 |
 |
RETIREMENT & LIFESTYLE PLANNING | |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| ISSUE - 21 - Summer 2005/2006 | |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Steps to franchising your great idea
Franchising is a great way of growing a business because it attracts capital for expansion from quality people. Franchisees have a personal stake in the success of the franchise network they join, so are more highly-motivated than salaried staff.
Ideally, if you're thinking of franchising it's because you are already operating a successful store or service. That is, you have effectively run a pilot and so are expanding a proven business. However, it's also true that some businesses have operated as franchises from the very beginning and done very well.
The first steps to establishing a franchise network are to ensure that:
• your business idea is suitable for franchising, and
• you are suited to being a franchisor.Each of these is worthy of an article in its own right and you can also find plenty of advice about them on the internet, through the Franchise Council of Australia or by contacting a specialist franchise consultant. For the purposes of this article we are going to assume that you have decided franchising is the right path for you and your business, and want to know the next steps to take to build your franchise system. The following will set you on the right path.
1. Develop and document a business plan and expansion strategy. These should cover such things as what markets you want to target and in what order (e.g. your local area, the whole state, interstate, overseas), how fast you want to grow (this year, in the next five years, in the long term), how your territories will be defined (according to postcode or other geographic definition, by numbers of population etc.).
2. Do your figures. Ideally this will involve coming up with financial projections over at least three years. Besides confirming the economic feasibility of your franchise, it will help you establish the right level of franchise fees, royalties, advertising levies and any other charges on franchisees.
3. Take a magnifying glass to your existing business . You want to eliminate any weaknesses before you embark on franchising and at the same time you can identify and start to implement any adjustments that may be needed for the system to cope with your projected growth.
4. The above process will help you with another crucial step, which is to create a detailed operations manual . Often known as ‘the franchisees' Bible', this sets out every detail of your business system and is generally considered to be the key to success in franchising, where consistency and uniformity are a must.
5. Develop your supporting systems. These include your strategies for recruiting quality franchisees (at least equal in priority with a good operations manual), your training programs (a ‘must have' item on franchisees' shopping lists) and your marketing programs (for both selling your franchises and selling your product/service).
6. Get the legal documentation in place . At the very least you need to register your trademarks and other intellectual property and develop a franchise agreement and disclosure document that conform with the Franchising Code of Conduct , the legislation that regulates franchising in Australia.
Once you've completed all these steps, you're ready to start recruiting franchisees – but that's a topic for another article!
Eric Morgen is a director of Franchise Developments Management Consulting.
Ph (03) 9867 7666
Web www.franchisedevelopments.com.au
More
Tasmania-based Leon Cupit is one new franchisor who can confirm the benefits of following the rights steps when establishing a franchise. A successful domestic builder, Leon says “My body was beginning to complain after all those years of labour on building sites. I didn't want to retrain, but it so happened that I'd done a few pre-sale property inspections for friends of mine who were buying homes, and I decided to branch out in that direction”.
Leon was so successful as a sole operator that he decided to franchise the concept, and has just launched his system, Independent Property Inspections, across Tasmania and Victoria, with other states to follow. “I took me about two years, but it has been well worthwhile getting everything right,” Leon says. “Since we launched our marketing campaign we've been getting about two enquiries a day – it's really exciting.”
|
|
|
Your Life, Your Retirement. PO Box 1150N Armadale North Victoria 3143 Australia
Phone: 613 9824 6901 - Fax: 613 9824 6362
Email: publisher@yourlifechoices.com.auIS PUBLISHED BY
Copyright Retirement Publishing Pty Ltd 2001 -- ISSN 1031-6620 ACN 088 049 218
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No parts of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the permission in writing from the publishers, with the exception of short extracts for review purposes.
PUBLISHERS NOTE While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information given in the publication, the publishers do not, in any way accept liability for inaccuracies or for loss of any kind, whether caused through editorial matter or in the form of claims made in advertisements.
Your Retirement is published by Retirement Publishing Pty. Ltd.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER No person should rely on contents of this publication or website without first obtaining advice from a qualified professional person. This publication is sold on the terms and understanding that (1) the publisher, authors, consultants and editors are not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this publication, nor for any omission from this publication; and (2) the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal accounting, professional or other advice or services. The publisher and the authors, consultants and editors expressly disclaim all and any liability and responsibility to any person, whether a purchaser or reader of this publication or not, in respect of anything, and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether wholly or partially, upon the whole of any part of the contents of this publication. Without limiting the generality of the above no publisher, author, consultant or editor shall have any responsibility for any act or omission of any author, consultant or editor.
Financial
Security
