RSS feedsDavid Knapman, Baker Tilly
Ask the question: what do you want from your business? Once that is determined – be it continued growth, incorporation or sale – you can set about getting there.
The first issue is to attract and retain quality staff to meet demand without undermining quality. Give staff a reason to do every job well. Initiate training – from a business understanding, brand awareness and on-the-job training – which helps maintain standards.
Insideout could consider an employee bonus scheme based on customer feedback. With loyal and capable staff, Shaun and Nash can delegate more and then look to open new offices. Then the owners might consider a share incentive scheme, but take advice.
With current demand levels, Insideout may want to consider managing a waiting list for customers. If work quality stays high, they shouldn’t disappoint. People will have an idea how they want their garden to look. If Insideout meets these expectations, the reputation should grow further. In that type of business, word of mouth is vital.
A successful franchise is often a business model that is simple to replicate and usually very defined. It’s hard to imagine Insideout ‘bottling’ its unique selling point to franchisees and selling it on without their close involvement. The reputational risk appears too great. Managing and maintaining the quality reputation in their own business will keep Insideout ahead of competitors.
Kirsten Gibbs, Facture International
Shaun and Nash have identified franchising as a long-term option, but, actually, this would be worth thinking about now.
Briefly, franchising involves packaging up all or part of what your business does into a separate, fully systematised business that someone else can run as well as you can. You then sell licenses to operate this separate business to franchisees.
An ideal franchise is a win-win opportunity. The franchisee gets a ready-made business that exploits their strengths and the franchisor gets a committed local partner in their expansion.
Because franchisees operate a copy of your business, they only need to learn what your business does. Because it’s a separate business, owned by the franchisee, they’re motivated to make it work. They’re paid to be part of it and usually pay an ongoing fee as well. If they don’t deliver, they lose money. Franchisees operate under a commercial contract, so it’s easier to remove underperforming individuals.
By distributing day-to-day responsibility across franchisees, you can concentrate on generating new business ideas. Nevertheless, franchising isn’t an easy option. It takes time, effort and money – all of which has to be invested before you take on a franchisee. But the payback – a business worth many times the value of the original – is well worth it.
Dilip Kakkad, Saffery Champness
If the brothers are seeking rapid growth, franchising can be a means of achieving that aim. They should note that the franchiser usually maintains a degree of control over brand management, business standards and quality. However, in such a people-centred business as theirs, it is understandable that Shaun is nervous about the prospect of franchisees owning and running businesses autonomously under the Insideout brand.
Perhaps, above all else, they should look to expand in a steady, measured way. There appears significant demand for their services, but they should not be tempted into overtrading by accepting greater amounts of work than they can realistically fulfil.
Shaun and Nash have identified the importance of having people on board they can trust. The recruitment and retention of key personnel is among the most difficult issues facing owner-managers looking to grow their business and the brothers should consider putting measures in place to encourage the long-term retention of their key employees.
Maybe the introduction of share option schemes or flexible benefits schemes, perhaps involving salary sacrifice, can play a role in helping to retain and motivate employees important to the running of a business and encourage the closer involvement of these key people in company performance.
Ambitious expansion plans will most likely require a bolstered management team and, as well as encouraging staff loyalty, such schemes can encourage long-term equity participation and help lock key personnel into the business, which would also help Shaun and Nash build stronger tiers of management as their company grows into new offices and regions.
