A fresh start with a Cleaning Franchise Business?
Nick Strong, MD - Select Your Franchise
When you think cleaning, its easy to think of the less pleasant jobs such as cleaning the bathroom, washing the kitchen floor, etc. What many people might not realise, is that running a cleaning business doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be getting your hands dirty!
Combined with an effective franchise business model, a cleaning franchise could open your eyes to new possibilities. Here are some popular options:-
Cleaning Management Franchise
A cleaning management franchise relies on recruiting cleaners to carry out the cleaning work itself, while you manage the customers and assign the cleaners their work for each day. The cleaning industry in the UK is estimated to be worth over £10bn so there is a huge market out there. Running a cleaning management franchise could be your way to tap into some of that market.
Disaster Recovery Franchise
This type of franchise involves cleaning up damaged property after a flood or fire. Typically these are management type franchises where you manage available resources to carry out the required work to make the property servicable again.
Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Franchise
These are often a more ‘hands on’ business franchise. These type of cleaning franchises are usually performed with the aid of a cleaning machine or equipment.
You can also find other types of cleaning franchise business including oven cleaning, car valeting, etc. The main advantage of choosing a franchise business is that you will be running a business based on a proven system. If you have the motivation to work hard and succeed then a good franchise system should work well for you and achieve good results.
Whatever franchise appeals to you, make sure you research it thoroughly. Additionally, its wise to seek legal and financial advice to make sure you make good, informed decisions when starting up your franchise business.
Get on the road with a Van Based Franchise Business
Joel Caws - Technical Director, Select Your Franchise
While many people may be happy to carry out their work sat behind a desk, there is a certain freedom to the thought of getting out and about and meeting customers face-to-face. Van based franchise businesses can give you just such a freedom, although like any job you are still likely to have some paperwork to do which means you might not be completely free of the desk!
A Van based franchise can provide alot of variety, and might include:-
Getting out and about
Some people just enjoy driving about and so a van franchise can work very well. Having a little time to yourself where you drive from one customer to another can be relaxing as long as you can cope well with traffic when you encounter it!
Customer interaction
A van based franchise will usually feature delivery of products of services directly to a customers home or business premises. This can be great if you enjoy meeting new people and being able to talk face-to-face.
Work from Home
Many van based franchises allow you to work from your own home. Your interaction with customers is generally at their own premises or via the telephone which means you mat not need a dedicated office and may find working from a spare room in your house to be quite adequate.
Manage your own time
Having a van and getting out to visit customers means you will probably have to manage your own schedule. This may be a challenge aswell as a benefit. Your time might be flexible but remember that you will need to work hard if you want your business to be a success.
If you have been thinking about starting up your own business, you enjoy meeting new people, you like the sound of operating out of a vehicle and the idea of a home based business opportunity appeals to you, then a van based franchise might well be the type of franchise you have been looking for.
Tags: franchise opportunities, home based business, joel caws, van franchises, work from home, work from home franchise
Franchise View: Government plans for more effective flexible working
Carl Reader, Dennis & Turnbull Ltd
The Government has announced proposals intended to make flexible working that much more effective. This will have an impact on franchisors and franchisees alike where they employ staff for the running of their franchise businesses.
Part of the plans include a significant overhaul of the rules governing shared parental leave.
But the proposals also look to extend to right to ask for flexible working to all workers, provided they have been with an employer for a minimum of 26 weeks.
Currently, the right is restricted to those employees with children aged 17 or under.
The Government is to examine the advantages of publishing a statutory Code of Practice for businesses and will propose that employers should be allowed to take into account employees individual circumstances when considering conflicting requests.
There are no plans to alter the current eight business reasons for a business to turn down a request for flexible working.
On equal pay, employment tribunals that have found an employer to have discriminated on gender in relation to pay will be obliged to order the employer to conduct a pay audit and publish their results.
Amendments to the Working Time Regulations will see changes that allow annual leave entitlements to be rescheduled, and carried over to the next leave year, when a worker falls ill during planned annual leave. This will be limited to the four weeks of Working Time Directive leave.
The Government likewise plans to amend the WTR to allow the carry-over of annual leave due to maternity, paternity, parental or adoption leave. This will include the full 5.6 weeks of leave entitlement per year.
The changes, which are going out to consultation, are also investigating the possibilities of giving businesses greater flexibility around annual leave, enabling them, for example, to buy out untaken leave and to carry over leave on justifiable business grounds (this would only apply to the 1.6 weeks of domestic statutory leave).
David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, expressed disappointment at the measures.
He said: “The proposal to extend the right to request flexible working would replace current regulations with a code of practice, but we question whether this will make any real difference. In fact, it could just cause more confusion.
“Introducing automatic equal pay audits will not deliver real progress on equal pay. A bureaucratic and one-size-fits-all approach will mean many companies will be forced to go through a pointless exercise that does benefit their business or employees.
“Plans to amend Working Time regulations to reflect recent European rulings will only cause more confusion for employers, while creating extra costs. The Government could have waited for more clarity from Brussels, where this issue is currently being debated, and avoided an immediate impact on business confidence. Instead, their actions could mean two sets of confusing changes rather than one.”
The new measures could well become part of employment law by 2013.
The consultation can be found at http://discuss.bis.gov.uk/modernworkplaces/
Carl Reader is the head of franchising at franchise accountants Dennis & Turnbull, a leading firm of accountants in the franchise industry.
The above information is provided as general advice and no liability is accepted by the author, Dennis & Turnbull or Select Your Franchise in respect of individuals or businesses acting on the above. Independent advice should be sought in all circumstances.
