I have been reading, mainly out of interest for now, the books that ian lancaster suggested in his talk at windex - that might be a good start gazza, the only thing i have found looking into franchising is that the advantages become dis advantages in the wrong person
ie, no employees
this is good? no tax, ni sick pay etc
however this also means they are a free agent to some extent apart from the franchise agreement however its human nature that once someone has set up a good business they will feel its all there hard work and they dont need you
Also finding franchisees is incredibly hard aaparently in this country, and i can imagine even more so in a area like window cleaning
PLus it seems to me whereas major franchises like kfc, mcdonalds coca cola have huge brands in fact that is probably there biggest asset, you would need some kind of large scale recognition surely in a sizeable area to be worth anything to a franchisee as effectively franchising is granting a license to trade under your proven system of business and well known name
BUt apart from those it seems a good enough way to go, aprt from one las thing the set up costs but done properly you should make that money back in time, and ian lancaster seeemss to have done very well at it, and given more time im sure he would of been a lot bigger
Certainly seems less hassle than employees once up and runnning