EU FRANCHISING Business Opportunities. European franchise brands and franchising networks directory 2009/2010.

New City: The Nation’s Local Cleaning Company

http://www.newcity.biz

New City Contract Cleaning, the Telford-based commercial and contract cleaning firm, have embarked on an ambitious and challenging schedule of expansion through franchising which looks set to take them into numerous territories across the UK over the next 12 months. Sales Director Laura Scattergood explains, “We started in November 2000, and since then have grown very rapidly with tremendous levels of repeat business from large national groups, property developers, city councils and smaller regional enterprises, and the demand has grown to such an extent that we need to establish a presence throughout the country. We evaluated several different business models and identified that franchising would be the most effective route for all parties. The ethos of New City is based upon a national company providing a local service, and given that we have developed very thorough and in many cases unique operating systems it is important that we can retain control of the quality and system standards wherever we are serving clients. It was these factors, combined with an extremely well-developed business model that led us to consider franchising”.

Franchising a successful business model gives budding entrepreneurs a way to get their own business up and running, but without many of the risks inherent in starting and entirely new business from scratch, something which Managing Director Caroline Meredith knows only too much about. Having been awarded the Shell Livewire “Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award” in 2002, along with the Prince’s Trust Business of the Year Award, Caroline has been approached by the Prince’s Trust to become a mentor for start-up businesses, and fully understands the challenges faced by any new business owner. “Starting out with a new concept, in a new market is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do; you need to become an expert in marketing, sales, finance and accounting before you even begin delivering a service or a product. However, by buying into a proven franchise system all of those worries are taken away, you let the franchisor train you in the system, and by following that system you can concentrate on building up your own business with much of the stress removed”.

The franchise industry quotes historical figures of 8 out of 10 new businesses failing, whilst 8 out of 10 new franchisees succeed, a figure with which Steve Felmingham, a British Franchise Association accredited consultant tends to agree. “There are various ways of defining success or failure” says Steve “However; we see a marked difference between entrepreneurs who try dozens of different ideas, none of which quite make it, and those who follow a tried and tested formula. Franchising does not guarantee success, but it does answer the biggest question any new entrepreneur faces; “will this business work?.” Buying into a proven system clearly has enormous advantages, plus there is the less quantifiable but nonetheless crucial aspect of not having to “go it alone”. There is a tremendous psychological burden when starting any new venture, and having a franchisor acting as your mentor, especially one who has run an identical business successfully for many years, is a highly important factor in ensuring that franchisees continue to build their businesses successfully”.

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