Transferring Your Franchise

As a franchisee of Lifestyle Publications (dba City Lifestyle), the process for transferring your franchise to someone is addressed in Section 12 of your franchise agreement referred to as “Transfer and Assignment.” Please note that both the new publisher and the sale price (where applicable) must be approved by City Lifestyle. Here’s a short list of information to better understand the core parameters and process for transferring your franchise.

Steps to be taken to gain approval of the transfer of your franchise

1. Find a new publisher who is qualified. We look at a combination of skill sets and will evaluate any transfer just like we evaluate a candidate starting a new franchise. Some of the qualifications that are considered include, but are not limited to:
   1. Their Culture Index profile. Typically a Visionary or Social profile is the most successful as a Publisher, unless their skill sets and past experience prove their abilities otherwise.
   2. Successful experience preferred in either sales or business ownership.
   3. Owner / operator commitment with no other business activities outside of this.
2. Submit the candidate to our recruiting team and use the subject line of “Approval to Transfer My Franchise.” You must include the following:
   1. Contact information (name, phone, email, address, distance from the publication)
   2. Proposed first issue for which they would be responsible
   3. Month they will attend new publisher training. Note that this must be completed before the issue for which they are responsible.
   4. Proposed selling price (where applicable)
   5. Acknowledgement that, if approved, you will pay the current franchise fee or 20% of the sale price, whichever is greater.
3. Our recruiting team will interview your replacement candidate and provide them with an FDD that they must review for 14 days before the sale can be approved.

Assigning a Monetary Value to Your Franchise

If you plan to assign a monetary value to your franchise as part of the transfer, you can do so

without special permission from the corporate office if you use the following formula:

The sum of the monthly commission earned from City Lifestyle starting with the first issue for which they will be responsible and through their 12th issue. If any of these months have a negative balance, then the option to sell at a higher value other than this formula will NOT be considered.

If you are seeking a value greater than the above, it must be reviewed and approved by corporate. There will be no exceptions to the formula above when the value of your publication is below the production and ad value cost at any time within the first 12 months from which the new publisher would be responsible.

Steps After Your Candidate Is Approved

1. Upon approval of your replacement franchisee, the head of recruiting will inform you of the approval and contact the City Lifestyle legal department. At this time you may proceed with arranging a purchase agreement locally between yourself and the buyer, if Applicable.
2. Legal will contact you and you should plan to supply the legal department with a copy of your signed purchase agreement between you and the buyer, if applicable.
3. City Lifestyle will collect payment for the current franchise fee or 20% of the sale price (where applicable), whichever is greater. This payment must be received before the buyer can be set up for training in Kansas City and can be paid by either the buyer or the seller.
4. After payment is made, you and your buyer will sign a TRANSFER AND ASSIGNMENT agreement that will officially transfer your Publisher duties and responsibilities to the incoming Publisher. NOTE that your transfer date will be the day after your commissions are processed for your last issue
5. Your buyer will need to sign an INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER FRANCHISE AGREEMENT, which will officially make them a franchisee with Lifestyle Publications dba City Lifestyle.
6. You are responsible for ensuring a smooth transfer of duties. While the buyer will be trained in the standard operations of running a franchise, your buyer will benefit from assistance with communicating to current clients regarding the change in ownership.

Responsibility

To understand the full detail of the process, please refer to Section 12 of your franchise agreement labeled “Transfer and Assignment.”