What do I get for paying the franchise fee?

Starting with the upfront fee, the products and services provided by the franchisor will cover the rights to use the name and operating system, additional licences to use various software programmes and ICT communication processes, use of store designs and layouts, plus an appropriate amount of training for the appropriate staff, including yourself. Put simply, the upfront fee is what you pay to ‘get into the game’ and also covers the benefit of not making all the mistakes that the franchisor has learned from during however many years he has been developing and operating the business.  The other franchise fees payable are, typically, the monthly management services fees and group marketing fees, both of which will be set as a percentage of turnover. The former pays for all the ongoing assistance you will receive by way of business development support, improvements to the system, research into new ways of doing things, regular communication with your peers and the franchisor, additional training and field visits from technical staff. The marketing fee pays for such things as development of new marketing materials, maintenance of the website and general branding activity such as sponsorships or national advertising.