Member Article

Find your franchise match

Modern franchising plays host to an enormous variety of businesses in the UK with something to suit every taste and budget. With such a range of choice available, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Having decided that investing in a franchise is a route you’d like to explore, one of the ways to begin narrowing down your choices is to consider what kind of lifestyle you’re looking for, and therefore what type of business you want to own and run.

Part-time or full-time; management or hands-on; office-based or mobile…here’s a look at some of the business categories that can offer you a great future where you’re reaping the benefits of your own hard work, with some opportunities combining elements of several of the following:

Home-based

One of the most popular and widely-represented opportunities in the franchise sector is the option of working from home. There are numerous businesses that are run entirely from the comfort of a home office, and yet more that incorporate some element of the ability to administer things any time day or night without setting foot outside your front door.

Fancy not having to commute through the daily grind? Tired of petrol prices? This could be the option for you. Bear in mind though, that you’ll often need to be comfortable running your business with little face-to-face contact on a daily basis.

Home-based franchises are popular not only for their convenience to the franchisee, but also because the investment level required is generally lower than other options.

Van-based

Usually in conjunction with a home office, van-based franchises are perfect if you like being mobile and meeting people. Those beautifully-liveried vehicles you see every day? Chances are a lot of them are driven by franchisees. There’s an enormous array of choice, including automotive services, vending solutions, domestic services such as oven cleaning, pet care, cleaning, garden services, mobile catering and many, many more.

Mobile services and products continue to soar in consumer popularity because of the convenience they offer – so if a van-based franchise appeals, there’s a lot of upside and a lot of choice. Costs can be low and profits high if you’re in the right marketplace.

They can offer the best of both worlds, with the ability to get out and about in your local community combined with business administration being done from home. This sector frequently also incorporates realistic and attainable growth opportunities, with the option to develop a multi-van fleet as your business grows.

Management franchises

One of franchising’s key advantages is the ability to train people with little or no experience in a specific field. Transferable skills become all-important, and this is perhaps truest in the management franchise category, sometimes also called white collar franchising, where management experience is the perfect background for a prospective franchisee.

Rather than direct hands-on work, the success of such franchises relies on your ability to manage people, business development, sales and so on, usually from an office-based position. Some of the most common business types falling under this umbrella include home care, lettings agents, business coaching, accountancy and business cost reduction services; several domestic and commercial cleaning franchises are management rather than hands-on businesses.

It’s worth noting that many van-based franchises offer you the chance to evolve your business into a management franchise as you expand and take on drivers to carry out services and sales, rather than driving yourself.

Premises-based

This category includes amongst its number traditional franchising behemoths from catering and hospitality through to some of the best-known UK retailers, a host of upcoming and fast-growing brands, estate and lettings agencies, and even children’s nurseries.

Investment levels are generally higher, because of the need to locate and kit out premises – but this is justified by the relative returns that a franchisee can achieve.

It’s clear that whatever your taste, desired lifestyle and work/life balance, there are choices for you. For more information, advice and a list of accredited franchise opportunities in the UK see the British Franchise Association website, www.thebfa.org.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Stafford .