It's all relative, franchising with family

Many franchisees choose to make their business a family affair. Katie Shevlin looks at the value of this type of working relationship

Business partnerships are often forged on the basis that you are working together with the same goals and achievements in mind. Going into business with a family member means this joint aim is already inbuilt, as you both, or all, ultimately want to bring home the family bacon.

Franchisors consider family members working together to be a sound prospect given that they will understand each other well and create a well-rounded team, with each person bringing different strengths to the business.

The reason many individuals decide to franchise is to restore some form of work-life balance. Franchising with a member of your immediate family not only affords this but also allows you to spend more time together and perhaps even strengthen your relationship.

Here, three franchisees share the relative values behind their business.

Home Instead Senior Care

Brian Johnstone is co-owner of the East Lothian and Midlothian franchise of Home Instead Senior Care with his daughter Charlotte. Their franchise opened for business in January 2014. Brian is the managing director while Charlotte is the care manager.

What did you do prior to franchising?

I worked for Clydesdale Bank for 36 years before leaving in December 2012 and was principally involved with business, private banking and wealth management. During the last 10 years of my career I was part of the leadership team in Edinburgh. Subsequent to that I operated as a business and property consultant, mainly writing business plans for others and arranging property funding.

On leaving school, Charlotte worked in a children’s nursery for over three years before becoming a carer involved in home care. It was this four years’ experience in care that prompted the decision to look for a delivery model that she felt met her own expectations and aspirations on how care should be delivered in an individual’s home.

Have you ever worked with family before? What led you to do so in this case?

I have never worked with family before and did not enter into it lightly, particularly given my experience of watching the dynamics of other family businesses during my time in banking. We discussed this at length but concluded that we both have the mix of qualities together that would make it work. We also get on tremendously well and are able to have disagreements and move on quickly. I was pleased to read in family business books that father / daughter business relationships are usually trouble free.

Charlotte and I had talked about running our own business together for many years never thinking we would actually be able to do it. From my perspective, the attraction of giving something back to the local community as well as being able to work with my daughter every day were major drivers. It also allows her to create something that she can go on and manage in the future once I’ve retired.

What appealed to you about franchising, and why Home Instead in particular?

When we decided we were going to set our business up it quickly became obvious that our individual skillsets would fit well if we worked in domiciliary care and we therefore dismissed all the other options we had talked about. We also quickly concluded that this sector was one where setting up on our own would be terribly onerous with regard to, in particular, meeting the regulatory requirements from day one. It was then a matter of finding the right model that we felt would meet our aspirations.

We engaged with a local franchise consultant who is extremely experienced in buying, selling and running franchises to help us with the process of choosing the appropriate franchise. We quickly identified Home Instead as the one we wanted to apply for as it demonstrated the flexibility in the way care is delivered that we were looking for. With the Home Instead model, we are able to focus on relationship-led care and tailor the services we deliver to the individual needs of our clients.

During our initial discussions with Home Instead we were particularly impressed by the enthusiasm and competency of their people.

What are the benefits and challenges of working together?

Both a benefit and a challenge of working together are that we know each other so well. Overall, this is a great advantage though. Quite often we instinctively know what the other is thinking. This leads to more decisive decision making. There are no politics in the office and we can say anything to each other and move on quickly.

Another major benefit is that we can bring a united passion to the business and all our caregivers can see that we are both working together in a way that might not happen in an otherwise ‘normal’ employer / employee relationship.

Because we do think similarly, there can also be the lack of different perspective to a problem or challenge; sometimes another perspective can create debate and wider thinking. We overcome this by having weekly and monthly strategy meetings with a set agenda. These happen in the office and not round the dinner table. We can also call on the expertise of the Home Instead national office and neighbouring offices.

What strengths do you each bring to the business? How do you divide the work between you?

With the support of Home Instead national office, we were able to clearly define our roles in the business. Charlotte’s strengths and experience are around the delivery of care, so she manages the service delivery to clients and also manages the caregivers. My strengths lie with the business and financial side and running the operation that supports the service delivery.

