Grand designs on franchising?

I’ll preface this blog by saying that the language does get a little more colourful in this blog than I usually use. It’s there to illustrate a point and to (hopefully) provide a giggle, but anyone who is easily offended may want to read another blog today.

Grand Designs, a television show from the UK, is a favourite of my husband and I. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the premise of each episode is that the host, Kevin McCloud travels through the experience of building or substantially renovating a home with a family from concept, to moving in and beyond, sharing with you their ups and downs along the way.

It’s a fabulous show and I wasn’t at all surprised to hear that they were going to franchise the concept, meaning that we would have an Australian version.

Excitedly my husband I sat down to watch the first few episodes. Ahh… it felt comfortable, same theme music, same intro monologue from the host, same overall concept.

And then… the differences started to show through. Subtle at first, such as differing construction styles and views from the properties and then, more in your face such as the classically Australian phrases “shit a brick” and “within a bee’s dick” being used. UK host Kevin McCloud has been described as “the thinking woman’s crumpet” by the UK press, I’m pretty sure he’d raise an eyebrow if confronted with the Aussie slang used in Australian Grand Designs.

My point (I’m within a bee’s dick of getting to it) is that even though the show has been “franchised” from the UK version, it’s got it’s own flavour and style. It’s a unique copy.

In September last year we opened a second office of our real estate agency Elephant Property. Their business cards look the same as ours, their office has the same paint colours, they use the same forms and checklists, but despite the similarities it’s still a unique entity with it’s own flavour and a very unique style. There are enough similarities and consistency for us to ensure the overall experience provides comfort for those of our clients who would use both companies, but there’s no way to make it an exact carbon copy.

Maybe you’re ready to delegate some more of your own workload. Are you prepared for the fact that it won’t be done exactly as you would have done it? Maybe it’ll be better, maybe it’ll be worse and you’ll need to do some training.

Or perhaps you’re ready to add a new staff member to your team? Are you prepared for the fact that you won’t just be able to create an exact facsimile of a fabulous team member you already have?

You could even be ready to move into a new office or location? What are your musts in terms of consistency and what won’t make you “shit a brick” if it’s not 100% the same?

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell andReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.