Become a Franchisee
Paws to consider your future - Read more...
Become a Franchisee
Paws to consider your future….
Barking Mad is a dynamic, challenging and rewarding home based business in the fast growing pet care sector.
Being a Barking Mad Franchisee is all about setting up, developing and managing a successful business whilst improving your lifestyle.
When it comes to supporting franchisees, this is the area in which we excel. We have over 60 branches successfully operating across the UK , who all agree it’s a great way to make a living!
Success Stories
If you’re looking for a complete lifestyle change, this is how you do it - Read more...
Success Stories
Is Barking Mad right for me?
Everyone’s personal circumstances are different, and you will see from the case studies that there are a number of different approaches to running this business.
It does require your full time commitment, although equally Barking Mad provides flexibility and the ability to manage your own time.
We hope you enjoy reading our success stories and that they will encourage you to believe in yourself and do something you’ll really enjoy!
Investment
THE PROSPECTIVE REWARDS
Rather than set out theoretical projections, in line with best franchising practice we prefer to relate to actual track record and we will discuss this with you at our initial meeting.
In pursuing your interest in becoming a Barking Mad Franchisee, we will make available to you in confidence further detailed financial information, based on up-to-date trading performance, to assist with your business plan.
You also need a suitable silver vehicle, a personal computer dedicated for business use and basic equipment for your office-at-home. You should also consider provision for working capital, according to your circumstances - please discuss this aspect with us.
Sue & Dave Phillips Case Study
Hello, I am Sue Phillips and together with my husband, Dave, became a franchisee in February 2004. We have a varied territory covering areas in and around Cambridge and Royston and into West Suffolk – here is a little about our life as the longest serving members of our Network.
The decision to join a young pet care company was taken after a lot of soul searching, research and discussion between us. At the time I was working for the University of Cambridge in a senior admin role, but in previous lives had run a hotel (with Dave), sold houses off-plan for a developer, worked as an office manager travelling regularly to Poland and done a myriad of secretarial and admin jobs, but was always searching for my ‘dream job’; Dave was still working as a design engineer for a local company, but fast approaching retirement. I was in a unique position of loving my job, but knowing that it was a fairly short term assignment and that, in a year or two, I would be seeking another role and very unlikely to find one I liked as much.
Lurking at the bottom of my in-tray was a newspaper article about a company called Barking Mad – what a great name, I thought, and something friends often called Dave and I – as we had three dogs of our own! From time to time during my University life this article worked up to the top of the pile and I would go and look for a website, but it was always ‘under construction’ – until kaboom, one day it was there! I read through and couldn’t believe what I was reading – a woman called Lee had invented a business just for us, how kind of her, I thought and immediately demanded a franchise prospectus. After it arrived I spent an hour on the ‘phone with Lee and not once did she evade a question or hedge her answers – we needed to know more and were invited to visit her lovely home in the Lakes for our first interview. Although we were very impressed with everything about the business and could see its potential to give us the lifestyle we craved, taking the decision to quit a University job, complete with up to twelve months sick pay and a final salary pension scheme was not something to be taken lightly by a 52 year old diabetic! Dave and I promised Lee we would discuss things when we went on holiday and give her an answer on our return; wow, did I have plenty of time to think very carefully about what I was undertaking, and all its ramifications – on the last night of our holiday in Spain I broke my foot in two places! Having a fully paid sickness plan from the University meant that I did not have to worry about returning to work until I was fully mended, but it did focus our thoughts on how we would cope if something similar happened when I was running Barking Mad in the future; our decision was to become joint franchisees, with Dave attending the training course and becoming a fully fledged franchisee, as well as me – that way we would be covered, although for the first few years it would be me setting up the business and working it until Dave retired and we were busy enough to keep us both occupied.
Whilst taking time to think if becoming franchisees was the route for us we did our own SWOT analysis and worked out what strengths we would bring to the business, where any weakness might lay and if working together, from home and for ourselves was the right choice for us – it is not right for everyone - but we were scrupulously honest with ourselves, each other and with Lee and made the decision to take the plunge and go ahead. If I am being perfectly honest I would say that this is not a career for the faint hearted who are easily discouraged when the going is less than perfect – you need to be resilient to knock backs, very confident in your approach to other people and have the ability to ‘sell’ yourself; yes, this is a business based on dog care, but if you cannot engage with your customer both face-to-face and on the telephone, you won’t even get to meet the dog!
I can honestly say that we LOVE what we do – yes there are times when we wish it were easier, but overall we have not regretted the investment of time and money in Barking Mad; I have had the privilege of serving on the company’s Advisory Group, which works on policy-making for the Network, and of helping many new franchisees find their feet. We cannot believe that we are now in our 8th year and could never imagine having a ‘proper’ job again!