One of the things I emphasise when talking to HR professionals who are interested in working with us is the importance of finding a brand which is the right ‘fit’ for them.
Of course, developing an effective commercial brand from scratch is a difficult, time-consuming and sometimes expensive thing to do, but one of the advantages of doing it is that you can (if you take good professional advice from those who know about branding) ensure that your brand accurately reflects yourself – who you are, what your priorities and ethos are, how you conduct business, the services you offer and the marketplace you are aiming at.
One of the main advantages of opting for a franchise when considering self-employment is of course that the brand is already there for you. That has lots of advantages in terms of marketing, time and effort, professionalism, and an established business profile, but as you haven’t designed the brand from scratch it’s crucial to identify the right one.
Our brand is very important to us, and protecting it is one of my fundamentally important obligations to the consultants who work with us. There are a variety of ways I do this, but one of them is ensuring that when talking to HR professionals expressing an interest in working with face2faceHR, I don’t take those conversations forward with those whom I feel don’t ‘fit’ with the brand we have.
Because not everyone does. And that’s ok. I always encourage those who get in touch wanting to explore what we offer to also look at other franchise options. There are others out there. We’re all different, we all offer different things in terms of support, structure, resources, methods, training and all the other functions involved in a franchise. It’s important to decide what arrangement works for you.
But it’s also important to look at the brands. They are all different, which I think is a really good thing, because it means HR professionals have an opportunity to consider brand carefully when deciding who to work with, and to pick the one which best fits them; which best fits their own approach to HR, their own personality, their own principles and their own priorities.
Because if you work under a brand which isn’t a good fit for you, your success in business will be compromised, and that doesn’t benefit either you or the brand you are working under.
If you’re considering self-employment and want to know more about our brand so you can explore whether it would be a good fit for you, do get in touch.