Preservation for Motorcars

A Franchising Story:

The Creator posses in-depth knowledge of National operations. The franchise model he learned in this example during his early career, was by undertaking a consultancy role for a well-known retail outlet. At it peak, the franchise held 246 franchisees in the UK and around 16 franchisees in the EU.  He was hired for almost to two years to oversee the US Investment Management Buyout to the tune of £18m.

He was involved with the reconciliation of the Franchisee sales ledgers, which included monthly management fees, adversity levy and stock purchases as these franchisees were legally required to purchase through the warehouse at (HQ) Head Office.

This entailed him communicating extensively with all franchisee owners, building a repour with them directly to understand their business operations, understand their finances and understand what Head office support was required to make them successful on the basis that HQ, as you can imagine, with 246 retail outlets, had limited resources.

Head office Business Development managers were deployed to stores that were struggling. Resources were optimised accordingly, and done so in a fair manner. Some store owners welcomed the support, and the BDMs helped them develop skills they perhaps lacked. Whilst others were perhaps unmotivated and unable to benefit from HQ resources. Why? Because even a franchised business is also a business in itself and, as such, is only as successful as the person or people running it. Sometimes people who had committed to a franchise had the funds to do so initially (therefore were signed up) but perhaps lacked the ability to push forward, develop and run a business for many reasons, which are unfair to state here.

The total volume of balance the creator was involved with on a month-by-month basis was £1.4-£1.8m. This was the monthly turnover of operations for Head Office, including the above fees and stock purchases. 

He oversaw the replacement of two Managing Directors, the initial one left due to the sudden change of business direction. A new Finance Director who actually hired the creator when she first joined the company. A new Head of Operations who obtained valuable insights from the creator due to his in-depth company knowledge at that time. And finally, a new Marketing Director.

The Marketing Director was certainly an eye opener for the creator. He learned that sometimes a person has the ability to sell themselves, present themselves in perhaps a superior manner, "they are the best", "they know what they're doing". What happened is - the guy almost put the company bankrupt via a lack of cash flow. And he did this by signing up with a Touring Car team with the intention of advertising by coverage on TV.

The fees were astronomical.

The company began the Touring Car deal (and it was amazing! - all this fancy VIP access to tracks - gosh!, I bet the Marketing Director had a few champagnes...). The deal was signed, but there was a fundamental error made. Something deep within the contract that was either hidden of missed.

Everything was supposed to be planned out (budget-wise for HQ), but one day a huge £50k invoice hit the table, an unexpected one. This was after the season had begun, therefore all the advertising logos were on the cars etc. The touring car company demanded money immediately - something to do with paying for tires.    

Invaluable knowledge and insights acquired.

The knowledge obtained working in Franchising is one reason for how and why this current creation came about.

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