Industry Profile - The economy is tightening up but one franchise sector is busier than ever!
1st May 2008
So far in 2008, regular media coverage of bank issues, mortgage and lending crises has been casting a gloomy outlook over the economy. However this can stimulate businesses to reassess their outgoings more carefully, which provides significant opportunity for the UK’s top white collar consultancy franchises, specialising in Cost Management.
www.WhiteCollarFranchise.co.uk is the leading specialist resource for management and executive franchise information and opportunities. They report excellent current performance from four leading cost management consultancy groups.
“When the UK economic situation is looking at a downturn, we find an even greater need for our services”, says Chris Allison, Managing Director of Auditel, specialists in managing the cost and purchase of overhead expenditure since 1994. “Our network is experiencing an increase in demand, which creates a significant opportunity for new franchisees.”
Chris Aston, Marketing Manager of Expense Reduction Analysts, reports that it’s not just the receptiveness of companies to have their expenditure examined in the current economy downturn, but also the size of savings, that is increasing. “Expense Reduction Analysts franchisees work together to share enormous collective experience and expertise in finding and managing cost savings for organisations in everything from everyday office supplies to travel and waste costs”
"Since the mid-1990’s franchisees have been trained and supported in gaining and managing UK business clients”, explains Aston. "They explore, together where the money is being spent, and then utilise our central pool of purchasing knowledge and skill to deliver initial and ongoing savings. On average, savings of 23% are achieved and often the same supplier is retained.”
Aston adds “Currently we are finding that clients are more receptive to our consultants exploring additional cost areas of their expenditure to ensure they are receiving ‘best value’ across their entire cost base.”
Atlantic Business Resources was formed in 2005. Its business opportunity is based on negotiating special tariffs and services with suppliers of products and services in many of UK business’s most common expenditure areas, such as telecoms, courier services and packaging.
“We offer a simple proposition to companies”, says Adrian Drewe, Chairman of Atlantic. “We have over £5bn of direct buying power that we can leverage through quality suppliers. Therefore, we can provide our clients with much better value than they could achieve through any amount of research and negotiation.”
“We also do all the analysis on behalf of our white collar franchisees, so they can focus on managing more clients, achieving results and earning fees, while we do all the ‘number-crunching’ on their behalf!”
“We have seen more new business for our franchisees in 2008 than the same period in 2007. Its fair to say that the downturn in the economy has had an impact and the goal of saving money through buying well, has risen up the agenda of business managers objectives”
EPI International has innovated a software system that enables their clients to utilise supplier resources to purchase more effectively. Franchisees earn fees from the subscriptions paid by clients for the software, and the delivery of training and coaching services as part of a complete review of the company’s performance.
Adam Miles, Head of Business Development, explains why the market for cost management services is so vast. “Every business spends money on goods and services. However, virtually all tend to focus their resources into creating more sales to increase profit through maximising turnover, rather than through saving money on their purchases
We can ensure that not only does the company save far more money than the cost of our service, but that they also have the experience, knowledge and resources to maintain effective purchasing systems for years to come.”
Billions of pounds are wasted every year in purchasing services and overheads throughout the UK. While companies attempt to maintain control, there is every indication that their management lacks the expertise and experience to manage these costs effectively. This is why more and more organisations realise the need for outsourced specialists and are taking advantage of these franchised cost management networks.
Auditel’s Chris Allison concludes, “We certainly feel that the UK market could support a franchise network of at least two hundred Auditel consultants. Even then, we would only be tapping into a tiny market share of the businesses that could be utilising our services.
Because we work with our clients to manage ongoing cost savings for many years, our consultants can run a highly successful business with just a handful of clients. Some of our earliest franchisees, in fact, still are working with some of their original clients over ten years later!”
If you are a proactive, motivated individual seeking to start your own professional white collar business to business operation, franchising could provide the ideal solution with the potential to generate excellent income, enjoy a controlled work / life balance and an intellectual challenge.
With the combination of these successful business opportunities, receptive market and economy conditions, excellent performances by existing franchisees, and what is still a relatively youthful market, now could be the time to consider starting your own white collar cost management franchised business.
Visit http://www.whitecollarfranchise.co.uk/Category/Consultancy for further information on all the franchises featured in this article.
Click the links below to Request Information directly from:
Atlantic Business Resources
Auditel
EPI International
Expense Reduction Analysts
