Franchisee support: what to specify in the agreement

The owner of an established business often promises prospective partners ‘comprehensive support’, meaning help as and when needed. A franchisee may interpret this differently: daily advice, staff recruitment and the founder’s personal involvement in the opening. Before launching a franchise, turn these expectations into specific contractual obligations. Clear support arrangements underpin trust across a franchise network and help the franchisor avoid promising more than the team can deliver.

1. Separate legal requirements from additional promises

In Russia, arrangements granting a package of exclusive rights for business use are governed by Chapter 54 of the Russian Civil Code, ‘Commercial Concession’. The intellectual property provisions in Part Four of the Civil Code also apply. It is therefore incorrect to claim that franchising is not regulated by law at all.

Article 1031 of the Civil Code requires the rights holder to supply technical and commercial documentation, provide other information needed to exercise the rights granted, and instruct the user and their employees. This obligation cannot be replaced with a vague phrase such as ‘access to a knowledge base’ without specifying what the partner actually receives.

The same article provides for ongoing technical and advisory support, including help with staff training and professional development, as well as quality control over the user’s goods, work or services. These obligations apply unless the agreement provides otherwise. The scope of ongoing support should therefore be expressly agreed, rather than left to a manager’s discretion.

There is also a separate registration requirement: under Article 1028 of the Civil Code, the grant of the right to use a package of exclusive rights under a commercial concession agreement must be registered with Rospatent, Russia’s intellectual property office. Without registration, the grant of rights is deemed not to have taken place. This does not automatically invalidate the entire agreement. By default, the rights holder must arrange registration unless the agreement states otherwise.

Work with a lawyer to draw up two lists: obligations arising from the law and additional services your team will provide. The second list must reflect the business’s actual resources.

2. List support services with verifiable deliverables

Start not with a polished presentation, but with the questions that the manager of a company-owned outlet asks the central team. Divide support into pre-opening preparation, launch and day-to-day operations. For each activity, identify who will carry it out, the deliverable and the information required from the franchisee.

A useful approach is to prepare a schedule to the agreement with the following fields:

• Task: for example, reviewing proposed premises.
• Rights holder’s actions: assessing the layout and technical specifications against defined criteria.
• Franchisee’s actions: providing a measured floor plan, photographs and details of building services and utilities.
• Deliverable: a written assessment with comments, rather than a promise that the location will be profitable.
• Timeframe: an agreed period after receipt of all the required information.
• Service limits: whether a further review is included if the plans change.

Describe training, product range support, advertising material reviews and advice on the accounting system in the same way. Instead of ‘we help recruit staff’, be specific: we provide a job profile, supply an interview guide or take part in candidate assessments.

List separately what support does not include, such as the partner’s bookkeeping, court representation or organising construction work. Specify which additional services can be purchased and how their fees are agreed. Any exclusions must remain consistent with mandatory legal requirements.

3. Establish procedures for support requests and remedying breaches

The founder’s personal phone number may be convenient for initial discussions, but it is poorly suited to fulfilling long-term obligations. Designate an official support channel: a ticketing system or dedicated email address. Set out support hours, the time zone and weekend arrangements in the agreement or a schedule.

Distinguish between the initial response time and the resolution time. Receipt of a request can be acknowledged quickly, while fixing an error may require investigation or input from an external supplier. If the precise resolution time cannot be established in advance, include an obligation to provide an action plan and a date for the next status update.

Categorise requests according to their impact on the outlet. A problem that brings sales to a halt should be handled differently from approval of seasonal decorations. For urgent cases, provide a backup contact and a route for escalating the issue to a manager if the main specialist is unavailable.

Specify what evidence of delivery will be retained: the premises assessment, consultation logs, training attendance lists or records of materials supplied. The partner should be able to submit reasoned objections, and the team should have a reasonable period to remedy shortcomings.

Agree the consequences of repeated breaches with a lawyer: the formal complaints procedure, the period allowed to remedy a breach, any contractual penalties and grounds for termination. Do not promise that every delay automatically releases the franchisee from all payment obligations: such consequences require a separate legal assessment.

4. Check whether the team can handle the promised workload

Before signing the first agreements, compare the support commitments with the staff time available. Allow not only for consultations, but also for preparing materials, travel, repeat training following staff changes and support for several simultaneous openings.

Assign a lead and a backup member of staff to each obligation. If only the founder knows the answer, support depends on their personal availability. This limits growth even when demand for the franchise is strong.

Run an internal test: give the team typical requests from a hypothetical partner and follow the entire process through to the outcome. Check whether the information supplied is clear, whether the specialist has sufficient authority and whether a record of the resolution is retained. This tests the support function, rather than retesting the outlet’s business model.

Also establish a procedure for changing the list of services. Do not assume that contractual obligations can be reduced simply by updating an internal manual: changes to the agreed scope must be properly formalised in legal terms.

Practical takeaway: before selling a franchise, prepare a support schedule, assign responsibilities and test how typical requests are handled. Every promise to a partner should have clear limits, a timeframe and a verifiable deliverable.