Franchising is an effective way to expand your business, but it means big changes for both you and your company. Whether young or an industry veteran, your company needs straightforward advice backed by years of experience to save you from making some common, costly mistakes.

Tapping into quality franchising expertise has, historically, been difficult for Scottish business owners, who have struggled to find an experienced franchise consultant working north of the border. That was before Franchise Development Services-Northern established Franchise Consultant Eddie Mulqueen as Scotland's foremost franchising expert. In this article, I talk to Eddie and one of his bright new Scottish stars, a client who is about to make a big splash in franchising.

"I've been working in franchising for about 20 years, most of that 'at the coal face' serving as Franchise and Operations Manager for a large UK parcels carrier", explains Eddie. "I joined Franchise Development Services-Northern in 2005 as a consultant to help northern UK firms achieve their franchising ambitions."

This year, Eddie has had the pleasure of working work with some inspiring Scottish entrepreneurs who look set to achieve great success through franchising. These include two talented young men who display the business development and relationship management skills so critical to franchising, Brian Dodds and Tommy Farrell of Baguette n Go, based in Galashiels.

Brian established the first Baguette n Go shop with business partner Tommy in 2004. The success of the shop led the partners to open a further two shops in the next two years. With enquiries pouring in from across the country, Brian and Tommy decided that franchising was the best way to bring Baguette n Go to consumers throughout the country while maintaining its local feel.

"When Tommy and I started Baguette n Go our original plan was to open about 12 shops in the borders area," Brian explains. "However, once our first three shops were up and running we realised how difficult it is to manage multiple outlets. There was always a problem with staff or supplies and it was hard to deal with all the little problems while making sure that the quality of our products was never compromised. We knew that other food retail businesses had successfully franchised so we started to do some research into franchising for ourselves.

"The first thing we did was attend a seminar for potential franchisees. This allowed us to learn about franchising while getting an idea of what a franchisee investor is looking for in a business." Brian and Tommy came away from that seminar with the realisation that people want to invest in a business that has solid foundations. "They want evidence that the franchise has been set up correctly and that there are appropriate support structures in place," he specified. "BFA membership is a must have, and we learned how important it is to have a good legal team behind you."

With no prior franchising experience, the pair decided to look for a specialist franchising consultant. "Eddie from FDS-Northern impressed us straight away. He has practical franchising experience and really knows his stuff. His first step was to conduct a thorough evaluation of our business to establish if the concept was suitable for franchising. This helped us to focus on the implications of franchising and understand exactly what would be involved before we went any further."

How have Brian and Tommy found the experience of working with a consultant? "Eddie's been brilliant," Brian confirms. "He's made quite a complicated process run very smoothly. Tommy and I both feel that we've got a lot out of the development process without having to lose too much time from running our business operations. We've met with Eddie every couple of weeks and have worked through every aspect of the business to develop the system. He's also produced a franchise manual that will be of real, practical help to our franchisees. "We started working with Eddie in February and will have a completed system by June, when we'll be ready to start recruiting our first franchisees. The best thing about working with Eddie is that he's always available on the phone to answer questions and he'll always do his best to help. It's been a really personal service and having that support has helped us greatly in the last few months. We definitely consider those consultancy fees as money well spent."

Brian and Tommy plan to have 30 Baguette n Go outlets open and making profit within the next five years. "In the short term, we'd like to have two or three franchised outlets open by the end of 2008. We understand that our pilot franchisees are going to need all the support we can offer at a time when we'll still be learning to be franchisors, so we're going to take things slowly at first." Clearly, the partners have a firm understanding of the requirements for success in franchising and I would wager that they have a very good chance of realising their ambitions.

"Ultimately we're hoping that there may be the opportunity to award Master Franchise licences to oversees investors, but that's a long way down the road. Tommy and I are still in our twenties and Baguette n Go is our baby. We want to grow the brand and the company as much as we can, but we never intend to stop looking after our franchisees and keeping one step ahead of the competition." These are reassuring words for me as a consultant, as they are for potential franchise owners.

Does Brian have any advice for other people who are considering franchising their business? "Yes. Get an experienced consultant in from the start. Using a consultant can seem like the expensive option but it will help you to avoid many unnecessary and costly mistakes along the way," he concludes.

"Brian and Tommy have been fantastic clients", offered Eddie. "They've been open to my recommendations for the development of the Baguette n Go franchise and have displayed a genuine commitment to franchising which will benefit their network in the long term. I wish Brian and Tommy every success for the launch of the Baguette n Go franchise and look forward to working with many more Scottish franchise entrepreneurs in the future."

For more information about franchising your business, or selecting the right franchise for you, contact Eddie Mulqueen at FDS-Northern today.