Women and franchising
Cathryn Hayes - HSBC Head of Franchising
With four out of ten franchisees now being women, we look at the important role women have to play in the UK franchise market.
The latest research from the British Franchise Association indicates that four out of every ten franchised businesses are now owned by women. Compare this to just 21 per cent in 2003, it demonstrates the increasing importance of women in the UK franchise market.
In the South East, a number of franchisors, franchisees and franchise advisors, including HSBC, have come together to create the Encouraging Women into Franchising Group (EWIF). The mandate of the group is to inspire, educate, encourage and support women looking to become franchisees, women business owners looking to franchise their business or businesses and existing franchisors that are under represented by women franchisees. If you feel this is something that would benefit your franchise and are interested in finding out more, visit the website.
The franchise industry is aware of the potential of women as prospective franchise owners and tapping into this market can help overcome one of the biggest barriers to growing a successful franchise network – the recruitment of franchisees with the required qualities and skills.
Sophie Brooks, operational director at Clive’s Easylearn, knows this all too well: “Women have been invaluable in growing our network. We now have 28 franchisees, running 84 schools across the UK, nearly half of which are women. We have found that women have all of the qualities we are looking for in our franchisees and have been very successful in growing their businesses.”
So that’s the franchisor perspective, what about the franchisee?
Amanda O’Rourke runs a Molly Maid franchise in Horsham, West Sussex. After working in a corporate environment for many years, O’Rourke decided that she wanted to work for herself and launched her business in November 2007. She comments: “I chose a franchise in a rapidly growing industry, in an area where I knew there to be a huge demand for good quality domestic services. I wanted not only to meet that demand, but also to have a business to be proud of.” Now she certainly does have a business to be proud of. Since launch she has grown the business to have four teams on the road and as a result of her hard work, she was awarded the Top Sales Growth Award at this year’s Molly Maid convention.
Many women who have been running a home and raising a family have many of the attributes needed to run a business successfully – they are decisive, energetic, well organised and are used to doing at least three things at once. Plus, being their own boss means that many women can achieve the work-life-balance they have been striving for. However, many lack the confidence to set up on their own. This is where the benefits of franchising come to the fore – a good franchise eliminates this problem by providing training, a tried-and-tested format and ongoing support.
As the figures show, this is something more and more women are considering.
Posting from the monthly HSBC Connections newsletter. For more information or to get on the mailing list for the newsletter please email franchiseunit@hsbc.com
Tags: cathryn hayes, encouraging women into franchising, franchises for women, Women in franchising, Women into Franchising Group
Franchisors, Cars and Football Stars
Dan Archer - Franchise Development Director, X-Press Legal Services - Director, BFA
We are now 2 weeks into the new premiership season and if the pundits are to be believed we have already seen contenders for the goal of the season, watched the game of the season and the Premier League is the best league in the world. Whilst the use of clichés by football pundits is probably nothing more than an indication that although talented with a ball at their feet many of them spent little time with a book in their hands, there is a darker trend to all this hyperbolic nonsense.
If Jamie Redknapp genuinely believed that watching Arsenal vs Liverpool (which was barely an average game of football) warranted the use of the phrase “that’s what makes the Premier League the best in the world” then I pity him because he is as deluded as a pundit as he was ill-advised to take the Thomas Cook advert gig.
You see we have not yet seen the goal of the season, nor the game of the season and if the Premier League is superior in any way at all in comparison to other national leagues it is in the amount of hype with which it is festooned. Fostering the myth that it is otherwise may help Sky Sports to sell subscriptions and enable Premier League clubs to justify horrendous entry prices but it also creates a very real problem.
The promise of the hyperboly is not delivered by the national team in World and European tournaments. The supposed superiority of our league sides has also not led to dominance on the European club stage which is anything more than our fair share. The expectation though has been raised to a point where some fans genuinely believe that we are the best in the world. The problem then comes when we do not triumph and we all experience that sickening, gut wrenching, heart-stopping disappointment of an early exit at the hands of technically better players.
