Author: Matthew Franchise Anderson

Once you have decided that opening up your own franchise is a wise decision, you will need to decide what type of franchise you wish to open. There are many different franchise opportunities available for expansion. Whilst some companies are starting out with franchising their already successful business, others have been on the franchise market for many years and have established themselves as a successful model.

Deciding what type of franchise to open largely depends on your business goals and the area in which you live or are planning to live. What type of franchise you decide to operate also depends upon your own preference. However, you will either have to operate within the confines of the community in which you live or pick up and move to an area more accommodating to the type of franchise you wish to open if the one in which you currently live is not.

If you are a gregarious person who loves to dine out with friends, perhaps opening a restaurant franchise is best for you. You can work in a fast-paced environment and operate a business that you enjoy. Once you have decided to open a restaurant franchise, you should decide if you prefer the high-energy atmosphere of a full service chain or if you prefer the quicker pace of a fast-food type eatery. This will largely depend on your personality, and you can find success in either type of chain.

Perhaps you want to find success in an atmosphere completely different than that of a restaurant. If you are interested in furniture and home decorating, for example, you may want to investigate opening up an Interior Ideas franchise. Or, if you appreciate a good haircut, you may wish to find out information about opening up your own Saks Hair and Beauty salon. It is important that you address the needs of the area in which you live. If you live in a city with ten Saks salons or Interior Ideas stores already present, you may wish to consider a different franchise or perhaps moving to a less populated location to ensure your business receives patronage.

One of the very first things that needs to be done, after committing to the idea of purchasing a franchise business, is research. There are thousands of franchise opportunities available with each offering the positive and negative aspects of doing business. Which franchise opportunity to select is the task and it is no small task at that. One way to begin is by finding a list of all the franchises available. From here you can read through each one to give you some ideas of which franchise suits you. The are many directories of franchise opportunities available on the internet and these can give the potential franchisee a decent idea of what options are available to them.

There are two main types of franchise to consider; one involves providing a service and the other involves providing a product. For the moment the subtle distinctions can be left aside. With a service based franchise you are basically offering a persons abilities to supplement an established business. These services might include secretarial services, cleaning services or other business services. If managing people is one of your better skills this may be one of the best franchise opportunities for you.

If your skills run toward the selling end of things, the best franchise opportunities for you may be product based. In this instance a product of choice needs to be established. Each product holds its own challenges so the franchisee needs to be honest about where their strengths lie.

In this respect it is a good idea for the researcher to have a fairly good idea of where their strengths and weaknesses lie. It is also a good idea for the potential franchisee to understand what makes them excited to start work each day. Not just for the short term, but for the longer term. With these two strategic elements some parameters can be set to define which franchise areas to look at when researching a franchise opportunity.

Whichever type you choose, conduct plenty of research on the demand for that company and the company’s previous performance to ensure your franchise has a good chance for success.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/looking-for-franchise-opportunities-715276.html

About the Author

Matthew Anderson is a franchise consultant and founder of The Franchise Shop, a UK business franchise directory featuring Franchise Opportunities and Franchise Information

UK Franchises

Author: Matthew Franchise Anderson

In recent years in the UK franchising has greatly increased in popularity. In the last year alone the contribution of franchised business to the economy increased by over £5 billion to 12.4 billion. There is no doubt that franchising is now a significant part of the UK economy.

A basic definition of franchising is that it is an agreement where a company sells the rights for another person or group to sell its products or services. However in reality franchising is more complex and there are a number of different types of franchise agreement.

Although every franchise agreement will differ to some extent in general franchising can be divided into five distinct categories -

Manufacturing Franchises

In this type of agreement the franchisor allows the franchisee to manufacture its products and to sell them using its brand and trademarks. This type of arrangement is particularly common in the food and beverage industry. The franchising company receives an initial fee and depending on the agreement may also receive an additional fee for every unit of the product sold.

Business Franchise Ventures

A business franchise venture is an agreement where the franchisee purchases and distributes products for the franchising company. The franchisor typically locates and provides the client base for the franchisee to manage. An example of a business franchise venture is the vending machines that can be found in many public areas and workplaces. The franchisee buys the vending machines, maintains them and takes a share of the machines takings.

