Abacus spot on target.

The Abacus concept enables the smaller accountancy practice, as well as new start-ups, to meet all the needs of the SME market, particularly those with up to 100 employees, and to significantly grow their business with the support services of a national brand name. Abacus Accounting Franchise only recruits qualified accountancy professionals to provide services under its branding.

Steve Jackson, Chairman of the Abacus Group explained: "More than 70% of UK companies are SMEs, a sector acknowledged as vital to our overall economic growth, and over a two-year pilot period we identified a specific need in this sector. Findings showed that the SME market requires a multi-disciplined company for all its administrative and operational requirements, rather than having to employ a raft of experts in different disciplines. Additionally we learned that all companies demanded professsionalism, the highest quality of service and value for money. This is why we decided that the franchise would only be available to qualified accountants, unlike other accountancy franchises in the UK. "The Abacus franchise therefore offers a one-stop-shop of services allowing company managers to devote their time to running their own business. There are clear financial benefits of consolidating this with one supplier, and for the franchisee they can offer a much broader range of services without additional overheads while being able to compete with high street names."

Abacus, which is currently seeking recognition by the British Franchise Association, is offering more than 480 exclusive franchise territories nationwide. Each territory has a minimum of 3,500 registered SME companies offering each franchisee an equal opportunity to grow their business.

A major plus for franchisees, who would not normally see themselves as sales people, is that Abacus also has its own dedicated Marketing & Call Centre headed up by managers with almost 20 years" experience of tele marketing. The Centre generates verified appointments for the franchisees with a guaranteed 100 prospective new customer appointments in the first year alone. All centre staff are rewarded on a conversion rate basis ensuring all leads are of the highest calibre.

A cure benefit of the Abacus concept, is that Franchise holders can also generate considerable further income as an Introducer to any of the Abacus Group's additional business services, each provided by a team of specialists in their own field. These include employee benefits, health & safety, credit management, human resources, quality, pension and insurance, IT and telecoms, services that the smaller practices may have had to decline in the past.

Steve Jackson concluded "Based on an average minimum fee of 3,000 [pounds sterling], franchisees can achieve a turnover of 100,000 [pounds sterling] with only 33 customers, therefore a less than 1% penetration of the SME market is required to achieve target turnover, with possibly a further 25,000 [pounds sterling] from commissions by introducing add-on services. Franchisees still have the independence of running their own business, can keep their overheads to a minimum, but have the support of a national name with expert support as and when they require it."