The franchise offering: how to choose which activities to replicate

An established business may earn revenue from many products and services, but not all of them are suitable for franchising. Some of its success may depend on the owner's personal skills, specialist equipment or local partnerships. Before building a franchise network, it is therefore worth defining not just how franchisees should operate, but, above all, exactly what they will offer customers — and which parts of the existing business they should not take on.

1. Separate the company's offering from the scope of the franchise

Your starting point should not be your current sales catalogue, but a list of the tasks needed to deliver each service or product. A single brand may cover both activities that are easy to replicate and others that cannot be passed on without specialist expertise.

For example, a car care business might offer standard interior cleaning alongside specialist restoration carried out exclusively by its founder. Including both services in the franchise simply because they currently appear on the same price list would give a misleading impression of how ready the model is to replicate.

For each item in your offering, prepare a short profile covering:

• the result you promise the customer;
• the skills needed to achieve it;
• the equipment, materials and access to suppliers required;
• how to check that the work has been carried out correctly;
• any reliance on the owner, a particular employee or a local business partner;
• any specific legal requirements associated with delivering the service.

Do not confuse the right to use the brand with being ready to deliver everything the franchisor sells. The scope of a franchisee's activities should be based on a genuinely transferable business concept, rather than the history of how your own company has developed.

2. Assess how readily each part of the offering can be replicated

For each profile, answer four questions. Can someone with clearly defined qualifications be taught to perform the task? Can the result be assessed against clear criteria? Are the necessary resources available beyond your current location? Can the work be done without the founder's ongoing involvement?

Your answers should be supported by evidence. Rather than writing “easy to teach”, identify the specific skills involved and how they will be assessed. Rather than stating that “materials are widely available”, establish whether the supplier can also serve franchisees' outlets. This is an assessment of the scope of the offering, not a declaration that the entire model is ready to sell.

Next, assign each item to one of three categories:

• Mandatory core: products or services without which an outlet cannot deliver the brand's fundamental promise.
• Optional module: an offering that requires additional skills, equipment or suitable premises.
• Excluded activities: activities you are not making available to franchisees at this stage.

Check the dependencies between categories too. If a core service regularly requires a task that falls outside the franchise's scope, you need a clear process for referring that work elsewhere, or you must change the promise made to the customer. Otherwise, the franchisee will be left with an offering they cannot deliver from start to finish on their own.

3. Define the scope in the agreement, not just the presentation

In Poland, franchising is not governed by a dedicated statute, and a franchise agreement remains an “unnamed contract” — a contract type not specifically defined by statute. Its legal framework rests primarily on the Polish Civil Code, including the principle of freedom of contract under Article 353¹. That freedom is limited by statutory law, the nature of the legal relationship and the principles of social coexistence. Competition law, unfair competition law and intellectual property law also apply, among other rules.

There is no specific requirement to register a franchise system, nor is there a statutory deadline specific to franchising for providing a disclosure document. Proposals for such obligations in draft legislation should not be presented as current law. However, the absence of dedicated regulation does not remove the need to describe the proposed business relationship accurately.

Set out the mandatory, optional and excluded activities in the agreement or in a clearly identified appendix. For optional modules, specify the conditions for introducing them and how compliance with those conditions will be confirmed. Franchisees should know whether obtaining particular qualifications entitles them to expand their offering, or whether separate approval is still required.

Product range restrictions, purchasing obligations and rules on selling other brands' products need to be assessed under competition law. Merely including a restriction in the agreement does not make it lawful. Particular care is needed with arrangements that go beyond protecting the identity of the shared business concept.

4. Check that customers and prospective franchisees see the same offering

Before starting discussions with prospective franchisees, compare the scope of the franchise with the brand's communications. The website, sales materials and service descriptions should not suggest that every outlet provides all the services available at the founder's business.

Prepare a simple table covering: the service, its availability at a standard outlet, the conditions for adding it, and how customers will be informed. Also establish who updates availability information and what happens to enquiries about excluded services. If a customer is referred to the franchisor, they should be clear about whom they are entering into a contract with.

Finally, test the description with someone who was not involved in designing the offering. Ask them to identify what a franchisee must sell, what they can add and what they are not allowed to offer under the brand. Conflicting answers mean the description needs further work.

Practical takeaway: before offering a franchise, approve a single outline of its scope. Use it as the shared reference point for the agreement, outlet set-up and customer communications. It is better to transfer a smaller, complete offering than a broad catalogue that depends on the owner's constant support.