Coconut Creatives have been working with Janine Eaglestone, founder of Woodland Dogs Ltd.  Janine and the Coconuts have been working together to launch the Woodland Dogs franchise operation which allows fellow animal lovers to run a profitable business from home.

Janine Eaglestone has managed to succeed when many others have failed before her in attempting to make money through working with animals.  Woodland Dogs Ltd was launched 5 years ago and she now generates in excess of £60K per year walking and caring for dogs.  Using her methodologies, systems and experience, others can now also learn how to run a successful, profitable and long term business with animals.

“I’m offering a fantastic lifestyle and profitable business venture.  Most people don’t know how to work with animals profitably, but I do.  You can learn Woodland Dogs’ unique systems and strategies through the training and support offered through this franchise opportunity” Janine says.

Janine is actively searching for franchisees who are skilled in customer care with great communication and organisation, franchisees who would love to become part of the Woodland Dogs team.

Some regular tasks for franchisees include:

• Visiting potential owners and their dogs
• Discussing their requirements and to ensure that the owner has a broad understanding of the costs
• Meeting the dogs to be walked in order to demonstrate compatibility
• Informing Woodland Dogs HO of those requirements and costs.
• Fulfilling the agreed contract with the owner
• Marketing the Woodland Dogs business locally
• Organising a diary of daily walks for owners’ dogs
• Picking up and dropping off dogs from their homes
• Walking different groups of dogs (6 – 12) two or three times a day in a safe and controlled environment.

Above all, Woodland Dogs franchisees offer exemplary service to dog owners and provide a safe, sociable and fun walking experience for the dogs in their care.

To find out more about this exciting opportunity and to request a prospectus or check availability within your area, please contact Janine Eaglestone on 07732 876092

For further information about how Coconut Creatives can assist you to launch or grow your franchise or business, please contact Sarah Cook at Coconut Creatives on 01963 360896

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://www.coconutcreatives.co.uk/services/press__media_training/ for full details.

Coconut Creatives is proud to announce the launch of one of its latest clients, Drain Away.
Drain Away is one of the South’s premier plumbing and drainage companies having been trading successfully since 1990.  However, the company was not always this impressive size or shape.  It was very much the brainchild of Jason Carpenter, who started the company as the original “one man and his van”, shortly after having completed his apprenticeship.

Having successfully built the company up from nothing, aside from hard work and commitment, Jason and his team at Drain Away are looking for like-minded individuals rather than trained plumbers to share in their ambitious expansion plans for 2009.

Drain Away offers all their franchisees a comprehensive three-week training programme.  The training programme, which is held in their HQ in Bournemouth, Dorset, has been specifically developed for the needs of the novice plumber.

Coconut Creatives Marketing Specialists, Victoria Bel Gil and Sarah Cook have been working with the directors to prepare for the launch by creating a franchise recruitment marketing plan. “The Drain Away franchise offers so much, including an incredible 15 day training programme,” explains Victoria.

The Franchisee fifteen-day training programme includes an induction to the Drain Away team and their customer service charter.   Franchisees are then taken step by step through what’s involved in the marketing and recruitment of new customers.  They learn about the enquiry to invoice administration system that Drain Away have developed to ensure franchisees will definitely not be distracted from making money by lengthy administration processes.

The majority of the training involves developing practical skills in drainage and plumbing.  In addition to learning the techniques in the traditional classroom setting each franchisee will spend 5 days reviewing and practicing at the Drain Away on-site plumbing and drain practice areas which include a real life residence with mocked up plumbing mishaps to fix and dummy drainage system to practice unblocking drains with the onboard van jetter and CCTV cameras.

Following training at the Drain Away’s Head Office, the franchisee will spend time with a Drain Away Operative, attending jobs, giving them a taste of what it will be like running their own Drain Away Franchise.

