Established in 2012, BizSmart® is an award-winning business support provider, renowned for its success in bringing like-minded business leaders together via peer-to-peer learning and engagement.

Here, Luke Townsend, franchise owner BizSmart®️ Birmingham and Solihull, discusses his reasons for becoming a franchisee, together with insight into how he has found his first few months and what he has planned for the future.

Why did you want to become a franchise owner?

‘The concept of franchising appealed to me as it is one of the most profitable business routes anyone can take. A franchise gives you the luxury of building upon a reputable brand and following a solidified business structure.

Franchising is beneficial in many ways. However, one of the biggest perks is the time you save on the more demanding aspects of building a business, like creating systems and processes from scratch. Furthermore, as a franchisee, the harder parts of the business such as creating a brand, marketing, reputation and strategizing have already been taken care of for you. This enables you to follow a pre-existing business strategy and proven system, allowing franchisees to focus more on taking care of the daily running of their business.

In terms of profitability, franchising cuts conventional business costs exponentially. For example, expensive costs such as marketing and advertising are practically non-existent, enabling you to benefit from the already established brand – the franchisor.

Some other incentives I found when joining BizSmart®️ included:

• Exclusive rights– the franchisor cannot sell franchises in the same territory as one is already operating in, which significantly reduces any chance of competition.
• Easier to finance – banks were more likely to accept loan applications as the franchise is part of a company with an established reputation.
• Benefit from experience – by joining a franchise, your network is already full of other franchisees, and this gives you the opportunity to not only bounce off new ideas but to learn from others’ experiences.’

How have the first five months as a franchise owner been?

‘The first five months of being a franchise owner have been both rewarding and challenging, however, with the help and support of BizSmart®, my experience has been seamless.

If I have any doubts or concerns, a team of experts are always ready to mentor me through all my business decisions. I’ve found that having this team of like-minded professionals is essential for providing me with invaluable insight throughout my business journey.

Like many franchises, BizSmart® has already established ten years of experience, and there is an evident demand for their services. As such, I have dedicated a lot of time to ensuring I become an expert in business support and can effectively deliver my clients support resources such as the Flight Academy program.’

What have your highlights been from these past five months?

‘My highlights have included witnessing the new milestones that BizSmart® has achieved in the past five months. The company secured a double award win at the prestigious BOC International Business Brilliance Awards – achieving both Business of the Year and Business Leader of the Year. We were also shortlisted for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, and I was extremely excited to see our nomination and shortlisting for New Franchisor of the Year Award at the Virtual Franchising Awards 2023.

Being a part of an award-winning company, which is gaining industry recognition for leadership and its franchise model, is such a fantastic feeling and I am very proud to be a part of it.

I found that having such a large team behind you can be a great motivator to apply yourself to achieve your own personal goals, as it’s easier to draw inspiration from a larger group rather than when you are self-starting your own business.

Another highlight includes our ‘Flight Academy’ programme, which has continued to deliver excellent results despite the current challenging economic climate. Many participants had reported increased profits on average by 19% compared with the year before, just proving an established business structure is fundamental for business success.’

Are there any challenges you have faced when setting up?

‘In terms of challenges I faced at the very start of my journey, I mainly found differentiating between a growth mindset and a scale-up mindset was the hardest thing to grasp.

Many business owners are taught the importance of growth, which basically means simply increasing the size of the business in a ‘linear’ fashion. The issue with this mindset is that it can take a lot of resources to sustain constant growth, whereas scaling up is a way to continually grow your business’s revenue without doubling up on business costs.

At the start, this was a hard concept to understand as I automatically thought that scaling up was about investment, instead, I discovered that it was about strategic planning, and gaining insight and expertise from others. This can work wonders when transforming a business and it’s perhaps the concept my clients find most useful.’

How has your franchise model performed in comparison to its forecast, over the last five months?

‘During the past five months, we have successfully surpassed our predictions by 20%. This has allowed us to grow the franchise and we expect to double in size in the upcoming five months.

Our franchise model has facilitated unprecedented growth and we are looking forward to seeing how the rest of the year pans out.’ 

What are your ambitions for the next five months?

‘Over the next five months, I plan to continue to help business leaders achieve profitable and sustainable growth, especially during this critical time of economic uncertainty,

I want to continue to assist more business owners to achieve their goals and help them to create the business they want. I also hope to expand my knowledge and continue fine-tuning my areas of expertise.

Most of all, I want to continue BizSmart®’s mission to deliver impactful business support across the UK and become an integral team player, delivering allied support in