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
