Let's look at the most common mistakes when choosing and purchasing a franchise for small and medium-sized businesses.
Excessive trust in advertising
Businessmen, especially inexperienced ones, still believe in advertising of franchises that promise quick income, especially in the fast food and services sector. With sums of 300-500 thousand rubles, entrepreneurs are ready to invest these funds unconditionally, neglecting checks.
Beauty salon franchise
In principle, it is possible to linkedin database understand those who refuse legal expertise. But, of course, you should first find out whether the franchise seller has its own retail outlets (shops, cafes, etc.), personally go around them, talk to the managers of the outlets, make sure that there are no discrepancies between the sign and the trademark that is offered to you.
This check is simple, but very effective, and surprisingly, not everyone does it. Although it is absolutely clear: if the seller does not have his own companies, then you will hardly be able to buy a beauty salon franchise from him.
Neglect to check the franchisor's documents
It is clear from the existing legal practice that buyers sign agreements and make contributions even if the seller does not have a registered trademark. But it is not for nothing that there is an official check of the trademark for uniqueness, a procedure for registering a brand for different classes of goods.
Trademark registration in Rospatent takes about a year, but even before its completion, you can check whether the documentation has been submitted, when it was submitted, for what classes of goods - the franchisee can carry out all these procedures without even contacting a lawyer. But for some reason, many do not do this and throw money down the drain.
Investment rush
Often businessmen are in a hurry to open their business. Even more often, the seller drives them into a hurry, frightening them with the fact that the discount on the franchise will soon expire, and they will have to buy it at a higher price.
Entrepreneurs fall for this, not noticing obvious things: they sign contracts with individuals who, in principle, cannot have any rights to a franchise, agree to questionable clauses in the document, for example, a ban on terminating the contract out of court, or paying fines.
In addition, franchisees sign two-page agreements, while agreements on the transfer of rights to a trademark involve detailed regulations of the relationship.
In addition, the agreement must be registered with the same Rospatent. But no one is interested in this - everyone is in a hurry to earn money and ends up losing money.
Underestimating business risks
Often, businessmen who purchased a franchise, worked for a period of time and closed down seek legal assistance. Their investments never paid off. Analyzing such situations, experts note that entrepreneurs make one of the previously described mistakes and then cannot sue the franchisor for anything.
But we are sure that what harms businessmen even more is the widespread misconception that after buying a franchise, success will come automatically, in any case. This myth is reinforced by the currently popular literature on business and the abundance of advertising on this subject.