Sep 5, 2011 | Clients in the Media
Coconut Creatives’ client news: Driver Hire franchisee takes success into his own hands
Gee Bains owns Driver Hire’s franchise in South East London. Based in Cannon Wharf, his office is part of a nationwide network of almost 100 offices, specialising in providing recruitment services to the logistics sector. Driver Hire supplies some 3,000 personnel each day, mainly drivers and other logistics staff, to organisations in the public and private sectors.
Gee bought his franchise in May 2010 and is a fast-rising new star at Driver Hire. Recently named the network’s Office of the Month, in only his first full year of trading, Gee is on track for annual sales in excess of £700,000 – close to the Driver Hire average of £735,000. This performance is even more impressive when you consider that it is more than twice the £353,000 average turnover for a franchise in the UK, as revealed by the latest bfa/NatWest industry survey.
So how did Gee, still in his early 30s, come to choose to invest in a franchise, and more specifically in Driver Hire? His background is in IT and he had worked for a leading City law firm for over ten years. However, an entrepreneurial spirit was obviously lurking just below the surface – Gee’s father has his own successful business – and once the decision was made to become self-employed, there was no turning back.
Personal Recommendation
“I’d been looking for an investment opportunity for some time, and in fact had first spoken to Driver Hire a couple of years earlier, but the right opportunity wasn’t available at the time. A good friend of mine, Manjit Singh, is the owner of Driver Hire Enfield and he recommended the business to me. I knew how successful Manjit had become and naturally that appealed to me. Manjit is responsible for his own success of course, but he also explained how valuable being part of a successful franchise had been to him, especially through the recession. The package of support that Driver Hire provides really is second-to-none. It’s a franchise with a 50-strong Head Office team, all dedicated to helping make your business a success.”
Extensive Support Package
Driver Hire is a B2B management franchise, operating in a highly legislation and compliance-led industry. Over the years there has been an enormous investment on the part of the franchisor in ensuring that all of its franchisees have a detailed understanding of the relevant rules and regulations, but also in developing systems, processes and training that make day-to-day operations as uncomplicated as possible. This in turn enables the network to deliver market-leading quality standards.
The extensive package of support includes: administrative functions such as invoicing and payroll; a bespoke IT system which takes care of bookings, candidate and customer records, and helps to ensure legislative compliance; a National Accounts team, which delivers centrally-won business opportunities; a Marketing team providing a steady stream of professional marketing resources; and a dedicated Area Development Manager. Franchisees who follow the system and operate their business effectively can take home 10-12% of turnover and of course, build up significant capital value as their business grows.
Keeping it Simple
“It’s actually quite a simple business,” says Gee. “Recruitment is just bringing people together – finding the best match between people who are looking for work, with other people who need staff. We now also have a thriving additional revenue stream in driver training. What I love about my business is the fact that every day is different. I get a real buzz from helping my customers; sorting out their problems and helping them achieve what they are trying to do. The rewards are excellent too. If you are well organised, with great people skills and have the determination to build your own successful business, you should take a closer look at Driver Hire.”
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
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.
Jul 25, 2011 | Coconut in the Media
Franchisor Advice Article written by Coconut Creatives Head of Media, Sally Butters:
Media coverage can be a blessing for franchisors if it is managed well; as your profile goes up, so will your recruitment figures. Whilst an integrated marketing campaign will always yield the best results, not all of its activities have to incur a direct cost. Here are 10 things to consider within your franchise marketing plan that do not have to break the bank!
1. Focus your PR efforts. Choose carefully exactly what message you want to convey, your target audience and your target media. Whether it’s the launch of a new franchise opportunity, a significant anniversary or a competition win, make sure it is relevant to the readership of your targeted media — be it print, broadcast or online.
2. Use social media for free PR. You can set up a Facebook page or a Twitter account at no cost. Social media is an excellent way to build relationships with your prospects and create word–of–mouth publicity. This can get addictive so make sure that you only devote an appropriate amount of time to tweeting as if your target audience doesn’t use social media that much then you could spend your time more effectively elsewhere!
3. Viral marketing. Whether it’s a YouTube video with thousands of views, or a photo that is tweeted and retweeted, if your promotional material goes ‘viral’ it can give your public profile a huge boost. There is no magic formula to viral marketing — but something quirky, interesting and funny is more likely to capture people’s imaginations.
