To ask if you own a franchise?

[Workyticket]

I'm working on an escape plan from my current profession. I've been a teacher for 22 years and I'm slowly falling out of love with it

I'm wondering about franchises (not in anything educational - I want out out!)

Are you a franchisee? Do you make any money?

No, but I've researched them and any franchise worth it's salt will require you to either have a retail/hospitality management background or be prepared to hire someone who does. And not only will you need to afford the franchise fee, you will also be expected to have a LOT of liquid assets which will be held in escrow as collateral.

I think there are better ways to start a business.
I work with a lot of successful businesses and only 1 is a franchise

It really depends on the franchise. There are plenty of good ones out there, but they usually cost a lot of money, I'm thinking McDonalds, Mailboxes Inc., etc where you get a lot of support, training, brilliant marketing/brand awareness etc for your significant investment (hundreds of K usually for the best franchises).

There are also plenty of "cheap" ones that are pretty useless really. You just get a lot of generic information about starting a business, links to websites, etc., most of which you could find yourself from googling. Then you get "marketing" which is basically do it yourself, as they don't do national marketing themselves and brand awareness is minimal. As for training, they'll point you in the direction of training providers but you have to organise and pay yourself (again, anyone could find the relevant training providers as they're not exclusive to the franchise). In this category, I'm thinking of the likes of "Lawns 4 U" (made up name) that no one has heard of and it's up to you to market it in your area.

Then, of course, plenty in the middle.

You just have to do your own due-diligence, check out exactly what you get for your money, check the upfront investment costs (and what it covers), also check out outgoing obligations, i.e. do you have to pay them monthly fees, if so are they fixed or variable according to your income (like a commission), do you have to buy products only directly from them, and if so, is the pricing competitive or realistic or are they ripping you off by selling you, say, lawn feed at £50k per kilo when you can buy similar in Homebase for a tenner!

Now COVID is out the way it may be worth your while to go to a franchise exhibition. The International Franchise Show is coming up, The Business Show this week. Good opportunity to speak to franchisors and get information . While some have suggested starting up alone, the franchise route does provide you with training and support. Plenty of established franchises out there, i've been interested in maybe a coffee van or oven cleaning business myself.

Yes I do, in the health and fitness industry. Are you in the UK? I love it and was also a teacher. If you want to DM me I can tell you about my experience.

I had one. It was awful.
They try to push you for more and more turnover rather than a level which suits you.
They try to control you and basically treat you as an employee with none of the perks of being an employee such as holidays.

Oh and the continual rebranding which you have to finance.

You really aren't working for yourself and you aren't autonomous. Never again.

This really really depends on the franchise and the brand strength and the really good ones cost ££££££.

We do, we are very happy with it. It's a business that required a fairly particular type of person to do it, and DH met that. Could we have done it without a franchise behind us? Yes, but it would have been far riskier, and we wouldn't have had all the genuine brand and back room support as well as national clients in our area.

There are lots of us across the country and all are doing well from what I can see, depending on the territory some are massive businesses, some, like us, are smaller. We have 4 members of staff including DH and I (I do the office stuff) and it is growing and affording us a nice life style.

The 'parent' organisation is supportive and friendly and seems very committed to remaining so. When we were starting up we could call a technical person to come and help us with particular jobs and we would just pay their expenses, they help with training.

So it has been worth it for us, but it was an area DH had wanted to enter for a while, and we had the funds to do it well.

I can speak as a franchisor that has been involved in franchising for several years including a domestic cleaning franchise (called One Less Thing).

There are certainly good and "less good" franchise opportunities, and not all franchises will be right for everyone. It's about looking for something that suits your investment level, skills, interests and - crucially - what you'd like to spend your time doing every day.

When people think of franchises they often think of McDonalds, but there are some excellent franchisees which can be started with a much lower investment and can provide great returns, and can also be run from home.

I love small business, and so franchising is appealing because I get to help people start and run a small business.

I find there's no greater feeling than seeing a franchisee take the system that we have created, then add their drive and commitment and make it thrive. It can be truly lifechanging for the franchisee - financially but also in terms of their quality of life too.

There are rules that you need to stick to, of course. These are not just to protect the franchisor, but also each franchisee and the franchise network as a whole. For example they can prevent rogue franchisees from damaging the brand or deviating too far from the proven system.

Any legitimate franchise will have a large legal franchise agreement which you need to sign - but this is there to protect both parties and make clear who's responsible for what. The British Franchise Association has ethical guidelines for franchising and the franchise agreement should meet these to make sure it's fair.

I sometime hear people question why it's necessary to pay for a franchise when you could do it yourself 'for free'. For a well-run franchise there is no comparison as the benefit of the training, brand, support and economies of scale that can come with a good franchise should easily outweigh the cost. Some of these elements will be calculations that you can do (i.e. it would cost me more to do this if I did it myself) and others are softer and only become apparent when running the business; like having a support network of the franchisor and other franchisees, and continual developing and improvements to the business.

In my experience, the most successful franchisees are ones that focus on what they can add to the brand, system and resources that the franchise provides. Combining a great brand and proven system with your own determination, skills and drive can be a very powerful combination.

I hope this helps. And good luck with whatever you decide to do.

It really depends on the quality of the operation, their market reach, contacts and the price to enter. Some are set up just to milk franchise fees with very little actual benefit doing it this way, others are very strong set ups.

Yes I was a teacher and bought into a franchise a few years ago. I run science workshops, parties and alternative provision. It's UK based and head office is so helpful. A lot of it I didn't really need (lesson plans etc) but the website, promo videos, existing reviews, photos of previous events etc were things it would have taken me a lot of time and money to build up myself. Plus all the legal bits. We get lots of things cheaper through head office too like kit, insurance, booking system etc because the cost is split between all the branches. Could I have done it on my own? Possibly. But I wasn't in a position to start slowly and the franchise enabled me to build back up to my teaching salary within a few months. Some branches have taken on staff and got much bigger but that's not really for me. The company I went with has pre-approval through a few banks for loans too so I just paid the start up fee over a few years instead of up front. There aren't a very big company but not one of the tiny ones either.

Own 1 franchise - super successful, low/medium support but the company name/ national presence helped. Majority of the success came from bloomin hard work, pay 5 figures in franchise fees off my work a year 😩. 2nd company opened as a franchise, found out I could purchase goods cheaper outside the franchise and have created a successful business again off hard work, I now pay no franchise fees and am able to reward my staff instead. Would I ever franchise again… possibly .. bout would need to be a national name whose gains put weighed the fees paid