<span style="font-size: 25px;">đź•’</span> Estimated reading time: 3 min.
Business Partnership has been helping owners sell their businesses for more than 35 years by introducing sellers to a wide range of business buyers to achieve successful results.
Since founding in 1979 Business Partnership has supported thousands of SMEs through the marketing and sale of their businesses. Collectively, we have sold SMEs in every sector, ranging in value from a few thousand pounds to many millions.
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In our latest Franchisor Q&A Interview series, we talk to Business Partnership about how the franchise adapted aspects of the business in light of the pandemic, and why recruitment is key to future success of the company over the next few years.
Q1. What makes your franchise standout?
We are a franchise owned and run by franchisees.
The senior board of Business Partnership have all operated their own franchise, and understand the in’s and out’s of how to make a successful business brokerage. They have traded through the lows of the market and they have enjoyed the highs - this makes them uniquely placed to support each and every one of our current franchisees.
Our franchisees are called Regional Partners because we do work in partnership. Everyone under the Business Partnership brand is supportive of others and will share knowledge and expertise. That’s a philosophy and attitude we like to promote.
Q2. Why is it worth investing in your brand?
The people we attract to Business Partnership have already known a successful career. They have sold up or moved on from a corporate carer and not being ready to call it a day, are looking for a new challenge.
These uniquely experienced business people invest in Business Partnership because, whilst we provide a franchise framework, we also allow a lot of individuality and flexibility for them to build the business they want.
What we mean by this is that if your experience and your business network comes from the retail sector, this may naturally be where you focus your business brokerage efforts. If your background was in manufacturing, you can make this your focus.
You will not be pressured to represent the whole of the market, but you can if you wish. As our Regional Partners grow their experience as brokers, many will expand this way, but we appreciate that you will be most successful operating across the sectors where you are most comfortable, and you will be supported in this.
Q3. How is your franchise adapting to the current COVID-19 crisis?
We’ve already embraced online technologies in order that we can support our Regional Partners whether they are in the Scottish Highlands or London. All that’s needed is an internet connection and their office moves wherever they are.
Many of our franchisees work from home so the upheaval of Covid-19 was thankfully much more manageable than it was for other people. Where adaptability was needed was in how we were able to show the businesses being sold.
This is where our brilliant clients and potential buyers have been amazing. Both switched early meetings to the telephone or video conferencing. We’ve made use of photos, videos and even facetime to give tours around premises. This helped us to continue to move sales along without delay.
When it does come to a buyer, being on the brink of making an offer a physical meeting becomes essential. So we took guidance from our clients. If the business was closed in full lockdown, that made things easier. Where key businesses continued operating, consideration had to be given to how to conduct a safe viewing at the business premises.
We’ve missed a couple of national franchisee meetings which flipped over to video conferencing and became more frequent so all Regional Partners had the chance to discuss market challenges and trends and got the support they needed throughout the year. Christmas, we would like to think, is not cancelled but merely postponed for a later date - but we are planning a virtual get together for a mince pie and small glass of something.
Q4. What extra support and assistance are you offering your franchisees during this time?
Once the severity of the situation was evident in March, Business Partnership were quick to react with an initial suspension and significant reduction in fees until things returned to semi-normality.
Strangely enough, most offices have traded quite strongly through the Covid-19 period and the fee changes probably weren’t necessary. But we didn’t have hindsight in March and we wanted our Regional Partners to have peace of mind, stability and support when things were uncertain.
We also took on negotiations with some external providers and were able to gain further cost reductions for our franchisees.
As we are not out of this strange market yet, we are also offering a soft start on fees to new franchisees joining us from January 2021.
Q5. What plans do you have for the franchise over the next few years?
Recruitment is the constant aim. We attract people looking for a 2nd or 3rd career change. We offer a position for those looking for a new challenge and not yet ready to retire, but who seek a change in their primary career. In some cases, it is business owners who have sold their own businesses and now want to advise others. Others are leaving the corporate fold and want to be in charge of their own destiny.
This means we have great experience in our ranks, but we also have a constant turnover into full retirement after a couple of franchise terms. Therefore we are constantly recruiting replacements for those who are moving on, and also for the areas of the UK where we don’t have full coverage already.
One of our main aims in 2021 is to increase our diversity – and would welcome both women and a wider ethnic diversity into our ranks.
Q6. What skills are important for your franchisees to have?
We don’t have a tick-box of qualifications. Our most successful Regional Partners have an engaging personality coupled with past business credibility. They also demonstrate some of the following attributes:
- An understanding of the fundamentals which make a good business
- The ability to enjoy meeting people and building a rapport
- Self-motivation and drive – This is a “get out what you put in” business
- A willingness to network amongst business groups
- A desire to learn
- A network amongst which you are well-regarded
- Credibility in at least one previous business sector
Click here to learn more about Business Partnership's exciting franchise opportunity