Before you sign your franchise agreement, and legally become a franchise owner, you’ll need to set some things up. Depending on your situation, some of things that you’ll be doing are designed to offer some protection. Incorporating your business may be one of them.
You’ll see what I mean, in a minute.
If you’re a franchise company salesperson, or executive, you may want to help your almost legal franchisees with this step. It would be a nice gesture on your part….
Meet Nellie Akalp. Mrs. Akalp is the CEO & Founder of CorpNet, Incorporated,* her second legal document filing service company based on the simple philosophy of truth in business and her sincere passion/desire to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs in America get their business off the ground in a fast, reliable, and affordable manner. Mrs. Akalp is responsible for overseeing and managing the daily operations of the business and frequently authors much of the content published at www.CorpNet.com.*
Nellie Akalp
I had a chance to meet Nellie, recently, at a trade show. She’s a bundle of energy, and she really loves the franchise model.
She was kind enough to take some time, and write a short post for The Franchise King Blog, and I wanted to share it with you.
Here’s Nellie
If you’re part of the franchise development team at your franchise company, you now have a chance to assist new owners, by helping them navigate through some of the legal requirements associated with setting up their business before/after the franchise agreement has been signed. By partnering with an incorporation service such as * CorpNet®, you can give franchisees a head start toward Incorporating (either a C Corporation or S Corporation) or forming an LLC. From my understanding, almost all franchisors want a franchisee to incorporate right before they sign the franchise agreement, anyway.
Helping new franchisees get set-up with a really affordable incorporation service such as CorpNet, the franchisee can bypass the hassle of figuring out the legal requirements of incorporating their franchise themselves. Rather, they can focus their time on growing the business, instead of learning the nuances of any applicable federal, state, and county rules associated with setting up their business…and…avoid paying the retainer fees and hourly rates of an attorney, just to set up the corporation. (If they decide to incorporate.)
Now, we’re not against attorneys; we feel that prospective franchisees should always work with an attorney that’s familiar with franchise contracts-to help them understand what they’re signing. It’s just that setting up the legal entity is easier and more affordable now with the advent of the internet and other technological advances, that it may just be overkill (and expensive) to have an attorney draw these papers up.
For almost franchise owners
If you’re about to become a franchise owner, first of all, congratulations!
Why not start you’re new adventure off with some cost savings? First of all, you should learn about the types of business entity’s that are available to you. Maybe incorporating isn’t the way to go. Go to Our CorpNet learning page, and find out. *
Joel Libava told me that most of the folks that he’s counseled over the years, didn’t fully understand the different business entity’s, and what the the pros and cons were of incorporating, or even just becoming an LLC. Different business entity’s have different plusses and minuses, that’s for sure!
Finally, it’s important to understand that CorpNet* is just a document filing service and CANNOT offer legal, tax or financial advice. CorpNet can provide the legal resources to help business owners represent themselves to create a legal business entity; they cannot provide specific legal or financial advice for each franchisee’s set of circumstances. If you have particularly complex business needs, you should retain your own expert counsel to help you get started.
We offer an affordable way to help set things up. Good luck on your new business!
Thank you Nellie, for contributing to The Franchise King Blog. I appreciate it.
FYI
In my own case, my company is a corporation;
Franchise Selection Specialists Inc. is the formal business name.
I actually became incorporated on the advice of a friend of mine, who owned a travel agency at the time. She shared some of the advantages of incorporating, and they were pretty powerful ones!
Incorporating your new franchise business, or any business, new or not, could be the way to go. I don’t offer legal or tax advice. What I do offer are resources* for you to contact, and learn more from.
Every situation is unique. Get the facts, and decide what’s best for you.