Shoebox Books is launching a brand new franchise delivering taxation services.
Already six franchisees from the bookkeeping franchise have taken up the opportunity and will open their additional businesses in January and February.
Shoebox co-founder and national franchise recruitment director Yvette Coad told Inside Franchise Business Executive “We offered it first to the network to see the response. We anticipate over the next 12 months to bring on 20 to 25 franchisees.”
Existing franchisees adding Shoebox Tax will need to be already delivering BAS services, not just armed with bookkeeping skills.
Coad stressed the quality of applicant was more important than reaching a target number of new franchisees.
National marketing manager Harry Beech said “It’s adding another layer in the franchise. We will still have the same training, though increased to two weeks instead of one. Franchisees will be supervised for a two year period, depending on qualifications.”
The new franchise has been in planning for two years, and with legislation changes this year, tax issues and Covid, 2020 was the perfect time to fast forward it, he said.
Like many other franchisors, Shoebox moved swiftly to adapt to the ever-changing situation, and looked at ways to help existing clients.
Shoebox reduced fees and provided Jobkeeper and maintenance packages for their bookkeeper franchisees to offer, recording nearly 8m Jobkeeper payments for their clients.
Beech said “We didn’t really know what to expect this year, how clients would react [to the pandemic]. We jumped on marketing and angled the message, did a lot of social media, and blogs targeted to Covid, and changed a lot of the website.”
The business also used webinars to help educate small businesses which resulted in new clients, said Coad.
Its strategy has served the business well. The franchise network has overall recorded a rise of 15 per cent in turnover. And with redundancies increased across the Australian population there were more enquiries about franchising, Coad said.
The business is a preferred supplier for bookkeeping services for fellow franchise brands including Hire A Hubby and DiggerMate, and has conducted bookkeeping webinars for BaskinRobbins and GJ Gardiner networks and franchisees.
