In today’s business environment, the motto ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’, is a sound one to follow.
Sometimes, however, it doesn’t hurt to take a minute to read the fine print, consider an opportunity from every angle – and then pounce. Expense Reduction Analyst franchise partners, for example, become, under licence, part of an international concern with a global reputation, in an area that’s recession-proof, with virtually no competition.
The financial services franchise specialises in the reduction of management costs for essential items such as internal and external printing and document management, freight, insurance, cleaning, telecommunications, travel, waste, packaging and many other small, everyday business expenses that can add up to big dollars. Founded in the UK in 1992, ERA is the world’s largest and best-known cost management and procurement system.
“ERA works internationally because each and every business in existence has cost categories that need to be addressed,” says ERA chairman Fred Marfleet. “These categories, and the savings that can be found within them, are fairly standard the world over.” Marfleet himself is an example of the portability of the ERA system – having developed the licensing system in the UK in 1992, he made a lifestyle choice to headquarter ERA in Sydney, Australia.
To illustrate the international appeal of ERA, which has seen the organisation achieve a presence in more than 20 countries, consider two very different businesses in two very different continents:
“We hired ERA to analyse our operational (overhead) expenses,” says a spokesperson for Soluziona, South America. “The magnitude of the savings found was far greater than we could have ever conceived.”
Adds a spokesperson for Legalco Australia: “We’ve made considerable savings financially in record time. We are a small business that needed time to grow and to concentrate on bedding down our acquisitions, so we needed ERA to analyse the ensuing expenses and consolidate our suppliers.”
According to Marfleet, ERA on average saves clients between 15 and 25 percent, with its licensees earning half of every dollar saved.
“We offer a ‘risk-free’ service which is, of course, highly attractive to potential clients. The ‘no savings, no fee’ offer means clients only pay if ERA saves them money – and then they pay 50 percent of those savings for 18 months. The more a licensee saves a client, the more that licensee earns. Best of all, licensees are able to tap into the ERA network to ensure they approach only those organisations with maximum savings capacity. The same established system and worldwide supplier relationships ensure that fully trained ERA licensees are able to secure lucrative repeat business. The nature of ERA’s business ensures its appeal no matter what the economic climate – in the good times, companies look to consolidate the bottom-line, in times of recession, they need ERA to ‘trim the fat’,” says Marfleet.
Importantly, ERA offers licensees ongoing training and support. Initial training includes understanding the ERA business, how to market and sell skills, business skills, and personnel and training skills. An experienced ERA executive will then assist in the launching of the business in a new territory, while specialist experts are on-hand to help find solutions in difficult cost-management categories, particularly in business areas that may be unfamiliar to the licensee.
Marfleet points out that ERA licensees do not need specific cost management or accounting experience but, rather, a desire to succeed. Indeed, many of the company’s most successful business partners come from backgrounds as diverse as sales, senior management, recruitment, procurement, consulting and running their own business.
“I had been working in finance as a senior executive for over 12 years, but was looking for a new challenge and some self-satisfaction,” says Taiwan-based Waldo Yeh. “At the beginning, I was hesitant to change my lifestyle and averse to taking risks, but ultimately I had to be true to myself.”
Juan Carlos Paez from Ecuador expresses a similar view: “ERA initially caught my attention because I was looking for an innovative idea and a business model that could not only meet my objective of being an independent business, but also offer an interesting professional challenge. In my opinion, ERA is a very competitive firm that has been able to make the right strategic decisions in order to become a world-class company in the consulting business.”
12-May-2006