Franchises for Couples UK TaxAssist Accountants Franchises for Couples

Chris and Win Hyde (pictured below with Sandi Toksvig at TaxAssist's Annual Conference) have recently sold their TaxAssist Accountants practice to their office manager Fiona Nelson. Here, they look back at why they initially decided to take on a TaxAssist Accountants franchise five years ago, and the return on their initial investment of £19,000…..  

Chris says…"I was researching franchising for a magazine article I had been asked to write, when I first became interested in TaxAssist Accountants. Prior to that, I had no idea that accountancy franchises existed.

Initially, the main attraction for me was that I could build an asset with a firm resale value, (practices can sell for between 1 and 1.2 times the fee base), that I could eventually sell for a capital sum, or alternatively retain and take a substantial income.

My wife, Win, joined me in the franchise as a partner when we started trading in May 2002. Having previously worked as a receptionist for Rothschild Merchant Bank, her admin and interpersonal skills were invaluable in keeping customers happy and me organised. Having someone working alongside me from day one to undertake all of the onerous but essential recurring admin tasks that consume so much time, meant that I could concentrate on technical issues and growing the business, with the emphasis on the latter.

In 2002 the minimum target fee base after five years was £100k. We believed that if we could achieve this figure we would have been more than proven right in buying the franchise and would have established a genuinely successful business. We decided to focus on growth and spend money promoting the business. We chased every lead down mercilessly!

In late 2003, after trading for eighteen months, we reached a point where we needed to move to larger premises so we opted to go for a shop front which we moved into in July 2004. Moving into the shop front gave us visibility, credibility and accessibility, resulting in a steady stream of walk ins, increased referrals and a much better response to our newspaper advertising.

We are of the opinion that the shop front concept is the way forward for those franchisees wishing to build a substantial practice. (Pictured right, The shop front in Queensferry, North Wales)  

Our goal was to build a substantial fee base, and to ensure that we could still provide first class customer service.  The key to this was to get the right staff in place.  We employed three full time employees and with the help of the TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre, we were able to develop both the personal and technical qualities of the staff so that they were able to grow with the business and eventually play a major part in managing it – this has been evidenced by Fiona, our practice manager, now purchasing the business.

We also carefully analysed the business to identify the most profitable client types.  These turned out to be the small self employed traders with simple, straight forward accountancy requirements.  This matches the founder of TaxAssist Accountants, John Westgarth’s experience and philosophy.

Looking back, the aim of achieving a fee base of £100,000 after five years, which at the time seemed an enormous task, considerably underestimated the potential of the business opportunity on offer and the positive effects that a shop front would have on achieving enhanced growth.

Our experience has indicated that a franchisee going into a shop front from day one, willing to invest time, effort and money and following the franchise business model, should realistically expect a fee base of between £300,000 and £350,000 by year five with net profits of at least 40% before drawings.