The fast, low cost way to expand your business

When people start looking into franchising, they are generally surprised at the range of sectors that franchising covers, which size and type of company are franchised and the size of the franchising market in the UK – about half a million people work for franchised companies in the UK which account for about £15bn in sales!

But why do companies choose to franchise and what are the benefits?

1. Let’s start with funding – effectively, when you franchise your business, your franchisees are funding your expansion. They pay you to operate under license and introduce the capital required to open a trading unit.

2. Next, the speed of growth that can be achieved is beyond more conventional methods of expansion. Imagine the capital and organisation required to open multiple sites, versus the minimal resources required to support franchisees to do it.

3. Ever tried to motivate employed managers? Franchisees have real skin in the game and are naturally motivated to succeed on your behalf.

4. Almost a bi-product of franchising your business is that you de-risk it. If you wholly own a chain of businesses, when times are bad, you carry the full impact of losses that occur. As a franchised network, you’re exposure to losses is deleveraged because franchise fees tend to be based on unit turnover rather than profits.

5. An often overlooked benefit of franchising your business is that most franchised networks have a marketing levy – in effect, your franchisees are paying your brand development and lead generation marketing costs for you.

6. I’ll end with the customer win / win. Your customers are getting all of the benefits of dealing with a big business, but it is delivered by someone with local knowledge and interest.

Franchising is the proven, low cost route to rapidly expanding your business and increasing profits and enterprise value. To find out more, go to www.thefranchisingcentre.com.