4. Write a great press release. Press releases have more uses than just being sent to journalists, they can also go on your website, be linked to your social media profiles and added to any recruitment website listings you may have. Ensure you have a catchy headline and a strong, summarising opening paragraph and an image to capture the imagination before getting into the details.
5. Get back to basics. Don’t waste your time sending out endless empty press releases. Journalists want to write about something that is newsworthy, particularly if it will appeal to their readership. If it’s linked with famous people or events, controversial, amusing, or relevant to a current national news item then you are much more likely to get the coverage you want.
6. Advertising promotions. Many advertisers also offer editorial space with the space you have paid for. If you take up this free editorial space, make sure you fill it with something appealing to the readers of that publication and give them something to act on – visiting you at an exhibition or joining one of your discovery days.
7. Go for gold. Winning an award is a fantastic way to get publicity — not only does it recognise your talent and increase your prestige, award ceremonies are a good place to network and are usually covered by the press. Some awards are free to enter so look out for ones that are well respected in your industry as well as the franchise sector.
8. Get philanthropic. Giving your time for free can be a scary thought when you are a busy franchisor but it can pay dividends! Getting your team involved in a charity event or offering to speak at a networking event can all have the secondary benefit of raising the profile of your franchise opportunity.
9. Deal with bad publicity promptly. Swift, effective action can turn a negative comment into piece of good publicity. If a customer complains, contact them directly with a full apology and suggested solution. If you see negative and anonymous comments online, respond honestly in the same forum, explaining the situation from your perspective. Do not ignore negative feedback — it may be the first thing a prospective customer sees if they decide to search for you online.
10. Keep it in perspective. Publicity is a great way to increase footfall but don’t neglect other aspects of your business in a bid to boost your profile. Don’t forget that a multi-channel marketing approach is always the most successful route to recruit franchisees.
Ask an expert!
If you don’t have time to manage your own PR, then it is worth outsourcing it. While some companies will work for a reasonable retainer, always ensure you know what you are paying for. If you are not sure if you’ve been given a good deal and want some advice, email me sally@coconutcreatives.co.uk and I’ll give you my opinion. We offer a limited number of PR Pay by Results services to franchisors each month, so if you want to do the writing part yourself but want to leave the dealing with journalists, editors and freelancers to someone else, get in touch to subscribe.
Jul 22, 2011 | Coconut in the Media
Sarah Carlile is a regular contributor to Franchisor News on the subject of franchise recruitment. She is the Founding Partner of Coconut Creatives, the BFA’s only accredited marketing company that offers 1 to 1 franchise recruitment projects and group franchise marketing workshops for franchisors.
In this feature, Sarah discusses the use of social media and its impact on franchise recruitment, how it should be combined with offline activities and how franchisors can use it to train their franchisees to be more successful.
There is a great synergy that now exists between on and offline networking. If you learn how to harness this for your franchise, you’ll recruit more franchisees and you will be better equipped to train your franchisees to become more successful.
How should online social media be used?
The most obvious use of social media for businesses is to create and build a number of ‘raving fan’ networks across various platforms such as FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube and Linked In. These end up being networks of people who know you, have met you or know someone who recommends you and so they will listen to what you have to say, as long as you keep it brief, interesting and non-salesy.
Many people become so focused on utilising the different social networks online that they attack it in a rather hap hazard way: posting updates and tweeting messages that haven’t been thoroughly thought through. We say integrate it into your marketing. This way, you will know what you are going to say and when and you’ll also have a better handle on whether it is working for you.
By making social media an official part of your marketing plan, you can measure its effectiveness, just like having a listing on a franchise recruitment website and measuring how many leads it delivers. The first step to doing this is to assign a ‘Social Media Keeper’. This can be any person within your company that has 30 minutes a day or more to devote to updating your social network mediums. You pick the message and they send it out via the various channels you want to use. You can even hand over business cards you acquire through offline networking and exhibitions and get them growing your networks online for you by adding the details. By doing this you bring offline, online in a better structure. But where do you start to make it effective?
The perfect intro
When people find you or look you up for the first time, is it clear what you do? Is it clear how you do it and who your customers are? Your profile and key information should be planned and thought through carefully. We always work with franchisors in the morning session of our marketing workshop on their ‘perfect intro’ which is initially to support franchise recruitment through introducing new prospects to the franchise in under 1 minute. It seems ideal though that this perfect intro, once created, is used in many other places. This keeps your messaging consistent (one of the fundamentals of good marketing). When writing your perfect intro, you want to aim for about 200 words, broken down into 4 key areas (feel free to email me for a template example):
1. Clearly state who you are, followed by:
2. What you do and for who, followed by:
3. Why you are credible, different and trustworthy, followed by
4. An example of how it has worked for a customer – this gives credibility and believability.
It is definitely a good idea to spend quality time creating this and getting feedback on how it comes across and then edit it accordingly.
