Category: Franchising

What to look for when you’re choosing a franchise? You might well be making a sideways or even forward step on your career. Perhaps you’ve worked your way up in the corporate world and now you’d like to work for yourself (not by yourself!) and gain more flexibility. Maybe you see a franchise as an opportunity to extend your management and leadership skills. 

At Get Ahead, we value the input of all our franchisees and do what we can to help them grow. Buying a franchise should be a positive career step and we want to help you move forward. Let’s take a closer look.

Why is it important to invest in our franchisees? 

Franchisor Rebecca Newenham is a self-confessed people person. She loves meeting new people and learning what makes them tick. This translates into a great generosity of spirit that’s been the driving force behind Get Ahead from its foundation more than a decade ago.

But there’s solid business acumen behind this approach too. Rebecca knows that investing in her franchisees means that they can do a better job. As franchisees grow as people and managers, they bring in more business and enhance the Get Ahead brand and its reputation. 

What does “investment in potential” look like at Get Ahead? 

Rebecca is a great champion of all the franchisees. She firmly believes that flexible working is an opportunity, not a compromise, and is keen to open this up to others. 

Franchisees start by receiving a full induction, tailored to their needs and experience. For example, if you come from a marketing background but feel less confident about finance, you’ll receive finance training but we won’t make you sit through (!) marketing basics. 

Once you’re up and running, you’ll benefit from regular monthly calls with the other franchisees, whom we call regional directors. This is a great way to celebrate successes, raise issues, share best practice and offload if you need to. You’ll also have a regular check-in with Rebecca – a two-way meeting where you can both discuss progress and ask questions. 

Get Ahead’s model allows you to run your regional office the way you want to. Our established franchisees have a variety of approaches, often starting with the methods they know best before branching out and trying something new. 

This flexible, tailored approach is possible because we genuinely believe in the power of people. Unlike other franchises, we don’t have targets.

Before she franchised her business, Rebecca worked as the Get Ahead regional director for Surrey (now part of our South East super-hub). This means that she knows exactly what’s involved in being a regional director. She knows what it is to be in that role and to further her career – a benefit she’d love to pass on to you too.

What to look for when you’re choosing a franchise?

If you think buying a Get Ahead franchise could be your next career move, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today to book a no-obligation call with Rebecca Newenham.

If you’re looking at franchise options, you’re probably at a turning point in your career. This can be an exciting time but it’s important to make the right choice. That’s why we’re using our Get Ahead franchise blog to give you as much information as we can about what we do. We hope this will help you picture life as a Get Ahead regional director before you take the plunge.

In this blog, we look at how you can improve the service you offer by giving your clients more support than they ask for.

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If you’re researching franchises and considering Get Ahead, you might have noticed that we’re a really supportive team. Helping each other out and not competing for clients is an important characteristic of a Get Ahead franchise, and one that’s only possible because our franchisees pull together. At Get Ahead, you get out what you put in.

Let’s take a closer look.

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Networking is a key part of the franchisee role when you join Get Ahead. It’s an important way of finding new leads and building lasting working relationships.

In this blog, we look at why networking is such an important part of the franchisee role. We also share our tips for successful networking. Let’s take a closer look.

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We are very proud of the flexible opportunity we offer our franchisees. Everyone works better after they’ve taken a break, whether it’s a fortnight’s holiday abroad or lunch with a good friend.

When you join the Get Ahead family, you are free to work in the way that suits you. However, if you’re used to nine-to-five, managing your own hours and your own holidays can seem daunting. Fortunately, our franchise model works means you can take holiday without your business grinding to a halt.

Here are five ways to manage holidays when you’re a Get Ahead franchisee:

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You know you’re about to make your next career move and you know you want to be your own boss. Perhaps it’s time for more freedom, or perhaps you’d like more flexibility and balance in your life. If this sounds like you, you might be trying to work out whether you’d rather set up on your own, or you’d rather buy a franchise of an established business. 

Let’s take a closer look.

Should I run my own business?

Running your own business is exciting, challenging and rewarding. Successful entrepreneurs have a great business idea and the drive to make it succeed.

When you run your own business, there are many benefits:

  1. You are answerable to no one (except your clients!).
  2. It’s as much freedom as you can have and still be at work.
  3. You can choose how to spend any profits.
  4. You can shape your business as you see fit, and take it in whichever direction you feel it will succeed.
  5. You can create your own business ethos – if you want to see something done differently, you have the freedom to implement it.

But there are downsides as well:

  1. Starting a business from scratch is hard work with a lot of demands on your time.
  2. You need at least basic knowledge of finance, admin, client care, data management, marketing and more.
  3. You might not see any profits for a few years.
  4. The buck stops with you and there is a lot of responsibility.
  5. It can get lonely – you might miss having a colleague who can provide some objectivity.

Should I buy a franchise?

If you’re not sure whether or not starting your own business is the right step for you, you might consider buying a franchise instead. A franchise can provide a lot of the freedom of running your own business, but without the pressure of working alone to deliver your own ideas.

There are many benefits to buying a franchise:

  1. Enjoy the freedom to work for yourself
  2. Take advantage of existing brand and reputation
  3. Join a family of supportive franchisees
  4. Continue on your career path, managing your team and making many of your own business decisions.
  5. Benefit from centralised resources like marketing material, training courses and software.

However, buying a franchise isn’t for everyone.

  1. The business model and ethos are driven by the franchise owner. Fortunately, ours is tried and tested!
  2. The role of a franchisee is to lead, not to do – if you like rolling your sleeves up, you might prefer your own business where you can deliver your core work yourself.
  3. You’ll make regular payments to the franchise owner, in addition to the upfront purchase – this covers the cost of centralised resources.
  4. Some franchises (not Get Ahead!) set compulsory targets for franchisees.
  5. Some other franchises (again, not Get Ahead!) impose limits on how and where you work, preventing you from scaling your franchise.  

When we decided to franchise Get Ahead, we identified some of the problems of franchising and set out to address them. That’s why our franchisees aren’t under pressure from performance targets, do receive regular training and, above all, benefit from our scalable business model so they can push themselves and their franchise as far as they like.

Buy a Get Ahead franchise

Whatever you decide your next step should be, it’s got to be right for you. And if do decide to buy a franchise, we hope you’ll choose Get Ahead! Our site is full of resources to help you make your decision. You could also follow our social channels and find out more about our ethos. You can even book in a call with franchisor Rebecca Newenham – why not have a chat and get your questions answered before you take the plunge?

If you’ve decided to buy a franchise instead of running your own business, this might be because you’d like to be part of a team. One of Get Ahead’s great strengths is our team of regional directors, who in turn are supported by a UK-wide team of virtual experts.

In this blog, we take a look at what teamwork means at Get Ahead and how it benefits our franchisees.

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If you’re reading this, you might well be doing your research before buying a franchise. Something that we feel sets us apart from other franchised businesses is that we offer a “business in a box” with many of the elements ready-made so you can hit the ground running.

In this blog, we look more closely at what our franchise package includes, so you can make an informed choice about your next career move.

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Discussing experiences of being a Get Ahead franchisee recently, a comment that emerged was that we provide a great balance between freedom and support. That was just what we were going for, so we were delighted that our franchisees felt that way!

In this blog, we take a closer look at the Get Ahead model and what freedom and support look like when you join our team of regional directors.

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Many careers claim to offer flexibility, but closer scrutiny says otherwise, However, at Get Ahead, when we say we offer flexible working, we mean it. All our franchisees work the hours they choose and the way they choose. In turn, this means a fulfilling career balanced with a rich life outside of work.

Let’s take a closer look.

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