Starting a Franchise - Women in Franchising - Lara Goodbody, YogaBugs
6th August 2008 - YogaBugs
Around 1.4% of working age women (around 250,000) return to the labour force each year . However, the need for more flexible working hours or a move from a full-time to part-time position often means a pay-cut of around 16 per cent. Furthermore, part-time work offers a limited choice of occupations that automatically attract lower pay, namely: elementary administration, sales and customer services, caring personal services and administration.
Some might wonder then what is the incentive to return to work? One way to help ensure you get the salary you want is to be your own boss but if starting a business from scratch seems too daunting a task to take on, a franchise business could be the answer.
According to the British Franchise Association the franchise industry is estimated to be worth £12.4 billion with 91% of franchisees reporting profitable businesses. Women are purchasing more franchisees than ever before and make up 61% of franchises in the Personal Services sector.
YogaBugs Ltd co-founders, savvy businesswomen and mums, Lara Goodbody and Fenella Lindsell wanted to build a successful company without losing sight of the work / life balance. Thus YogaBugs was incorporated in 2004 and the franchise business launched in September 2007. Here they reveal why investing in a franchise is an opportunity that deserves serious consideration by women.
Lara says: “It is an unfortunate fact that women returners to work tend to under-utilise their past training taking less skilled jobs for which they are over-qualified to gain the hours of work they need which are closer to home and have less training and support.
“Being our own boss seemed to be the only way we could take control of our careers and our income and feel mentally stretched in setting up and running a business. And as mothers of a combined number of five children ourselves, Nell and I knew that we had to develop the business in a way that it would support family-friendly working whilst reaping a realistic income for us and those who worked with us,” Lara explains.
“Interestingly of the 24 franchises we’ve awarded to date, 23 are run by women. We seem to be attracting two types of woman. One type being the ones who have given up work to be at home with their children. Now that their children are attending school they want to return to work and gain a sense of financial independence, but without loosing the flexibility that being a stay at home mum brings."
"The other type of woman is one who has been sucked down the corporate route and has lost all sense of work life balance, their working day is crazy and whether they are mum’s or not they are missing out. All our franchisees are commercially savvy individuals, they recognise that they have an opportunity to grow a fun and financially rewarding business in an industry that is growing daily and making a difference to the lives of young children. They come from a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds including Marketing Managers, IT Professionals, Lawyer, Teachers, Investment Relations, Customer Services, HR Specialists, Publishing Sales, Occupational Therapists, Research Analysts & Health Professionals to name but a few. What they all have in common is drive, ambition and the desire to succeed on their own."
Women are natural networkers
"With a network of such broad talent, they are all bringing a unique dynamic to the mix. We had our first network meeting at the end of May and were amazed at the power of sharing information. Women are natural networkers, they enjoy helping each other and sharing information. That alone is a reason why we see women doing so well in franchising as they are competitive but not amongst themselves, they see the value in working together."
Equally, Nell doesn’t think it is always about money. “Having a job that you enjoy and affords a better quality of life as a result can sometimes far outweigh a generous corporate income that is reaped from a, stressful job that leaves you with little time or energy to enjoy life and spend quality time with your family. We recognise that it is becoming more and more important to people that the work / life balance is maintained and in effect we were our own case studies. If we couldn’t get the balance right, then we couldn’t expect our prospective franchisees and employees to do it either.”
“When people ask Lara and I how we manage being working mum’s we usually say we’ve easier jobs than stay at home mums” says Nell, “being a full time mother is a very hard job, you don’t get regular appraisal on your performance, there are no bonuses and certainly not pay rises! Naturally seeing your children grow up is the most rewarding thing anyone can experience but it is hard work. We’ve found that a lot of women who pre-motherhood had careers, find it difficult to make that transition and that is why these woman make such great franchisees, as they are commercially aware, focused and can work well under pressure!”
Franchises are a ready made business
Undoubtedly one of the advantages of a franchise is that they provide ready made business opportunities. The business model has already been successfully operated and proven in the parent company, and the franchisee invests in this expertise to develop its own business from the core principles. This takes a lot of the hard work out of setting up a company from scratch.
Lara says “We took great care when devising our business model for the YogaBugs franchise. Part of ensuring our franchisees could be flexible in their working hours was to develop an administration system that was effective and time efficient. We didn’t want time-heavy admin to impact on their hours better spent selling in the concept to the community and education sector and so we researched and took advantage of a powerful web-based database to help run the business and make www.yogabugs.com the hub around which we can help support our teachers, franchise network and their businesses remotely. This really helps us maintain a healthy work / life balance and we encourage our franchisees to do so too.
The credit crunch is an interesting time for us at Yogabugs. One of our core operating markets is within the education sector which has a great deal of funding available to it for classes that help meet government-led initiatives to get children active and to provide after-schools activities. This market is continuing to grow and far from feeling the pinch, we need 100 more teachers right now to meet the demand for classes."
Is there a negative?
A franchise business may not suit everyone and with a wide variety available on the market, it is important to research the opportunities that are available to make the right fit with your own work and life objectives.
Working for yourself is not always the soft option people may perceive it to be. “In my experience, I work harder than I did when employed but the key is that I work smarter in order to enjoy the benefit of being flexible. We encourage our franchisees to network with each other and share experiences to prevent feeling isolated and to share in everyone’s success,” Lara concludes.
If the YogaBugs franchise interests, you, click the 'Request Information' Button to find out more.
