Franchise Focus Business News…

Franchise Direct, the UK’s leading online portal of franchise opportunities, is excited to announce the launch of their Exclusive Franchise Direct UK Offers campaign. The campaign, exclusive to Franchise Direct, features discounts and special offers from some of the UK’s leading franchises, including APS Legal & Associates and Husse – the highly successful Swedish pet franchise.

The campaign has been established to encourage franchises to offer discounts to potential franchisees in the UK so that the level of new business start ups in the UK will increase. Unemployment levels rose in the first quarter of 2010, and it is clear that a stimulus is needed to spur more and more UK entrepreneurs into business. The campaign will last throughout the summer months and into late September and will feature discounted franchise opportunities from a diverse range of industries including business consultancy, web design, education and children’s fitness franchises.

During an economic low, franchise opportunities offer real career alternatives to individuals facing redundancy and unemployment. Working from a proven business model, under a recognisable brand, franchises have a higher success rate than independent small businesses. In conversation with Franchise Direct recently, chairperson of the International Franchise Association Dina Dwyer Owens described franchising as “the real economic stimulus plan”. Franchise Direct hopes that the summer campaign will enable more people to start their own business and keep the British economy working towards an economic recovery.

Speaking about the launch, Director of European Sales for Franchise Direct Brian Rogan said “we hope the campaign will make more people aware of the wide range of franchise opportunities available today. The discounted franchises for sale will offer individuals real opportunities to start their own business. Some franchises are offering two for one offers on their products, others are offering financing packages or reduced franchise start up fees.”

Budding entrepreneurs interested in browsing the directory of Exclusive Offers should visit the following link: http://www.franchisedirect.co.uk/exclusiveoffers/

This week’s guest blog post is  by Andrew Cutler, Sales & Franchise Director, Card Connection.

Getting your new franchise business – in financial terms - from ‘in the red’ to “in the ‘black’ as quickly as possible must be the aim of every new franchisee.

If you are moving from a regular monthly salary to self employed status through owning a franchise, then getting your new business venture into profit as rapidly as possible is essential for a successful long term outlook.  The challenge is that when you start out there will be an inevitable leaning curve while you get up and running.  So how can you best prepare?

Buying a re-sale franchise is the best way to ensure you will earn money from day one as you will be inheriting customers from the outset which is a great starting point.  Selecting a well known brand with a good reputation will also mean that a large degree of the time consuming marketing effort will have already been done for you, so you can focus on selling to those existing and loyal customers.

Find out if your prospective franchisor has a national account network which will provide you with leads. This can be a great help at the start.  Card Connection’s national account network, which includes retailers such as Costcutter, Londis, Netto, Budgens, Spar and Haldanes for example, offers an opportunity for our franchisees to begin selling to these retailers immediately.

It is also important to choose a franchise with products or services that are popular and almost ‘sell themselves’.  Quality products will always be valued and in demand, so are important for gaining new business and repeat custom.  Question if you would buy the product you are looking at selling on a regular basis?  Card Connection, for example, has more than 1,200 quality greeting card designs distributed in over 16,000 retail outlets across the UK and Ireland, which ensure customers keep coming back for more.

Early focus on building customer relationships is important.  You will be the new person and so you need to create trust and show your client base you are reliable and offer a service which is as good (or better!) than the last franchisee.  Make sure that there is support from the franchisor during the handover process.  Work closely with the outgoing franchisee to meet customers and ensure accounts are all aware of the impending change of ownership, and how well you plan to look after them.  This will make for as smooth a handover as possible.

As well as getting up to speed with existing accounts you will need to devote a proportion of your time to generating new business.  When you start off this will be challenging as you will be less familiar with the product or service than an experienced franchisee.  However, the good news is that you will come to the franchise with a ‘fresh set of eyes’ and so may spot opportunities that have been overlooked in the past.  Use your enthusiasm to your advantage to generate interest in your offering!  Remember, people buy from people.

Finally look to your franchisor for support in the early days.  Take advantage of training and talk to other franchisees to see how they overcome every day challenges.  One of the main advantages of franchising compared with setting up in business alone is that you have the backup of a successful and experienced team behind you so be sure to call on them for help when you need it.

Franchising is an ever increasingly popular way to enjoy the flexibility of self employment.  However, to ensure your franchise starts to be profitable as early as possible, you need to prepare.  Choose a good and reputable re-sale franchise and take advantage of the support that is offered to you.  Be quick to build relationships with existing customers and let your enthusiasm help create new business opportunities in the marketplace, and this will help you move from the red into the black as quickly as possible.

For further information about Card Connection re-sale franchises, visit Card Connection’s franchise profile on Franchise Direct.

How can you protect your business from floods? And what can you do to help your business get back on its feet after flooding? These are questions facing many small business owners across the UK this week after record rainfall has flooded many businesses across the UK.

Barclays Local Business have responded by setting up an emergency flooding financing program to help small  business owners get back up and running after the record breaking floods across the UK.

Steve Cooper, Managing Director, Barclays Local Business Banking:  “Events such as these can have a devastating effect on business continuity and at Barclays we are committed to helping our customers through these difficult times.”

“Our customers should contact their relationship manager as soon as they can to discuss how we might support them with concrete measures that meet their needs and help ease the pain a little.”

More Th>n Business have published a Flood Guidance article which is also worth having a look at. The article gives advice to SME’s on how best to anticipate and cope with flooding. The advice includes prevention tips including assessing the location of your business, setting a contingency plan in place, and reviewing the terms and conditions of your insurance.

Reviewing the terms and conditions of your insurance is extremely important, but you should also check with your franchisor to see if they have any advice or guidelines on how best to deal with flood damage. A good franchisor will believe that your success means their success and will guide you throw the depths (forgive the pun) of the flood and back on to dry land.

Best of luck and here’s hoping you manage to keep yourself and your business dry this winter!

In this week’s Franchise Update, we are bringing you news of this week’s World Trade Week, as well as new small business funding announced by the European Commission.

Click here to download this week’s Franchise Update, or watch in the player below:

World Trade Week will run in the UK from June 8th – 12th. As part of World Trade Week, there will be a number of free events organised in cities across the UK, providing businesses with invaluable information on the importance of world trade in creating jobs and business growth.

The European Commission has revealed plans to provide €19 billion of planned European Social Fund expenditure to provide micro-credits for those who would usually have difficulty accessing the necessary funds to set up a business or micro-enterprise.

Thanks for watching!

In line with the government promise made in the 2006 Budget, the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform have today announced the rearrangement of government funding and support for business start up, growth and redevelopment. The previous 3,000 grant schemes and publicly funded business services and support schemes have now been reduced to a more easy to manage number, starting with 30, with 9 more schemes joining today and two more in April. The schemes can be viewed at the new Business Solutions site and are easily accessed via the Business Link website.

This is the first time that all government business grants and support schemes have been collected under the one banner at the Business Link site, and is a great step towards the provision of accessible advice for budding entrepreneurs. Commenting on the launch of this redevelopment, John Wright, National Chairman of the Federation of Small Business welcomed the change, saying “Small businesses do not want to be swamped by a range of different schemes and proposals that take too long to understand, let alone take advantage of. The FSB welcomes this streamlined set of solutions for business which, we hope, will make it more straightforward for small firms to get the help they need to get started, grow and expand.”

The site provides detail for a variety of schemes including business start up loans, training schemes, business development grants. The site also provides a variety of additional advice services for business owners in a variety of areas such as tax, health and safety, and environment advice. So, if you are considering investing in a business opportunity then you should explore Business Solution’s website to see what kind of government support you can apply for.