Franchise Focus Business News…

With more people living longer, and pension incomes falling, the home care sector is an area that will see considerable growth in 2012 and coming years.

By 2030, over 15 million of the UK’s population will be over 65’s.

The home care industry will continue to grow for two categories of pensioners and retirees.

The Newly Retired

Over 65’s experience better health and quality of life today, than ever before. Many people who will retire at 65 are very active and healthy, and take on part-time work to boost their income.

Within the home care industry, there are opportunities for these Newly Retired to work as a home carer, calling to the houses of the sick and elderly for a few hours every week. Calling in on the elderly can involve preparing meals, helping with light cleaning and assisting with hygiene. This allows Newly Retired people an extra income in a flexible and fulfilling environment.

A survey conducted by Prudential Insurance entitled ‘Class of 2012′ has discovered that the income retirees of 2012 can expect has fallen by £3,100 since 2008 to a paltry £15,500 per year. One fifth of these people will live on £10,000 or less.

At the same time, pensioner expenditure has increased, leaving a “perfect storm” brewing for retirees, according to Vince Smith Hughes, the Prudential Retirement Income Expert.

“The impact of the credit crunch, banking crisis, recession and concerns over the eurozone, has been reflected in the fact that expected retirement income levels have hit a five year low”, he said.

The opportunity to work in the home care industry may be a possible incentive for those who want to continue some part-time work upon retirement. Over 65’s don’t have to pay tax or national insurance, and can keep all income along with their pension. If their state pension is under a comfortable level, they can defer their pension and pay ‘Top Up’ national insurance which will increase their pension when they decide to take it.

This year alone there are 22% more retirees than in 2011.

The Golden Aged

The average life expectancy of British women is 82.6 years and 78.4 years for men. For those who are a almost a generation older than the Newly Retired  (although unfortunately illness can strike at an age) care in the home is an option preferred to residential care homes, both personally and by families.

Emotionally, the bonds and ties the elderly have to their home and way of life have immense pull. The average cost of a single room in a residential care facility is £24,292 and in times of such economic hardship, many families cannot afford to pay for residential care for elderly relatives, even if they come to make this heart wrenching decision.

Care at home allows the elderly to retain some independence in the comfort of their own homes.

The home care industry offers a solution to concerns raised over Britain having and elderly population. For many Newly Retired, the realisation that they may not be able to give up work can be hard to face, but helping their older counterparts and working in their homes can provide a gentle transition and opportunity to keep earning.

If you are approaching retirement,and would like to operate your own home care business, we have a selection of home care franchise businesses, which can offer the guidance and support of an established and profitable business model and staff.

If you would like to start your own business, and want to invest in this growing industry, one that will continue growing within your own lifetime, a franchise can be the right model to get your business up and running.

Caremark Minimum Investment : £29,500

Everycare Minimum Investment : £30,000

Bluebird Care Minimum Investment £32,500

Surecare Minimum Investment £25,000

Abacus Care Minimum Investment £22,000

247 Professional Health Minimum Investment £15,000

Mumpreneurs

Maternity conditions have improved dramatically in the last two millennia, as has the role of the mother.

Many women are now choosing to open small businesses for some extra dosh (always handy at this time of year!) and a better work life balance.

With crèche costs becoming prohibitive for many who would return to the workplace, running  a business from home can be the perfect opportunity to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

We’ve selected eight franchises which can be run from home on a part-time basis with low investment requirements, perfect for those would-be mumpreneurs out there.

With a franchise or business opportunity, the business has been proven to work for others, so you can get on with making money instead of trying to find and test out a new idea.

Highlight what skills you have and play to your strengths.

Mitchy Titch is a business providing yoga-based fun and fitness classes for babies and toddlers in children’s centres, nurseries and similar venues throughout the UK.

Big Local App is a dedicated local resource directory bringing together businesses, local news, events and information to provide real value to members of each of its edition areas in a way that national directories cannot.

Snak Appeal is a local franchise business opportunity in the charity sector providing a service to business and leisure premises with our quality sweets and snacks.  Dropping off and collecting the honesty boxes, you can fit this around the school run and take time off for the summer holidays.

Laser-It Technologies is an affordable, easy to operate with huge consumer demand. This unique franchise system uses cold laser technology to reduce wrinkles and eliminate body fat.

When The Music Stops If you can’t help but try and marry friends and family off, use your matchmaking skills to run a dating business organising fun events, online dating or both.

Link Telemarketing With this telemarketing business opportunity, your clients will be provided for you, leaving you to concentrate on running your own business successfully. All you need is a telephone and laptop!

Sing Your Name is a distributorship offering a wide range of hugely popular personalised children’s products unlike any other company in the world. Put a smile on someone’s face with story books and audio tapes

LCF Jazz Mataz is an educational music and fun club for children. It is both a social event for both parents and pre-schoolers and a programme using music, rhyme and song to enhance development.

