So the success of his entrepreneurial project

Franchises: the duty to inquire

Shortcomings of the Doubin law

A DIP, perfect as it does not know the network of the franchisor to estimate its ability to reproduce the commercial revenue to a concept. "The Doubin law does not impose some relevant information." For example, it requires to include the annual accounts of the society of the franchisor for the past two years closed. Which gives no information on the profitability of a franchisee! In addition, there is no issue of account type. Elements, such as the power of the purchasing power and the number of stores in own, do not truly reflect the financial health of franchisees of the network. ", said Jean-Baptiste Gouache, lawyer. The contractor should conduct additional research on his own.

How to work the DIP

Act prescribed Doubin registration in the list of members of the network of franchise companies, the address of the franchisees, as well as the number of companies who left the network in the previous year. "These contractual obligations allow to consult the accounts of the companies of a network on Infogreffe.". Even on society, where the data, while free, are both less recent and therefore complete. These results, it calculates the gross margin to a point of sale, and it enters the details of the formation of the profits of an enterprise. It is especially fundamental in ready-to-wear and more generally distribution franchises, where there is an exclusive supply obligation, a clause leaving little room for manoeuvre. It is estimated also better expense as the average cost of the rent, etc. The future franchisee can consider precisely if he is able to meet its repayments of credits. ", decrypts Jean-Baptiste Gouache.

Making numbers meaningful

To validate the level of turnover to a point of sale, must be especially analysed accounts of operation of comparable to the units that you want to open (size and similar characteristics to the metropolitan area). But also see how turnover is formed during the year and the week (possible concentration of sales over the weekend, etc.), to adapt its staff needs, or choose the best time of year to start for seasonality. And finally, check all of the significant ratios, as the wage ratio / net sales compared to the sector.

Avoiding harm, sometimes colossal

Candidate contractor should not rely on its only skills but do speak numbers with the help of an accountant. These few hundreds or thousands of euros, paid in exchange for the assistance of a professional, represent little a poorly thought out investment, whose prejudice is sometimes colossal. "The contractor can lose not only its original contribution, but also the value of its current and any account or part of its heritage if its security is activated." "The risk becomes calibrated if the contractor takes the sentence to analyze the DIP", says Jean-Baptiste Gouache.

Investigation on the stability and prosperity of the network

The applicant entrepreneur must also contact directly the franchisees of the network already installed, to ask them - live and in the particular case - what is their ticket or average basket, the number of their clients It is necessary to determine, from the list of departures from the network referred to in the DIP, the reason for termination of the contract of franchise: accident conditions, personal reasons, failure - insufficient funding of the franchisee, poorly applied know-how (termination), zone trading evil déterminée. If the number of departures is significant to the points of sale of the network, warning danger!

The duty to inquire

"Jurisprudence is the responsibility of the franchisee a duty to inquire: trader independent franchisee, get involved by signing the contract, has an obligation to search for any information its decision-making of investment.", adds Jean-Baptiste Gouache.

Franchisors: create a recruitment marketing!

The need to better define recruited profiles

It is important to define a specific candidate profile, both in terms of personal qualities and skills. This is a step that networks often tend to neglect. They should work more on this point, if necessary with the assistance of a specialist in human resources. For example, in the human services, applicants may not only have human qualities, they must also have commercial and managerial skills. "In General, the franchisor must ensure that its future franchise is autonomous, it feels like to undertake and succeed." It must be aware he engages in a process of trader independent and responsible. So the success of his entrepreneurial project. ", concludes Jean-Baptiste Gouache.

Reporting on Intranet

As a first level of information on a network, the DIP itself could be directly accessible on the internet site of the signs, instead of being issued to the account-drop the most motivated candidates. With competition growing between signs, the quality of the information contained in the DIP becomes an argument of recruitment for the franchisor. It must go beyond mere legal requirements, in drawing on the spirit of the Doubin law: "sincere" network information. "For example, the list of companies who have left the network should not be limited to the calendar year preceding the contract, but be extended to the current year and the previous three years." Another possibility: aggregate income of the network. I.e. establish a reporting of these numbers for each unit, classify them by size of point of sale and trading area, and put them online on an Intranet. After confirmation of interest to a franchise, the contractor may have access quick and limited in time this reporting, after signature of a confidentiality clause. In the desire to repeat the success of a concept, it would strongly help candidate contractor to construct its estimated budget. ", advises Jean-Baptiste Gouache.

Free and informed consent

To test the adequacy between the candidate contractor project and the development of a network project, Jean-Baptiste Gouache suggests a practice in development: "To avoid disappointment between the two parties, a minority of networks already offers an internship in point of sale prior to the signing of the franchise agreement." This allows the franchisee to realize in practice of the know-how of the franchisor and complete level of information on a sign. As the franchisor, he observes the candidate in situ. This internship, which usually lasts a week, is also of considerable legal interest since it allows the franchisor of contre-argumenter "a defect of consent" on the part of the franchisee. More recruiting franchisees, must speak of reconciliation of entrepreneurial projects. In this logic, a marketing of this process of reconciliation is required. The profile must become a target.