British Franchise Association (BFA)

One of the British Franchise Association (BFA) main roles is to help potential franchisees recognise the good franchises and the not-so-good, as well as to help businesses involved in franchising to secure their own position amongst the good. This work is not just a philanthropic exercise for reputable and responsible franchisors. It makes good commercial sense. The ability of franchisors to attract potential franchisees to invest in their systems depends crucially on their own reputation, and on the reputation of franchising in general. It was for these reasons that in 1977 the major franchising companies in the UK decided to set up their own association. The British Franchise Association (bfa), was formed to act in the interests of the industry as a whole in assessing and accrediting franchising companies as those which meet its criteria for the structure of the business, the terms of the contract between franchisor and franchisee, the testing of the system and its success as a franchise. Franchisors and professional advisors to the industry wishing to be accredited must put themselves forward to the bfa to be tested against its strict and extensive criteria. Only if they successfully pass accreditation are they then able to join the bfa as a member, gain access to the benefits of membership and become represented by the Association. Understanding the franchise opportunities in front of you Some franchise opportunities are not franchises at all – in fact in some cases you are buying a job to sell a product or they are a licence to trade under a name, but without the same type of business ownership, training or support that comes with franchising. So how do you know that a business is a proper franchise? All businesses that are accredited by the bfa are proper business format franchises that have passed a strict set of standards to check that they are running realistic, sustainable and ethical franchise operations. However, there are a number of franchise companies that are not members. Some of these will never meet the standards. Others will, but choose not to make the changes, or just choose not to be members even if their standards are high enough. Your job is to be able to identify the good from the bad and the real franchises from the imitators. We have provided a set of resources on this site to help you with this, such as those mentioned above and our franchise seminars. Additionally, the following will help you identify if a business is a real franchise or not.