One: Choose the right franchise industry In recent years, there are not a few popular chain brands emerging, but many brands have disappeared before they are "hot". It can be said that the brands of franchise chains have to be reshuffled almost every year, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of choosing franchise chain entrepreneurs. Therefore, when choosing to join this industry, we must stand the test of the market: the chain operation system has been in existence for at least 5 years. Two: The higher the joining requirements, the greater the chances of success. For those who want to start a business, it saves the trouble of not finding a business project, which is indeed a shortcut to success. According to a survey, 80% of independent shopkeepers in Japan's retail industry closed down in the first year, and only 8% can persist until the fifth year; However, only 20% chain stores closed their business in the first year, and 77% chain stores can survive until the fifth year. This survey proves that "joining must be more cost-effective than starting your own business." But these data do not mean that you will be 100% successful after joining. According to the survey, it is more secure to find a competitive chain brand with certain experience in opening stores and a certain number of chain stores or at least five years of development. Some emerging franchise systems have not developed in the market for a long time, have not experienced the market, and their customers' consumption habits have not yet been developed, which is easy to cause the illusion of temporary business prosperity. When choosing a weak chain brand, although you can pay less for joining, you can enjoy less resources and help from the headquarters. Many things have to be taken care of by franchisees themselves, and their competitiveness is naturally weak. E-sports chain brands naturally have high requirements for joining because of their good development prospects. However, it should be understood that brands with stricter franchise conditions often have a more complete franchise system and stronger financial resources and strength, but they are more capable of ensuring the profits of franchisees. For this reason, the more reputable chain enterprises are, the stricter they are when choosing franchisees. Third, it is very necessary to go to the headquarters and its franchise stores opposite to collect first-hand on-site information. In recent years, with the increasingly popular entrepreneurial trend, more and more people have joined the franchise chain stores, and the disputes about joining have also increased. These disputes stem from franchise contracts. Before joining, the headquarters did not explain the contract to franchisees in detail, and franchisees often signed the contract without in-depth understanding. It is not surprising that disputes arise under the vague handling of both sides. In fact, before signing a franchise contract, franchisees should thoroughly understand the contents of the contract to ensure their rights and interests. Don't think that franchise contracts are all templates of the headquarters system and cannot be modified. In fact, the contract should be signed by mutual consent. In other words, franchisees should not only open their eyes to see the content clearly, but also have the right to ask for modification of the content. This article only provides the following ten points for the franchisee to refer to when signing the contract. First of all, the joining headquarters should ask for the service badge registration certificate. Because the so-called joining is that the headquarters authorizes the brand to the franchise store. In other words, the headquarters must own the brand before it can be authorized to franchise stores. In other words, the headquarters must first obtain the service label registration certificate issued by the Central Bureau of Standards. A while ago, there was a controversy about the restaurant chain system in China. The old and new systems entered the Fair Trade Commission. Later, the losing party was forced to change the brand name, and even the franchisees who had joined the system were forced to change their names. How innocent! Therefore, franchisees must first confirm that the headquarters really owns the brand before joining, and then they can join with confidence. The second is the payment method of royalties. Generally speaking, the headquarters will charge franchisees three kinds of fees, namely, franchise fee, franchise fee and deposit. The so-called franchise fee refers to the fee charged by the headquarters to help franchisees to carry out overall store opening planning and education and training before opening a store. Royalty refers to the fees paid by franchisees to use the headquarters trademark and enjoy goodwill. This is a continuous charge. As long as franchisees continue to use the trademark of the headquarters, they must pay regularly. The payment period can be once a year, once a quarter or once a month. As for the deposit, it is the fee charged by the head office to ensure that the franchisee will actually perform the contract and pay the payment on time. Among them, due to the continuous collection of royalties, some franchise headquarters will require franchisees to write checks for all royalties during the contract period when signing the contract. For example, if the contract term is five years and the royalties are paid annually, some headquarters will require franchisees to pay the royalties for five years with five checks at a time. Later, there was such a case. The franchisee of a certain system opened a shop for two years, but closed down because of poor business, but as early as when signing the contract, he paid a five-year commission check to the headquarters. It stands to reason that in the next three years, because the store has stopped using the trademark and goodwill of the head office, there is no need to pay royalties. However, the head office still rolls the received checks into the bank for withdrawal, which leads to franchisees not only losing their business for two years, but also paying the amount of these withdrawn checks! Therefore, franchisees must remember to add remarks to the contract when meeting the requirements of the head office to issue all royalty checks at one time during the contract period. When franchisees close their stores and stop opening them, the head office must return the unexpired royalties to protect their rights and interests. Third, the price supplied by the headquarters. In the general franchise contract, the headquarters will require franchisees to purchase goods from the headquarters, and they are not allowed to purchase goods privately. This is often the most controversial part between the headquarters and the franchise stores. Because franchisees often think that the supply price of headquarters is high, they have purchased from abroad on their own. However, based on the consistency of the quality of the chain system, the