Once perfected, this introduction can be used again and again. It is my favourite phrase – “create once and use many times”! Integrate it into magazine features and show guide listings, use it on your website, on leaflets and literature, as long as you follow the 4 stage format and tweak the length, it will work every time.
Smart franchisors also choose to utilise their perfect intro as a training tool for the people they take along to help them on their exhibition stand at shows and events. By doing this, you suddenly increase the consistency of the way prospects are dealt with. You increase your success rate as people grasp quicker what it is you do and why you are different.
Regional use of Social Media by Franchisees
Just like you, your franchisees will be keen to use social media. Some will have a better idea than others how this can be done. The important thing to emphasis, is how to use it to aid sales. It is vital that you provide a good steer on which media to use and how to create their pages on platforms like FaceBook. We have seen cases where a franchisee has successfully (and unintentionally) taken over the franchisor’s network size and voice on a social media platform which then creates confusion for customers trying to locate their local branch and also for potential franchisees trying to locate the franchisor.
Linked In, FaceBook, Twitter or any other online tool should be used in conjunction with three other key areas when operated on a regional/ area specific basis. These are:
1. The franchisees community network
2. The franchisees professional network
3. The franchisees immediate network (family and friends)
When networking is explained in this way, franchisees start to clearly see the role that their chosen online medium can play for them to support sales. It also identity’s the other, sometimes offline areas that also need attention and integrating in with online. For example, if a lead source for a franchisee is to attend business breakfast networking events to build relationships for future sales, these people should also be networked with on Linked In.
It is also highly likely that a franchisee will have a number of potential customers within their own community network (such as fellow golfers, children’s parents and so on). By using online channels to softly inform them of their service, they keep business online and pleasure offline which, when integrated in this way, often results in additional sales as awareness increases.
As tools on and offline expand, we need to utilise many more of them to maintain business growth. Franchisors need to consider the impact of these tools on their franchise network and customers and how they can control and monitor their growth to support sales all round.
To find out other ways to improve your franchise recruitment, attend a Franchise Marketing Workshop with Sarah Cook, Sally Butters and the rest of the Coconut team. Email info@coconutcreatives.co.uk or call 01725 511673.
Jul 22, 2011 | Coconut News
With just under a week until the next Coconut Creatives franchise recruitment marketing workshop (which is fully booked), on the 27th July, the timing for franchisors to get involved in future workshops could not be better.
The next workshop, held in Bracknell, is fully booked with a wide range of franchisors which span across industry sector and also in size. The content on the workshops is suitable for both new and established franchisors and covers the key areas of how to recruit more franchisees through marketing techniques, advertising, PR, copy writing, branding and utilising video in getting key messages across.
Sophie Brooks, Managing Director for Clive’s Easylearn Pop Music Schools attended a franchise marketing workshop a few months ago and now is working closely with Sarah on a specially devised mentoring programme. After winning the EWIF Franchisor of the Year Award, Coconut Creatives have been helping Sophie get booked up rwith activity ready for the show season ahead and ensure that she stays on track with marketing her franchise.
“I found the franchisor marketing workshop hugely beneficial, I have already been able to implement some great changes and improvements based on the advice and information given at the workshop. I found the one-to-one sessions with the experts very helpful as they were able to give specific advice on your business. Since attending the marketing workshop I am now working closely with Coconut Creatives in mentoring programme. This has so far helped us to look in more detail at our marketing campaigns, work on improving these, generating more leads and getting better results. The advice and support provided so far has been exceptional. I am really looking forward to continuing to work with Sarah and Coconut Creatives to build our business and would have no hesitation in strongly recommending Coconut Creatives to any franchisor,” Sophie Brooks, Franchisor for Clive’s Easylearn Pop Music Schools.
Coconut Creatives Franchise Marketing Workshops run monthly in different locations around the UK. Contact info@coconutcreatives.co.uk for an agenda and booking form or visit coconutcreatives.co.uk for a full list of published next dates and content.
Franchise recruitment marketing workshop, with guest speaker Nick Strong in June 2011.
