Next week in BizHive Weekly

For many, starting a business can be a daunting task and even when they’ve succeeded, most small or medium enterprises face with a new conundrum – how do I manage expansion? One tried-and-tested solution is franchising and its popularity in Malaysia has surged over the years as local owned outlets carrying international brands continue peppering our retail landscape while our own home-grown brands are beginning to gain notoriety overseas. However, there are no guarantees in the success of a franchise agreement as well. Next week, BizHive Weekly looks into the pros and cons of franchising in Malaysia: “Franchising is a proven method of doing business that benefits both franchisor and franchisee. We have been a master franchisee for all of these brands and we know that it is a profitable formula for everyone. For entrepreneurs, franchising is one of the ways that they can get involved in business as a subfranchisee whereas for franchisors, this model is a way that franchisors can expand exponentially and out of their home countries fast. Bryan Loo, Loob Holding Sdn Bhd chief executive officer “Franchising is extremely beneficial to our economy because it acts as a tool for technology transfers into Malaysia from overseas, allowing our commercial industries to have better standards, frameworks and business practices in place. It also encourages local entrepreneurs to strive for continuous improvement and business sustainability as they upgrade their research and development (R&D) to meet these new industry standards and practices, thus promoting internalisation. “ Datu Md Latip Sarrugi, Malaysian Franchise Association chairman “At the start of my venture into business, I started off with a goal to grow my business into one that would be able to franchise to people in the future. And along the way, I’ve had people come up to me enquiring if my business was a franchise itself because they were surprised a local business would employ such business systems and models. This has led me to believe that my business does have the capacity to expand via franchising, but having said that, over the years, I’ve been a little more conservative on this point as I’ve come to the realisation that franchising is actually pretty hard.” Charles Liew, Chief Executive Officer, SHiNE Pharmacy