Trading Networks a community magazine website Franchise with the option to run a local glossy magazine, launched 12 months ago and is aiming to turn the Franchise world on it head by not asking for a franchise fee.
Susan Perry, the brains behind the Trading Network Franchise, spent a lot of time looking into franchises so she could give up work and spend more time with her children while at the same time earning a real income and planning for her future. Susan said, “The trouble I found was, when I found a franchise that I liked, they wanted more than £10,000 and that was one of the cheapest. It was money that I did not have and to be honest not many mothers who would like to stay at home with their children have that kind of money. I wanted to find a franchise that gave me time with my children but at the same time allowing me to earn an income, providing for my family without having to find a huge Franchise fee. People said to me that I was a bit wet behind the ears because there wasn’t such a Franchise and they were right.
It was not until some time later that I started playing around with an idea of having a website that was aimed at the local community. This idea turned into reality. I started developing a local magazine community site that would allow people to read great articles including celebrity interviews, local news as well as business news. Not only that, I decided that I would produce a local magazine for 3,000 homes that would allow local smaller business people to advertise, hence giving me two business’s into one. I was amazed at the response that I had, not long ago I was looking for a way to stay at home with my children, but now I had developed a great magazine website that would allow me to stay at home and earn a real income, giving me more time with my children and allowing me to not only match my wage but increase my wage, I had the best of both worlds.
I started to think about mothers with children who are in the same situation as I was in. Through speaking to lots of people on my journey to find a low investment franchise, I found there were lots of other parents in my situation who wanted to work from home but did not have the funds to buy a franchise.
That is where the idea came in of Rent A Business, well, you can rent cars, and you can rent houses, so why not rent a business.
I brought out a business model where people can come on board without paying a large franchise fee or start up fee or even a deposit and instead they pay a monthly licence fee.
When someone comes on board, they do not pay over £10,000 like other franchise companies, instead they pay £200 per month for the first six months and then after that they pay £500 per month.
This allows people six months to get use to their business and start to earn a real income without the worry of paying the normal licence fee. And when they would like to, they can then start up their own local magazine where we design the magazine and even provide the, allowing the mothers to earn a great income through selling local ads to local business people.
Since we have brought out this model with the launch of only four months ago, we have five Trading Town community websites that are being run which includes www.tradingmanchester.co.uk and we also have another 55 that are currently in discussion. One of the amazing things that has happened to me is, we have had people from Spain, France and America who are looking to have their own Trading Town website for their local area.
What was once a dream seems to be becoming a worldwide success.
I am hoping by me getting rid of the expensive price tag of franchises that other companies will come on board and instead of requesting a large fee to run a franchise, they will instead allow people to rent their business to help more people work for themselves.”
Notes for editors: If you would like to speak to the creator of the Trading Town Networks then please phone 0845 643 1046 or email Susan_perry@btconnect.com
Have a look at www.tradingmanchester.co.uk to see one of the great Trading Towns Networks.