“A strong feature of the Drain Away franchise is the support they offer franchisees. For example included in the training package is 3 full days on site shadowing with a Drain Away senior member of staff to accompany franchisees to jobs with the option of further days at an additional charge. There will always be someone at the end of a phone able to give advice, if required,” explains Franchise Your Business Consultant, Tim Mott who has prepared the business package for the franchise market.

Unlike so many other opportunities Drain Away does not have to rely upon a good economy to grow, much of their work is a distress purchase or insurance driven response, so their clients have a need and they chose the most responsive and customer friendly service – which is Drain Away.

Jason explains why,
“We don’t feel the doom and gloom of the credit crunch as many of our customers purchase because they have an emergency or because they are making an insurance claim and they know they are dealing with professionals”.

Drain Away are keen to hear from individuals that can be both hands on and manage a business; no former plumbing experience is required.  Drain Away would love to hear from you if you feel you could be the person to help them in 2009, develop into your local area. Maybe you’re worried about your future or just fancy a challenge…but most of all maybe you want to earn some serious money!

***breaking franchise news***
Magnus Scheving appeared live on BBC Breakfast to launch a new partnership between FitKid and LazyTown on Wednesday 7th January.

LazyTown and FitKid have joined forces to launch an exciting new franchise business opportunity enabling franchisees to deliver official LazyTown classes and Parties within FitKid’s proven franchise business network.

With so much concern and media interest over child health and obesity, LazyTown and FitKid’s partnership will cement two companies with drive and passion to offer healthy lifestyle choices to Children. We offer the perfect solution to providing healthy fun activity classes which are enjoyable for all.

Learning the joys of an active life as a child is a vital skill that enables children to become healthy, confident adults. LazyTown classes ensure the children enjoy themselves so much that they keep coming back for more.

Nicky Kay, Director FitKid says “It is fantastic to be working with LazyTown, Children love Sportacus and Stephanie and now they can come along and have fun at the LazyTown classes. This new opportunity will assist in encouraging more Children to be active and meet our aims of inspiring them to lead a healthy lifestyle.”

Magnus Scheving, the creator/director and star of LazyTown, will be attending interviews in January to support the launch of LazyTown FitKid (UK) – fun fitness classes for kids. Sessions will incorporate the LazyTown music and dances along with fun play equipment such as parachutes, space hoppers, balls, etc. encouraging kids to move and get active. Parents will also be able to book LazyTown themed birthday parties for their child.

Magnus says, “We’re very excited about working with FitKid (UK).They’re a terrific company who really understand the LazyTown philosophy of making fitness fun for kids.”

The current FitKid franchise package will be relaunched to include LazyTown, enabling the fantastic opportunity for our franchisees to also deliver branded LazyTown classes and parties to help encourage children to lead an active lifestyle. If you are interested in finding out further details about this franchise opportunity or would like your child to attend the new LazyTown classes, please email nicky@fitkid.co.uk for further details.

FitKid are looking for people to join us in taking this opportunity to the next level and delivering LazyTown Classes and Parties to Children in their local community offering a substantial business opportunity.

E-mail Nicky now at nicky@fitkid.co.uk for further information on how you can become involved in this exciting new business opportunity. Visit www.fitkid.co.uk for further information.

Check out – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast to view Magnus’ interview.

The Coconut girls, Sarah, Sally and Victoria recently travelled up to Birmingham to support a very special charity event. Organised annually by advertising guru agency, ARC Media, Coconut Creatives arrived in true Coconut style dressed to impress in full pirate costume!

The event was hosted at Birmingham’s finest Greek Athens Restaurant on the 3rd October with over 130 guests (majority also in pirate costumes!) from around the country who were invited to join in the pirate-y fun and helped raise £520 for the ‘togetheraware’ charities.

Guests lined up to put their 10 ‘X’s on the pirate map to try and win one of the treasures including magnums of champagne and a 32″ plasma TV! Coconuts Victoria and Sally managed to bag great prizes including a luxury wine hamper and a DVD box set of Pirates of the Caribbean. Sally also deservingly won the Best Dressed Pirate award and took home a magnum of champagne (that we secretly hope she’ll share with the rest of us Coconuts at Christmas!)

