Shelton & Power offers a payment plan because Lynne Shelton knows what it takes to launch a successfully growth-tracked franchise system. In fact that overall sentiment is what started Shelton & Power boutique law firm in the first place. Lynne saw that there were countless great, aspiring entrepreneurs who wanted to “Expand their Brand”™ through franchising, but couldn’t afford to do so because of the high-rise attorney and law firm prices.

Ms. Shelton wants you to pay off your legal fees while your franchise system is growing. The monthly payment plan keeps you in control of your cashflow. You know exactly how much money you need every single month; there will be no mysteries. But most importantly, it will free up your cashflow for marketing, franchise convention space, advertising, and personnel growth.

Shelton & Power has seen a lot of franchisors who had to save up to have their legal documents and manuals written, wait for them to be done, then save up for months again before they could finally launch their franchise system with marketing funds and advertising dollars needed to reach the prospective franchisees. But why? Why an entrepreneur would do that, is really baffling to Ms. Shelton!

“I just don’t understand it”, stated Ms. Shelton, the whole time that the entrepreneur is waiting and saving, the competitors are taking larger and larger portions of the market share that could have been theirs. Honestly, that is not an entrepreneur move – that is a small business owner move. An entrepreneur is one who seizes the opportunity and keeps it moving. Like Danny DeVito’s famous statement – “there’s only one thing better than Money, and that is using Other People’s Money”

And that is what the franchising payment plan is all about at Shelton & Power. You can pay monthly not only for the initial consultations, franchise development and creation of your Franchise Disclosure Document (“FDD”), but they also have the monthly plan for ongoing legal work. The creation of the FDD is only the beginning, only the starting point. It is you standing in the horses’ gate and the shot being fired in the air – you can now run with the competitors.

After you start franchising, there is ongoing legal work that must be done. You will have Franchise Agreements to have drafted (yeah, you sold one), possibly Area Development Agreements (yeah, you sold many), Quarterly FDD updates, Annual FDD deeper updates, (yuck) Vendor Agreements, Distribution Agreements, MSA Agreements, (your Franchisees are happier because you are helping them save money) Employment contracts, Independent Contractor Agreements, Broker Agreements, (these will help you award more franchises) Credit Card Use Agreements, Gift Card Agreements, Software Agreements, POS System Agreements, Lease Agreements, (these will all keep your system unified and operating like a “system”) Sales Agreements, Advertising evaluations, website evaluations, marketing piece evaluations, State regulated agreements (these are all legal compliance issues) and the list goes on and on. This does not even include the items that your Franchisees will send to you, that you will need your franchise attorney to look over, including, but not limited to: lease reviews, business sale agreements, transfer options, corporate resolutions, injury litigation, employment forms and suits, and the list in really never ending.

Because of this, the monthly retainer is an ongoing legal fee option as well, but is not required. Just like a credit card statement sends you a recap every month of what items you purchased, or an electric bill shows you the power you used for the last month, the Shelton & Power monthly bill does the same. They actually send you a “what if” bill, which reflects what your invoice for the month would have been if you had not been on the monthly fixed payment plan. That way you can determine whether being on the flat fee payment plan is still a smart business decision for you. If you are not actively growing your franchise, you can change to an hourly billable option; it’s all up to you.