Growing through franchising

It’s been five years since Kate Cousens and Steve Lloyd were introduced to one another by the owners of HM3 Legal who were looking to develop a business consulting arm for their successful 70-year law firm.

The combination of Kate’s marketing skills and senior leadership experience with Steve’s operational expertise and knowledge of turning business strategy into bottom-line profits has proven to be a perfect recipe for success. Through utilising Kate’s creative communication skills, they have translated a vast amount of business theory into easily understood, tangible client-facing materials across five service areas:

• DICE GAME PLAN (strategy development)
• DICE TEAM SPIRIT (culture development)
• DICE TEAM PLAYERS (leadership development)
• DICE COACHING (business advice)
• DICE WINNING MINDSET (mentoring)

Each service has a suite of bespoke materials and methodologies which support business owners and leaders to address organisational challenges such as employee engagement, performance management, talent development and succession planning.

Kate and Steve both share a passion for helping businesses to succeed and having proven their approach, they are now focusing on their own growth of DICE business, choosing franchising as the method to do so and working with franchise expert Patrick Burge from Lime Licensing to help them.

Explaining why they have chosen franchising as their route to growth, Kate said: “I have always been interested in franchising as a business concept and experienced first-hand how successful it can be when I worked for McDonald’s. Steve and I realised that the materials we have developed together over the last five years are a real asset to other professionals who might be looking to set up and grow their own consulting businesses.

“In 2022 we on-boarded our first franchisee to test the concept and the feedback on how useful the materials and methodologies have reinforced what we believed! We know first-hand the value of having a professional by your side to help your business grow and after shopping around, we found Patrick and knew instantly that he was going to be the person to help us find our next tranche of franchisees. We are excited to find our next franchisees to come and roll with us!”

The Covid-19 pandemic has left many people disillusioned with work, whether it be down to redundancy, the threat of redundancy, a lifestyle change, or the feeling of wanting more. There’s no wonder then that according to statistics from kwfinder.com, the keywords on Google exhibiting the highest searches since the beginning of the pandemic in the UK have been ‘how to start a business’ (22,000 people per month) and ‘business ideas’ (24,800 people per month).

The franchise industry is thriving, as people look towards following their entrepreneurial dream through business ownership whilst minimising their risks. Whilst there is no shortcut to business success, when you take on a franchise you can be comforted by the knowledge that the franchisor has already made mistakes, refined the service offering and created tried, tested, and trusted ways of working to help you get your business off the ground quickly so that you can focus on finding your first clients and start earning money. When you combine this with your hard work and determination, it is hard not to become successful – a stark contrast to the unpredictability of starting up a business on your own.

Becoming a DICE franchisee allows you to get a head start as you will be supported every step of the way by Kate, Steve, and the rest of their HQ team. You are in business for yourself, not by yourself! So, whether you want to gain back control over your own career, make use of your redundancy package, or just pursue a new challenge, a DICE franchise might be the very thing you are looking for.

To find out more, visit: Your Franchise Opportunity – Dice Business