Sep 5, 2011 | Clients in the Media
Coconut Creatives’ client news: Assist with Solutions keeps SMEs on the road to success!
There are over 4.5 million businesses in the UK, each with specific and different needs. Over 3 million of these are in the Small to Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector and are looking for ways to expand without having to commit to employing new staff and expensive training programmes. Traditionally, SMEs look to organisations such as Business Link for advice but the reduction in Government grants and the withdrawal of funded support like Business Link, means that SMEs are now looking to the private sector for solutions.
Assist with Solutions is a business consultancy franchise that is filling this role in a sector now worth £10 billion; providing support to business owners wanting to develop and grow. At some point during their business cycle, companies need help in areas such as marketing, operations, finance or I.T. Assist with Solutions help them identify what they need and when, then they work with them to help make it happen. They help their clients to make money, save money and save time.
Andy MacDonald, MD of Assist with Solutions, explains: “We help business owners to achieve their dreams, goals and ambitions. It’s a little bit of business magic! Setting them free from the daily operational and growth headaches.”
MD Pipeline Services Ltd is one of UK’s top providers for sewer desilting, inspection, cleaning and repair, their MD David Evans explains: “We needed help to get our business model from the idea stage to the marketplace and the assistance we received from Assist with Solutions has enabled us to secure the funding the business needed to achieve its strategic objectives.”
Andy adds: “We are currently achieving up to 50% net profit margins and so that we can continue our excellent level of support to win and keep clients, we are only looking to recruit 10 franchisees in 2011.”
To register for a discovery day or find out more email andy.macdonald@assistwithsolutions.co.uk or call 0844 669 8827.
Aug 8, 2011 | Industry Events
Coconut Creatives’ client news: Driver Hire franchisees are excelling despite the economic downturn
According to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, despite the effects of recession, total turnover in the UK recruitment industry is almost £20bn a year, which means Driver Hire’s potential market place is enormous.
Even measured against its own 25-year plus track record, 2010/11 was a good year for Driver Hire. “Our business grew by nearly 23% last year,” says Chris Chidley, Driver Hire’s CEO. “From the perspective of many individual franchisees, the picture looks even better. At our Summer Conference in July 2011, we presented 25 offices with ‘best-ever’ annual sales awards, a remarkable performance.”
Market potential
Driver Hire is one of the UK’s most established franchise networks. This specialist provider of recruitment services has almost 100 offices around the UK and every day of the year supplies over 3,000 personnel, mainly drivers and other logistics staff, to organisations in the public and private sector.
Franchisees like Roy McLellan at Driver Hire Dundee are still seeing strong growth, even in the face of an uncertain UK economy. Turnover in mid-2011 is already 25% up on last year, when the business turned over £1.3m. As Roy explains, the economy actually works in favour of the Driver Hire business model: “It’s all about listening to your customers and delivering a service that responds to their specific needs. Right now, with unpredictable order books and rising fuel costs, they need to find ways of reducing their fixed costs and coping with varying demand. We can talk to them about the flexibility and cost benefits of using temps and our systems and selection processes mean they can be confident of getting the very best staff.”
Driver CPC
Another development in the past year has delivered a new, complementary revenue stream for Driver Hire franchisees. The Driver CPC is a new, compulsory qualification that all HGV drivers must now gain and then maintain with ongoing training. Spotting an opportunity, Driver Hire gained formal accreditation and developed an extensive suite of Driver CPC training modules.
Franchisees attended training courses and most now actively sell training services alongside their traditional recruitment services. The new initiative has been so successful that Driver Hire is now one of the UK’s largest providers of the training, with its franchisees and other trainers having delivered over 55,000 hours of training.
Investment Opportunity
All of this makes Driver Hire an attractive investment opportunity for anyone considering setting up their own business. In the first half of 2011, nine new franchisees have joined the network, in locations as far apart as Inverness and Plymouth.
Could a Driver Hire franchise be right for you? Well, Rowan Pritchard achieved the remarkable feat of becoming Driver Hire Franchisee of the Year in 2010, within just a couple of years of buying his franchise, in Romford. Here’s what he says about his experience:
“Recruitment is a unique business. I hadn’t been involved in it before I came into Driver Hire but the training I received from Head Office helped me enormously. I don’t consider myself to be a natural sales person, but I firmly believe in the Driver Hire brand and so I’m confident going out and promoting it. I then back that up with a personal commitment to deliver what I promise.
