Choosing your consultant

What can a consultant do for you?

Mr Tony Fitzpatrick is Managing Partner in Emerson French Consulting, who provide a complete consultancy service for both start-up and established franchisors. The firm has offices in Dublin and London. With many years' experience in the industry, Mr Fitzpatrick can take a client through the entire process of franchising, advising on everything from agreements to fees and royalties, operations manuals, lead generation, marketing and PR. He serves on the Membership Committee of the Irish Franchise Association (IFA) and speaks at seminars for potential franchisors. He is also a regular contributor to franchising features in newspapers and magazines. He is a former Business Development Manager for RE/MAX, the world's largest franchised estate agency, and currently advises franchisors in Ireland, the UK and the USA on the expansion of their business across Europe. One of his clients, the US-based Handyman Matters, was shortlisted in the "Best Emerging Franchise" category at last year's IFA awards ceremony, while the company's Master Franchisee in Ireland was also shortlisted for the "Franchise Person of the Year" award.

Case study 1

Client: A North American estate agency seeking to expand its franchise operations in Britain and Ireland. The company had a successful 25-year operating history and had already established a foothold in the European market. However, the name was largely unfamiliar in their new target area.

• We researched the market, prepared a business plan, recommended organisational, staffing, and internal controls, and advised on initial launch and roll-out strategies.
• We divided the regions into manageable territories, using one territory as a "model", and set about selling the first regional master franchise.
• Once this master franchise was sold, we began cold calling existing estate agents in the area, arranging face-to-face meetings to explain the advantages of "converting" to this franchise.
• We used advertising and PR campaigns to attract business people from outside the industry who might see an estate agency franchise as an ideal investment opportunity.
• We then interviewed, hired and trained a five-man sales team to assist in the follow up sales drive.
• Presentations to prospective franchisees were made on a one-to-one basis at the company's HQ or in group sessions at hotels in provincial centres.

Result: more than 20 franchises were sold in the first year.

Case study 2

Client: A group of European investors seeking a master franchise for Portugal. Acting on their instructions, we approached a Latin American company with more than 100 stores selling organic natural health products.

Having built their business over 13 years, and gaining a coveted "Franchise of the Year" award in 2004 in their home country, the company had never imagined its concept would work internationally. We discussed the possibilities, and offered our advice as to how they could work with our clients to structure such expansion in Europe.

While our clients' original intention was to bring the business solely to Portugal, where they already had substantial business interests, we explained that there was an even greater opportunity on the table. We suggested they seriously consider taking a master franchise for the whole of Europe, and not just for Portugal, since we had secured the Franchisor's acceptance of this proposal during our negotiations and we also knew our clients had the financial capability to handle such a large project.

Our advice was to use Portugal as a model, open one or two stores there in prominent locations, and then offer master franchises on a country basis throughout Europe on the back their success. Naturally, this meant our clients taking their ambitions to a different level with careful consideration being given to the additional costs involved.

Result: They realised that becoming the master franchisor for the whole of Europe offered enormous potential - an agreement between the parties was subsequently entered into. We continue to advise our clients on the development of this project.

Additional information on choosing the right consultant

Franchising is now an established way of expanding a business with an excellent track record that is supported by the banks and professions.

It can offer a significant number of advantages when considering ways of expanding an existing business, not least of which is the reduction in capital required as franchisees invest into their own businesses.

Companies that do go down the franchise route can also continue opening company owned outlets, if they wish to do so. However, franchising is not a quick and easy route to expansion and needs to be carefully thought through and planned in order to maximise the chance of success.

Working with an experienced franchise consultant can assist in this area and help you to avoid potentially very expensive mistakes.

Details of franchise consultants affiliated to The British Franchise Association can be accessed via the BFA website: www.british-franchise.org. All of the BFA consultants are committed to developing franchise systems that conform to the BFA code of conduct and encompass the best practice procedures that have been developed by the BFA since the 1980s.

Here are a few basic guidelines that will help you decide if potentially your business could be expanded by franchising.

• The business model should be tried and tested
• The market place should be stable or growing
• The business model needs to have systems developed so that it can be replicated in other areas
• Financially, the proposed franchise business needs to be capable of generating sufficient profit to satisfy both the company as franchisor and the franchisees
• The franchisor/franchisee relationship is unique and the business principals need to feel comfortable working with others who are partners of a sort operating within the franchise network