5 Tips for Building a Business Plan for a Successful Marketing Franchise

Putting together a good business plan is an integral part of every successful business. There are lots of ways you could go about producing a business plan, but not all of them will be successful. So, if you’re looking to start your own marketing franchise, how can you go about doing it?

Having the right marketing strategy is more important than ever. With so many businesses now desperate to get ahead and find new markets, the right marketing organisations can very quickly start making some big profits.

In this multi-billion pound sector, not everyone can become a franchisee. So, when it comes to going through some of the rigours and processes of starting a business, how can you set up a business plan that really puts your ambition in the spotlight? 

Building a business plan for a marketing franchise

First of all, what is a business plan? These documents are comprehensive overviews of your future business. They contain broad overviews of everything from the financial start-up and projections of your business, your plans for recruitment, potential office locations, niche services and various other important aspects to your business. You can almost think of it as an overview of a business from a potential investor or backers’ perspective. 

Remember that this is all subject to change over time, so your first draft doesn’t have to be set in stone. But, these plans will always need to touch on certain key themes. Make sure you include some of the following details: 

• Your business operations
• The kinds of goods and services you want to offer
• Management and business summaries
• How you intend to finance your franchise
• Where you’re looking to operate
• What clients you hope to pursue and how you will do it

So, what else can you do to make your marketing franchise stand out?

1. Detail your services

In a service-driven industry such as marketing, you need to find a way to make your franchise stand out. Wherever you’re looking to pursue your marketing campaigns and with whichever clients you want to grow with, make sure that you’re offering a wide range of services. Most importantly, make sure they’re front and centre on everything from your website to your social media.

A good way to start growing your business quickly is to cover a wide, but focused set of services. That way, even if one of your services performs less well, you still have a wide array of things to offer. This is one of the most common ways for a creative business to quickly start growing, so be sure to include this kind of strategy into your business plan.

2. Find a niche

If you’ve decided you want to run a marketing franchise with particular emphasis on a certain industry, make sure you make this a central part of your business plan. If you have previous experience which can be used to leverage your new marketing franchise, include some information about how that will help you run a great franchise.

Having previous experience in the industry that you want to focus your efforts on is a very good way of quickly building up some contacts and regular clients. And with that kind of business, you have every chance of quickly scaling up your business.

3. Highlight your quality over your quantity

Although quality vs. quantity is not an “either-or” proposition, conversions are being driven by quality, and that’s the target most of the brands are focused on reaching.
- The Drum

It’s also worth making clear in your business plan exactly how your marketing franchise will prioritise quality over quantity. There could be a business case for setting up a marketing franchise that churns out vast quantities of ad time, but some franchisors will be looking for your organisation to bring a more qualitative aspect to your operations. 

Whether it’s in your pricing, creative processes or internal software, highlight how your organisation will produce quality work en masse.

4. Financials

One of the most important aspects of running any business is making your financial situation transparent. Discuss with your franchisor what kind of working capital you will need to get your marketing business up and running and, if you need to, put together a plan for how you will finance your new business. To ensure that you don’t take on too much financial risk, consider the following factors:

• What are the initial and ongoing franchising fees?
• What support can your franchisor offer you?
• How much working capital will you need per month/ per week?
• How will you be able to structure your repayments over the coming months?
• Does your franchisor have dedicated financial brokers to help you get the best deals?
• What kinds of interest rates will you be looking at?

Assessing the start-up circumstances of your business can be tricky, so make sure to get the right advice and expertise should you need it.

5. Recruitment

Every business is only as strong as its employees and this is especially true in the marketing sector. When it comes to finding creative, driven, determined and focused employees to work for your marketing franchise, you’ll need to know how to effectively find the right employees. When it comes to recruitment, touch on how you will find the right employees who:

• Buy in to but also are prepared to bring something from their own experience to the business
• Come from unique backgrounds 
• Have the right skills
• Share your ethos
• Can combine creativity with customer-facing emphasis

Start a marketing franchise today

Marketing is a lucrative industry to work in. With the right few clients, momentum can very quickly build behind your organisation and you may find your business growing. If you’re looking for more advice and guidance on how to build a marketing franchise, you can also have a look at how to start your own marketing franchise or how to choose the right franchise for you.

For completely different options though, you might be better off consulting the UK franchise directory for a complete list of other franchising opportunities, on a sector-by-sector basis.