Posted:24-October-2008
THE FRANCHISE INDUSTRY COMES TOGETHER TO HELP FEMALE FRANCHISORS LEAD THE WAY.
The inaugural meeting of the “Encouraging Women into Franchising” group was held at the end of September. Representatives from all areas of the franchise world and women’s support agencies got together to discuss what could be done to help and encourage women entrepreneurs to use franchising as a means for expanding their businesses.
The driving force behind establishing the “Encouraging Women into Franchising” group came from Business Options, the specialist franchise and business expansion consultancy. Clive Sawyer, Managing Director of Business Options, said “the response from people, within the franchising community, to the idea of identifying what more can be done to support and assist women entrepreneurs in using franchising as a way to expand their business has been amazing. Females approach many aspects of life, including running businesses, differently to their male counterparts. Many of the acknowledged strengths that women have are well suited to franchising and as such we wanted to see what more could be done to help them adopt franchising as a way to expand their business, regionally, nationally and internationally.”
This event was attended by female franchisors and franchisees; representatives from the specialist franchise departments of Lloyds TSB; RBS; and HSBC; Franchise Solicitors; Franchise Accountants, Consultants; the British Franchise Association as well as representatives from support organisations including Business Link; Chamber of Commerce and Regional Development Agencies. There was an overwhelming agreement that the way women and men, in general, view business expansion was different and therefore it was important that the support available was tailored to the needs of each group rather than a generic approach to business support.
The latest NatWest/bfa Annual Franchise Survey shows that only 25% of franchisees were women, however this is still a 5% increase on 10 years ago. When these franchisee figures are compared against the 16 % of all non franchised businesses that are women owned, it shows that women see franchising as a more attractive way of having a business than starting alone.
There are many very good women focused support programmes available. The “Encouraging Women into Franchising” group wants to pull these initiatives together and where necessary provide additional focus for those women wishing to use franchising as a way to expand their business.
The next meeting of the “Encouraging Women into Franchising” group will be held on Tuesday 18th November. Anyone from within the franchising industry or involved with groups supporting women who would like to attend this next meeting should contact Business Options on 01420 550890 or email: ewif@businessoptions.biz
