Franchising hits the headlines
27 Mar 2009 | Filed under: Auditel News, Entrepreneurship, Franchise NewsIf you’ve been watching or listening to the news over the past week or so you can’t have failed to notice that Franchising has become rather fashionable; a ‘good news story’ amid the almost unremitting bleakness of the nightly bulletins. Last weekend’s British Franchise Show at Olympia garnered unprecedented levels of media coverage, including features on BBC Breakfast, Radio Four’s Today programme and Radio 2′s Chris Evan’s programme. Now ITV 1′s Tonight programme are getting in on the act with an episode dedicated to the do’s and don’ts of investing your redundancy payout. The episode – called ‘How to blow your redundancy‘ – will feature case studies of investments gone bad as well as advice from the BFA and BusinessesForSale.com on how to avoid the scams and get-rich-quick schemes.
You don’t have to look too far to find the reason for all this interest; with thousands of skilled people being forced out of the job market as businesses cut back or shut down completely, franchising provides an opportunity for them to take control of their careers and provide for their families while jobs are scarce.
According to an article by Jonathan Moules on FT.com, franchised businesses contributed £12.4bn to the UK’s economy in 2009, while the 34,200 franchisee-run businesses operating in the UK employed over 380,000 people. This makes franchising one of the country’s largest sources of employment and is a figure that is likely to rise in the next few years.
More importantly for anybody wanting to set up their own business, franchisees often find it easier to raise finance than stand-alone start-ups because their business model comes with a proven track record that makes it much more appealing to the banks. RBS/NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds TSB even have specialist franchise teams to help franchisees raise finance and are a good source of independent advice.
While most people will associate franchising with fast-food retailers like McDonalds, Dominos Pizza and KFC, the BFA accredits over 200 franchises offering opportunities in a wide range of sectors, from retailers such as Clarks shoes and Thorntons, to white-collar consultancies like Auditel.
