Website design franchise

[Motter]

Having been looking through the potential franchises out there I came across one which is part of the same group that offers ukwebsaver .

they are called activwebdesign .

The products are selling websites to small/med businesses for a fixed fee of either £499 for a site or £999 for an online shop.
These would inc all hosting and fees etc to the customer.

The sites are built using their own custom software - there are some examples of sites available on the website.

Costs:- they are asking around £7k , plus £199 monthly to operate the licence in your area and includes any updates of the software etc.

All the money from the sales are complete profit so they don't take a % .

Instead of asking for advise of friends and family, I'm am putting this out there to you guys to see if you suggest the +/- for this.

I won't be borrowing any money for this and it wouldn't leave me short either.

Be interested in your views.

[fisicx]

To break even you have got to build at least 10 e-commenrce sites or 19 standard websites in the first year. That's an awful lot considering you will be starting from scratch. But is seems to be a fairly simple enterprise, how much work you will have to put in to build the sites is a different matter.

The biggest problem you will encounter is clients wanting you to tweak this or add that and you being unable to deliver because of the limitation of the software package. For example, the navigation on all the example sites is identical - customers who want fancy CSS rollovers or dropdowns will be dissapointed.

I also wonder where all the images come from. Are you expected to produce the headers and backgrounds? If so that will eat up your time (and profits).

In summary, it does what it says on the box. If you want to embark on this franchise then good luck. But I think you will find it difficult to find enough clientel to keep ypur head above water.

[Motter]

thanks for your reply. Esp as the advise coming from a web designer.

As the software is web based, the customer will have access to tweak it too, so taking those things off my hands if needed.
Will have to ask regarding the menu's etc.

I have a friend who has one of the 'thebestof....' franchises and there seems to be plenty of businesses on there without a site, so that would be a start.

[fisicx]

Of course there are plenty of business without websites. But convincing them to part with their money is not easy.

DIY website builders are not new. Some are excellent (and free) some are poor (and expensive). But very few offer the flexibility of a bespoke design.

Supposing a new client comes to you and wants a website that showcases their volunteer organisation. They want to write articles and put up pictures, maybe have a calender of events, even a blog. And they also want do some fundraising by selling mugs and teatowels. I suspect that the franchise package isn't flexible enough to build a site like this.

Maybe the local farmer wants to pormote his organic produce. He doesn't even own a camera. Who is going to take, optimise and edit the pictures? Who is going to create the logo?

What happens when the client comes to you complaining that their site isn't listed on google? What advice can you offer?

What do you do if the client wants to move their site to a new host?

They will be paying £150 a year for site management and will be on your back all the time asking you to tweak this and change that - they won't want to do it themselves, if they did they wouldn't have paid you to build the site for them.

[Motter]

again all good points.

As I've still in the process of making up my mind over this - all the angles need attention.

[Glaucus]

My franchise has a website run by head office which, basically, is laughable. It would be lovely to have my own...

But why can't head office maintain the company site to a standard that makes it useful?

A- we sell over 5,000 lines with new ones coming on stream maybe every week. They simply do not have the time, although there are 4/5 people in the office.

How would you cope?

[ventra]

I own a Activweb Franchise and understand first-hand the comments made in this thread. However, I have found that if you make it clear to the potential client what is included in the fee and what is not, then you should no real issues. There is no reason for you not to charge for "Additional Services". I do!

The Activweb product is really aimed at businesses and sole-traders that have very little time,knowledge or inclination to "self-build". It is unlikely that many in this catergory would understand some of the terms or technologies Web Developers use or require the functionality that larger organisations require, so to have a website built for £500 is more within their remit.

I have in the past paid £000's for a website, and have been quoted mega-bucks, when really all I wanted was something that was well designed, clean and easy to navigate.

What is most important about this Franchise is: Being prepared to go looking for the business, like most businesses, it will not come to you. This is a business based on making sales.

Talk to some of the franchisees, you can get their details by entering random postcodes in the Activ Website.

I operate in Ossett and Dewsbury.

HTH

Bill

[BritWeb]

Interesting to read the forum about web design franchise. Our company have a small network of franchisees who sell our website design products. Things to consider are this:

1 - Selling websites is very profitable.

2 - Looking after your clients is important. Think about the support structure after the sale (back ups, weekend support and good client communication).

3 - Main hurdle you will experience is the contact and sale of a website. You should know route to market no matter what product you are selling.

4 - Your tech ability does not have to be high but you must understand how the Internet can benefit business and be interested in this.

5 - Make sure the franchise you buy is a company that exists serving clients mainly and the Franchise arm is to grow the business.

I hope this is usefull.

Paul.

[Det]

I found this interesting too as we are currently franchising our web design business and I have had a look at Activ to see what they offer.

There is no doubt they are a well established company and they seem to have a lot of happy franchisees.

There are a few things I didn't like.
The cost.
£10k for a franchise seems like a lot of money to me.

Ongoing fees.
Activ and most of the others out there I can find seem to want a regular monthly fee. That means that if you sell nothing this month you've made a loss as the fee must be paid whatever your trading results. What happens if you're ill or you want to go on holiday?

You get to build all the sites.
This has been sold as a good thing, but it means that instead of getting out to build your business, you're spending your time in front of your PC building sites. Not to mention all the changes you'll have to make to sites over time.
Don't misunderstand me, lots of people buy their site and you never hear from them again until their hosting renewal date. But there are those who spend half their time thinking up new ways to redesign their site to see if you are up to the challenge.

I've always been a fan of franchising as it benefits both parties, but one must be careful to look past the sales hype.

[BritWeb]

About monthly fees. We used to NOT charge them but with our generation two franchisees we DO. The reason is to fund background marketing and admin. All businesses have base expenses and this is one of them. Franchise business is a pure partnership so the monthly fee should be spent to assist the partners. My advice is to ask what you get for your monthly fee.

I agree about building sites. As a website design franchisee you should not spend all day at a PC. The franchise structure is best with a team you can call on to do the tech work for you while you work to find your clients. Saying that some time will be spend combing through your clients site's and adding content etc. Some of our more active franchisees employ an assistant who does all the admin and site edits.

Nice chatting - Paul.