What advice would you give to anyone going into business with family?

Having a strong business plan is essential but also having a family strategic plan or charter is important. It will ensure there are no misunderstandings with regard to short- and long-term goals, responsibilities and roles, remuneration, succession and ownership. No matter how small the business is it’s important to have a properly constituted monthly meeting that has a pre-set agenda covering all strategic parts of the business. Operational issues can be left for shorter weekly meetings.

How has the experience of setting up your business affected your personal relationship?

I could never have dreamt that Charlotte and I would be any closer and our personal relationship any stronger. Having worked together through the whole experience from initial idea to where we are now, established and operating fully, we both agree that it has deepened our father / daughter relationship to a level I never thought possible.

Aspray

Rachid Bellili, together with his daughter Nadia, joined the Aspray network in 2012. They run the Kent territory together.

What did you do prior to franchising?

I previously managed housing association cooperatives in London while Nadia was a performing artist and then estate manager with a housing association.

Have you ever worked with family before? What led you to do so in this case?

Yes, in the past I worked with my son. Working with Nadia came about because I had a desire to work closer to home in Kent, and around the same time Nadia also wanted to settle locally.

What appealed to you about franchising with Aspray?

I had been researching Aspray for three years before deciding to invest in a franchise. The main attraction was the fact that Aspray is regulated and has an ethical approach to the work. The concept is also a selling point as we would be working with people and mainly helping the vulnerable. I believe that the services Aspray offer will always be in demand.

What are the benefits and challenges of working together?

Trust, loyalty, competence, reliability and shared common objectives are important in business. We have the same ethical approach to carrying out the work, with the customers’ interests and the aim of delivering quality service always coming first. Running the business can be challenging at times but having a clear definition and distribution of responsibilities definitely helps. Having Nadia work in the business will make it easier for Nadia to take over at some stage.

What strengths do you each bring to the business? How do you divide the work between you?

Nadia mainly deals with the customer-facing work, such as carrying out surveys, organisation, liaising with insurance and loss adjusters, as well as networking.

I deal with contractors, corporate issues, marketing and accounts. Communication is vital and a meeting takes place every Friday where all information is shared and key business decisions are made.

What advice would you give to anyone going into business with family?

Share the responsibilities and play to each person’s strengths. It is also vital to maintain communication.

ServiceMaster

John Flye works with his wife Jacqueline and youngest son Tom running several franchise territories covering a range of cleaning services – ServiceMaster Clean Humberside, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, ServiceMaster Clean Leicestershire, Merry Maids Derbyshire and Furniture Medic South Yorkshire.

What did you do prior to franchising?

Prior to franchising, I worked in a sales position with Prudential. Jacqueline and I started trading in 1986 and Tom joined the business in 2001 after leaving a role in retail with Wilkinson's. Tom became a directory in 2009.

Have you ever worked with family before? What led you to do so in this case?

We have no experience of working together as a family but we wished to move into franchising and were in a position to invest into the business.

What appealed to you about franchising, and why ServiceMaster in particular?

I used to work with the ServiceMaster Lincolnshire business in my previous role and was confident the business would succeed. ServiceMaster is a household name and has a good reputation in the cleaning industry.

What are the benefits and challenges of working together?

The benefits of working together are the different skillsets brought to the table and the already close relationship; there is no need to develop bonds with team members. Working together can put strain on personal/family relationships but generally the team works well and each person manages their own workload.

What strengths do you each bring to the business? How do you divide the work between you?

I am an experienced salesman, Jacqueline has strong administration skills and Tom is a good manager and an ‘ideas man’. Each team member takes on different roles, with Tom managing the Furniture Medic franchise and involved in thedisaster restoration business also. I’m responsible for the day-to-day management of the carpet cleaning, disaster restoration and Merry Maids businesses and oversee all operations across the business. Jacqueline is in the business in an administration role.

What advice would you give to anyone going into business with family?

To run a successful business as a family, you need to ensure everybody knows their role and are pushing the business in the same direction.

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