Your franchise on TV

Now, this here link is a good idea – or is it? The idea is a site called Franchise TV, which carries news on franchising – well, from the British Franchise Association – and allows people to talk about their franchises on it.

Which is fine as far as it goes. I do wonder, though, whether a bunch of franchisors talking to each other is actually going to make a lot of difference to the world of franchising overall. If the only people who look at it are those people who’ll be interested in franchising anyway then is it actually growing the market?

Maybe I’m being over-fussy and it’s not supposed to grow the market. Maybe the people who’re supposed to read it are indeed those who are already clued up, and who want to get into franchising or buy another franchise for reasons they’ve already established. That starts to sound reasonable.

Except then you can’t help noticing that there’s a disclaimer running on the site – or there was yesterday. It’s a little ticker thing, saying that the site is under development and incomplete but will be running properly by January 2007.

I know I’ve gone on about websites before on this blog but I do feel strongly about this. They’re your shopfront, they’re your window on the world, whichever cliche you want to adopt. Telling people a site isn’t complete but will be, er, two months ago (and that’s being generous) when it’s clearly up and running already isn’t clever. It’s a signal that you’re not taking it seriously, that you’re suffering from inattention to detail.

It’s quite likely to reflect on the Association and its members. Which is unfortunate because they do a good job. But next time, a little more attention to detail, guys..?

Guy Clapperton is a freelance journalist who specialises in small business issues and has written for the likes of The Guardian, the FT and the Daily Mirror. Guy has written about finance and franchising for SmallBizPod. http://www.guyclapperton.co.uk