AN accounting franchise established in Perth has started expanding its Victorian network ahead of planned moves into other east coast markets.
AN accounting franchise established in Perth has started expanding its Victorian network ahead of planned moves into other east coast markets.
Success Tax Professionals is already one of the largest groups of its kind in Australia, with 40 franchises in WA and three in Victoria.
Perth accountant Darren Gleeson and business partner Tracy James established the business in 2003 after Mr Gleeson, who had worked in public practice for 12 years, decided to take a year off.
While thinking about how he could find a more creative way of working in the industry, Mr Gleeson saw the need for a company like STP that would provide on-going training in accounting, taxation and technical support to its franchisees and take care of all the branding and marketing for them.
“When I was in practice I noticed a lot of practitioners were very good at doing the technical but they didn’t have anything to do with the branding, systems and training, because really, they were so busy doing the day to day. So, I thought there’s got to be a better way,” Mr Gleeson said.
While there are several industry associations that provide training for their members, none of these provides the branding and marketing services that STP does.
The initial investment of $11,000 in an STP franchise is relatively small compared with other franchises but Mr Gleeson said that was because their focus is on establishing long-term partnerships with the franchisees and helping them to grow their business.
“In 7.5 years we’ve only got 40 or so people on board but that’s because we’re more about getting the right people rather than selling a million franchises and getting money up front which a lot franchises do,” he said.
“Once we take [people] on board we have that obligation to them, which keeps us up at night to make it work. It’s like we’re kind of married to 42 people.”
STP makes its money through a 12.5 per cent royalty on annual turnover.
Mr Gleeson said the company was concentrating on establishing more franchises in WA and Victoria over the next 12 months but planned to extend its focus to Queensland in 2012 and NSW and South Australia in 2013.
“It’s about building a brand because it’s only the top four or five practices like KPMG that have the brand and the market perception,” he said.
“Joe Blow down the road, no-one knows who he is. So we want to, over time, create a mid-tier brand with 500 offices Australia-wide and the bigger we get the better the training and marketing can become.”
