A day in the life of a Franchise Banker

As Director of Franchise at NatWest, my routine varies day to day, depending on what I have scheduled and who I’m meeting.

Firstly I should point out that I am a morning person, so my day usually begins quite early depending on the day in question.

When I’m working from the London office it usually means a day of meetings so I tend to wake at 5am, catch a train at 6 and at my desk by 7 – trains permitting of course.

However most days are made up of travelling around the south of England meeting franchisors or other franchise professionals.

Again, these days begin with an early start and can be hugely varied. The type of franchisors I meet can be established or fairly new, and represent a host of different sectors; from food and beverage, retail and personal services to vehicle, transport and commercial services.

Having been in the sector for 17 years, I’ve been lucky to have built up a number of close contacts. When we’ve caught up on life and family, we get into the serious stuff. I like to talk about any changes to the structure of the franchise, challenges they may be facing for the business in general, such as the impact of the living wage or economic conditions and how their franchisees are performing.

Of particular interest will be franchisees that are doing well and what plans they may have for expanding their business, such as taking on new stores or territories and what support they may need. On occasion there may be a franchisee that needs a little more support and the franchisor and I will discuss how we can do that together. It may be a short term issue, such as the effects of the recent flooding or ill health, where the business may not be able to trade as usual and we can discuss additional support dependent on the circumstances.

After the meeting I’ll catch up with our local franchise managers to make sure they speak to their franchisees about any of the issues that need assessing. I am also responsible for keeping up to date an internal brief on the franchise and so this will be updated during my admin days at a local office.

I also meet regularly with new franchises that are just setting up or launching their concept. This meeting will be more about gathering information on the business, such as its background and why they have decided to franchise. I’ll also be looking to, pick up a copy of their prospectus, franchise agreement and of course their financial information.

I will also want to understand which consultant they have used, their lawyer and their plans on joining the British Franchise Association (BFA) – if they have not done so already. These meetings are really about trying to understand their business, their particular business ethos and finding ways in which I can help.

Typically, banks lend up to 70% for an established business and nearer to 50% for a newer one dependent on the model and the plan.

My day tends to end with tackling the wonderful roads across the south of England before arriving back home for family time, which will normally involves some form of activity for my two girls or badminton for me, which I play a couple of times a week.