Any Franchisees here?

[slowcooker]

I am concerned with the ethos of my franchisor. The company is not part of the BFA (British Franchise Association) and it seems that there is a lot of new rules that keep being implemented on the operations manual. The contract I signed states we have to follow the operations manual. But it seems the franchisor keeps revising the operations manual as they wish. It has been revised about 4-5 times since I signed the contract. I can understand that things about procedures need to change but rules such as 'You must make me an admin on your Facebook page because it says so in the operations manual" is a bit intimidating! That rule just appeared in the last few months. I was not there in the first version I read. I feel I have no control over things any more :( and it affects my morale. This and other things make me feel like I work for somebody rather that running a business.

I know the best thing would be to consult a solicitor but I haven't got the funds to do this right now.
Does anybody have any knowledge and can give me a guideline to this please?

Try posting in legal

Thank you SimLondon

slowcooker - how long are you locked into the contract?

I'll be brutally honest. You are working for someone in all franchises. You are working for the franchisor.

I looked at investing in some large well known national franchises a few years ago and got to quite late stage with one.

I pulled out when it became clear the franchisor was essentially leeching all the value out of the franchises and ost of the franchisees were really just earning a fairly low wage but shouldering all the financial risk.

I also spoke to a large international franchise and they refused to have any discussion about my return on investment or the salary I would be taking out of the business. The head of the UK franchise division told me 'we don't care about your money' we just want enthusiastic people. We can get money anywhere.

Franchises are sold to people. They are not real businesses.

I would get out of the franchise you are in with as small a loss and as little of your effort as possible.