How to Make a Career Change With a Kitchen Franchise
Cara Squires, writer
Published at 27/08/2021, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 5 min
The global pandemic has caused a great deal of professional change, and left many Britons rethinking their current jobs. If you’re looking to make a career change, why not consider starting a kitchen franchise? As a franchisee in the kitchen design industry, you’ll be your own boss, enjoy a flexible working life, and have plenty of room to be creative.
Most people agree that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and the demand for kitchen renovation and remodeling services in the UK right now definitely reflects this fact. With so many customers waiting to create the kitchens of their dreams, it’s a really good time to make a change and pursue a career as a franchisee with a kitchen business.
Why start a kitchen remodeling franchise?
After so long spent at home and in the kitchen during COVID-19, plenty of people are lining up to change their kitchen into a tranquil and beautiful space that truly reflects their needs, having become acutely aware of all the changes they’d like to make. With the money that would usually go towards a holiday abroad or two, a lot of UK homeowners are renovating their kitchen spaces instead. You could capitalise on this demand.
Even beyond the post-COVID wave of renovations, the kitchen design sector enjoys steady demand. Fitted kitchen products, for example, make up a significant proportion of the home improvement market, and more than 1.2 million new kitchens were purchased in 2019 [Trend Monitor]. Beyond demand, there are plenty of advantages to running a kitchen franchise, including:
- The opportunity to be creative
- Varied and interesting working days
- The chance to see projects through to completion
- The opportunity to work closely with clients, turning dreams into realities
- The ability to fall back on your franchisor and the business’s proven model
- The comprehensive training and development available to you
- The built-in brand recognition
>> Read more:
- Ready for a Career Change? Check Out These Five Top Franchise Opportunities in the UK
- Career Change: Start a Fresh Career with a Franchise
- Fed Up With the 9-to-5 Perhaps Starting a Franchise Business Is Your Best Next Career Move
Making a career change with a kitchen design franchise
Figuring out how to make a career change and start a kitchen franchise successfully isn’t easy, but this article will help you on your way. Cover the following four steps, and you’ll set yourself up for success from day one…
1. Get to grips with the industry
The kitchen industry is rapidly changing and developing with each passing year, as is the case across many industries. Before you dive straight in and commit to a franchise agreement, make sure you know what you’ll be getting into. Discover the latest trends innovating the sector, such as:
- Eclectic personalisation
- Sleek simplicity
- Storage maximisation
- High-tech faucets and appliances
- Stainless steel features
- Pet-friendly features
2. Find your place
When you’re up to date on the newest innovations shaping the kitchen industry, you’ll then need to look at the opportunities available to you and find your place. Choosing the right kitchen franchise for you could be a challenge, as there are several different paths you might like to take, but fundamentally, it should all come down to figuring out two things:
- What you want to do each day - Are you looking for a role in which you’ll be regularly meeting with clients and attending sites? Or a role more focused on kitchen design? Or a role that’s primarily about managing staff and negotiating with suppliers?
- What skills you bring to the table - What are your strengths and transferable skills, and what do they tell you about where you might fit in? Are you creative? Organised? Technically gifted? Good at communicating? Good at managing time?
Look into the requirements listed by franchise businesses that interest you, and conduct plenty of research to find the space in the industry that will truly allow you to thrive and play to your strengths. The right opportunity can be immensely profitable so spare no expense on researching the industry.
3. Narrow your pool of opportunities down
By this point, you’ll probably have a pool of franchise opportunities that appeal to you, and be in the process of narrowing down this list. As you do, play close attention to factors like available operational territories and full cost of investment (including overheads and monthly fees), because these will be 100% make or break.
You don’t want to franchise with a company in which you can’t work in the location you’d like to, and you don’t want to cause yourself financial strife by over-investing. The average cost of starting a franchise unit, in 2018, was £42,200 [British Franchise Association], but as you can imagine, this figure can differ quite a bit from opportunity to opportunity. Here are some examples from the kitchen industry, to give you an idea:
- TREND Transformations - To become a TREND Transformations franchisee, you’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £35,000, with franchise fees of £28,600, a total investment cost of £123,000, and royalty and advertising fees charged at 7% and 2% respectively.
- RAISON Home - To become a RAISON Home franchisee, you’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £10,000, with franchise fees of £12,500, a total investment cost of £22,495 and royalty and advertising fees both charged at 5%.
- Dream Doors - To become a Dream Doors franchisee, you’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £30,000, with franchisee fees of £35,000 and a total investment cost of £85,000.
4. Put in the effort at every step of the process
The best way to successfully make a career change, regardless of the industry you’re entering and the industry you’re coming from, is to truly invest yourself in the process and put in the effort. From doing your due diligence and properly evaluating an opportunity prior to investing all the way to seizing continued training opportunities when your franchisor offers them, hard work and dedication are the most reliable route to success.
Life is all about opportunity. The more you put yourself out there, the more opportunities you will be presented with. We do not regret the opportunities we took, it’s the ones we don’t take that we regret. – Tom Stevenson, Medium
>> Read more:
Start running your own business in the kitchen renovation industry
Having read this article, you should now be equipped with the knowledge you need to start a successful kitchen franchise and begin your journey as a franchisee. Stay on Point Franchise to start researching the industry. Discover four crucial tips for running a kitchen franchise, or read up on some of the top kitchen design businesses in the UK.
Cara Squires, writer