I’ve been getting a lot of hits from people using the search term “do you get a lot of pupils with [insert franchise name here]?”
This is an extremely naïve question (no offence to anyone who asked it).
If you have two identical ADIs living next door to each other, both available the same number of hours a day, same number of days a week, both qualified at the same time, both started with the franchise at the same time – basically, IDENTICAL to each other in every way – then the only thing you can say is that they will get roughly about the same amount of work passed on to them by their franchise (assuming their franchise treats them both identically, of course).
The big question is “how much work will that be?” And this is where it is impossible to be specific or treat anything other than as a probability.
Where Do You Live?
If you are in a big city then there are a lot more available pupils – and a lot more desperate ADIs after them. If you live out in the sticks, there are fewer available pupils – but possibly (only possibly) fewer ADIs trying to grab them. It is impossible to be certain what the exact situation is in your area.
However, it is known that in certain large cities in the North of England and in Scotland there are a lot of ADIs relative to the number of available pupils when compared with cities in the Midlands and South East.
Not considering this is one of the biggest naivetes I see. Why ask “will [franchise] get me a lot of pupils?” when the only people who can help are those already with that franchise on your own doorstep? You’ll have no end of people telling you “no”, even when in your area the answer is closer to “yes, they have for me”.
What Hours Do You Work?
If you don’t do weekends, you lose a lot of potential pupils. If you don’t do evenings, you lose a lot of potential pupils. If you don’t do early mornings you will lose a few potential pupils. If you have to do the school run or avoid the rush hour, you will lose potential pupils. If you take a lot of holidays, you will lose potential pupils.
For all of the above, you may even lose some existing pupils if you aren’t flexible.
I’m not saying you should be available 24/7. But if you are only available 5/5 then you are basically part-time and maybe need to do a bit of serious thinking about what you want out of this.
Which Franchise Are You Talking About?
If it’s one of the big national schools, then probably your main concern is what it is like for everyone else in your area (and that means ADIs with the same franchise, plus all other ADIs no matter whether they are franchised or independent). Because if work is slow for most of them, it will probably be slow for you.
If you are looking at a local franchise, then you have to be careful about what they are telling you. It is dead easy to say “we can fill your diary” or “we have lots of pupils waiting” – but once you are tied to that contract there’s not much you can do if things turn out a little differently. Oh, you can leave – but that will be several months of little or no income. Can you weather such a storm, or would it send you under?
Are You Already A Working ADI?
If you are having a job keeping your head above water as an independent ADI or even with another franchise, what makes you think you will fare any better with another? If times are hard they aren’t going to magically get better just because you join BSM or the AA.
The only thing I can say is that if you are struggling to find (or get) work however you are set up at the moment, if the large national schools can’t get you work then perhaps you would have failed very quickly if you stayed where you were. I’m not saying they can guarantee anything, but it is simple logic that says if YOU are unable to generate enough work with your own advertising as a lone ADI, the larger schools are quite possibly going to have the best chance of attracting pupils with their corporate image and size. This is generally true of ANY franchise, by the way: the bigger a school is then the more effective its advertising is likely to be. But there are absolutely no guarantees: it’s just a calculated risk.
What Should I Do?
What I would advise is that you find out what the large nationals charge in your area – if it is less than £23 an hour then work might be a little hard to come by, but still plentiful enough to make a living. If it is less than £22 an hour, I would guess that work WILL be hard to come by. This is my opinion, not a fact, but I would argue it is a fairly good one! I’ve tested it many times and it is a good general guide.
Also, ask people who already work for the franchise you are interested in in your area what it is like. Make sure you find out how long they have been there, and try to find people who have just started as well as longer serving ADIs. There’s no point asking someone in Kent what it is like if you are planning on covering Sheffield! And don’t just ask someone who’s with the AA, if you are planning to go with SupaDupa School Of Motoring – get a wide range of opinions.
You will also need to be wary of what you hear. Some ADIs will tell you they are busy when they aren’t. Some of them do this to hide their lack of success (because they think it suggests they aren’t very good); others do it because they don’t want any more ADIs competing with them in their area. Others will be critical of their franchise and won’t want to say anything good about it. You’ll find that the worst ones are those who started with a franchise, then went independent at some stage after being happy with that franchise for some years – they will likely advise you to avoid franchises at all costs! Some of them will deliberately hide the fact that they were with a franchise (you see it on forums all the time) in order to put across a misleading impression to new ADIs. This is why you need to get as much information from as wide a range of people as you can, so that you can form a reasonable picture. Remember that things are different now compared to when a lot of older ADIs started out.
Important: do not listen to anyone who tells you it is definitely better as an independent or as a franchisee. They cannot possibly state this as fact.
Be flexible, especially if you are just starting out as an ADI. You can cut back your hours later, but don’t expect the work to fall into your lap ready made, for weekends and evenings to be free, and so on.
Whatever you decide, it is a gamble. No one can guarantee work.
What About The Future?
The aim of every ADI is to get a good reputation. This will generate referrals – where pupils you train will tell everyone how good you are, and this will create new pupils for you to train. But don’t be misled by people who suggest this is all that matters or that they get all their work this way because they’ve been doing it for a long time.
Referrals go in fits and starts. You might get one pupil who passes your name to many others, and as a result you get lots of new work (one of mine who passed a couple of years ago started a sequence of events which has generated around a dozen or more new pupils to date, and it is still rolling). But others pass and you never hear from them again. That’s just the way it is – and to be honest, it is people who rely solely on referrals (generally older ADIs), who are feeling the pinch these days. That’s because referrals dry up, and especially so when there are so many new ADIs coming on to the market!
If you are planning on being independent at any time, use your time with your franchise to advertise in your own right and build up your own name. Referrals are not reliable enough to work on their own – you are going to have to push yourself all the time.
This is only a quick summary, and if I think of anything else I’ll add it. But I hope it helps.