Why you shouldn’t be scared to start your own business

 

One of the biggest hurdles that you have to overcome when starting your own business is fear. Leaving a comfortable – if boring – desk job and taking the plunge by going it alone with your own business is a scary proposition and it is fear of failure that will often prevent us from being brave and chasing our dreams.

At We Make Footballers, we understand those feelings – after all, we’ve all been there ourselves. That’s why we’ve tried to make starting your own football coaching franchise business as easy as possible by attempting to alleviate the fears that plague every person considering a move into entrepreneurship.

Here are some of the reasons as to why you shouldn’t be scared to start your own business.

A franchisor will help you win customers

One of the biggest fears that comes with starting a new business is how exactly you are going to attract customer to keep you in business. That’s understandable as you’ll be entering a potentially crowded marketplace without brand recognition or reputation. It can also be hard for new businesses to create a brand and marketing strategies from scratch.

An easy way to cut out the difficult first stages in business, is joining an established one. This can be done by choosing a franchise. You’ll be operating under a name that already has brand recognition and reputation, meaning that you don’t need to worry about earning it – potential customers will have more trust in a nationwide company, meaning they’ll believe in your ability to deliver a top quality product.

Most franchisors will also have proven marketing and sales processes that generate new customer leads, it’s common for franchisors to support franchisees as much as possible in these areas. Remember, the franchisor is not successful unless you are – this means they are invested in helping you achieve your business targets.

You will be taken seriously

Many prospective entrepreneurs worry that they won’t be taken seriously. They are concerned that by entering a marketplace that they are unheard of in, they’ll be treated as a joke or somebody who doesn’t know what they are doing.

Yet it isn’t particularly hard to prove you are a serious player. You clearly know the business you’re entering, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. That instantly gives you some respect and credit from the public who will take you seriously. Not to mention the fact the people respect the fact that you have been brave enough to start your own business.

You can give yourself a further boost in that regard by picking up endorsements and building a network in your community. These don’t have to be particularly hard to come by if you can find ways to partner with respected companies in your field or if you become part of a franchise which already holds name recognition.

The workload isn’t unmanageable

Running a business, marketing it, dealing with finances, opening and closing deals with contacts – it’s no wonder that many people are put off the idea of going it alone because of the sheer workload involved.

While it might seem daunting at first, with the right support network it doesn’t have to be. Getting experts on board help to manage the load and offer guidance can make a real difference to your chances of success. A key tip for success is outsourcing your most time consuming tasks and working with specialised subcontractors for certain areas of the business.

This is one area in which franchising excels. We’ve already mentioned how a franchisor can help win you customers, but they can also offer expertise through full-time support managers who will be on hand to answer any questions and help with the administration side of the business.

It’s one of the best ways to build a legacy and become financially fulfilled

Money makes the world go round and ultimately, whether you decide to set up your own business will often come down to whether you believe it is going to be a success financially.

If you put the work in and set your business up correctly, it will be. Having the right support network around you will keep you on the right path and then it is just a case of settling back and enjoying the ride as much as possible.

There will always be a sense of fear when it comes to starting a new business, just as there is a fear of anything unknown. But you shouldn’t be scared of starting your own business. As Franklin D Roosevelt once said: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. If you are looking into starting your own business, why not consider the franchise model? Check out the benefits of running a franchise business!

2015 – 2017 in Review

 

In 2015 we established We Make Footballers as a franchise and, with 4 new Franchisees joining the network in 2017, we now have 7 franchises in operation. We are delighted with the level of growth we have seen in such a short period of time.

We are most pleased that our franchisees are enjoying their work and succeeding in building their football empires in line with the plans originally agreed with them.

We have recruited more full-time staff to ensure our Head Office can continue to provide enough hands-on support for our Franchisees to help them achieve their goals. This support mainly covers: business operations, marketing and the product/service (football coaching).

The success of the Premier League and the rapid rate of girls joining the game, is creating a rise in the demand for football coaching we have never seen before. It is a very exciting time for WMF.

Looking to 2018

We Make Footballers are just in the process of formalising an exclusive partnership with a top London Woman’s Super League 1 team, which will help us reach our target of 300 female players subscribed to our classes in 2018.

We are also responsible for organising the International London Cup. This is a unique competition mixing the best grassroots teams in the UK with the best academies in Europe. Teams we have confirmed so far include PSG, Ajax, Man City and AC Milan. 2018 is going to be an incredible year.

In 2018 we will take on 9 new Franchisees that we believe can succeed with our business model – one of which will be outside of the UK.

Key success in 2017

2017 was a very busy year.

