franchise or not?

[dberkovits]

We are expanding a real estate auction company by offering training and ongoing support services to broker who want to add auctions to their businesses.
Once they have been trained, we would also like to offer them a membership to our "network" and allow them to use our logo.
i have been told that what i am offering is "close" to being a franchise.
My question is, can i avoid any issue of franchise if i build this as 2 separate companies?
1) training and support
2) web based membership site with use of logo
Thank you in advance for your input.
david

 

[dberkovits]

I'm still hoping for an opinion or 2.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

If you want them to use your logo, you may have issues of being liable for what is on their site. You may want to speak to a lawyer. Think of it this way - if you saw the "good housekeeping seal of approval" on a good and then found out the GH had nothing to do with the lousy item you bought... would you feel deceived? Would you feel GH has responsibility if it is being compensated for having their logo on the product and which induced you to buy the product?