This blog post is authored by Patrick Burge, a business growth specialist at Lime Licensing Group. It addresses common myths surrounding franchising for businesses considering growth.

Contrary to these misconceptions, franchising is often the most cost-effective, scalable, and valuable growth model, particularly for SMEs. With lower financial risks and reliance on proven business blueprints, franchises typically outperform other business structures in terms of survival and profitability.
 

About Lime Licensing Group

Lime Licensing Group does two things really well. We help businesses of all types become franchisors if that growth strategy is right for them. We also recruit franchisees for them. We should be pretty good at what we do as we have been around for a long time; we have consultants in our business who have been doing it for over 30 years.

We have built and worked with franchised businesses in too many sectors to mention: Hospitality, HR, manufacturing, sport, consultancy, professional services, property, accountancy, food trucks, funeral directors, tech, building, property maintenance, the list goes on.

Yes, we are experts, but we do not fly solo, we have lots of people around us who we introduce our clients to as we know that this will make the client’s franchised business more successful, and that makes Lime Licensing more successful. This host of experts around us includes marketing professionals, asset finance and Government Start Up Loan partners, property sourcing partners, accountancy partners, HR partners, and The Federation of Small Business to name but a few.

If we can help our franchisor clients reduce the barriers to entry and provide support for franchisees, we enable the franchisor’s business to recruit more franchisees, and we help enable the franchisees to do more of the things that will earn them, and the franchisors more revenue. This symbiotic relationship is what makes good franchisors, and good franchisees thrive together.

I have worked in strategy, advisory and commercial roles with businesses pursuing business growth models ranging from using agents, distributors, and franchising, as well as businesses that follow a direct-to-consumer business expansion model. So why am I such a fan of franchising?

Frankly, for many companies in a wide range of sectors, it is the most cost-effective, scalable and saleable way to grow a business, and it typically creates a business with a far stronger balance sheet and higher value than a business that has grown using other growth strategies.
 

The Big 6 Myths Debunked

The problem is that for many SME business owners, there are many myths surrounding what franchising is and what franchising can do. Franchising is often misunderstood and sometimes ignored by companies when they are thinking of growing.

Of the numerous myths that prevail, here in my view are the six biggest ones:

• I will lose control of my business.
• Franchising favours the franchisee more than the franchisor.
• Franchising is too expensive.
• We will give away most of our profits to the franchisee.
• My business is not the right type to be a franchise.
• I will lose all the innovation in the business if I franchise it.

 
Data from many sources says that on a like-for-like basis, franchises are probably more likely to survive than other types of business. Regardless of the business model, for most SMEs access to finance remains the number one barrier to growth, followed by nurturing the right type of customers, harnessing accurate information and good business tools, and getting good expert advice.

This is as true for franchisors as for franchisees.

Surviving is one thing, but thriving is surely the objective and franchised businesses typically thrive when viewed in relation to other business structures. One reason for this is that, for a franchisor, growth to a large degree can be achieved with less need for finance and more control than with other growth models resulting in a better balance sheet, less overheads and higher business valuation. For the franchisee growth can be achieved based on the franchisor’s tried and tested business blueprint, taking away some of those barriers to growth.

So, if you want to explore some of those six franchising myths I mentioned earlier, Lime Licensing would be happy to offer a free exploratory meeting.

As I said, franchising done well is a truly symbiotic business relationship.
 

About the Author

Patrick Burge is a specialist in business growth having helped build online and offline businesses in many sectors including tech startups, apparel, sport, fitness, health, printing, retail, coaching and consulting. Apart from specialising in franchising, his only claim to fame is that he is the only Patrick Burge in the world on LinkedIn, and he can be contacted on there or at patrick@limelicensinggroup.co.uk.

To find out more about Lime Licensing Group you can visit their website.
 

Looking for an accountant for your franchise?

At Linford Grey, we are working with Lime Licensing Group offering accounting support and advice to their franchisees.

If you’re interested in more information on how we can help with your franchise when is comes to accounting, please get in touch with our team.