It's home time!

Home is where the heart of many successful franchises lie, as Vesna Siljanovska discovers when she speaks to a selection of franchises all operating on home-turf

 

More and more people are looking for flexible working hours in order to gain a better work-life balance. This is particularly the case for young families who want to spend more time together and less time in the office. Working from home offers a number of advantages, not only do you save time on your commute, which in turn can help increase productivity, you also save money on transport and more significantly expensive overheads.

There are many industry sectors in franchising well suited to operating from your own home. These franchises enable you to fit your job in with your lifestyle and can offer a stress-free environment for you to run a successful franchise.

Wildchilds

Wildchilds, party and special events company, is an exciting business concept that has burst onto the franchise arena. Founded in 2005 the company is one of the leading event suppliers in northeast England.
A Wildchilds franchise organises children's themed parties, adult and family parties, entertainers, special events, event equipment hire, costume hire, party planning and wedding services.

Hilary Dunne, 37, founder and managing director of the company, explains: "When I started the business, working from home was the right option for me; not only could I keep my overheads low, but I could concentrate my effort and resources towards building a sustainable business. As a result we are able to offer a great deal of choice to consumers who are organising the perfect party no matter who the client - corporate or domestic - or aim of the event is. The business has grown rapidly and we now have a fantastic team of people who work with us to help deliver our services."

Franchisees need to be outgoing and extremely motivated for this business. Hilary adds: "This business is great fun, it can be hard work and often involves working long unsociable hours at your client's party."
"Customer service skills are key and the ability to lead and organise a team is a real benefit. You will need to have a keen interest in this
industry and be ready to change to current trends. Initial training will provide the elements for running a successful business together with ongoing support."

The franchise has been designed as a complete ‘turn-key' operation to provide all the help and support needed to get the business off to a good start. Support includes:

• Use of corporate identity and branding
• Protected franchise areas
• Pre-opening support
• A start-up package of event equipment and secure storage space,together with a van (initially).

Full training and ongoing support is provided for franchisees, including business planning, marketing, operations manual, recruitment and ongoing long-term support.

Minimum total Investment:
£7,995 plus VAT,
Working capital required c. £23,000
Website: www.wildchilds.co.uk
email: info@widchilds.co.uk
Phone: 01325 365 292

 

Jani-King

 

In Entrepreneur magazine's 2009 Franchise 500 research, Jani-King has been voted the number one home-based business for the eighteenth time. This is a prestigious title as Entrepreneur considers financial strength and stability, growth rate and size of the system, the number of years in business, length of time franchising, start-up costs, litigation, percentage of terminations and whether the company provides financing.

Jani-King has more than 40 years' experience in commercial cleaning and franchising worldwide, and arrived in the UK 16 years ago. With more than 12,500 franchisees across 20 countries, it is not difficult to see why Jani-King has consistently led the commercial cleaning industry. Being customer focused and supervisor-based, franchisees can manage their business from home, which gives them the freedom to structure work around their family life.

Expansion plans across mainland Europe are anticipated across 2009 and 2010, giving even more qualified individuals the opportunity to take control of their destiny from the comfort of their own home.

What's more, cleaning is a recession-resilient industry proven by Jani-King's systems, which have prospered in previous recessions.

Ian Thomas, UK and Europe chairman, says: "I have been enthused by the number of people who have recently taken the decision to make a positive step away from the current doom and gloom, and invest in themselves to prosper in the future.

"Starting any business is hard, especially in a downturn, but invest correctly in the right industry and the right system now, when times get better you will have a sound and strong business to capitalise on." Jani-King has 60 franchisees across the UK and serves some of the biggest brands in the UK retail, leisure and hospitality market.

Minimum total Investment:
£60,000 (£44,000 franchise fee, plus £16,000 working capital)
Website: www.janiking.co.uk
email: info@janikinggb.co.uk
Phone: 020 8481 4300

Racing Challenge

Racing Challenge has been described as a ‘business in a box' on more than one occasion and in truth, that is what it is!
The Racing Challenge SUPER 4 unit contains four linked racing car simulators. This allows four drivers to race each other in the same race at the same time on the same Grand Prix circuit. These are mounted in a fully mobile trailer, which on arrival at a party or corporate event opens out to provide a stage enclosed by an all weather canopy, ready for fantastic fun and exhilaration for all ages.

The Racing Challenge business is perfect as a home-based franchise (after all, it operates at people's houses on a daily basis). All that franchisees need is space in the home office for a computer, phone and laminating machine (supplied by Racing Challenge to make truly bespoke drivers' passes) and space on the drive topark the SUPER 4, which is a little bigger than the 4x4 required to tow it.

The requirement for a Racing Challenge franchisee is a person who enjoys communicating with all ages (as the client base is from seven to 70), and from people having a party to corporate clients launching a new product or entertaining their own clients.

In fact, no two events are ever the same so routine or boredom is well and truly off the menu. The hours are definitely not nine to five, but clients are always pleased to see Racing Challenge arrive (and sorry to see it go).
Racing Challenge is now entering its eighth year and is busier than ever before. Such is the demand for Racing Challenge, also fuelled by the success of Lewis Hamilton and the massive following that the STIG (timed at 1.52 seconds at Monza on the Racing Challenge) now has, franchises were made available from 2007 and the business is currently expanding.

