Franchise Everything

An interesting service offer to the market that incorrectly could be seen at just a fleeting glance as being something around gardening or lawn mowing - which it is neither.

Coochie HydroGreen franchises offer a lawn care program generating lush green lawns nationwide. Using a '6 in 1' program of nutrients sprayed into the lawn, franchise owners are on bi-monthly visit cycles to customers to treat their lawns.

The chat with Ania and Grace centred on some key aspects to the business;

• The scalability of the business with many franchise owners having more than one territory - one even having 13 territories,
• High profitability of the business and what that looks like in real terms,
• The strength and resilience of the business and how it operates successfully across all business cycles in the market, and in particular how it performed during the covid period,
• Support within the system for franchise owners be it technical horticultural based or in business and marketing,
• The flexible nature of the business given customers are on a subscription model and jobs are scheduled bi-monthly with this, on top of the fact that the brand has a unique approach with programmed 4 weeks annual holiday for franchise owners part of it.

Podcast Produced by:  www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website):  www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Listen or Watch on;

Spotify:  https://tinyurl.com/a6t7br7b

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Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/2rkbmrka

Franchise owner journey: Emmanuel Constantinou - With 37 years in print, and an apparent unmatched passion for the industry, Emmanuel explains how he took over a struggling business and revived it.

We uncover what it takes to stay relevant in the market around providing the best and most sought after services possible.

Emmanuels life in the industry started with his fathers career as a lithographer for the print industry originally back in Egypt, and eventually working with dad in the family printing business in Australia, where he gained a detailed and lengthy education in print.

Further into his career, Emmanuel found himself as an employee of the Kwik Kopy, Bondi Junction store, where the opportunity presented itself to buy the business, one that was very much struggling.

He was already the face of the business in the community in his sales role, and set about building the business back up to what it is today.

Now having owned the business for 10 years, where he was an employee there prior, Emmanuel has some key insights into what it takes to be successful in business and in his industry in particular, as well the challenges in taking over a struggling business.

As a huge proponent of networking, and being the face of his business, Emmanuel also takes this to a whole other level as President of the Bondi District Chamber of Commerce, for the past 8 years, which he sees as a key in being the most active part of his business and community.

Podcast Produced by:  www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website):  www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Listen or Watch on;

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bdfu3juh

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2kdw37sy

Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/bdenrdjb

YouTube: https://youtu.be/sEUP3hEjrGI

A plumbing business where you don't need to be a plumber - Plumbing Bros started in 2020 and has grown to 12 locations so far spread across the country.

In a unique offer to the market, the brand franchise offer centres around the fact that you do not need to be a plumber to own the business.

Importantly for emerging franchise brands, James touched on the fact that as a new franchisor and offer to the market, it was clear that early investors in the business were buying in because of him and his vision, passion, and drive for the business, and that this has changed to not being as much about him as the brand has grown.

This discussion with James centred around some key aspects to the business;

The scalability of the business in that you don't need to be a plumber,

Describing what an owner of the franchise actually does on a day to day basis,

Sales & marketing aspects in operating and growing the business, broken into;

a) Local Area Marketing (LAM)

b) Group marketing

c) 'Plumbing Bros Assist'

Support within the system for franchise owners,

Data generated by the business and how it compares so favourably to what James is seeing and hearing in other even much larger brands in the market.

Podcast Produced by:  www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website):  www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Listen or Watch on;

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/ycksvsbj

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/3ptje4bz

Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/24pa3845

As CEO, Darryn leads the Australian arm of FRANdata whose expertise is in franchise intelligence.

Darryn will help you to understand the behind the scenes thinking and actions around securing franchise finance in the Australian market.

With main customers being major banks and boutique lenders who have significant portfolios in franchising, Darryn's positioning is to provide these lenders with data in establishing who is a better risk than others out of 1,100 odd franchise brands in the Australian market.

Darryn started in banking before moving into accounting after attaining his degree studying at night while at the bank.

Missing the entrepreneurial feel of business after a numbers of years in accounting, Darryn moved back into banking to run portfolios of clients and leading business banking teams.

This eventually opened a path to franchising with the opportunity to head up the franchising strategy for NAB.

Frustration in this role with NAB around how hard it was to get information from brands to support loans, was the catalyst for heading up the FRANdata business in the Australian market.

With FRANdata, Darryn has established and championed key initiatives aiding access to finance for good franchise brands with the Franchise Ratings Scale, the Franchise Bank Credit Reports, and the Australian Franchise Registry amongst the initiatives developed and championed.

Darryn's position as one of the leading authority's on franchise finance in the Australian market is unquestionable...

Podcast Produced by:  www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website): 

www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Listen or Watch on; Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/evmktmda Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/mr3ztxcx Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/4jyebwmw

Franchise business models unpacked - Gong cha Australia, Lili Shi, Master Franchisee, Australia, and George Kwok, BDM,  breaks down key aspects of the Gong cha franchise with Glenn Walford.

Some of the aspects discussed include;

• Average daily sales in their stores with some ranges discussed, as well as the average transaction value information in the business,
• The typical trading patterns of a Gong cha store outlining the common peak periods and customers they see,
• Their fully inclusive 'turn-key' franchise cost approach, where they undertake all requirements to get a store fully open for one set cost,
• The concept of landlord contributions in the form of cash or rent free periods, and providing the full contribution to franchise owners,
• What a typical Gong cha store design looks like and where they are located in location strategy,
• What type of person they look for in a Gong cha franchise owner,
• Marketing campaigns for the brand including cross promotion with major IP such as Emoji and Snoopy,
• The global store opening campaign,
• Store designs and layout arrangements,
• The potential for drive-thru locations into the future,
• A Gong cha customer and franchise owner app is in development.

