What type of business lends itself to the franchise model?

Any business that can be run as a branch network and wants to grow should at least consider franchising as one of the options.

It needs to already be established and successfully operating in the format in which it’s intended to franchise; the business processes need to be easily duplicated and learned by someone who may never have been in business before; and it needs to be profitable for both the franchisor and franchisee to carry out their respective parts of the operation.

Those are the ‘hard’ requirements, but equally important are the ‘soft’ ones, as it’s the people who make those systems work.

Therefore, it helps if the business has a culture of working together to achieve a shared purpose, with each party taking responsibility for their own actions, rather than just being told something and being expected to get on and do it.

All sorts of businesses in all sorts of sectors have been franchised, but not everyone does it successfully. Copycat operations rarely work and the advice of a British Franchise Association accredited franchise consultant will be invaluable in considering all the operational options and fee structures before a bespoke plan is developed.

Brian Duckett is chairman of The Franchising Centre, part of the world’s largest network of specialist franchise consultants.