Franchise Case Study 1

Nick & Louise Starbuck (pictured with their daughter Emily) certainly made a speedy entry into the business to business networking market. After beginning their training in the beginning of October 2006, they launched their first meeting as Business for Breakfast Franchisees by the end of the same month. Since then their business has been very successful in providing business people the platform to make professional strategic alliances.

Before taking on Business for Breakfast franchise Nick had a successful career as the Financial Director of an educational training company. 16 months ago Nick and Louise became parents to their beautiful daughter Emily. In this time Louise took the role of full time mum. Prior to this she was a branch administrator for an insurance broker. Nick knew he wanted to go it alone; “Starting my own business has always been an ambition of mine. Being an employee can be very frustrating, always having to jump through hoops to achieve career progression was never my thing!”

Nick explains; “I decided on Business for Breakfast for a number of reasons. Firstly the level of investment required meant that I did not need to take out a large loan to finance the first year’s expenses and set-up costs. The business model provided the means to earn money from the first breakfast meeting and represented overheads as a small percentage of sales revenue. This franchise could also be run from home.”

Franchise Case Study 2

Expense Reduction Analysts franchised Consultant Julia Goodfellow has experienced a phenomenal start to her business, since joining ERA back in October 2004. Leeds based Julia, who was a Commercial Bank Manager previously, opted to join ERA as she became frustrated by the limitations of employment in large organisations. "I wanted to have more control over how I worked and felt I had the skills to become self-employed."

"My only concerns were about whether I would feel lonely working from home and the time it would take for income to be receipted. My experience however, was such that I barely had time to contemplate these concerns as I was too busy with my ERA work. I enjoy great variety in my working day as I meet clients and suppliers, all of whom have different needs. I also work with a large number of my fellow franchised consultants on different projects and have a regular ‘partner’ where we jointly visit new prospective clients and share project work that is signed. Even when I am home-based, I am still in constant communication with my colleagues through the excellent ERA communication and database systems."

Julia has experienced one of the most impressive starts to an ERA business that has been seen. “I prepared my business plan in accordance with the conservative guidance of the franchisor, the feedback from the franchisees I spoke with, and made sure I could support myself financially as the business developed. The reality, I found, was different. I started receipting income in only my third month of business and billed a six-figure level within only thirteen months”. ERA franchisees run extremely low cost businesses, with no staff or premises, so a six-figure billing level, could be as high as 80% profit, after taking out business overheads including a monthly franchise support fee.

"Its great that the bulk of what I do, I am rewarded for directly. I have complete control of my business. The key to success, I feel, is enjoyment. You have to be prepared to work hard but when I am the beneficiary and I love what I do, it doesn’t feel like hard work!"