Here’s the final part of my series of articles around the five main questions we get asked by prospective franchisees.This week we get territorial.

One of the most important things any prospective franchisee needs, regardless of the industry they are entering, is complete clarity around what areas they would be operating. And it’s not just the areas but also the guarantee of exclusivity.We’ve had several people join us from other agency models because they were disgruntled about changes to the way their territories were divided after they’d spent time working hard to build them up.

As with most things at EweMove, we like to keep it simple, because after all, as Albert Einstein supposedly put it ‘if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.’ Our territories work like this.

We work with the prospective franchisee to agree an exclusive area of 20,000-25,000 homes as defined by the Royal Mail’s postcode system. We insist on people living in the areas they want as a franchise territory. This helps them build their business quickly as they will have contacts, a good reputation and that priceless local knowledge. A five-year contract is drawn up, guaranteeing franchisees exclusivity in their area. This is also supported by the option of two five-year extensions meaning 15 years of sole operator security should the franchisee wish to exercise it.

We believe, and our experience shows, that this gives franchisees the ability to build their brand locally while having complete peace of mind and security over their ‘patch’. On several occasions, we have had franchisees invest in neighbouring areas that are available. This expansion works particularly well in regions where several EweMove franchises operate ‘next door’ to each other. 

I know from experience that this creates excellent opportunities for the neighbouring franchisees. When my wife and I ran the York franchise, we regularly passed on leads and vice versa to our colleague Karen who runs the Selby and Goole territory. It’s also great to be able to meet up with colleagues to share best practice, support each other and create brand awareness.

And as any good agent knows, ‘boards breed boards.’

I’ll be collating this series of the five most asked questions we receive – it’ll be going on our website soon, and if you’d like a link to it, please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

 About Nick Neill - Head Shepherd of EweMove

Nick has a strong background in Customer Service, Sales, Operations and Marketing, drawn from experiences mainly in financial services with high profile brands including First Direct - the first telephone bank in the UK which launched in 1989. Learn more here.