TimesOnline.co.uk:
In 1997, Patrick and Geraldine Brennan left their jobs to buy a Snap Printing franchise in Dublin for IR£260,000 (€330,000). 4 years later, the husband and wife team sold it for IR£1m, having quadrupled turnover. The couple took a little time off to spend with their 6 young children and then, 4 years ago, they bought a Snap Printing shop in Galway for €330,000. There, too, they have quadrupled turnover, to €1.7m this year.
‘I’m a complete convert to franchising,’ said Patrick Brennan. ‘I was hesitant at 1st because I thought I was over-qualified for it. But I knew the guys behind Snap Printing as customers of mine from a previous job and I trusted them. I think that’s the key to success as a franchisee.’
It doesn’t always work out quite so well, however. The software specialist Ken O’Brien left his job with an American multinational company to take up a franchise early last year. He paid €20,000 for the Louth territory of a UK-based computer technical support franchise. From the beginning, he was disappointed with the level of support available to him. At the same time, materials were not fully adapted for the Irish market and there was less lead-generation than he had expected. After 8 months, the British parent company went bust. ‘It was a shock, but by the time it went belly-up, I had already begun to understand things were not going to happen as I had thought,’ said O’Brien.
None of the 6 months of research he had undertaken before signing, nor the company presentations and meetings he had attended, had offered any clue as to the outcome. Thankfully things have turned out well for him. ‘I’m still in business. I kept the name, Spear IT, and am working with supplier contacts I got from the franchise and things are starting to nudge in the right direction,’ he said.
So how do you establish whether a franchise opportunity is all it’s cracked up to be? Get to know here.
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