headquarters had to ask the franchise stores to purchase from the headquarters in a unified way, thus causing disputes. A more reasonable way is for franchisees to ask in advance whether the price supplied by the headquarters can not be higher than the market, or it is acceptable to be higher than the market, so as to avoid disputes between the two parties on the price afterwards. Fourth, business circle protection. Usually, in order to ensure the operating interests of franchise stores, the franchise headquarters will have a business circle guarantee, that is, a second branch will not be opened in a business circle. Therefore, franchisees must be very clear about the scope of the business circle. But the common situation is that the headquarters is not far from the business circle, and opening a second store will affect the business of the original franchise stores and cause protests. In fact, if the headquarters is located outside the security business circle, the franchise stores have no right to protest. However, it is worth mentioning that when some chain stores increase or reach saturation, it is difficult to open new stores under the protection of the business circle, so they accidentally developed a second brand. It means to use another new brand name, and its business content is exactly the same as that of the original brand, so there is no need to be restricted by the business circle protection of the original brand. For example, there used to be a chain system of housing agencies that was like this. In the end, of course, it would lead to resistance from a group of franchise stores. Therefore, in order to protect their own rights and interests, franchisees should clearly state when signing the contract that the headquarters shall not develop a second brand with the same business content. Fifth, the non-competition clause. The so-called non-competition means that the headquarters requires franchisees not to engage in the same industry as the original franchisees during the duration of the contract or within a certain period after the end of the contract in order to protect business technology and intellectual property rights. This regulation is to protect the intellectual property rights of the headquarters, and there is nothing wrong with it. The Fair Trade Commission also believes that this will not violate the law. But how long should the non-competition period be reasonable? If it is too long, it may affect the franchisee's future work rights. In this regard, there is a chain system in which the non-competition clause stipulates three years, and franchised stores sue the Fair Trade Commission. Fair will think that the non-competition clause is reasonable, but think that three years is too long? Later, the headquarters also wisely changed three years to one year. Therefore, franchisees must carefully consider when signing contracts, so as not to affect their future livelihood. Sixth, the issue of management regulations. Generally speaking, there are as few as ten or twenty franchise contracts, as many as seventy or eighty or hundreds. However, there is usually a provision: "Matters not covered in this contract shall be handled in accordance with the management regulations of the headquarters. If the franchisee encounters this situation, it is best to ask the headquarters to attach the management regulations to the contract and become an annex to the contract. Because the management rules are formulated by the headquarters, the headquarters can incorporate all matters not stipulated in the contract into its management rules, modify them at any time, and do whatever they want, and then the franchisees will have to be dominated by the headquarters. Seventh, about liquidated damages. Since the franchise contract is drawn up by the headquarters, it is more beneficial to the headquarters. In terms of penalty for breach of contract, usually only the part for franchisees is listed, but the part for breach of contract by headquarters is not mentioned at all. Franchisees should be able to put forward relative requirements, clarify the penalty clauses when the headquarters breaches the contract, especially the service items and logistics support that the headquarters should provide, and ask the headquarters to actually realize them. Eighth, the handling of disputes. Generally, the jurisdiction court will be clearly listed in the franchise contract, and usually the court where the headquarters is located is the jurisdiction court. So that in the future, headquarters personnel can travel to and from nearby courts more conveniently when needed. It is worth mentioning that a franchise headquarters has stipulated in the contract that franchisees who want to bring a lawsuit to the court need to go through the mediation Committee of the headquarters. In this case, who are the members of the mediation committee? If all the problems are caused by the headquarters, then the result of mediation will of course be biased towards the headquarters, which is not conducive to franchisees. Because of the contract, franchisees can't ignore the mediation committee and go to court directly. Therefore, the author suggests that franchisees should ask for deletion when they encounter similar terms. Ninth, the handling of the termination of the contract. When the contract is terminated, the most important thing for the franchisee is to get back the deposit. At this time, the headquarters will check whether the franchisee has defaulted or owed money. At the same time, the headquarters can require franchisees to dismantle their own signboards. If all goes well and there is no debt, the head office will refund the deposit. However, in the event of a dispute, whether to remove the signboard often becomes the focus of wrestling between the two sides. Some headquarters even hire their own employees to remove signboards. In this case, the franchisee needs to rely on the person who originally funded the signboard. If it is funded by the franchisee, the ownership of the signboard "property right" should belong to the franchisee. Although the headquarters owns the trademark ownership, it cannot be dismantled without authorization. If you really want to dismantle it, you must enforce it through the court. If the headquarters is dismantled by itself, it is a crime of sabotage. Tenth, this is the last point to pay attention to, that is, after the contract is signed, both parties must hold one copy each. Once, after a supermarket chain signed a contract with a franchisee, the headquarters left two contracts, but not one for the franchisee. Later, it was sued by the Fair Trade Commission for correction. Therefore, franchisees must remember to keep a copy in order to clearly understand the contract content and ensure their rights and interests. Of course, the most important thing is to read the contents of the contract clearly and understand them one by one before signing the contract. If there is anything unclear or unclear, you should ask the staff at the headquarters.