For more images of the Coconuts and friends getting pirate-y in Birmingham visit http://www.arcma.co.uk/GreekNight-2008-Pics.htm

Coconut Creatives have many different types of clients with different specialisms. Spettro are one such client that can offer some advice back to us, which is useful to everyone who owns their own home:

Spettro are specialists when it comes to repairing homes and commercial properties when the weather does its worst but take their advice this Autumn and you’ll save yourself some cash this Winter.

Tony Smith, one of the directors at Spettro, has nearly 40 years experience of fixing damage to homes caused by our great British weather. “Take action this weekend and you could save yourself a lot of hassle and money just by checking through the list below,” he explains.

1. Ensure that all gutters and downpipes are cleared, are free of leaves and debris and that there are no blockages in any downpipes or hopper heads where rainwater discharges into.
2. Check that your drains and gulleys are free-flowing and remove any vegetation or blockages to assist with the flow of water.
3. Ensure that flat roofs are in good condition and that any tears, rips or other repairs are undertaken in order to prevent rainwater seaping through into the property.
4. Ensure that any missing or broken roof tiles or slates are replaced and that courses are aligned to prevent rainwater ingressing through into the loft space.
5. Ensure that all pipework is adequately lagged and protected to prevent freezing in exposed areas such as loft spaces or outbuildings.
6. Ensure that all water tanks in the loft are adequately lagged and immersion heaters have sufficiently thick insulation jackets fitted.
7. Ensure that your gas boiler has been serviced by a Corgi Registered heating engineer before winter commences.
8. Ensure that your loft space is insulated to the recommended thickness (which is a minimum of 300mm) whilst ensuring that the fiberglass quilting insulation does not block the airflow to the roof eaves. Check that no insulation is placed directly under the cold water storage tank, as this requires a certain amount of warm air to prevent freezing.
9. Check radiators to ensure they are bled of any air blockages and that they are working at maximum capacity and any thermostatic valves fitted can be turned easily.
10. If you are going away during the winter months, turn your thermostat down and leave your central heating system on so that if we get a bit of snow then your pipes won’t burst!

Remember, if your home or business does get damaged by extreme weather conditions then you can leave it to Spettro to get the repairs done by their trusted tradesmen. Spettro Limited is regulated by the Financial Services Authority which allows them to loss assess and mediate with all the major insurance companies, a service which is free of charge to the insured! Visit www.spettro.net for more information or keep the freephone number handy 0800 389 2251.

1. If your Advertising isn’t working – STOP DOING IT!
Let’s start with the simple stuff. If you are running advertising that is not working, please stop it!

This applies to all advertising, whether you’re running ads in newspapers or magazines. Feel free to use posters everywhere and make sure you ask people where they found out about you.
2. Only use Direct Response Advertising
There are two types of advertising – direct response advertising and brand advertising.

Understanding the distinction between the two will immediately save you a fortune.

Brand advertising is used by companies like Coca Cola and the large car manufacturers to build and increase awareness of their brand. Unless you have huge amounts of money which you are happy to lose, you should avoid brand advertising at all costs. For a small business it is a complete waste of money.

The only type of advertising you ever want to consider is direct response advertising. The only purpose of direct response advertising is to produce a clear response.
3. Testing and Measuring
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all of your advertising.

If we are going to engage in direct response advertising we obviously need to be able to measure that response, otherwise we are not going to know if the ad is working.

At the very least we need to know how many people responded to the advert. Then you need to compare that figure to the cost of the ad and you can immediately work out how profitable the ad was, or whether you should stop running it.

