Get to know some Auditel Franchisees

One of our 2010 intake of consultants, Lee Freeman, who trained in March, has given an interview to the Total Franchise website. As you’ll see from his interview, Lee trained as an accountant but held senior FD posts in the UK and Europe before deciding to start his own business. Like most of our consultants, he carefully weighed up the pros of cons of starting somthing on his own from scratch or buying an existing stand-alone business before deciding that franchising gave him the right balance of support and freedom to build a successful long-term business for himself and his family.

Below Lee’s intereview are also links to a series of other interviews with Auditel consultants, both new and old-timers (sorry William!), from a wide range of professional backgrounds.

UK franchise industry continues to grow despite recession

Latest figures from the annual BFA/NatWest survey show the UK franchising industry is in rude health, contributing £11.8 billion to GDP in 2009, a very respectable increase of £400 million on 2008. Bucking trends in the wider economy, 94% of franchisors are confident about the future of their business, on average planning to take on 9 new franchisees this year, while nine out of ten franchise businesses are profitable.

Very interestingly, there has been an 86% increase in the number of women franchisees over the last year, perhaps reflecting the better work/life balance available to entrepreneurs running their own businesses over traditional employment roles.

Most importantly, the continued strength and stability of the franchise industry and the robustness of franchising as a start-up business model means banks are still prepared to lend and provide financial support to new franchisees. As Graeme Jones, head of NatWest’s franchise team, reassuring says, “We want to send a clear message out to the sector that NatWest is here to support growth opportunities.”

Advice on buying an Auditel franchise

Fame beckons at last for Ed Brewer, our General Manager of Business Development. The team at FranchiseSales.com managed to find his best side and, along with some wise words about becoming a franchisee, have posted it to YouTube for posterity.

Welcome new Consultants

Left to right: Mike Jackson, Steve Ray, Mike Say, Nick Smyth, Angela Tolputt, Claire Power-Browne, Bob Wynne, Vicky Hollin, Richard Grant

Welcome to our latest intake of new Consultants who joined us for the client acquisition week of their training programme at the end of April. We’ve known Angela and Vicky for a while as their partners are already running Auditel practices and we are delighted they are now joining the Auditel Network as consultants in their own right. Claire is also joining an established and very successful practice which was set up by Steve Ray in 2007. Claire and Steve are old family friends and are running their practice as a limited liability partnership so Steve joined us for a couple of the sessions by way of a refresher. Nick and Bob are also old buddies who will be running their new Auditel business in partnership under a limited company, demonstrating yet another way in which the Auditel business system can be successfully applied to different business models.
Read more…

Discover franchising – new dates for May 09

Our new series of Discovery Seminars has been going extremely well so we’ve added some more dates for May. Seminars are held at our head office training suite in Winchester and start at either 10am or 1.30pm. As well as presentations and Q&A sessions about the Auditel cost management consultancy opportunity, you will have the chance to meet members of the Support Team and, if there is a training session in progress, perhaps also with existing franchisees.

Franchising proves the most popular route to starting a home business

Enterprise Nation hosts the UK’s largest website for home-based entrepreneurs and as well as providing hundreds of free resources, advising the government on this increasingly important sector of the economy and running the annual Home Business Awards they also produce an annual Home Business Report. The latest of these was published in October 2008 and one of the most surprising results (from their point of view, not ours!) was the number of respondents who started their home business by way of a franchise. Read more…

Join us at the Business Start-up Exhibition 2008

Starting a new business at a time when every news bulletin seems to presage the end of the economy as we know it might seem slightly mad but entrepreneurs know that crisis and opportunity go hand in hand. Even in the deepest recession, people still need goods and services – there will always be a demand that needs to be met by somebody.

Of course being a successful entrepreneur doesn’t have to mean shouldering all the risk of starting a new business from scratch. It can also mean investing in an existing opportunity – such as a franchise – and maximising all the possible returns, both financial and lifestyle. If you want to get off the corporate treadmill and work for yourself but have concerns about working by yourself this could well be the route for you. If so, you should come along to the Business Start-up Exhibition, which is being held at Olympia on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th November where our Business Development Manager, Ed Brewer, will be giving a presentation at 12.30pm on exactly this subject. You can also visit us on stand 65 where Ed and other members of the team will be happy to chat to you about franchising in general and the Auditel opportunity in particular.

For more information, or for free tickets call Laura March on 0800 5833355.

Start a business from home and save money

According to the home business website Enterprise Nation, you can be at least £30,000 in pocket by starting a business from home when increases in the value of your home and savings on fuel costs and motoring expenses are taken into account.

Supported by research carried out by estate agents, Homefinder UK and motoring experts, The AA, Enterprise Nation reckon that having an office in the house adds an average £28,000 to the value of your home while avoiding the daily commute can save over £2,000 a year. Read more…

Franchisees are entrepreneurs too

There’s a good article by Rachel Elnaugh in the July/August issue of The Franchise Magazine in which she makes a very good case for franchising as a way to realise your entrepreneurial dreams. Rachel’s an entrepreneur herself, having founded the ‘experiences’ company Red Letter Days, and was one the original Dragons in series one and two of Dragons’ Den, so she’s well-placed to understand the pitfalls of starting a new business. Read more…

Franchising lending bucks the trend

Another day, another portent of impending financial crisis. If the last six months had been an episode of Dad’s Army, this would be the point at which Private Frazer cried “We’re all doooomed Cap’n Mainwaring!”. After years of what some would call generous and others would call reckless mortgage lending, the banks and building societies are finally reigning in their largesse. The sky is black with chickens coming home to roost. Read more…