Editors Note: The owner of this franchise is a personal friend with whom I have done business with for over 25 years! – This is not an advertisement or an affiliate linked post, rather an advice section on the opportunities out there – specifically UK, on a franchising opportunity that has been established for over 11 years. Any business decision you make is on you.
Andrew
Lets crunch some numbers
Franchising in the UK is big business and with big business come big numbers.
Before I hit you with lots of stats though, I really want you to know that just because franchising is big business, it doesn’t necessarily mean that only big businesses within franchising are making these big numbers happen. Does that make sense?
To illustrate my point, check this:
There are 48,600 franchised units in the UK of which 2,300 are Costa Coffee; 2,200 are Subway; 1,250 are McDonalds; 1,100 are Domino’s and 400 are Starbucks. There are around 935 franchise systems (businesses) in the UK. The franchises mentioned above are 5 in number. There are 930 other franchise systems operating across the UK. Nearly 4 in 10 franchise systems can be operated from a home office.
The 48,600 franchised units collectively employ over 710,000 people. That’s an increase of nearly 90,000 people since 2015. These 710,000 people are employed in hugely different businesses ranging from food to finance, from tuition to training, from engineering to estate agency and from pubs to publishing.
65% of these 710,000 people are women and across the UK just over 37% of new franchisees are women. Women in franchising is big business and I should know because 95% of my Raring2go! franchisees are women and 99% of them are mothers. 100% of them are brilliant, committed and amazing people that we are privileged to have in our network.
Raring2go! is one of the low cost home based franchises which is making a huge difference to the UK franchise economy and at the same time to the lives of its franchisee’s. Alongside the thousands of other low cost (sub £20k investment) franchises Raring2go! is part of the gigantic machine which ultimately contributes so heavily to our national GDP.
But how much does it contribute? Well, since 2015, there has been a £2.1bn increase in turnover from within the UK franchise sector. In 2018 that meant that franchising turned over £17.2bn. That’s what I meant when I said that franchising is big business.
The high street names that dominate the UK franchise sector are high street names mainly because they do lots of TV advertising. They typically require a six figure investment together with a contract term ranging from 10 to 20 years. But just behind these giants there is that army of literally thousands of low cost, small but perfectly formed home based franchise systems that Raring2go! is proud to be a member of.
All of these low cost franchises are delivering on their franchisees expectations, only they’re doing so for a fraction of the initial investment and typically over a far shorter period of time. All of them too are making an even greater combined contribution to this country’s GDP than the big guys. That’s just a matter of simple mathematics.
The low cost homes based franchise systems are a hidden and powerful sector. Hidden, because they lurk behind your neighbour’s front door, in a small discreet office space above a shop with no discernible signage or in many cases upon the kitchen table of households up and down the country.
They’re Powerful because united they represent a massive part of the UK’s franchise output. If you got them all together you’d need a premiership football stadium to seat them.
In franchising terms the low cost sector is responsible for the considerable output of a vast number of individual business owners. For many the journey into franchising is aided by their aversion to risk. They know that whilst there are no guarantees of success, the chances are statistically higher with a franchise than a ‘go it alone start up’. Add to that a lower investment level and a life and work balance which suits them down to the ground and you can see why the low cost franchise sector is quite so buoyant and enjoying rude health.
* Statistics quoted from the 2018 Natwest Franchise Survey.
Are you Raring2go!?
If you are, Raring2go! franchise will put their money where their mouth is and reinvest over £10,000 into your first year of trading.
What is Raring2go!
Raring2go! is a magazine and website franchise known as the ‘Go To Guide for You and Your Child’. Our audience is families with primary school age children.
Our franchisees produce a colourful and vibrant quarterly A5 glossy magazine with content split between paid for advertising and highly relevant local editorial. Revenue is generated by selling advertising in each edition to local businesses that want to position themselves in front of the family audience. Advertising content is merged with local editorial (what’s on listings, events, days out) so the magazines are way more than just an advertising directory. They have coffee table resilience and are known, loved and trusted by mums.
Our franchisees also manage their own local website which additionally offers revenue streams from advertising banners, MPU’s, feature pages and E-Newsletters slots.
Return on investment
A Raring2go! franchise costs £15,995 + VAT and comes with an all inclusive start up package, so there really are no hidden costs. We are a franchisor with over 11 years experience operating Raring2go! successfully in the UK and we know how tough starting out in any business is and how stressful the first year of operation can be.
That’s why we are putting our money where our mouth is and committing to reinvesting over £10,000 straight back in our new franchisees areas. We are doing this by waiving all licence fees for the first 12 months and covering the print costs of the first four editions of the magazine.
This means that for the first 12 months of trading, new franchisees can focus 100% on building their business, raising awareness locally, developing relationships with new accounts and making money…. without the burden or direction of invoices from head office.
Who are we looking for?
Ideally people with some form of sales background, though that’s not essential as we provide a rock solid sales training programme as part of your start up package. What we really do need though are people who are confident and comfortable in going out building relationships with local business and selling advertising. If this isn’t you, then maybe we’re not for you.
We’re aiming to make the first 12 months of your Raring2go! journey as easy as we can. We want you to hit the ground running and enjoy all the benefits of self employment via an established franchise like ours can deliver.
There are no guarantees in life. FACT! But with Raring2go!’s start up package and unrivaled commitment to reinvest over £10k of the £16k purchase price straight back into your first year of trading, this is as close as it gets.
Raring2go! has a limited number of greenfield territories available across the UK.
I also am the driving force behind the Italian Job Event (www.italianjob.com), an annual fundraising driving event which takes Minis, old and new, across Europe to Italy and back once a year. I'm a Mini nut and since 1990, my Italian Job has been responsible for raising in excess of £2.6M for children's charities. Please do get in touch if you fancy joining us. It's social motoring at its best!
