What is the Brightstar Care franchisee's restriction regarding soliciting staffing business outside their Protected Territory?
Brightstar_Care Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
Referral sources are not exclusive, and you may call on referral sources outside your Protected Territory with the prior notification in writing to the franchisee that owns the territory in which you will be marketing. All customers serviced must be in your Protected Territory and cannot be customers with service addresses, or services performed, in another franchisee's protected territory held under a Franchise Agreement. If you service customers who are sourced from an unclaimed territory that later becomes the protected territory of another franchisee, you may, in our sole discretion, retain those and only those customers whom you secured prior to the unclaimed territory being purchased by the other franchisee. You may not solicit staffing business outside your Protected Territory without permission; the staffing business, along with any other business (excluding Net Billings from National Accounts) outside your Protected Territory, cannot exceed 25% of your Net Billings. Staffing business must be transitioned to the new franchisee per the Cross-Territorial policy outlined in the Operations Manual.
If (1) your monthly Net Billings from business outside your Protected Territory (excluding National Accounts Net Billings from outside your Protected Territory) exceed 25% of your total monthly Net Billings (excluding National Accounts Net Billings), (2) you are otherwise in compliance with your Franchise Agreement, and (3) you meet the criteria for expansion, we will ask you to acquire an additional franchise for an adjacent territory that will encompass the clients you are servicing outside the Protected Territory. This additional franchise may be for a traditional territory with population of 200,000 to 300,000 people or for a Medium Density Market territory or a Small territory. However, if you do not meet the criteria for expansion or, despite satisfying such criteria, you choose not to acquire an additional franchise for an adjacent territory within the timeframe we specify, you will be in default under the Franchise Agreement. Upon such a default, you will have 90 days from the date of our notice of default to you to grow the business within your Protected Territory so that the percentage of your total monthly Net Billings from business outside your Protected Territory (excluding National Accounts Net Billings from outside your Protected Territory) no longer exceeds 25% of your total monthly Net Billings.
Source: Item 12 — TERRITORY (FDD pages 67–75)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Brightstar Care's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, franchisees face specific limitations when soliciting staffing business outside their designated territory. A Brightstar Care franchisee cannot solicit staffing business outside their Protected Territory without permission. The staffing business, along with any other business (excluding Net Billings from National Accounts) outside the Protected Territory, cannot exceed 25% of the franchisee's Net Billings.
If a Brightstar Care franchisee's monthly Net Billings from business outside their Protected Territory (excluding National Accounts Net Billings from outside the Protected Territory) exceeds 25% of their total monthly Net Billings (excluding National Accounts Net Billings), and they are otherwise in compliance with their Franchise Agreement and meet the criteria for expansion, Brightstar Care will require them to acquire an additional franchise for an adjacent territory. This additional franchise may be for a traditional territory with a population of 200,000 to 300,000 people, a Medium Density Market territory, or a Small territory.
However, if the Brightstar Care franchisee does not meet the criteria for expansion or chooses not to acquire an additional franchise for an adjacent territory within the specified timeframe, they will be in default under the Franchise Agreement. Upon such a default, the franchisee will have 90 days from the date of notice to grow the business within their Protected Territory so that the percentage of their total monthly Net Billings from business outside their Protected Territory (excluding National Accounts Net Billings from outside the Protected Territory) no longer exceeds 25% of their total monthly Net Billings.
Further, all Net Billings (except for National Account Net Billings) from business outside of a franchisee's particular Protected Territory will not be counted towards the Net Billings needed to meet performance criteria or renewal criteria, regardless of whether Brightstar Care temporarily permitted the franchisee to service business in an unowned territory. When permission to solicit business outside the Protected Territory is granted, at least 75% of the franchisee's total monthly Net Billings must come from business inside their Protected Territory (although Net Billings from National Accounts both within and outside the Protected Territory will count towards the 75% of total monthly Net Billings).