Description of franchise system

The Abacus network franchise, an associate member of the British Franchise Association, offers a unique franchise opportunity designed to help generate a thriving business for qualified accountants.

History
The success of the pilot scheme, which commenced in 2002 and operated for 2 years, gave Abacus the confidence to launch the franchise in September 2004 and has since steadily increased its number of franchisees.

Business Model
The UK has been divided into approximately 200 exclusive territories. The territories vary in size but give equal opportunity as each has approximately 10,000 businesses operating within it. Abacus then groups these businesses by 5 turnover bands and is the basis for the appointment generation in the territory. The Abacus call centre then will generate 100 verified and confirmed appointments for you in the first year of operation.

There is also the opportunity to earn additional fee income from other Abacus group companies and network strategic partners.

Market
At Abacus , they have analysed the SME marketplace over a two-year period to find out what UK businesses require from accountancy providers, business support and financial services. Their findings show that the SME market requires a multi-disciplined organisation to support all of its administrative and operational requirements.

Franchise concept

By buying into a franchise your business is backed by a proven model, which is well marketed and supported by a team of experts at head office. It will benefit from a national brand, whilst being able to tap into other Business and Financial Support Services from the Abacus group, and as part of a nationwide operation you are well placed to contend with any high street competitor, regardless of size.

Training and Support
Abacus has their own company dedicated Marketing and Call Centre to generate business appointments for you. In the first year you are guaranteed 120 potential new customer appointments. In addition, you can generate further income as an Introducer to any of the Abacus services including Employee Benefits, Health & Safety, Credit Management, Human Resources, Quality, Pensions and Insurance, to name a few. By simply introducing clients to Abacus’ strategic partners, there is the potential to increase your turnover by as much as 10 to 20%.

Abacus has support centres taking care of incoming calls and office administration, as well as providing franchisees with a tax department and payroll bureau. You have the independence of running your own business, with day-to-day duties dealt with by support centres, thus keeping your overheads to a minimum.

In addition to this, backed by a well established team of advisers in all areas of accountancy, business and finance, Abacus offers:

• Prior to joining, a personal face-to-face presentation by Abacus’ experts to explain all aspects of the opportunity
• A comprehensive training programme in operating and marketing your franchise business, with on-going support as and when you need it
• On-going seminar programmes
• Training manuals
• Corporate brochures
• Corporate stationery
• Extranet access to exclusive franchisee information and data
• Regular e-newsletter
• Free helplines for tax, legal, health and safety, HR, and VAT, to name just a few

Franchise partner profile

From experience with their two-year pilot scheme, it became clear that all companies demanded professionalism, the highest quality, and value for money. This is why Abacus decided that their franchise would only be offered to qualified accountants unlike other accountancy franchise opportunities.

Facts

Standard information

Country of origin	United Kingdom
Company foundation (nat / worldwide)	2004 / 2004
First franchising (nat / worldwide)	2005 / 2005
Country of data	United Kingdom
Total investment (nat)	26.000 GBP
Personal capital	10.000 GBP
Initial entry fee	26.000 EUR
Advertising fee	400 GBP p. year
Type of contract	Franchise-System Licence Cooperatives Others
Renewal fee
Master licenses available

Priority development	• United Kingdom • Worldwide

Minimum turnover
Pilot unit in the country of data
Internal purchase
Mark-up of goods

Financial support

Training activities

Training content

Management support

Ideal franchisee profile