One of the reasons that Radio and TV Advertising can be so high risk, is that it’s very difficult to test it on a small scale. You should never invest in Radio and TV Advertising unless it’s money you can afford to lose.
4. Use Fun and Exciting Headlines when possible
Be adventurous with your headlines. Test different versions to see what works best. There are no rules – except what works.
5. Remember AIDA
There’s a classic formula used by advertisers and it’s well worth remembering. The formula is AIDA. This stands for

Attention – grab the reader’s attention
Interest – Create an interest in your product or service
Desire – Convert that interest into a strong desire to contact you and find out more
Action – Give them a reason to act now e.g. free consultation or buy one get one free etc

If you follow this formula in every ad that you write or produce, you will greatly increase your chances of success.
6. Benefits, Benefits, Benefits
One of the principles that should drive all of your marketing is communicating the BENEFITS of your business.
7. Don’t Advertise on a Left Hand Page
If you’re doing newspaper or magazine advertising, this one piece of knowledge can turn an unsuccessful ad campaign into a successful one. This has been tested again and again. When you read a publication, your eyes are drawn to the right hand page as you flick through, so statistically, more people will see your ad if it’s on the right hand page.
8. Never pay the full rate for advertising
The person selling you the advertising needs to know very early on that you have absolutely no intention of paying the full rate.

Most advertising rate cards are far too high and you can always negotiate. If you’re a small business remember that large companies who use ad agencies are buying based on the readership or audience levels rather than the rate card – so haggle and negotiate.
9. Don’t Follow the Competition
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising in publications or on various forms of media just because their competitors are doing so. Don’t for a minute think that all your competitors are there because their ads are producing great results. They’re more likely to be there because everyone else is and most of them wont have a clue whether their advertising is working.

In fact, this is a well-known sales trick used by the people selling ad space. If they can get one or two of your competitors to advertise, they can call you up and tell you how you’ll lose out if you don’t advertise too. What they fail to mention is that your competitors probably never test their advertising, often haven’t got a clue how to market and are only advertising there because they think you will. This is a highly effective way to sustain the advertising industry. It’s not a great way for you to run your business.
10. Don’t buy into the myth that Advertising is essential for your Business Success
Generally, advertising is one of the least effective ways to grow a business.

Advertising is just one of many marketing options that you have. But you really shouldn’t be dependent on it.

So start to think out of the box and use a few of the other marketing methods below:
· Direct Mail
· Internet
· Email marketing
· PR (Why spend money on advertising when PR gives you coverage for free)
· Strategic Alliances – i.e. make friends with other businesses and sharing clients

You don’t have to allocate an enormous budget to get good results and recruit franchisees. But you do have to be clever and plan ahead, says marketing and PR specialist Sarah Dyer from Coconut Creatives.

This is the most ideal time of year to start planning for the year ahead to take advantage of the peaks of the franchise industry. Below, I will briefly look at the main aspects of creating a campaign that maximises budget, measures return on investment and can create the most benefit. In the next few issues of the Select Your Franchise newsletter, I will go into more detail on each aspect.

Planning, planning and more planning
We can’t state enough how important it is to plan your campaigns in advance. Many magazines will offer an early booking or series discount with good free editorial space to those franchisors that can produce well written case studies or interesting, fresh stories. It is often the same for online advertising with deals of booking so many months and getting some free.

It is a well known fact that advertising is best done over a long period of time whether this is on or off line. It builds your brand in the public domain and exposes your key messages to your target audience who will find it increasingly harder to ignore you when they have seen you for the 10th time!

In the franchise industry we have magazines such as Making Money, What Franchise or Business Franchise which are most effective if used more than once. Yet be realistic about this: whether you have £2k or £10k to spend over the year on magazine advertising, then spread it out across several issues to gain regular exposure and always discuss editorial opportunities.

We feel that it is better to have an increased number of slightly smaller adverts with negotiated free editorial space booked in advance, than fewer larger adverts booked at late notice.