In the motor industry too this gap between the expectation built by a brand and the experience delivered by that brand is something that you ignore at your peril. Many thousands of words across dozens of dissertations must have been written about Skoda’s death and subsequent rebirth. I would prefer to focus on the less told story of the negative impact of the early iterations of the second generation Mercedes C Class.
It could be argued that the average Skoda purchaser didn’t have huge expectations from the brand, even before Jasper Carrot set about destroying them. Mercedes buyers however, are always brand loyal and come to the party with an expectation of true excellence that only comes from years of positive brand reinforcement. Imagine if you can then the brand disappointment which those loyal followers faced then when they first met the W203 model in the year 2000. Build quality questions, wallowing suspension and rattling dashboards are not what Mercedes buyers expected and as a result they were disappointed. Mercedes of course stopped the rot and the brand started much higher so the damage was not fatal, there are some however who would still argue that it is not what it was.
In franchising the dangers of over promising and under delivering are not just ones of brand disappointment, they are an area where the franchisor that over promises can find themselves in court at the hands of a misrepresentation case. Franchisors should be passionate about their business and should address a prospective franchisee’s caution in entering self employment by encouraging enthusiasm in the prospect. If however they go too far and gild the lily, overstating franchisee performance, promising support which is never delivered they risk a disappointed franchisee with a real grounds for claiming that this was not the car or Premier League match that they were sold.
Beyond actual misrepresentation the franchise industry has also been infected by the demon hyperbole. I have never really understood the desire of some franchisors to declare themselves the fastest growing franchisor or state proudly that they have added 50 new franchisees this year. If I was considering organisations such as this I would want to know whether it was sustainable and if they have grown so quickly how they plan to support all of those new franchisees.
I have always preferred to err on the side of caution and paint the darkest picture possible for a prospective franchisee. I believe that if they are still interested after I have placed these hurdles in their way, they may go some way towards having the right stuff.
So where does that leave us, well Monday the 23rd August saw the much promoted launch of Sky Sports News HD which we are told, was just what we were waiting for and which, we are led to believe will revolutionise the provision of completely unnecessary sports related trivia and conjecture. I don’t think the football world will change anytime soon and could suggest for devilment that HD actually stands for Hyped to Death but franchisors should take note and temper their enthusiasm if they want to avoid being sick as a parrot in the game of two halves that is the franchise industry.
Franchised Property Lettings wrapped in the Web
Steve Roulstone - Director, Castle Estates
The future is on line
One of the most important principles that any Letting Agency has to understand in today’s cyber community, is not only the importance of the Web but how to control and appear in the web to all potential customers. With Google controlling 95% of all search engine activity, to be listed on the front page under any generic term, has to be the goal of every National Property Management Company.
Who does not look on the Web?
Every agent should be aware of where their customer base comes from. I was aware years ago, that the number of Tenants moving in to properties that I managed through my Agency, was growing month on month. Now nationally, the figure is around 90% and makes the cost of advertising in the local paper prohibitive and probably explains why most of the press where the income from property advertising is significant, are creating their own web site! Both Tenants and Landlords are looking for their information and sourcing the solution they require through the web and Google have captured the market!
Franchise Online
As a National Franchise Agency we are very aware that all Property Lettings Franchise Companies look to market themselves in the same way and therefore we all have training available for our Franchisees so they make the best out of what, if you get it right, is a free service. Get your Company in the right position on the web and visible in searches relating to your business in your area and your target customers will find you!
Delivering the message
But this is not as simple as some may think or suggest it is. It takes dedication and understanding of how to achieve your aim and we are all aware that there is a plethora of Companies telling us they can train us how to appear at the top of the listings and I would recommend all Companies employ a franchise internet marketing professional to instruct them in the correct methods. If you are going to ensure you are well versed in the art (and it is an art!) of positioning then choose carefully, but there is no doubt, we all need to gain web presence!
