CASE STUDY 1: ARGOS FIRE & SAFETY

It was back when Karen (owner) was a little girl that she was first introduced into her family business, Argos Fire & Safety. She had begun to learn what the business was all about at this point. On one fine summers day, sitting on the cliff-side, looking out upon the bay, it suddenly dawned on Karen that she wanted to take up her family business and to start having a real input on the key decisions of the business. She was always very passionate about her family business and spent countless days helping out her father as much as she could when she was younger. It was from there that Karen then believed that going into work every morning amidst family was the most perfect, happiest and most life changing decision that she was ever going to make.

Argos fire & Safety distribute fire and safety products throughout Ireland and provide a full back up service to all clients. Clients respect this as they get full support from the company. Any issues or maintenance problems, the company will be on speed dial to fix, providing prospective franchisees and clients the feeling of comfort and a sense of relief. The aim is to grow the business and help others become more independent in their professional careers by having their own business.

Argos Fire and Safety is a family run business that has been in operation for over 32 years. Now is the time for Argos Fire & Safety to take the world by surprise and expand. This has forever been playing on the minds of each individual in the Corcoran household and now they have come to the conclusion that franchising is the route for them and for the business to achieve expansion. Franchising has been selected as the route of expansion instead of other strategic options for instance: mergers; acquisitions; and partnerships due to its robust model, high growth rates and lower risk factor. Karen is embedded within the second generation of Corcorans, taking over the family business. Going live with the franchise part of the company in 2014 is currently of major importance to Karen. Furthermore, the selection process for the products and services that the company should sell was a rigorous and time- consuming process. Karen would have liked to complete this decision-making process earlier.

Franchising is a fundamental part of growing her business and she hopes to have that up and running between early 2014 and 2015. A key factor for the adoption of the franchise model is to grow the business and to also help other prospective entrepreneurs/franchisees become their own boss. What has become apparent is that the Corcoran family have always wanted to give back to their roots and support people to go into business for themselves. The family have a wealth of knowledge and skills in the IT sector and on what it takes to be an effective trainer. Karens sisters have also helped to grow the business so it really is a tight-knit family that is working together to make their business a success. Were it not for the efforts of many, this life changing ordeal of setting up and expanding the business couldnt have ever been on the cards. Long hours, vast commitment, effort, and a lot of capital has been allotted to the business by the family to make it a triumph.

The journey has been long, challenging but ever so rewarding. The training that Karen personally received at the National Franchise Centre was great, constantly learning new things, helped with the vision of the business and the business mentoring was very helpful, due to being specifically tailored to her needs. For the development of the business, the National Franchise Centre has helped steer them in the right direction and put things into perspective for the company. Also, the true benefits of franchising were identified whilst on the FAST programme at the NFC. Balancing the training at the NFC with trying to run her own business was a very challenging task for Karen. Furthermore, the NFC served its purpose for her by providing invaluable resources that has helped strategically position Karen and her family business in a very effective direction. Since leaving the FAST programme, the business is growing and the adoption of the franchise model is occurring. Every business encounter challenges, hiccups and bumpy roads as they are part and parcel with every day business life, but the main CHALLENGE which she encountered was time. Theres just not enough of it!.

Business format franchising was examined at the NFC, which is the most common and popular type of franchising, in which a company offers a franchisee a successfully developed model for operating a business, using the companies branding, marketing, expertise and trademark. Usually the franchisors company will provide the franchisee with an invaluable and significant amount of guidance, training and mentoring in order to be able to start managing and operating the company. The franchisee has to pay a fee or certain privileges in return. This type of franchising has been adopted by Argos Fire & Safety, whereby they train the franchisees for a full two weeks about all the products that they provide, the advantages of them and on all aspects of the maintenance work. Maintenance training is an on-going process as new regulations are paramount and continuous to the fire and safety industry. The franchisees buy into the business and distribute the products. Business format franchising has aided the business by helping to improve the vision of Argos Fire & Safety.

Expansion and growth are imperative for the business, Karen and her family. She is certain that it will work due to a high market demand. Undoubtedly, all companies have to abide by fire health & safety and duty of care regulations which can only improve their business. Franchising is a model that has been tested for Argos Fire & Safety and now they have adopted the model so that they can provide this key information to prospective franchisees.

Argos Fire & Safety is suited to business format franchising as they are helping to create jobs and provide people with the sense of job security, especially when economic times are at their most challenging. Expanding the business and labour activation through this type of franchising is imperative to her business. For many, the future might have looked very bleak after being let go from work, redundancies and large cut backs but Karens family business is proactively improving this environment, to give people a glimmer of hope and that light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Karen is trying to employ more people and get them back to work. They have a close working relationship with manufactures and have developed good business relationships with them. This will help to support the franchisees that come on board. There were many reasons as to why Karen decided to start working in her family business: the sense of employment security; giving back to the community; and she is a real hands-on, people person. The creation of a business that can benefit society as a whole and keep people safe, when at work or at home, were fundamental reasons for the creation of Argos Fire & Safety.

(Source: Jamie Mehan, To franchise or not to franchise?)

Questions

3. You are interested to become Argos Fire & Safetys franchisee. Discuss, TEN (10) factors that need to be considered prior to becoming their franchisee.

Answers:

(10 marks)

4. Explain TWO (2) main strengths of Argos Fire & Safety.

Answers:

(5 marks)

PLEASE ANSWER ELABORATELY. I NEED THE ANSWERS IN THE NEXT 2 HOURS. PLEASE BE GOOD AS THIS IS MY MAJOR ASSIGNMENT