[korina]

Our company is thinking of ?franchising? A specific concept. Yet we don't know where to begin or better yet if franchising is the correct terminology. Or can we just license our idea and sell it yet remain in control of the way the concept is to work? We are in unmarked territory and not sure of the langauge to be using for selling this concept. We would like to research as much as possible on our own to save on attorney fees. Yet we know better than to just jump into something w/o have legal expertise for this big of an issue. Our vision is selling a concept to other companies with in our industry. Then within this concept we would also sell products to work w/ the concept. Can anyone direct me in the right place to begin our research. Thanks for any help with this.

[excon]

Hello k:

I'll be happy to help... But, you need to tell me more. Is this concept in practice? Are you making money on it? Do you have more than one location? Do you have NAME recognition? If we're talking products, can you handle ALL the distribution and warehousing? Can you manufacture? Is it just an idea, or do you have proprietary products and methods? If it's a service, can you manage a far flung enterprise?

Sure, you can sell franchises, or you can license it, or you can make partnerships... ALL do the same thing essentially. Maybe you can just teach people how to do it for a fee. There's dozens of ways to approach this.

excon

[George_1950]

You are talking about an "idea"? Is this a patent? Just remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I would get with a competent attorney, pronto.

[korina]

Excon~currently our idea is a service and products which both are being used in our company. Both are making money. & We do have more than one location that is doing both as well. We would like to take the service idea and the products national. However, we are thinking we don't just want to sell the products by themselves. We want to sell the concept of the service w/ the products that are used in the service.

What exactly do you mean by "NAME" recognition? We have a trademark for the name we use on our products and is also part of the name we use in the service.

We are currently researching w/ the company that manufactures our products regarding the distribution and warehousing.

I like your idea on teaching others how to do it for a fee. However it's my understanding though we couldn't control this afterward, right? We would need to franchise to maintain control~correct?

I agree w/ George that we need an attorney. But we are trying to do as much research as possible so that when we to go to attorney we know what the heck we are talking about. Plus we want to have a clear understanding of what it is we want to do before racking up a bunch of attorney fees. I feel if we go to attorney right now he'll see the "sucker" sign written all of us. I know this may sound mean, but we have been burnt in the past and we are just trying to protect ourselves.

korina

Hello k:

I'll be happy to help.... But, you need to tell me more. Is this concept in practice? Are you making money on it? Do you have more than one location? Do you have NAME recognition? If we're talking products, can you handle ALL the distribution and warehousing? Can you manufacture? Is it just an idea, or do you have proprietary products and methods? If it's a service, can you manage a far flung enterprise?

Sure, you can sell franchises, or you can license it, or you can make partnerships.... ALL do the same thing essentially. Maybe you can just teach people how to do it for a fee. There's dozens of ways to approach this.

excon