How to Start Your Own Management Franchise

Lily Sweeney, writer

Published at 12/07/2021, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 5 min

How to Start Your Own Management Franchise — Photo © How-to-Start-Your-Own-Management-Franchise.jpg

If you’re interested in becoming a franchisee, you’ll find that there are all kinds of opportunities available for you in the franchising sector, many of which you can get into without sector-specific experience. With leadership and communication skills, a desire to succeed, and a desire to be your own boss, a management franchise could be the perfect investment. Here’s how to start your own.

In the management sector, no two days are the same, and your responsibilities will be many and various, handing you reward and challenge in equal measure, and requiring you to lead and collaborate in equal measure, too.

What is a management business?

A management business is a business which, as you might have guessed, you manage. You’re responsible for the running of it, and often, you’ll be recruiting individuals to form a team of employees, whose actions you’ll then oversee.

As mentioned, many franchise opportunities don’t require previous knowledge, but as a franchisee with a management business, you might benefit from (or in some cases, be required to have) previous management experience.

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Should I start a management franchise?

Franchising, as an industry, is growing and expanding with each passing year. In 2018, 710,000 people were employed in franchising, and a £17.2 billion turnover was generated [British Franchise Association]. Within franchising, there are plenty of different management franchise opportunities, including:

Aspray - Manage your own property repair and insurance claim management franchise with Aspray.
ActionCOACH - Start a business coaching franchise with ActionCOACH, the world’s first of its kind.
Benjamin Stevens - Manage your own property sales business as a Benjamin Stevens franchisee.
Camile Thai Kitchen - Manage a delicious Thai restaurant with Camile Thai Kitchen.

With plenty of options available from the real estate sector to the food service sector, you’re bound to find a management franchise opportunity that floats your boat. Once you do, you’ll enjoy the following benefits:

You’ll have an established business model to follow and fall back on
You’ll receive expert franchisor support and training
You’ll enjoy an existing and reputable brand name, with a built-in customer base
You’ll be much less likely to fail than you would be as an independent business owner
You’ll be your own boss

Managers are often responsible for not only managing employees, but also sometimes handling the same duties as their team members. [...] Managers can also act as a bridge between employees and upper-level management. They’re often responsible for reporting how their team is performing and will advocate on behalf of their team to secure the resources and support they need. – Indeed

5 top tips for starting a management franchise

1. Assess your strengths and weaknesses

Though, on a franchise to franchise basis, management experience could be necessary, many franchise opportunities will simply require you to have a few useful transferable skills in order to succeed in the role.

Before selecting a franchise and committing to anything, start the process by carefully assessing your skillset. What can you do, and what do you struggle with? This done, compare your strengths and weaknesses to the requirements of franchises you’re looking into investing with. Common skills required of management franchisees include:

Communication
Problem-solving
Teamwork
Leadership
Delegation
Organisation
Motivation

A key element of a successful franchise system is to be able to take someone from outside that industry sector and make them a successful franchisee. Indeed, many franchisors deliberately seek franchisees who have little or no knowledge of their service or product but have general management and sales skills. – Nick Lyons, Managing Director of No Letting Go

2. Pinpoint the right opportunity

When you’re going about starting your own management franchise, research is vital. For every franchise that you consider investing with, you’ll need to uncover answers to the following questions:

What is the franchise’s reputation with its customer base?
What is the franchise’s reputation with its existing franchisees?
What is the market/demand like in the area that you’d be franchising in?
What will the start-up costs be (including and beyond initial franchise fees)?

You can conduct this important research in a number of ways, from browsing online resources like Point Franchise to speaking with your franchisor, current franchisees, or a franchise consultant. Make sure you know everything that you can before you sign that legally binding franchise agreement, committing yourself to a franchisor for a duration of several years.

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3. Make sure the opportunity is a financial match

Once you’ve determined, as mentioned, what the costs will be of starting a particular franchise, you’ll need to assess whether or not the opportunity is a financial match, even if it’s a match to your skills and interests. The average cost of starting a franchise in 2018 was £42,200 [British Franchise Association], though low cost options are available across a wide range of sectors.

If you can’t cover all of the start-up costs upfront, you can secure franchise funding through a UK bank (usually willing to lend between 50-70% of start-up costs to would-be franchisees with good credit histories), or through a less traditional method such as the government’s Startup Loans Scheme.

4. Create a killer business plan

When you’ve narrowed things down and located the right opportunity for you, it’s time to create a business plan. A successful franchise business plan will not only help you when potentially applying for financial support from UK banks, but will also help you to know that:

You and your franchisor are on the same page. The plan can be read and approved by them.
You know where your business is heading, and what your longer term goals are.
Seek legal advice prior to signing your franchise agreement

With everything ready to go, and your franchise agreement on the table ready to sign, it can be tempting to rush ahead without taking precautionary steps. But at this stage, it’s important that you seek the advice of a legal professional. Have this professional peruse your agreement and confirm that everything is above board, and avoid putting your name to a business without knowing what you’re truly signing up for.

When you’ve covered each of these five top tips and signed your agreement, you’ll stand at the beginning of a (hopefully very successful) franchisee journey, in which you’ll need to manage a team effectively and work hard. In return, you’ll see profit, reward and variety in your day-to-day life.

Become a franchisee with a B2B business today

If, after diving into this article, you’re interested in joining a management or B2B franchise, stick around. Discover Point Franchise’s plethora of informative articles, including an exploration of the seven advantages of running a B2B franchise and a rundown of the top five management franchises in the UK.