Measure your return on investment
A simple spreadsheet is better than nothing when measuring the return on your investment. You can calculate this in several ways. To calculate the worth of free editorial space achieved over any period, it is best to look at the space that you have achieved and work out how much that same space would have cost you if it were paid for advertising space.

Ongoing market research
Again, this doesn’t have to be made into a complicated procedure. We recommend speaking to 5 existing franchisees, 5 that went to interview stage and 5 that were just spoken to on the phone and received information. Ask them all where they looked for information about franchising, how they found your franchise and most importantly ALL the places that they found your franchise that influenced them. They may have finally enquired through your own website and therefore be labelled a ‘website enquiry’ but what you should be interested in is how they found your website. Did they read an article in a magazine? Did they visit an exhibition and collect some literature? Did they read about you online?

If you can continually refine the combination of marketing and communication channels that are used for your franchise recruitment campaign then you will become more and more successful.

Don’t forget…
· Plan your annual franchise recruitment cycle in advance
· Book any advertising in advance to make the most of early space and series discounts
· Offer good quality case studies which are current and interesting
· Track the return on your investment using a simple spreadsheet or system that you are comfortable with (something is better than nothing)
· Always, always ask prospects how they found out about you

Overall, plan ahead to make sure your business doesn’t get left behind…

Coconut Creatives have been invited to publish a range of articles in several magazines to respond to the increased interest that business people have in marketing.

Featured articles can be found in the national Making Money Magazine sold in Tescos and WH Smith, Start Your Business magazine also sold in WH Smith and independent retailers and the national Franchisor News magazine which serves the franchise industry.

“We are delighted to offer marketing features to complement the magazines existing articles and information,” says Coconut Creatives founder, Sarah Dyer. “We have been writing articles for the press and online sources for some time now and it is our pleasure to help spread the word about marketing through established and reputable magazines as well.”

Coconut Creatives Directors, Sarah Dyer and Christopher Cook also sit on the South West Regional Board for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and work tirelessly to help improve the awareness and standard of marketing practices UK-wide. “It is vital that a company’s marketing function starts from a strategic level so that it maps in with the direction of the business plan. Campaigns and promotions are then created to meet the objectives set out at this strategic level and we have found that our clients see and achieve much greater success by approaching marketing in this way,” explains Christopher.

For further information about Coconut Creatives contact Sarah or Chris on 01963 31030 or email helpme@coconutcreatives.co.uk.

Part of the article featured in the national magazine Making Money…

Many business owners are worrying about their brand and company’s reputation as more businesses take on board a corporate social responsibility strategy or policy for more ethical trading. This is beginning to affect the sensitivity and attitudes of todays empowered consumers.

With the rise in digital media, such as blogs and forums, consumers are publicly discussing every aspect of your business, their experiences with your brand – both good and bad, as well as highlighting the differences between your offering and that of your competitors. How does this affect franchising when you are dependent on an entire network to be consistent? Control can be hard.

So what can you do to ensure your business isn’t just keeping up, but leading the industry? How can you make more money? The answer comes through marketing communications…

· Build solid foundations
· Define strong brand values
· Build relationships with all stakeholders
· Communicate all of the above (listen as well)

The importance of brand values
Developing and maintaining a reputation in a competitive market can be tricky. Yet the best companies do this through consistent communication both within the business (through their network of staff and affiliates) and externally (by communicating with their suppliers, customers and prospective customers).

All businesses need a common goal and an aim, this is just like driving from Portsmouth to London, you need to know which roads to take, where to get petrol and how long it is going to take you to get there. If everyone is focused on a common goal, you are much more likely to achieve it.

Becoming recognised in your industry for doing something well and doing it consistently is vital in building a great brand, this where brand values come in.

Sarah comments “these values tell the world that you are the best, you are trustworthy and you are definitely worth the money. If you can then stand by your values over the long term, you might just achieve more than you can imagine.”

For more information about this subject contact Coconut Creatives on 01963 31030 or email tellmemore@coconutcreatives.co.uk