Franchisee Defense Fund - just include it in your budget

It occurs to me that anyone purchasing a franchise these days should understand that a large percentage of their gross income could end up being spent on legal fees.

Maybe we should come up with a "contingency" item on every zee budget that includes a big chunk of cash set aside to fight the franchisor.

If, by some miracle, you don't have to use your defense fund, you can send the kids to college.

I was an independant businessman for 12 years prior to becoming a franchisee.  My recollection of my legal costs for that period is that we used our lawyer mainly for business housekeeping and maintenance - very simple and inexpensive.

Once we joined the franchise, my lawyer and I became best friends.  Not because we played golf together, or were best buddies, but because we spent more time together than we did with our wives and kids.  My lawyer even began bringing me nice presents at Christmastime.

Our discussions during the next 17 years were pretty consistent - they dealt mostly with the challenges of keeping up with a franchisor that was always changing - and mostly not in a positive direction. 

I like my lawyer, and we are still very good friends, but he does not deliver Christmas presents anymore because I am no longer a franchisee.  I know he misses seeing me. Now he mostly deals with rewriting my will, or getting one of the kids out of a traffic ticket now and then.

Wouldn't it be great if somebody could tell us going in how much money we were going to spend in the future fighting to get out  (or stay out) of a bad situation?  Would any of us buy a franchise knowing that number?

Let's start including that legal defense fund as a standard requirement in every franchise sold.