Product Franchises

In this type of franchise the franchising company uses the agreement as a method for the distribution of its products. The franchisee is given the right to use the brand name of the franchisor to sell its products. In product franchises the franchisee will pay a franchise fee or may alternatively agree to purchase a minimum amount of stock to sell on.

Business Format Franchises

This is the most complex type of franchise agreement and involves a broader relationship between the franchising company and its franchisees. In this agreement the franchisee’s investment includes the purchase of the operating processes of an existing business including its brands and products. Training and support is also likely to be provided to the franchisees. A common example of business format franchising is.

Part Time Franchises

Not everyone wants to work full time and there are numerous reasons for this, perhaps you are looking for a business to supplement your existing income or perhaps if are busy with childcare or other daily duties that restrict the hours you are available for work. If this is the case then there are literally hundreds of part time franchise opportunities out there to choose from, ranging from vending machine franchise through to internet based franchises. Most part time franchises can be taken full time and it is all about how much time you want to put into the running of them. You could for instance go from working 10 hours per week up to 50 and bring it in line with the pay you would normally expect to receive from full time employment, except of course that you are your own boss!

With many UK franchises to choose from it is best to take a look at several and research each one, for this I recommend using one of the many franchise directories out there to help you narrow down your choice.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/uk-franchises-819459.html

About the Author

Matthew Anderson is a franchise consultant and founder of The Franchise Shop, a UK business franchise directory featuring UK franchises

Indeed their misgivings with regard to the investments they have made may be causing considerable alarm. Lack of action or indecision can often only worsen the situation, but the good news is that all is far from lost.

Indeed the current economic climate is likely to indicate the need to restructure their business. one way to do this is to utilise franchising as the route to market. by devoting direct and local operations and sales costs these can often reduce or even eliminate a large element of fixed costs. Even more important, by bringing in people who have a vested interest in being successful, can lead to an increase in market penetration.

Franchisees, by virtue of the fact that they invest in acquiring a territory or a fixed location are often referred to as 2nd generation entrepreneurs. With redundancies increasing daily, more and more people will be looking for new opportunities. Indeed, it is this very fact could not only hearten venture capitalists, business angels and new entrepreneurs, but also offer them an answer to their concerns about the long term future of their business. In some cases it could well be 2nd generation entrepreneurs to the rescue!

This article first appeared in The Times 21st April 2009

Some levy a management service fee that can range from 5-30% others operate solely on product mark up, some have a combination of both, some give exclusive territories and others don’t. Within their network some franchisors have more than one structure.

How the franchise is structured us crucial to the success of the proposed network. Many factors will need to be taken into consideration including company culture, management style and the aspirations of the franchisor, bearing in mind these factors are likely to change by design or otherwise.

Other questions that need to be addressed are how to maximise the appeal of the franchise, how to recruit franchisees of the right calibre and should you convert existing employees or not. Bear in mind that changes may have to be made in the existing business both in systems and human resources.

So, having read the books and attended the seminars you may be tempted to set up the franchise yourself, but unless you want to emulate your competitors’ mistakes (and you won’t discover them from a glossy brochure or exhibition stand) you should first obtain some professional help.

Your first port of call should be to a British Franchise Association accredited franchise consultant, who can offer a complete range of services from a feasibility study through to a full blown business plan. Services provided should also include operations and training manuals, reporting systems, organisational structures, writing the text for your recruitment brochure, presentations to your bankers (if raising capital) and writing a brief for the franchise lawyer.

If required, the consultant should also be capable of structuring the franchise for future expansion into European/Overseas markets. All services provided should be carried out by the consultant and not passed to intermediaries.

The franchise consultant should have a proven track record, be capable of designing and providing practical help to implement a franchise structure specifically for your business taking into account the resources you have available.

Above all, ensure that the consultants have actually run a successful franchised business in a high level capacity as theory is fine but the reality is very often different.

This article first appeared in The Sunday Times 19th April 2009

In all the daily doom and gloom about the state of the economy. One could be forgiven for worrying about what will I do if I lose my job or if my company has to shut down through a lack of business.

Well here’s the good news the world can be your oyster with a choice of careers and an opportunity to control your own destiny by seriously looking into franchising

UK Franchise Facts Source: UK February 2008 Franchise Survey by British Franchise Association & Natwest

• The franchise industry grew at 15% whereas the UK economy grew by only 3.1%
• The estimated annual turnover of the business format franchise sector is £12,4billion
• Using a strict definition of business format franchising, the number of active franchises identified was 809. This represents an increase of 3% on 2007 and demonstrates the increasing choice for potential franchisees.
• The number of franchised units is estimated at 34,200.

