies to a particular shareholder or partner, a management board member or an approved manager.

2. Separate contractual requirements from legal obligations

In Poland, a franchise agreement is an “unnamed contract”: there is no separate statute comprehensively governing its terms. The Polish Civil Code is central, including the principle of freedom of contract under Article 353¹ and the general rules on performing contractual obligations and liability for failing to do so. Depending on the business, employment, tax, competition and intellectual property law may also apply, among other legislation.

There is no general statutory requirement for a franchisee to be present at the outlet every day. However, such a requirement may arise from the obligations you agree to. Employing staff also creates separate duties as an employer, which the franchisor does not automatically take on.

Nor is there a general statutory requirement to give a prospective franchisee a disclosure document exactly 14 days before signing the agreement, or a dedicated state register of franchises. Poland’s Code of Good Practice for the Franchise Market is a self-regulatory instrument, not legislation. If a network says it follows the code, check what commitments it considers this to entail and how these are reflected in its documents.

Do not assume that illness automatically suspends your contractual obligations. The consequences of an absence depend on the terms of the agreement and the circumstances. It is therefore worth agreeing cover arrangements in advance rather than leaving business continuity dependent on a later dispute over liability.

3. Agree planned and emergency cover arrangements

A good procedure should distinguish between a planned holiday and an unexpected hospital admission. In the first case, you can put forward someone to cover for you in advance. In the second, obtaining prior approval may be impossible.

Propose that the agreement or a schedule to it should specify:

• how to report an absence and who should receive the notification;
• the qualifications and training required of the person providing cover;
• a deadline for the network to respond to an approval request;
• specific grounds for refusal, linked to the requirements of running the outlet;
• whether a previously trained person can step in temporarily in an emergency;
• the procedure if the owner’s absence continues for an extended period.

Do not treat silence from the franchisor as consent unless you have agreed that this will be the case. Also agree a communication channel that allows you to keep a record of both the notification and the response.

For example, an owner is admitted to hospital and a trained manager can keep the outlet running. The key question is not just whether the manager knows the operating standards, but whether the agreement allows them to take over without waiting for the usual approval process. Discuss this scenario during negotiations.

4. Calculate the cost of cover and check authority and access

A financial model in which the owner works every day without accounting for the value of their own time may look more attractive than a business run by an employed manager. Prepare a separate budget scenario for periods when you are absent. Include the pay of the person providing cover, employment costs, training, additional shifts and any travel expenses.

Ask whether there is a charge to train another person and how quickly training can be arranged. Also check whether the person covering for you will receive the necessary system permissions. Appointing a manager does not, in itself, give them access to ordering, financial reconciliation tools or technical support.

Distinguish the network’s approval of your replacement from their legal authority to act on your behalf. If they will be signing documents or carrying out legal transactions, they may need an appropriate power of attorney. Their authority and access rights should match their duties, without unnecessarily sharing the owner’s personal passwords and accounts.

Before signing, speak to existing franchisees about how cover works in practice. Their experience can help you assess the procedure, but it is no substitute for provisions in your own agreement.

Practical takeaway: choose a model you can keep running even when you are unable to work in the business yourself for a while. Before buying, agree in writing the owner’s required involvement, the cover procedure and its full cost.