Anyone with experience in franchising from either side?

I do currently run a business. And, I have successfully filed and received three trademarks 100% on my own without the help of an attorney or anyone else. I’m in the alcohol business, which has about as many hoops to jump through, as possible, and do all of my own filings.

This isn’t filing normal business paperwork. The FTC requires this wildly comprehensive 23 part packet in which each section is not some simple form. Requires an operations manual, for example, in which the company I’m meeting with today said they typically run 300-400 pages in length. Every single detail of the business has to be written out black and white to where, for example, you have a franchisee in Baton Rouge and a different one in New Orleans and they both operate exactly the same.

I was just curious if anyone has had experience with the process on either side. Thanks!

When you say alcohol business, I’m going to assume you mean retail side of that equation (bar, package store, restaurant, etc.). Couldn’t imagine that you could franchise distributor or production side of the alcohol industry, since each would be subject to either more Draconian differences in regulations.

How many stores do you have now? Oftentimes, but not always, a franchise-able business would begin with operating a handful or more of stores. Once the model proves replicable, then you can look into franchising. Again that’s a most of the time and not always. But would think being able to refine the method across multiple storefronts would help you to standardize processes/vendors/SOPs.

Worked for a guy for a while who helped a big steakhouse expand nationally and owned a few franchises. Definitely can be lucrative but requires as mentioned above a lot of ground work.