Opportunity: XXXX
How buying a franchise can put you in control of achieving your personal and financial ambitions
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hen you watch Avalon Biddle race, she becomes part of the motorbike. The diminutive figure is tucked into the machine, her arms and legs like control levers, shifting her weight to get every bit of speed and every bit of grip from the tyres, using everything to her advantage. Her many race wins in a hugely competitive (male-dominated) sport are the result not just of talent but of preparation. She’s spent hours in the gym to give her the strength to control the heavy 600cc Supersport bikes; she spent 6 years living mostly in Europe to improve her game; she has engineers to help her fine-tune the machine to racing readiness; and from the very start she’s had the support of her family and friends to help her reach the top. She’s also given back, helping people learn to ride safely, encouraging others to race, and rewarding her sponsors with more than just a name on the side of her bike (see page 42). It’s that same combination of preparedness, training, skills, commitment and support that you need if you want to be your own boss. Actually starting your own business is easy, but running a business that will deliver the personal and financial results you want is rather more difficult. That’s where buying a franchise can give you a competitive advantage from day one. You’ll not just be provided with a business model that gives you the machine you need to succeed – you’ll be taught to control it, and guided as you learn to get the maximum performance out of it. Of course, no franchise is a guaranteed success and a potential franchisee must always be cautious, but there is no doubt that – provided you choose well – buying a franchise significantly increases the chances of getting what you want out of owning your own business.
Support Franchising, properly done, is a ‘partnership’ between franchisee and franchisor: the franchisor makes his or her income from the success of your business, so it’s in their interests to help you make the most of your territory. Consequently, you should get a level of support which the independent business person can only dream of. This starts with the selection process. It’s not in a good franchisor’s interests to appoint anyone who they don’t think will succeed, so just by being offered the franchise you should be confident you possess the necessary qualities. The more rigorous the selection process, the better for you – no matter how it feels at the time. Equally important is the continuing support. A franchisor should have people experienced in every aspect of the business you run who can answer any questions you have on a day-to-day basis. In addition to this they have a monitoring role, helping you to maximise your performance in such areas as production costs, sales, promotion, staff recruitment and so on, and providing additional training or advice as required. Many franchisors also carry out some management functions on behalf of their franchisees such as making customer bookings, quoting and even invoicing or credit control. These can be invaluable in saving your time to spend on actually doing the work that you get paid for.
Power behind you Every racer needs a powerful engine if they’re going to be competitive, and buying power is a major strength of franchised chains. If you owned
Ready to go When you buy a franchise, you’re buying a ready-made business format that someone else has researched and developed for you. Your own business may not yet exist in the location you want, but all the product design, service parameters, business systems and profitability studies have been carried out already. You buy the franchise and it’s up to your own efforts to make it successful in your area. It’s like buying a racewinning bike – someone else has already proved that it works; now you need to learn to ride it as well as them and keep it operating at peak performance. If you’ve never worked for yourself before, you won’t believe how hard running your own business will seem at first. But if you buy a franchise, because of the guidance you receive from an experienced franchisor, your own hard work will always be directed to the right areas. That saves your time, effort and money from being wasted on trying things the franchisor has already discovered don’t work.
Training When you buy a franchise, a good franchisor will ensure that you are fully trained in every aspect of running your specific business – not only using the equipment but managing people and cashflow, creating your customer database, purchasing, promoting the business, and lots of other things.
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In many cases, this will extend to setting up your accounts on a computerised system using a standard template (something that can save you a lot of time) and setting measurable and achievable goals for your business using Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). No-one expects to be a winner straight away, but by sharing and comparing statistics from other franchisees in the same group, you can see how to improve your performance and stay on track as you grow. In addition to this benchmarking, you should get a detailed operations manual to help you apply the systems and processes you’ll need to run your business efficiently and profitably. Franchise New Zealand
Summer 2021
Year 29 Issue 04
3/12/20 1:48 PM