Assist With Solutions: Business magic keeps SMEs on the road to success!

business success

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.

Adept Cleaning Services: Cleaning up the commercial sector

Adept Cleaning Services logo

Coconut Creatives’ client news: Adept Cleaning Services trades well on its reputation

Adept Cleaning Services’ founder, Alan Thomson, knew from the outset that if he wanted to gain an edge over the competition, it would take an exceptional level of service…and he’s succeeded.  The business, which has been providing a flexible, reliable cleaning service for commercial and industrial premises for 17 years, boasts a high level of client retention and was franchised in 2007.  Adept itself, as Franchisor, is an Associate Member of the British Franchise Association and has obtained ISO 9001 accreditation for its Quality Management System.

First franchisee is credited with award

In the Summer of 2010, Adept was delighted to learn that its cleaning service had been credited with having made a significant contribution to The Beatles Story in Liverpool winning Best Large Visitor Attraction at The Mersey Partnership’s annual awards ceremony.

“Your company played a huge part in this, as we were showcased as a Quality venue and the level of cleanliness was particularly mentioned in the report.  Please can you thank all your staff on our behalf.” Mary Chadwick, General Manager Commercial, The Beatles Story.

Keep ahead of the competition

When Michael Holt became Adept’s first franchisee, four years ago, there were six other new cleaning companies that started up in his area at around the same time.  Today, Michael is the only one still trading and he’s grown the business quickly, already turning over £500,000 with a pre-tax profit of around 20%.  He puts his success down to having the right business model and reputation, which has resulted in most of his new business now coming from referrals.

“It is testimony to the hard work of the Adept team that the Floral Pavilion still looks as good as when it first opened in 2008.  All their staff are flexible, courteous, friendly and always willing to go that extra mile for us and we truly value Adept as part of the Floral Pavilion family.” Kate Carpenter, Commercial Manager of the Floral Pavilion Theatre & Conference Centre

Want to join the Adept family?

Having already expanded from the Birmingham area into Liverpool, Warrington and Chester, and won some sizeable and prestigious contracts – including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and an office premises contract worth £80,000 a year – Adept is keen to take on more franchisees who will expand the operation further afield.

To find out more about becoming part of this well-respected and profitable management franchise, contact Alan Thomson on 01827 287100 or alan@adeptcleaninggroup.co.uk

 

Assist With Solutions: Change to business support services brings opportunities to the franchise sector

assist with solutions logo

Coconut Creatives’ client news: Assist with Solutions takes a look at the business support market

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 development opportunities but the reduction in Government grants and the withdrawal of funded support like Business Link, mean that SMEs will need to look 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 and advice 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.”

Assist with Solutions has developed a simple-to-follow system for their franchisees that provides predictable results with the additional benefit of tapping in to over 50 years collective industry experience. Their training gives franchisees all of the management tools they need to be operational within six weeks. Franchisees operate in a Managing Director style position, so previous Directors and Managers of any business types are ideal for this franchise. They look out for prospective franchisees with certain key attributes:

  • A good understanding of how a business operates
  • Previous Management or Director experience
  • Enjoy working in the B2B environment with clients & suppliers
  • Enthusiasm to run a business & work with other business owners
  • Passion to work on a business as much as in a business
  • A drive to achieve success!

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.

 

Cafe2U UK success gives US confidence

A New York Police Officer enjoys the Cafe2U experience

A New York Police Officer enjoys the Cafe2U experience

Coconut Creatives’ client news: Cafe2U launches in the USA whilst business in the UK booms

The world’s largest mobile coffee franchise Cafe2U has had a superb 2011 in the UK so far this year and the buzz is spreading across the pond! Tom Acland, UK Managing Director, has been celebrating the successes of their first 5 franchise partners to reach 5 years with all renewing their agreements for a further 5 years, as well as launching seven new Cafe2U franchises.

Cafe2U franchise partners are reaping the rewards across the UK. Faye Cochrane, who owns three Cafe2U vans in Edinburgh, celebrated her third year as a franchise partner by enjoying a record day on one of her vans recently with coffee sales up from the average by a whopping 58% for the day! Faye trades in the Edinburgh Park area of Edinburgh where her clients include HSBC, RBS, and Regus.

Rachel Wilson, Cafe2U Bristol, reports a large rise in the demand for flavoured coffees in 2011, with customers trying all sorts of different flavoured syrups and even cocktail combinations! Rachel, and her husband Gary, who were the 2010 Cafe2U Franchise Partners of the Year have customers who have designed their own drinks, which are now sold on the van!  As a result of the fantastic range of flavours they can now offer in their great tasting Cafe2U coffee, sales have grown 67% from February to June 2011 and it shows no sign of slowing down.

As the nation’s favourite mobile coffee service, Cafe2U is seeing a large increase in demand from event organisers right across the UK in 2011 as they begin to realise that having great tasting espresso coffee, from a well-branded, professional, reliable and award-winning company is a crucial attraction to an event. Cafe2U have serviced school fetes, sports days, car rallies, Race for Life events, fun runs, outdoor theatre evenings, as well as Hollywood film sets and TV studios. Doug from Cafe2U Milton Keynes had a fantastic day at a Royal Wedding Street Party in April!

Tom Acland explains: “There has never been a better time to start a new Cafe2U business, with our low overheads and profitable business model, the Cafe2U business allows franchise partners to visit the customers, prompting them into the purchase decision rather than sitting and waiting for customers in the traditional manner. We have identified and mapped territory opportunities right across the UK, for single unit franchise partners as well as multi-territory management opportunities. Demand for great tasting espresso coffee, whilst at work or an event just keeps growing, and Cafe2U is the only company able to satisfy that demand in non-traditional locations up and down the country.”

The Cafe2U Acceleration Training and Launch program is another winner for franchise partners as it accelerates their business development by up to 3 months. With higher takings, larger customer bases, and more coffees sold, Cafe2U franchise partners see the success of their efforts far quicker.

And now, Cafe2U, has signed a Master Franchise deal for the USA. Australia’s Cafe2U Managing Director, Derek Black said: “We are so excited to finally be taking the brand to America! The US market represents a mature coffee market with many significant opportunities to stimulate growth. Consumers have been very welcoming of the mobile Cafe2U concept with one of our new American customers quoting: It’s even better than Starbucks!”

Cafe2U is tackling the US coffee scene with the upmost confidence and is certain that the partnership with their Master Franchisees will see rapid growth for the Cafe2U business into a significant worldwide coffee market.

Proudly born and bred in Australia, Cafe2U is already the world’s largest mobile coffee franchise – now poised to propel this domination quickly into America in 2011. Cafe2U has 110 mobile coffee vans in Australia and 55 in the UK and Ireland.

You can find our more by calling 0845 6444 708.

 

Get Linked In to sales tools – Sarah Carlile writes for Franchisor News

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.