One of the questions I hear asked a lot is – what exactly is a Franchise?
Put simply, when someone joins a franchise business they become self employed and buy the right to use the parent company’s name and trademark, their operating procedures, knowledge and expertise, to become part of a wider team and to receive ongoing support during the lifetime of their business. Some people describe a franchise as a “business in a box” – it’s a way of being able to get up and running and earning money from your business quickly, with the security of being part of an established brand.
At ARTventurers, we’ve been offering franchise opportunities to the right people for our brand since 2015 – although we’ve been in business for a lot longer than that! When I made the decision to franchise ARTventurers, it wasn’t an easy decision to make and one that I thought long and hard about. ARTventurers is very much my third baby and I wanted to make sure that if we went down the franchising route that it was done properly and that we were confident it would work! So we spent a full year trying and testing the model before we launched the full franchise package so that we could be sure that ARTventurers COULD work for other people in other areas of the country!
We also spent time carefully developing our ARTventurers package. Our approach to franchising at ARTventurers is quite non-traditional and is very flexible – in line with our entire company ethos! Our franchise package is transparent and straightforward in our pricing (no hidden charges, percentages or sneaky levys here!) and we actively embrace our franchisees own creativity, making our approach very collaborative and team focused. We’re a fun, flexible and of course CREATIVE business so our attitude to franchising reflects this!
One thing that we invest very heavily in at ARTventurers is support for all of our franchisees. We were thrilled to have won the Supportive Franchisor of the Year 2017 in the Working Mums Awards recently (as well as Overall Top Franchise 2017!) and the judging panel praised our flexible and innovative support package for all members of the team throughout their business journey. I’m such a firm believer in the power of team work and working together – and I think that all of our ARTventurers franchisees would tell you how invaluable it is being part of a supportive, friendly team where everyone is in the same boat and working towards the same goals! It means you’re never alone – there’s always a team behind you as you launch and grow your business, cheering you on and lending a hand if you get stuck! There’s a real boom in the UK franchising market at present and studies do show that franchise businesses have a higher success rate than independent businesses going it alone for the very reasons set out above – the support structure and tried and tested procedures and expertise behind the franchisee.