“I can honestly say that I love being in this business. If you’re looking for variety and constant challenge this is the place to be. No two days are ever the same. I still get real personal satisfaction from knowing that I’ve helped a customer and at the same time found work for one of my candidates. I’d recommend it to anyone.”
You can find out more about the Driver Hire franchise opportunity by calling 0844 846 0031. Alternatively, visit www.driverhire.co.uk/franchise or email franchise@driverhire.co.uk.
Aug 8, 2011 | Clients in the Media
Coconut Creatives’ client activitymix explains why their management franchise is contributing to a new era of employee engagement:
Organisations are asking their staff to do more and more to ride the wave of economic uncertainty and HR managers are looking for ways to motivate staff without offering substantial financial incentives. Recently Peter Wilde, Global Head of Engagement at Unilever and an expert in the field of employee engagement, completed research which confirmed that businesses who use employee engagement programmes see increased profits but that they need to change their emphasis from traditional staid programmes in order to achieve the same engagement impact!
One company that has a proven impact on staff productivity and a record of keeping track of changing trends is activitymix, a management franchise business currently operating in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London.
activitymix, is an employee engagement business that uses sport and physical activity to help companies increase productivity and reduce absenteeism, and can boast a consistent client retention rate of 80% year on year with global brands such as Shell, BP, BarclaysCapital, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Over 20,000 people have participated since 2003, and participation rates within individual companies are increasing with the original activitymix territory reaching a turnover of £350k.
Founders Jules Lancastle and Richard Johnston see this enviable retention rate as an indication of good market analysis and excellence in service delivery. They have worked hard to protect their business model which now offers an exciting business option for future franchise partners with a desire to combine sport with business objectives.
Could your company benefit from some activitymix treatment? Or could you be the next activitymix franchise partner? It’s a great business because they invest in keeping up with the latest techniques to keep staff motivated:
- 7 years of experience & systems development
- Produce proposals that work for board directors and company executives
- Initial 5 day tailored training course for franchise partners
- One-day additional training course EVERY month for the duration of the 5 year franchise agreement
- Only choose the most budding enthusiastic entrepreneurs as franchise partners!
You can find out more about activitymix as a franchise opportunity at one of their discovery days.
- An open, honest and transparent opportunity for you to ask all your questions about any aspect of the business
- Join in a group activity to see first-hand what the client experience is like!
Call activitymix for more information or to register for a discovery day on 0845 2700160.
May 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
Coconut Creatives has teamed together with the Fleet Street freelancer, Linda Whitney, to offer press and media training to its clients. Linda, whose franchise columns have appeared in the Daily Mail for over a decade is now offering this unique training opportunity in a response to help combat media nerves, commonly suffered by business owners and managers. Linda will be offering ‘one 2 one’ training to help individuals understand what journalists are looking for.
“We are really excited to be offering these services to our clients and we can not think of a better person to deliver them, other than Linda,” explains Sarah Cook, founder of Coconut Creatives.
Packaged in a compact one-hour telephone conference with Linda Whitney:
· A ten minute briefing session explaining how to prepare, what journalists want to know and how to relax before starting.
· Then after a break for preparation, Linda will call again and conduct a ten minute mock interview, focussing on the kind of information journalists want from you.
· Ten minutes of feedback, highlighting what comes across well and explaining how you can improve any area that needs polishing up.
· Another ten minute interview allowing you to put into practice what has been learnt, followed by a final ten minute feedback session.
All interviewees receive a summary of the points made in the session by email within an hour of the session ending, which provides useful notes to refer back to in the future. The system has been on trial for a while and the response has been fantastic. The insight it has provided business owners and franchisors into the mysterious world of journalism is valuable.
“Anyone who undertakes this training will gain media communication skills that they can use for the rest of their professional career,” adds Sarah. “For just an hour on invested time, it provides a great result!”
Linda explains further “All business owners, franchisors and key staff will deal with the press at sometime. Getting it right can boost your business. Getting it wrong can have incalculable consequences.”
To find out more about media training with Linda Whitney, visit http://ishouldcoco.wpengine.com/services/press__media_training/ for full details.