In fact, Racing Challenge is so confident franchisees will love this business opportunity that in these ‘credit crunch' times it is offering an unique ‘Try Before You Buy' plan. This will allow franchisees to take up a six-month trial option before committing to the five-year franchise term at the special price of only £4,995, with a monthly rental of £997 (plus vat).

Minimum total Investment:
£4,995 plus VAT and £997 monthly rental
Website: www.racing-challenge.com
email: sue@racing-challenge.com
Phone: 01993 845 428

 

Community Times/ CommunityView

 

Community Times is a franchise for people who want to edit and produce their own monthly glossy magazine. The business can be easily run from home and no previous experience is necessary. Many franchisees have been made redundant from jobs in completely different fields ranging from accountants to telecommunication customer care operators.

Some of our franchisees have started in order to supplement their family income, and it is often popular amongst women who run it from home alongside another job, or at the same time as raising a family.

Community Times started in-house in 2004 and launched as a franchise business in 2005 when it became a limited company. There are currently 200 plus Community Times franchises nationwide. A typical monthly print run is 350,000.

When a franchise is purchased the new franchisee gets fully trained and supported by Community Times. It teaches them design skills, business management and sales tactics. This is ongoing and someone is always available to help and make sure the magazine is ready and up to standard for publication every month. Franchisees can turn to the head office if they are short on editorial material.

Franchisees attend seminars on how to run a business, outlining all the elements needed to run a business from home and are trained through a comprehensive software package that they are also given. The head office oversees and approves everything produced by franchisees every month.

Community View

Community View was launched in October 2008. Based in Swansea, it employs 25 people and there are currently 10 plus Community View franchises nationwide.

A franchisee gets a standard television monitor and has to find an area, with high footfall, to place it (eg, community centres, gyms, banks, etc). The television monitor shows standard freeview channels, but also has the facility to show local adverts (for example, local builders, plumbers and solicitors), which the franchisee simply uploads onto the screen from their computer at home. The screen is connected by the internet and managed by the Head Office in Swansea. Community View's top performer started with one monitor and has stormed ahead by investing in five more!

Case Study candidate:
Joanne Caulfield, 39, operates in Mumbles near Swansea and is a mother of two children. She runs Community Times from home, which fits in with her other responsibilities.

To successfully produce her monthly publication she has to work about 16 to 18 hours per week. It's a glossy monthly magazine and on average it's distributed to approximately 5,000 homes and businesses around the Mumbles area.

Joanne was one of the first on board to buyher franchise and has been successfully running it for about four years.

Her income comes from selling advertising space to local businesses; the magazine can also be used as a platform for local issues as previous articles have been written by the local MP, as well as celebrities.

Minimum total Investment:
Community Times: £5,500
Community View: £5,000
Website: www.mycommunitytimes.co.uk
email: jonathan.gibbs@communitytimes.co.uk
Phone: 0800 243 462

 

Platinum Property Partners

One of the most interesting new entrants into the franchise market recently has been Platinum Property Partners (PPP). You would be forgiven for thinking the current climate is far from ideal for a property-based franchise, but it appears to be bucking the trend and its franchise partners are reporting excellent results.

The franchise is based on UK property acquisition and management using the same highly successful investment strategies that the founders, Steve Bolton and Nick Carlile, created and refined in developing their own multi-million pound portfolios.

The two core strategies franchise partners (PPP's term for franchisees) focus on are acquiring properties substantially below market value and letting them as single or multiple units, and purchasing properties, which can be converted to Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO), using the tried and tested PPP formula. Multiple occupancy means profit from rental income can be maximised and the cost of ‘void' periods is reduced.

New franchise partners are given one-to-one mentoring during the early stages to ensure they have the confidence and skills to acquire the right properties in the right locations that will give a high level of monthly profits after all the bills are paid.

A real benefit of the PPP franchise is that it is home-based, so there are no high overheads and either no or very low staffing costs. Everything needed for renovating and fitting out properties can be sourced locally, with properties always fitted out to the same high standards across the franchise. Rents charged are always fully inclusive of rates, utility bills, broadband, cleaning, television, etc, so the moving-in decision and process is made easy.

Prospective franchise partners must have the ability to work as part of a team and buy into the PPP mission of: ‘Be more, do more, have more and give more'. As one of a growing group of high net worth individuals, they can benefit from the encouragement and experience of all the other franchise partners.

Many current franchise partners started the franchise on a part-time basis, then found they could give up ‘the day job' when their monthly rental profits exceed their salary.

Steve Bolton, founder, explains: "We believe that 2009 is a ‘once in a generation' time to acquire property. Low interest rates and falling house prices mean there are many bargains to be found, making our franchise model even more profitable. We expect our franchise partners to have acquired a £3 million property portfolio and be generating more than £150,000 per annum in profits in less than five years. It's the ultimate in wealth creation."

Minimum total Investment:
£300,000 available capital
Website: www.platinumpropertypartners.net
email: info@platinumpropertypartners.net (quote ref: BF05)
Phone: 0845 293 2877