The Look Local Franchise Opportunity

What do the franchisees think of Look Local?

For former student Josh Carter, investing in the Look Local franchise has enabled him to pursue his ambition of becoming his own boss without any previous experience. Josh explains:

"When I finished full-time education I wanted to follow in my dad's footsteps and run my own business. As I had no previous experience, franchising was the logical solution because I would have access to ongoing training and support.

"My dad recommended I consider the Look Local franchise because it has a low initial investment fee, minimal ongoing overheads and would enable me to use and develop my sales skills. I liked the thought of earning my own money operating a business from home, selling advertising space for the Look Local directories while having the back up and support of a franchisor, so decided to invest.

"I launched my franchise in October 2009 and business is going well. My aim is to have two directories up and running by the end of my first year generating a combined monthly income of £3,000. From there, my plan is to start employing people to work for me, so that I can focus on growing the business.

"The great thing about Look Local's training and support package is that it is tailored to suit the individual franchise owner's needs. All franchise owners have a one-day initial training session which covers how to use the Look Local system. After this, further training is available on request. I decided to have extra training because I went away for a month between the training and launch so I wanted to refresh my memory.

"Establishing my franchise was hard work but it was also a very exciting time, knowing I have complete control of my destiny. I enjoy running my own business because I can work at a time that suits me. I love the fact I do not have to work nine-to-five Monday to Friday and if I like, I can take a day off mid-week and catch up with my work later on that evening."
Josh Carter

Ray joined Look Local in 2007 when he bought the Alcester territory, and since then he and his son Greg have taken on an additional territory in Bromsgrove. I was keen to be my own boss and got talking to Clive Wheeldon who is a director at Look Local. He suggested the franchise opportunity and I was immediately impressed. I liked the idea of a low-cost business with minimal overheads and the backing of an established brand so decided to invest.

“With Look Local head office taking care of the invoicing and some of the through the
new CRM system, Greg and I were able to concentrate on starting up local directories for both the Redditch and Droitwich areas last summer. We now feel we have the time to be to manage four local directories. By doing this, we anticipate doubling our current turnover of £60,000.

“We think the new support system is great – it has definitely made our lives easier. Before we had to create our own database using software like Excel. Now, with the new centralised database, once all of the information is transferred across there is a sense of uniformity as all of the franchise owners record their clients' data in the same way.

“Business is going really well at the moment and we think this is because the recession has led a lot of local traders to reduce their advertising expense. Therefore, they cannot justify the cost of advertising in a glossy publication. Instead, more companies are coming to us, because we are more cost effective and have a similar circulation figure.”
Ray & Gregg Bessell

"I have been impressed with the support and training. With the invoicing taken care of I have more time to focus on getting to grips with running the business and increasing the revenue. Initially I spent 10 days with the existing franchise owners learning the ropes, and since then have had full support from head office. Look Local has also found a printer which the whole franchise network use and by bulk printing our directories we save a lot on the costs of printing!"
Dean Marshall

"I bought a Look Local franchise and worked hard to produce my first book with a lot of help and encouragement from Matt and his team. My first Look Local went to print with 40 pages and over 60 customers.

I have thoroughly enjoyed creating Look Local in my area and with the teams help will go from strength to strength with future issues."
Lin Duncan, Lichfield

"Following the birth of my son Luke in September 04, going back to my stressful but very well paid job at a Bank in London had lost a lot of its appeal. 7 months later at the end of my maternity leave I was back doing the daily commute to my hectic and busy career. The biggest struggle of all was leaving Luke with a childminder for 10 hours a day. I missed him so much and I thought there must be more to life than this.

We could not afford for me to be a full time stay at home Mum and to be honest, I did still want to have a bit of independence. My husband said he would support me with whatever I wanted to do so we looked into different options whereby I could spend more time at home. I looked into local part time jobs, but there was nothing suitable and the pay was not good.

Buying into a franchise seemed a good option, but a lot are very expensive (£10,000 upwards) and are full time businesses. Then I came across the Look Local franchise which looked as though it would be perfect for me. Working from home, having my own business and most importantly spending more time with Luke.

After much deliberating and some investigation into local competition, I left my city job. Luke now only goes to the childminder for 2 and half days a week and I have set up an office in the conservatory with my new computer, fax machine and scanner.

I soon very proudly took delivery of my first Look Local publication. The Look Local team have been very supportive, always on hand with a friendly voice at the end of the phone answering my constant stream of questions. It was hard work and I had to put in some extra hours for the first few months but looking at my first attempt I felt proud as punch and keen to get on with my second edition to make it even bigger and better”.
Amanda Fowler, Stoneleigh