64 | NICK BYRNE WORDS | Amit Katwala
THE LAST WORD On the waterfront
Waterside Properties is looking for new agents to join its international network of companies specialising in selling property on or near lakes, rivers and the sea. It is a clever niche approach and boss Nick Byrne explains why it works so well.
“
Being a specialist has been our absolute salvation,” says Nick Byrne, the director of Waterside Properties, a UK-based estate agency that sells homes on or near lakes, rivers and the sea.
“As a company, we’ve had an easier time than what I term ‘high street agents’, because we’re in a niche. All we’ve had to contend with is a tough market – we haven’t had to fi ght with a dozen other agents. And although the market has shrunk, we’re still dominating our sector of it.” Now, as the global property market looks to move into more prosperous times, Waterside Properties is looking to grow its brand through franchising, by setting up a global network of estate agents dubbed the Waterside Network. The network has three levels of membership for agents: affi liate, franchise and joint venture partner. “We developed the concept of the network on a three-tier basis. The thinking behind it is if we’ve got an
agent on the Cote d’Azur with an established business, they may not want to give it up. For £250 a month (plus VAT) we can provide them with a platform for their waterside homes where they can actually upload to our website themselves. There is no limit to the number of properties that can be uploaded, and the agent remains in total control – any enquiries go straight through and they don’t have to share the commission.”
“One of our hopes is that our affi liate members will start, very quickly, to see the benefi ts of the platform that we can offer them, and in some cases we’ve got guys as affi liates wanting to become a full franchise member.” This entitles the offi ce to trade
as Waterside Properties, using the company branding and logo, and become part of the network with online access to a shared database. The franchise fee is £9,600 for four years, 6% of turnover, with a minimum monthly fee of £500 (all
plus VAT). Byrne is keen to stress that the opportunity works both ways, and is designed to be an equal partnership. “The opportunity exists between our branches to refer applicants in both directions, as well as property. So if a guy walks into this branch asking for properties in the Cote d’Azur, we can refer that over to someone there, with a 70% to 30% commission split, so the referring agent
“All we’ve had to contend with is a tough market - we haven’t had to fi ght with other agents”
nets 30% of the commission.” The third option is to join as a joint venture partner – which Byrne says is for “really prime locations where we see a very good opportunity in terms of volume of business”. “You haven’t just got our name and the logo, there are a lot of other benefi ts too. For example, we produce
Nick Byrne heads up Waterside Properties which is setting up a franchised network of agents .
www.watersidenetwork.com
a monthly magazine that goes out to 10,000 of our clients, and in shops, bars and restaurants in waterside areas. There’s no way a single agent would be able to do that, and as we grow we can afford to do more of this.”
Byrne is also proud of the company’s website, and the strong incentive that it offers to potential network members. “About 80% of our enquiries originate from our website, and we’re working with an SEO expert called David Main, who is one of only 50 people in the world invited to Google’s head offi ce each year. David has helped us hugely with our SEO work, and he doesn’t work for anyone else in property. We’ve had him on board for about 7 months, and we’ve slightly more than doubled our monthly hit rates, and we’re going up the Google rankings, not just for ‘waterside property’, but also for ‘Turkey property’ and ‘Cote d’Azur property’. He’s been a very good fi nd for us.
Safe havens | overseas often inlcude easy access to good sailing facilities and an attractive marina says Waterside boss Byrne
“There are a number of reasons we’ve chosen the franchise route. We identifi ed key areas in the UK and abroad where we wanted a presence, but it costs a lot of money, and if we were to put a manager into the Antigua branch, for example, they’re never really going to work as hard or with as much purpose as they would if it was their own business. “We’ve been around for 22 years, and we’ve grown to 7 offi ces and if we keep up that rate of growth then maybe in 10 years we’ll have 14 offi ces. Now that’s fi ne, but we recognise that our branding is very transportable to other
www.opp.org.uk |MARCH 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68