Why talk to franchise experts?

As with any business, knowledge, expertise, know-how and credibility are all part of the successful formula, and the Ashtons Franchising team has decades of it!

When considering franchising your business, it is important to engage individuals with the necessary knowledge and experience; more importantly, consultants that have first-hand experience of creating, developing and managing a successful franchise network, providing practical and effective solutions.

Working with a range of businesses from different sectors also helps with this wealth of experience and knowledge and means we can often relate to commercial advantages found in our past experience.

This fine balance of practical experience, coupled with the theoretical options is offered to anybody considering franchising their business in a professional and ethical manner.

After many years within the industry, having seen and experienced both the positive and negative benefits of successful franchising, we can show clients how this knowledge is put into practice.

When setting up a franchise opportunity, there are a number of key areas that potential franchisors must consider:

Existing or proposed business – is the existing business or business idea the model that is best suited to franchising, or, using fundamental franchise principles are we looking to modify that business model moving forward? A franchise consultant’s knowledge can add considerably to this process.

The pilot franchise – the reason that franchises have a greater degree of success over stand-alone start-up businesses is typically because of the initial foundation or pilot franchise operation; it puts theory into practice and demonstrates the capability for a business to scale up.

The franchise offering – as with any business proposition the franchise offering or franchise package should clearly define the key elements of the franchise and the deliverables. Again an experienced franchise consultant can add significantly to the original proposition, drawing on experiences from a plethora of different sectors and franchise operations.

Knowledge and expertise – often SME business owners have a wealth of knowledge and experience, but this is seldom documented sufficiently for the franchise operation. A qualified franchise expert would be able to extract and provide this information for the franchisees. This wealth of knowledge and experience can be significant, particularly if a business has operated for many years. Of course, this forms part of the intellectual property of the company.

Bringing the concept to the market – a good franchise consultant is nothing without the necessary experience to bring the franchise concept to the public domain and create interest.

Appointing franchisees – a professional franchise consultant can show their clients how to successfully select franchisees. The process itself is somewhat different to that of appointing employees, mainly because of the knowledge, expertise and intellectual property rights that you will be entrusting to the franchisee and your consultant will guide you through this important process.

Managing and developing a franchise network – a good consultant will explain the pros and cons to the business owner;franchising a business is not the panacea to all problems and issues that exist in a company, in fact, it is quite the opposite. As a franchisor, you are in effect starting another business. For both to thrive and survive it pays to lean on an experienced franchise consultant to guide you through the process both initially and on an on-going basis. This can be either finding suitable key individuals to manage and develop the franchise or often individuals within the company that have the potential to grow and develop with the franchise operation. Training these individuals is an important aspect that will need consideration Hopefully this brief introduction provides an insight into how Ashtons’ Consultants help businesses to develop their existing business or concept, because getting it right from day-one will pay dividends both in the short and long-term.