If you’re hardworking, want to succeed and have the confidence to go it alone but trading under an established brand in a proven business then you should be looking at taking a franchise. The types of franchises available range from a one man van service up to a master franchise for the whole of the UK and everything in between.

The cost can vary from £15,000 to £250,000 with the franchisor providing training in all aspects of the business including setup, business systems, marketing and operations to name a few.

Franchising is a partnership where both parties have a vested interest in success, while you own the business, ongoing support is there to help you.

As a franchisee you will be building up a saleable asset so that, when you sell the business, you will receive more than you originally paid, providing, of course that you have made a success of the business.

If you are thinking of investing in a franchise, look for those who are British Franchise Association (BFA) approved; take both legal and financial advice and talk to existing franchisees. In any new business venture always ensure that you have the backing of your family.

Finally if the franchisee projected earnings seem to be too good to be true then they probably are!

The information for this article was supplied by Franchise Your Business Limited

This article originally appeared in The Independent 9^th December 2008

Finding the right strategies to get through these difficult times is far from easy. The most common and immediate ones are cutting costs and consolidation. However, unless you’re on the brink of disaster, both these strategies are often knee jerk reactions searching for a quick fix, lead to shrinkage, decline and maybe demise.

Understandably, but unfortunately many boards of directors solely rely on these strategies because they are being conditioned daily to go into defence mode by bad economic news, accountants who want to justify their fees and bankers anxious not to lend. Every recession creates opportunities and just going into defensive mode creates insecurity, de-motivates staff, creates an air of gloom in the company and may lead to a lack of confidence amongst suppliers. Defensive strategies ignore the opportunities that an economic downturn can provide. So whilst your competition goes defensive the smart guys go into attack mode.

Attack mode means both improving your customer service levels and looking for ways to grow your business not shrink it. An attack strategy that focuses on both cost reduction and planning to grow will lead to greater prosperity in the long run, as this recessionary period requires a long term strategy to ensure that you come out of the downturn stronger and ahead of the game.

One attack strategy could well be Franchising – a strategy which has created many of today’s successes and well-known names.

Franchising has the virtue of devolving day-to-day responsibilities, operating costs and long-term employee liabilities to the franchisee who has a vested interest in success. Franchised outlets typically increase turnover by 10% over company outlets.

Perversely, the downturn has created a pool of quality people who are either fighting to survive in companies who are in defensive mode or who are already or soon to be unemployed.

But difficult times require senior executives to be determined not to be overwhelmed or fazed by the doom and gloom – let your competitors do that!

In these economic times an attack strategy calls for rapid action. That’s why one of the UK’s leading and longest established Franchise Consultancies has set up a Franchise task Force to help companies plan, structure and execute your switch to attack mode fast.

For more on Franchise Your Business Limited and the task force contact us on info@franchiseyourbusiness.co.uk

This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph on the 27th January 2009

Franchise Link the well known and widely respected franchise consultancy is pleased to announce the launch of their franchisee recruitment support service which has been developed over the last few months.

The recruitment of franchisees is frequently a limiting factor for many franchisors. Experience shows that in many cases recruitment success is governed by time restraints between building the network and running the existing business and in some instances lack of experience leading to poor selection.

Applicants for the clients franchise will go through a rigorous recruitment procedure that has already been proven including psychometric testing. Using our specialised recruitment software programme, the franchisor will have access to a 24/7web based tracking system to see individual franchisee reports, updates on progress, and measure advertising response.

Conforming to the BFA Code of Ethics potential franchisees who are not selected for a particular client will not be passed to other Franchisors.

However, the franchisor will be required to meet certain criteria before being able to sign up for the service. The Franchise Link  staff all have “hands on” franchise experience and in addition we have our own call centre staffed by trained personnel.

The package comprises of various modules so that clients can see the cost breakdown for the service. Competitively priced and affordable for successful companies, it allows the Franchisor to outsource all its requirements ranging from enquiry handling to acting as a Recruitment Manager saving or redirecting overhead and getting a key task off the urgent list.

Tel: 0844 9933001

Web: www.franchiselink.co.uk

Email: info@franchiselink.co.uk