Launched in 2014, the red flag alert business intelligence and data integrity franchise is ideal for people with a financial, software or data background
Red Flag Alert is a white collar consultancy franchise where franchisees help their clients do better business by understanding more about the people they are dealing with. Why is this important?
Ask yourself when was the last time that someone you deal with voluntarily gave you information about something negative that had happened to them? The reality is people don’t usually - and business people are no different.
### Crucial ###
A supplier is unlikely to tell you it is experiencing difficulties and may miss a delivery of crucial raw materials. Clients or prospective clients won’t ring you up to say they may struggle to pay their bill or that they are ordering something they cannot afford to pay for.
Then there are competitors. They are always going to play their cards close to their chests, but the more a business person knows about his or her competitors the better placed they are to outperform them. Large businesses have had access to this sort of business intelligence for years, but now Red Flag Alert is leading the democratisation of big data to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to benefit in the same way.
Most franchisees make a crucial business decision before they even start their franchise by deciding which franchisor to partner with. So it could be argued that the service provided by Red Flag Alert is important before you get into business.
Dan Archer, franchise director and founder of the Red Flag Alert franchise, explains: “Our vision for the business is to help people to do better business. We passionately believe that business insight is more important for SMEs than big businesses. For a plc, the intelligence may have a positive impact on share price, but for an SME it could be the difference between life and death.
“The service provided by our franchisees and the consultants they will employ has been proven over the past 11 years to help businesses make smarter, more informed decisions. To help explain how our business helps its clients, we are offering to help those considering franchising by demonstrating the value of the service.”
Research from the British Franchise Association/ NatWest annual franchise survey regularly shows that prospective franchisees do little or no financial due diligence on the franchisor they are going into business with.
Dan continues: “Franchisees read brochures, take legal advice on contracts and speak to existing franchisees, which is all valuable research. The franchise survey shows that up to 40 per cent do not check the financial standing of the franchisor. I am amazed that someone is prepared to invest a life changing sum of money without understanding whether the franchisor is about to be wound up, is in a corporate voluntary agreement or is a risky financial bet.
“We want to change this and we are offering anyone who enquires about the Red Flag Alert franchise the chance to get free financial due diligence reports on the other franchisors they are considering. The reports, which can be up to 15 pages long, also have a simple to understand risk flagging system to identify higher risk businesses.”
### Growth ###
Red Flag Alert was created by Begbies Traynor in 2003 and the franchise opportunity was launched in 2014 after extensive piloting. The business intelligence sector is growing rapidly at around 15 per cent per annum, as small business owners appreciate how relevant information can help them.
“We are a relatively new franchise concept, which brings the advantage of no natural competitors in our client facing market and a unique franchise opportunity,” Dan says. “I have extensive experience in franchising and I saw an opportunity to launch a franchise that would suit people from a financial, software or data background.
“As a professional services provider, our business offers people wanting to run a consultancy franchise a different opportunity to existing franchise concepts. Because our business is supported by an established plc and the service is well proven, some of the risks of a new opportunity have been mitigated.”
