What do you look for in a franchise site?

Since starting this blog I’ve looked at a lot of sites concerning franchising as you can imagine – more than I’d normally have done, even given my usual small business focus.

It’s sadly becoming an unaccustomed pleasure to find one that gets it right, but here’s one. The Which Franchise website isn’t actually all that elegant; I’m not struck on the layout and the design could be more eye-catching.

What I do like is the ability to click on a map to tell it where I am so I can find a relevant franchise to consider starting up. I very much enjoy, I might add, the fact that there is advice on financing a franchise if I don’t happen to have several thousands about my person. More, there’s advice and input on female franchisors and franchising for racial minorities. I don’t fall into either of those categories but I’m not naive enough to assume there’s no discrimination against either and it’s good to see a site that acknowledges this quietly and offers extra input.

It’s also a site that’s not packed with marketing puff about one professional association or another. It’s built for people who simply want to find, fund and begin a franchise.

No, it’s not the prettiest site I’ve ever seen. But it’s a very useful one, and a lot of elegant designers could learn a lot by looking at it.

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