• We raised over £50k to redevelop our franchise management software which increased customer sales and reduced administration for franchisees.
• We organised 8 Talent Identification events, which gave 700 ambitious footballers the opportunity to be scouted by local grassroots teams as well as professional clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham.
• We became Ofsted Registered, which meant we can finally accept Child Care Vouchers as payment for classes and holiday camps.
• We created a new WMF Coaching Qualification to educate and improve the consistency of the standards of our coaches.

2017 has been a great year for us, but we will never stand still and will keep pushing to achieve our targets for 2018.

Get in touch if you would like to put yourself forward to be involved with We Make Footballers.

We are all responsible for the footballers we produce.

Secret Arsenal Player signs up with WMF

 

We Make Footballers are no stranger to the professional football world. Not only do our franchises offer pathways into professional clubs for the children who dream of playing pro one day, we also have academy managers and head coaches who have experience either playing professionally or scouting for professional football clubs.

Since the creation of WMF, our Franchisees have had the opportunity, and the pleasure, to coach the children of famous pro players, such as Jamie Redknapp, Florent Malouda, Dennis Wise and Didier Drogba. So it does not come as a surprise to learn that a footballer, currently playing for Arsenal, has enrolled their child to train with us at one of our franchises.

We’re very appreciative that parents/guardians, of all types of backgrounds, trust WMF to deliver excellent coaching for their children. Regardless of a child’s background or family name, we take equality and diversity very seriously, which means all children who train with us are treated and trained with no partiality. WMF Franchises offer all pupils the same opportunity to play within Grassroots teams or be scouted for professional teams, with no influence but the talent and skill Academy directors and coaches see from the players themselves.

For more information on how we ensure our Franchises implement Equality & Diversity, read our policy on our customer website.

Coach Iuri & Coach Marcelo (now WMF Franchise owners) with Florent Malouda.

GUEST COACH LUCIA, OF TOTTENHAM LADIES, LENDS A HELPING HAND AT WMF FINCHLEY

 

We Make Footballers are growing quickly, we coach 2000 children across our football classes in 14 different venues. With this many children, we always ensure that we have the most talented, qualified and passionate coaches at every class.
We Make Footballers Finchley has been the newest addition to our venues and to launch this location we put on a Talent ID event in which scouts from professional academies and local grassroots managers were invited to look for talented players. Our Talent ID days are packed with football and we aim to make the experience as memorable as possible for each child.

On this occasion, we were lucky to have Guest Coach Lucia Leon in attendance, a Professional Tottenham Ladies and Spanish International player! Lucia is a 19-year-old Spurs defender and has played in WSL 2 (Women’s Super League). Lucia did a fantastic job on the day sharing her game experience and coaching 130 children throughout the day.

We believe it is important to give children exposure to professional athletes at We Make Footballers as they provide excellent first-hand experience and are a great inspiration for young players. By having high calibre guest coaches at our sessions, children are able to see that these players are real and they are able to connect through their enthusiasm for the sport.

We Make Footballers firmly support Women’s football. We work extremely hard to encourage girls to join our classes by creating an open and safe environment that enables every player to develop. With our 50/50 male and female work-force company target, we believe that by having a greater number female coaches, younger female players will be inspired by these role models.
We are very proud to have hosted Lucia Leon during our Talent ID event as she is a fantastic role model and we will be looking forward to working with her again in the future!

Thanks Coach Lucia!

 Images taken at We Make Footballers: Finchley Talent ID.

Bottom Right: Lucia Leon with WMF Coaches & Chelsea Scout 

Something Special is Happening in England

 

The FA have been working hard for the past decade to change the fate of our nation. We (everyone in England) are all waiting to see if we are the next Germany or Belgium, as we are constantly told there has been an overhaul of our coaching structure and things will change.

This summer we started to see some real change at senior youth level…we started winning!

If this babies reaction to England’s success wasn’t your reaction, it was either because:

1. You were well informed as to the quality of the English youth players going into each tournament. You had full faith they would win their respective competitions.
2. You didn’t know the tournaments were on and you weren’t really interested.
3. You understood England are always successful at youth level because we pick big, fast athletes who overpower our opposition, but then can’t compete when they play senior football as the game is more about technique, intelligence, and moving into the correct spaces.

If you chose 1 then hats off to you – I would love to speak to you about buying a franchise, as you must really be in touch with the game! If you chose 2, I’m not sure how you found your way to this website ????, but if you chose 3 then I would suggest reading on.

Many people believe England have alway been successful at youth level but this is actually untrue. If you look at the results on online of U23, U21 and U20 level football, England has had disastrous campaigns for the past decade.

However, it takes 10 years for a new youth football regime to take effect. New policies are built at grassroots U8/U9 level and you won’t see the change until U18/U19.

I am forever the optimist, but I agree with “The Whitehouse Address” writer Matt Whitehouse: Something Special is Happening with English Youth Football.