FRANCHISING
Putting a number on the savings is tricky
– but Mark Harrison, Franchise Director for the south of England at Xperience, says the economies of scale gained on “everything from portals to hire cars to photocopiers” can save his franchisees £10-12,000 a year.
QUESTIONS AND CHOICES Creating successful franchises begins with the selection process; franchisors need to ensure that their franchisees are adequately prepared for starting up. It can take some time; at Belvoir, Dorian Gonsalves says, “from the point of meeting someone for the first time to their opening an office, it’s a five or six month process”. At Winkworth, out of three or four “good
quality conversations” only one or two will end up as a franchise. And Kevin Hollinrake, MD of Hunters, says “We are very selective in terms of who we choose to be a franchisee, though you don’t always get it right.” Potential franchisees need to do their
own research. Neil Morris says “I spent nine months investigating franchises before shortlisting two.” He was particularly impressed that Your
Move allowed him to visit both franchised and corporate branches, and to select those he wanted to see. He warns that applicants need to ask the right questions and ensure the offices they see are typical. “It costs about £100,000 to start up, and
that’s a lot of cash to invest before you find out that they’ve showed you their star branch and the others aren’t making
anything like that amount of money.” Getting the right location is also
essential. Andrew Cranshaw says starting with a name that’s completely unknown in the area is unhelpful, but there also needs to be enough space around the franchise to grow in future. He’s happy with his location in Ashton under Lyme; “While there are more than twenty Reeds Rains branches around Manchester, so the name is known, there are very few in this particular area of the city,” so he hopes to be able to add further branches as his business matures. Franchisees often harbour greater ambitions than running a single franchise and some franchisors – though not all – support multi-branch franchise opportunities. Paul Rogers, for instance, has opened a third Reeds Rains office and he is also interested in the opportunity to expand with Reeds Rains’ higher end brand, ‘Cream’. Meanwhile Andy Campbell says he has taken over the business of three sole traders in the local area. “There’s no doubt in my mind that they went down the wrong route going it alone”.
‘The fi rst months can be a bit of an eye-opener. Self belief is incredibly
important when you are self-employed.’ KEVIN HOLLINRAKE HUNTERS
Xperience won Best Franchisor in 2010.
TRAINING AND NETWORKING Training is vital to give franchisees the best chance of success. Belvoir has a three week induction course, including practical work and classroom training in lettings subjects and business management. At Xperience, business management is included - “managing cashflow, setting something aside for the taxman, being properly funded, all things they need to think about,” says Mark Harrison. Winkworth runs its own Academy
which provides training at the start of the franchise and ongoing. Edward Foley says with long agency experience he didn’t need much training, but it is excellent for his staff. “We’ve mainly taken on people with no experience, because we can train them our way,” he explains. “If we were starting up as independents, we couldn’t possibly do as much training as we currently offer.” He believes this gives Winkworth franchises a particular advantage in attracting graduate applicants, who value the training offer. Another issue for many is that it’s the
first time they have run their own business. Kevin Hollinrake says “It can take a while for people to adjust; the first few months can be a bit of an eye-opener.” But he believes that a good franchisor can support new franchisees through this stage. “Self belief is incredibly important when you’re self-employed,” he says, so Hunters provides coaching, not just training, for its franchisees. “We work on a process level but we also work on a personality level.” Isolation can be a difficulty for
franchisees used to working within a corporate environment. For the first time, they don’t have colleagues to talk to or
24 SEPTEMBER 2011 PROPERTYdrum
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