There are a number of financial based franchises available that provide services for small and medium-sized businesses.
These are generally split into providing advice and services to reduce operating costs of businesses and assisting firms with their tax situation and account needs.
Cost reduction franchises are when franchisees go to businesses with a set of proposals on how businesses can cut costs in a number of areas, through better business practices and special agreements with suppliers.
This system can work with business equipment and machinery, advertising and office supplies among others.
Cost management agreements are where companies gain discounts from suppliers, with the guarantee that they will get more orders, which is essentially a modified version of bulk buying. Once savings are made, franchisees will receive a significant portion of them, usually around 40 or 50 per cent.
With full and detailed training given, this means that financial experience is not essential for this franchise type, although a good knowledge of money issues is needed. What is more important is management level experience and having business contacts through previous employment that could be potential clients.
Some financial franchises offer small businesses people to look after their accounts and tax details, which are available at affordable rates and are able to spend significant time with them on a one-to-one basis.
Others focus on one particular financial service. An example of this is the 360 Solutions Financial Group which provides firms with an electronic funds transfer system so that they can make and receive payments without any paper money changing hands, making major administration cost savings in the process.
To succeed in both types of franchises, franchisees must be good with people and make interesting and clear presentations on what the franchise has to offer in order to build up a decent client base.
Franchisees need to be very organized so they can manage their time between doing work for existing clients and getting new clients in. This means that deskwork cannot take all day to complete and franchisees may need to bring in staff to get the work done efficiently.
In addition, talking to other financial service franchisees can be very useful as they can give useful tips and advice to make business improvements.