Franchising Q&A

Hi Scott, I'm glad I can help you with this one as I'm can share some information right from the source. I've been involved with the foregoing company for some time now and I can give you a heads up on the business development process.

Once you become part of the franchisees, you'll need to get through an extensive training session that will guide you through all the management techniques you'll need to enquire to be able to solve any issue in times of a business crisis.

You'll work with a team of cleaners with professional experience in the field. All cleaners in your team will be fully vetted and insured.

Marketing, Customer Care and other departments of the company will help you establish and maintain your online presence.

You'll receive access to to an internal booking management software that will help you keep your teams and service appointments on schedule.

As part of the franchisees, you'll receive booked sessions ready for completion and you'll be get a minimum of bookings to guarantee your business growth and turn your company into a profitable investment.

Some personal advice.

Franchising may seem hard at first but it's also an invaluable business strategy when dark days come. You'll receive support and know how to help you deal with any business outcome. The industry sector you've chosen is popular as a market with inexhaustible capacity. This means you'll be hardly getting a low number of bookings and you'll be most likely able to grow more quickly in comparison with businesses in other industry sectors.

Last but not least, make sure to enjoy and learn from every moment of your business development. Business ownership is a remarkable journey and you should take the best from it.

every business model is unique hence they need to be considered individually

I myself bought into a franchise. In brief the pro's are:

- you are not starting completely from scratch, someone else has taken time to develop and perfect the idea and hopefully got it to a stage where the product / service is a proven success and can be rolled out

- there should be a proven and documented system and a methodology you can implement

- you aren't on your own, head office should be able to provide you with guidance and support as you need it and you get the benefit of their learnings over time and experience

- there should be some existing brand awareness so you aren't a complete unknown

The con's are:

- in addition to the upfront franchise fee, there will be ongoing royalties which are generally a percentage of turnover

- there may also be fixed costs (e.g. marketing levy) you have to pay regardless of how well the business is going

- you may lose some flexibility as you have to work within the parameters of the franchise agreement (e.g. location, hours of operation, products, uniform, suppliers).

I personally never felt completely comfortable stepping out on my own and starting something from nothing (those brave enough to do that I salute you!), and I never had that big idea I could commercialise. So a franchise was a great way to take a proven concept, make it my own and run with it. Good luck!

Lachlan @ Fifo Capital

its all about the right people the right systems (simple) and constant maintenance

Hi Ananda,

The investment in a franchise for the majors are fairly well defined. Are you planning to purchase an existing franchise? or a new location?

Greg

As Deb said it depends on the owner.
A turn-key business might be had by purchasing the franchise but there will be still a lot of work in getting up to speed with the systems.
Your own startup may work just as well by modelling what is best practice initially and then listening to and evolving your business around your particular client base.
 

Here is a list of 7 mistakes that we likely ignore while developing a FinTech application.(https://www.fortunesoftit.com/au/fintech-development-company-australia/)

• Data Cleansing

• Security Practices

• Hard and Fast Selection of a Platform

• UX Blunders

• Accessibility

• Optimization of the Onboarding Process

• Experience Matters

Hi Yee,

An interesting thought - and one entrepreneurs face a lot, in my experience. (If I had a dollar for every time I heard "Surely you just need to sell more"!)

I think the first part of your question has been covered, the difference at it's core is control and freedom.

One thing that hasn't been pointed out though is for an entrepreneur there is a big difference between running a SME to founding a business that becomes franchised. It isn't as simple as selling the model to a new person, there is a totally different emphasis needed.

Just about any venture, in its early stages, will be focussed on being different, agile and creative. That's what makes small business great, having that flexibility. As soon as the business is going out to franchise (either under a wholly franchised or company owned/franchised model) the focus of the founder has to change.

The boutique culture the business grew up with needs to be systemised and replicated. By its very nature, the individuality is lost. It is also a very different focus for the founder - one that is all about brand protection, product integrity and predictability in the market place.

For the entrepreneur it is a huge shift in mindset, from being at the cutting edge in every way, to ensuring customers always know what they are going to receive. Of course the business can still aim to be ahead of the curve, but implementing it becomes a much bigger stakeholder management task than when the business is all owned by the entrepreneur themselves.

There are plenty of examples of it happening successfully - to me the key is having a great culture and appetite for growth from the early days of the business.