View more home-based franchises

View more part-time franchises

View more children’s franchises

View more health and beauty franchises

The parties, the present buying, the eating, when it all comes to an end on Christmas night and the following days, we’re left to think about how our lives have changed in the last year.

Getting to hear what our friends and families have been up to can often encourage us to think about where we are in our lives, and what we might like to change.

As the world’s largest franchise directory site, we often find more traffic at this time, as people begin to think how they might go about changing their lives.

Last year, we experienced nearly a 20pc boost in enquiries to franchisors over the Christmas and New Year period.

More free time- Unless you’re in cooking mode or off to splash around the Mediteranean, more people are off work, with free time to think about their hopes and dreams, and to browse the internet.

Comparing to family and friends- Getting to catch up with old friends and family can often lead us to question where we are in our own lives. Your school friends have all found themselves in wellpaid successful careers, when you are still slogging for someone else, just getting through life.

New Year Changes -The festive period has always lead up to a spate of New Years’ resolutions, after the indulgence orgy that is Christmas. Along with kicking the fags or binning the chocolate, many people may want to change their career, or lifestyle.

So if you’re bored for a few hours before dinner on boxing day, or plodding around the house trying to avoid rows, take some time to see what you could do to change your life, and career.

From business consultancy to beauty, handyman and tshirt franchise businesses, you might just find what you’re looking for.

Sometimes it’s good to do some digging around in the past. Meeting your boyfriend’s ex-wife at a party would be hailed foolish by many, but if you’re seriously considering starting your own franchise business one of the most valuable tools at your disposal is current franchisees.

Most franchisors will introduce you to some of their successful franchisees, or invite you on a tour of their premises, where you will get to ask question and see how things are done, although this might be ‘censored’.

We’ve put together some tips to learn the nitty gritty about the franchise business that may change your life.

• If you are invited on a tour with a current franchisee and the current franchisor comes along, try to come back later so the franchisee won’t feel under pressure to present a perfect image of the business.
• Be aware that the frachisors may give bonuses to current franchisees that help get newbies on board, so try to figure out if they are being totally truthful.
• The more franchisees you talk to, the better the information you will get.
• If the franchisor supplies you with a small pool of contact details, get out the phone book and ring around other franchisees. Use Google to research what news and events the franchise has been involved in.
• Try to get in touch with a wide variety of franchisees, from the most successful, to the struggling. This way you can assess whether the business is flourishing or failing because of the business model or the franchisee themselves. Talk to the oldest franchises and the newest ones. The guy who is just scraping by six years in will be as valuable to talk to as the star new kid in town who has already broke his first million.
• Use your gut, and try to get a feeling for the motivations of the franchisees you talk to.

You should have your own questions for franchisees depending on which industry you’re investigating, but here is a checklist of must-ask things to quiz franchisees on:

It might be useful to rate these questions on a scale of one to ten:

1. Are you happy with how the business is working out? If not, what issues are affecting you?
2. How is your experience different from what you expected?
3. Have you made your initial investment back yet? Did it take longer than you thought?
4. How many hours a week do you work? Has this impacted on your personal life?
5. Was the training what you expected it to be? Was it intensive or tailored to your own needs and abilities?
6. Does the franchisor put any restrictions on products/services you can supply? How has this affected you?
7. How would you rate marketing and advertising? Does the franchisor do all you expected or they promised?
8. What support do you receive now? When problems have arisen how responsive was the franchisor?
9. What did it cost you to build and start the franchise? Were there any hidden costs?
10. What are the best and worst moments since you started?

If the average score of the franchise interviews is coming in at more than five out of ten, it could be an indication that this could be the right franchise for you!!

Representatives from Recognition Express, ComputerXplorers and the ZipYard franchises led the British Franchise Association delegation to the Houses of Parliament this week.

The group met with MPs including Andrew Bridgen MP for North West Leicestershire who were interested to learn more about the benefits of franchising and how this business model could help regenerate the UK economy.

Nigel Toplis is the managing director of Coalville based Bardon Group. Within the group sit three of the country’s most successful franchises; Recognition Express, ComputerXplorers and the ZipYard.

Mr Toplis said: “Despite the fact that franchised businesses in the UK last year turned over £12.4 billion employing over half a million people, awareness of franchising as a business model is still very low. The meeting with MPs was set up so that BFA members could brief them in more detail about the concept of franchising and its continuing success.

“It’s a proven fact that success rate amongst people starting up their own business as a franchisee is far greater than those who set up without the backing of a proven business model and ongoing support from the franchisor.”

Key business and political  figures have shown interest in franchising and entrepreneurship as a means of boosting job creation and economic expansion.

According to Prof Roy Seaman, managing director of Norwich-based Franchise Development Services (FDS) “We are talking next year of creating 100,000 new jobs through franchises,” he said. “Franchises are a solid foundation with which companies can expand and new jobs can be created.”

With redundancies and unemployment at levels not seen since the early 80s, franchising is offering a solution to get Britain working.