Area development agreement

Multi-unit deals are the discount lever franchisors actually honor — more systems disclose multi-unit fee breaks than any other kind. In exchange, you sign a development schedule: open N units by fixed dates or lose exclusivity, unopened-unit fees, or the agreement itself.

The risk concentrates where the discount tempts: a schedule negotiated in optimism becomes a treadmill if unit one underperforms, because the contract obliges you to fund units two and three anyway. Development schedules are negotiable before signing and nearly impossible to soften after.