Service Spotlight - Business Development

Business Development underpins the success of every organisation, and creating an effective strategy and putting the time aside to give it the attention it deserves is not always easy for a small business owner. 

 

Our latest Service Spotlight is designed to give you a feel for what our franchisees can do to help in this area of your business. We’re delighted to share with you how Michelle Collins, and her team from Pink Spaghetti Chester & North Wales, has helped a client over the past few years. 

 

I’ve been working with Sam Smith, Director at The Outdoors Project for nearly 2 years. She initially approached us to help with some social media and writing news articles for her website with the intention of attracting interest from potential franchisees. Once Sam had a library of material to send out to people interested in becoming a franchisee, she was keen to improve how she tracked potential franchisees and ensured all enquiries were followed up. 

 

Business Development is an area that is relevant to all businesses from micro to major; improving processes to make a business better is going to be beneficial both in the short and long term. 

Sam needed an efficient and clear system to enable her to easily keep track of franchise enquiries and progression. I recommended the CRM system Capsule. Having used this system in my own business I know how user-friendly it is and particularly like the way it can be adapted to reflect the users end goal. In Sam’s case to find and secure additional franchisee areas. We took her through the set-up process and then transferred all her existing data across and agreed on the timeline for opportunities. 

 

Sam is passionate about her business. She puts so much energy into not only running a hugely successful business offering outdoors children’s clubs, but also growing the franchise side of the business. As many business owners will relate to, Sam was struggling to find time to research a suitable CRM system that would enable a more effective approach to tracking business development opportunities. With a couple of short meetings and screen shares I was able to talk her through the set-up process and understand what she needed in terms of information recorded and next steps. This was definitely time-efficient for Sam and her business, and for minimal cost she can now be confident that no opportunities are missed to sign new franchisees. The experience was straight-forward and stress free for Sam as she was instantly able to see the benefits of the new CRM system. 

 

It is clear for Sam to see what actions she needs to follow up on and what she can leave for Pink Spaghetti to do. Being able to tweak tasks as we both get used to the system has also given us a better understanding of how the system can be adapted to suit individual client needs. 

 

The Outdoors Project 

We love working with Sam from The Outdoors Project. This brilliant business offers a fresh approach to childcare, offering outdoor activity clubs for pre-school and primary age children. This past year has proved how much we appreciate the benefits of spending time outdoors, particularly getting our children more engaged with nature. We would jump at the chance to sign our kids up to The Outdoors Project if we had a franchisee locally. You only need to read the reviews to see how much the children love them. Their HQ is based in Brighton with 3 franchisees in West Sussex, Lewes and Bristol. They are really keen to expand so if you know anyone who could be a good fit for this franchise opportunity, please send them Sam’s way! 

You can find out more about how our franchisees help small businesses with their Business Development or how you can join us as a Pink Spaghetti franchisee.