Podcast Produced by:  www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website):  www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Listen or Watch on;

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4xy2mme8

Apple Podcasts:  https://tinyurl.com/43u3v989

Amazon Music:  https://tinyurl.com/2exa8x5k

YouTube Playlist: https://tinyurl.com/262f3nny

In this episode with Sam, we asked him to focus on a discussion on 5 key inflection points in the business that have been key in making the brand what we see today.

1min 20secs - 2017 and the moment when Sam took over the business and went from being a franchise owner, to franchisor of the brand at the age of 22.

4min 15 secs - The significant change in brand look, style and feel. Sam made the commitment and paid for the full marketing research and study sessions with brand marketing strategists with members to develop a future-proof brand strategy.

8min 40 secs - Franchise owner support changes to increase the level of operational support to each in the network. In particular, Sam implemented benchmarking for comparison amongst franchise owners, and he wanted to make the operational manuals more usable into a 'how to' guide, as opposed to just multiple manuals that never get read.

13min 20 secs - The transition to a hybrid gym business model given Sam viewed they had missed the opportunity to have scale in location numbers in the network when the 24/7 gym growth surge was happening.

16min 25 secs - Building a head office team to support and grow the business, where previously in the early days, Sam was doing much of it himself.

Podcast Produced by: www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website):

www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Listen or watch on;

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/528jw2ch

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/mvbm4z

Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3vecsa6a

Youtube Podcast Playlist: https://tinyurl.com/262f3nny

Opening 150+ Gong cha stores in the Australian market basically under the radar of the franchise sector.

The remarkable entrepreneurial journey of Lili Shi who has spearheaded the growth of the Gong cha bubble tea brand in the Australian market.

In 2010 Lili had a franchised crepe business with 4 locations, with a brand she imported from Japan. The jump into that business was spring boarded by her partners bankruptcy and subsequent marriage breakdown, seeing Lili look to business as a way forward with stability.

A request from the Adelaide crepe brand franchisee to range bubble tea in his location via a co-branding set up, was a light bulb moment for Lili. In 2011 there were only 2 main players in the bubble tea market in Australia.

While still running her crepe business location in Sydney, Lili watched on with one of those brands open across from her with the demand for bubble tea growing in front of her.

Deciding bubble tea was the future for her, Lili set out on a journey to find the best quality product she could find, which she surmised was in Taiwan.

Convincing an already established brand to take a risk on a person with limited resources to grow the brand, compared to others who wanted it, Lili managed to convince Gong cha International to sell her the licence to the Australian market.

And more than 150 locations later, here we are...

Podcast Produced by:  www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website):  https://:www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Independent experts to personally and thoroughly review your franchise outlet purchase about whether your going to make any money BEFORE you buy it.

That's the value proposition provided by Kate Groom and her business partner Peter Knight at Franchise Accounting and Tax, to would-be franchise outlet owners, which Kate talks about in detail in this episode.

There is no doubt that many buyers of franchises put a lot of decision-making weight in the brand name they are buying, and often make a lot of assumptions about the business.

Their Franchise Pre-purchase Review is part of the franchise due diligence for franchise buyers.

It helps buyers understand the cost structure of the business they are looking to buy, and from that they can work out what sort of sales need to be achieved to make a living and repay the debt. From that it forms the basis for a conversation to be had about the financial prospects of the business with all involved.

It's a key first stage part of the financial due diligence.

Podcast Produced by: www.magneticbusinessmedia.com.au

Franchise Stories and Knowledge Base (our other website): www.franchisebuyer.com.au

Connect with Kate and Peter:  www.franchiseaccountingandtax.com.au

Did you know some franchise companies have credit scores with the banks?   Gaining an underlying credit default risk score for a franchise brand in the process.   We all know a bit about personal credit scores through our own credit use for homes, cars and the like.   But the way financial institutions treat companies in this way potentially feels a little bit like the 'dark arts' to many. In this episode, Darryn enlightens us on;

• The current difficulties with franchise finance,
• How and why banks increase or reduce their appetite for franchise lending,
• How brands can improve their lending profile,
• Why franchise brands often do not give enough information to support franchise lending on their brand,
• Default risk scores for franchise brands - relatively new in Australia, but well-established in the US,
• More brands in Australia have been pleasantly surprised by their scores,
• Key takeaways for a franchise owner accessing finance for their business, and for franchisors looking to grow their network.

It was never in Sam's plan to be franchisor and CEO of a fitness franchise.   At just the young age of 22, a range of circumstances within the franchise brand that he owned a franchise in, meant that a group of older franchise owners turned to Sam to ask him to try to buy out the founding franchisor and run the whole franchise business in order to take it in the direction it needs to go.   Sam's own circumstances prior to this unknowingly already set him on this path, and shaped his direction.   Enduring a broken back as a teenager in school resulted in Sam becoming obese, and as a result he unfortunately suffered significant bullying in that environment.   Finding himself on a personal journey of a return to health, mental wellness and fitness, saw him discover a passion for being involved in the fitness industry.   This passion was driven by a desire to be able to impact the health and well-being of Australians after his own experience had such a profound impact on his outlook on life.   First as a personal trainer, then as an employee in a company owned gym of Stepz Fitness, a chance conversation he overhead one day while a potential buyer was touring the business, changed his life.   Vowing to get the $500k somehow within a quick space of time to buy the gym he worked in, set him on the course of becoming what he is today...