The franchisor’s upper hand is a fact of the franchisor/franchisee relationship.
Franchising models depend on the franchisors’ power to control from the top-down. The relationship’s basis demands their control of the contract. But today’s contracts are increasingly one-sided. And increasingly, franchisors are unreasonably abusing the relationship’s control, at franchisees’ expense.
Franchising contract negotiations are ready-made hot beds for scheming prospective franchisees. Let’s consider the seductive circumstances:
• One of a franchisor’s most lucrative profit pools is the selling of franchise units themselves.
• One of the most slam-dunk buyer pools is aspiring (green and often gullible) entrepreneurs, chomping at the bit to start a small business.
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