Franchises can sound like attractive business ventures, especially to immigrant entrepreneurs who may speak English as a second language. New franchise owners often sign franchise agreements, investing their life’s savings, in reliance on a sales pitch that turns out to be different from the legal obligations under the agreements. Upon discovering the frequently burdensome inconsistencies, they often call Lewis and Clark’s Small Business Legal Clinic. Unfortunately, once they have signed the agreement, their hands are tied and their only remedy may be to pay even more money to get out of the agreement.
After receiving multiple phone calls from potential clients in situations such as these, Lewis & Clark Law’s Small Business Legal Clinic (SBLC) was inspired to create an animated video for entrepreneurs to educate them about their rights and obligations under franchise agreements. Washington County agreed to sponsor the project through the Growing Capacity with Local Business Support Organizations Grant. The grant was part of the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds awarded to Washington County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the wake of COVID-19. Interning at the SBLC at the time, L&C Law student, Arlette Lozano Villegas ’25, agreed to take on the challenge of creating the video., When Tracey Nguyen ’27, fluent in Vietnamese, and Aziz Alsaid ’25, a native Arabic speaker, offered their help with the translations, the project began to take shape.
With no prior experience in animation, Arlette began this project by first going to the source: community members themselves, to talk to them about their personal experiences and to understand firsthand the pain points that this video would need to address. “Many shared what they wished they had known beforehand,” she said, “and their insights shaped the direction and the content of the video.” From there, Arlette tackled the personal challenges of learning how to storyboard, mastering animation software, and building out a storyline that would resonate with viewers: “While it was definitely challenging at times, the process was incredibly rewarding, especially seeing the final product come to life.”
Arlette herself had the opportunity to utilize her native Spanish speaking skills when it came to translating the video to ensure it could reach wider audiences, and she enlisted the help of first-year student, Tracey Nguyen, to complete the Vietnamese translation, and third-year student, Aziz Alsaid, to complete the Arabic translation. Tracey began her part of the project by using an AI translation tool to quickly structure a general idea of the Vietnamese script. From there, she made manual edits to “capture the cultural nuance and match the casual and friendly tone of the original English script”, leaning on her father’s help for accuracy. “I was a little bit nervous, because I wanted to do a good job,” Tracey detailed, “[But] I was happy to play a part! Creating this resource was a great community effort.” The video is now available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian (thanks to Lewis & Clark College Professor Maria Hristova), Ukrainian, and Dari (thanks to IRCO).
The SBLC’s aim is to provide transactional legal services to low-income small business owners and entrepreneurs and Arlette’s video is aiding in doing just that. “Unfortunately,” Arlette explained, “many individuals enter into franchise agreements without fully understanding the risks, only to find themselves losing money and unable to exit the contract once they realize the business is not as straightforward as they were led to believe.” The goal of the video is to provide potential franchise buyers with foundational knowledge, walking them through the basics of the process so that they can make informed decisions.
The animation is being distributed throughout the Law School’s channels as well as on YouTube, and will be circulated through educational workshops, legal clinics, and community-based organizations, Arlette explained. “My hope is that this animation helps future entrepreneurs – especially those from underserved communities, so that they can navigate these opportunities with greater confidence and awareness.”
