Posted By Paul Craythorne Brian, I have never come across a situation whereby a health and safety consultancy has franchised its operations. If you find out to the contrary I would be interested to know who has done this. Regards, Paul Craythorne

Posted By Robert Wise Have a closer look at the last 2 issues of SHP. One consultancy is trying to do just this!! They want a fortune and will just give copies of their H&S proforma's and leads for work which you've guessed it they want a %. Oh yeah and for the pleasure of using their name, they want you to pay a monthly fee to them as well!! Sounds like a bit of a con to me.

Posted By Merv Newman The moderators may wish to pull this one, and they have every right to do so. Feel free. We have (in our opinion) an extremely good BBS programme. We estimate that 12 000 employees of our clients are right now involved in this programme. We have requests/interests which could involve maybe 5 000 more people in 6 countries. Do I want to "franchise" this programme so as to get money for nothing ? Do I Hell. It's all mine ! Go away ! And there is no way you could do it as well as me. Actually, that last comment is the most important. Our business is not "fast food" where anyone with a frying pan and a funny hat can serve up an identical product. With years of experience we all (consultants and OHS managers) have our personal "products". We develop and refine them and polish them and we know how to adapt them to different clients and environments. And we love them. Putting them into someone elses hands would be a terrifying experience - have they understood all the nuances ? will they answer questions as I do ? Can they keep it light and positive ? Do they have a sense of humour ? Do they know how to change a nappy or to burp a baby ? (look for the metaphores, please ) And, worst of all, will they screw our reputation ? I cannot see "franchising" working in OHS. There are no well known names or products or training programmes which would command instant respect and interest "Hi, I'm from McSafety, do you want to supersize that Risk Assessment, or do you just want COSHH and Chips ?" Gerrof. I'm finishing this bottle of Burgundy. Merv (trust me, I'm a consultant) Newman

Posted By Chris Black Olivia What you have posted is a precis of a fairly slick and glossy sales pitch, however there are elements within it that I find offensive. You talk about "big business" compared to a "one man band" approach. I know of may consultants who operate businesses of limited size which provide excellent support to large and small organisations alike, especially where they supply a specialist service. as someone who works for a large consultancy (with national coverage) I can happily accept that there are small operations who are better placed than I am to deliver some services. "How else does one offer a really good service to national clients-without driving all over the country and utimately offering a sub-standard service, etc ? i'll tell you how, it is a simple process of properly planning your workload and making an honest and realistic estimation of how much work you can deal with. As someone who works with national clients i can tell you that they are usually sophisticated enough to realise that a large percentage of the work you do for them is done off-site and that a local presence is only necessary for short periods. making ad-hoc visits to a client's premises is an added cost and surely would not represent good value to them. Any national company that requires very frequent interventions by a consultant will surely have done, or is starting to do the maths and will work out that an in-house resource is required. While on the subject of national clients, can i take it that you have some clients who you are happy to use as a source of work for your franchisees? This is very generous. By the way, I am a consultant and an employee and have a vested interest in the success of my employers and my clients, more than that, I am wholly committed to both. I am not suggesting that your system is not a good invesment opportunity, i just question the light that you paint the rest of the safety profession and consultancy in, in order to make a selling point. i once worked in sales and was contantly told that cardinal sin #1 is to criticise the products or abilities of your competitors when talking to a customer, prospective or confirmed.