[sunshine windows]

The article has now been published. Some of it cracked me up as its not exactly what was said.

https://www.facebook.com/chewietucker/posts/10153900151792582

[Dave Willis]

Bumbags are soo 1980!

[sunshine windows]

I love mine  use it to hole my hose on my hip 
And for stashing all that 💷💷💷💷💷

[Tom-01]

Nice one Lance, good work. You should feel proud.

Do you still clean windows yourself or are you off the tools now?

Tom

[Mike55]

Nice one Lance, nice write up.

Generally I'm wondering why one would franchise out work rather than take on employees/ subbies?

I would have thought the profit margins from franchising are way lower, albeit less work?

[p1w1]

yep well done mate...and all without any 50 inch tv screens 

[8weekly]

Very nice. Well done.

[Ian Lancaster]

Nice one Lance, nice write up.

Generally I'm wondering why one would franchise out work rather than take on employees/ subbies?

I would have thought the profit margins from franchising are way lower, albeit less work?

That's the point Mike.  For some people life style is important.  Franchising allows me to take a (very) back seat.  I have none of the responsibilities or expenses of employing.  I am not subject to the workplace pension rules, I don't have any outstanding finance for vans, equipment etc - I'm not responsible for the Franchisees' tax, national insurance.  When a van needs expensive repairs it's down to the Franchisee concerned, he owns the van.  The advantages from my point of view are enormous.

Saying 'less work' doesn't really describe it.  As an employer, even if you're not on the tools you are still in pretty nearly full time employment yourself - everything is your responsibility; every decision has to be made by you.  The success (or failure) of your business is entirely on your shoulders.

Add to that your financial commitment - you have to finance everything, for an organisation like mine (currently 10 franchises) the investment in vehicles, equipment, uniforms, fuel, insurances etc etc would be very high.

I don't have any of that, the trade-off is that I only get 20% of the whole turnover as income for my part of the organisation (Franchisor) -  but I have very low overheads.

My working week so far this week:  I've had to place two orders for stock replenishment, provide some replacement parts to franchisees from my stock and take payment for them,  deal with a few phone calls, visit and quote on 5 enquiries and allocate the resulting jobs to the most suitable Franchisees, and answer a couple of questions from Franchisees.  My wife has had to prepare and email invoices to the Franchisees for our week's royalty payments and check our business bank statement to ensure payments are being made as required.  Before the end of the week I have to call the caretakers at three local schools to arrange for one of our Franchisees to come and clean the windows next week. 

Some people prefer to be involved in every detail of their businesses, I like it the way I do it - it's all a matter of choice.

[sunshine windows]

Thank you for all your kind comments. 😊

I am still working a small round myself, though I'm hoping to split this into 2 further franchises once my sister in law is going it alone and I've generated enough work to do so. (will need around £10k extra annually to make it appealing).

The original 3 are happy with workload and will just continue to grow steadily through enquiries within their current areas. As Mandy only wants to work part time, adding £10k to my round shouldn't take long at all.

Once the next 2 come on board, I will effectively down tools and deal with first cleans (if franchisees are too busy) and one off jobs such as gutters and conservatory roofs.

As far as profit margins go, Ian has explained it perfectly. As I said in the article, I had no intention of becoming a large employer, I'm not cut out for that and don't want the hassle.

Mandy's 3rd day today and she's getting on very well with the work and all the customers are loving her becoming their new cleaner. Where's the loyalty hey 😢

[Mike55]

Nice one Lance, nice write up.

Generally I'm wondering why one would franchise out work rather than take on employees/ subbies?

I would have thought the profit margins from franchising are way lower, albeit less work?

That's the point Mike.  For some people life style is important.  Franchising allows me to take a (very) back seat.  I have none of the responsibilities or expenses of employing.  I am not subject to the workplace pension rules, I don't have any outstanding finance for vans, equipment etc - I'm not responsible for the Franchisees' tax, national insurance.  When a van needs expensive repairs it's down to the Franchisee concerned, he owns the van.  The advantages from my point of view are enormous.

Saying 'less work' doesn't really describe it.  As an employer, even if you're not on the tools you are still in pretty nearly full time employment yourself - everything is your responsibility; every decision has to be made by you.  The success (or failure) of your business is entirely on your shoulders.

Add to that your financial commitment - you have to finance everything, for an organisation like mine (currently 10 franchises) the investment in vehicles, equipment, uniforms, fuel, insurances etc etc would be very high.

I don't have any of that, the trade-off is that I only get 20% of the whole turnover as income for my part of the organisation (Franchisor) -  but I have very low overheads.

My working week so far this week:  I've had to place two orders for stock replenishment, provide some replacement parts to franchisees from my stock and take payment for them,  deal with a few phone calls, visit and quote on 5 enquiries and allocate the resulting jobs to the most suitable Franchisees, and answer a couple of questions from Franchisees.  My wife has had to prepare and email invoices to the Franchisees for our week's royalty payments and check our business bank statement to ensure payments are being made as required.  Before the end of the week I have to call the caretakers at three local schools to arrange for one of our Franchisees to come and clean the windows next week. 

Some people prefer to be involved in every detail of their businesses, I like it the way I do it - it's all a matter of choice.

Thank you Ian for your explanation.
 
I may well look into the finer details of franchising a bit deeper me thinks.

Cheers, Mike