Career counselling franchisee Vs Independent counselling business

Career counselling is the fastest growing business today. With the countrys demographics changing and more and more people moving towards the working population, careers are the catchphrase of every town. Every month, almost over 5,00,000+ search for career counselling services on Google, and even more look for ancillary career guidance services. While the market demand has been on the rise, India currently has a shortage of career counsellors. This deficit goes up to the count of 15 lakh career counsellors and keeps on increasing every day. This means every day, more and more people can enter the field of career counselling and yet be successful for years.

There is a shortage of certification courses and companies that provide career counselling products to counsellors. It is hence slightly tricky to start up a career counselling business. From finding the right certifications to creating an infrastructure for counselling, a lot of hard work and effort goes into creating a successful career counselling business. While we covered the scope of career counselling in this previous article, here we bring you the two ways to get your career counselling business started.

1. Career Counseling Franchisee

A franchising business essentially involves you representing another companys brand name and products while not being an employee of the firm. When you buy a franchisee, you essentially buy rights to use the franchisors brand name and products. Thus you give a one-time registration + royalty per sale, and in return, they give you their branded products and support. Franchising is essentially a setup ideal for a locally run business that can leverage an already established business brand identity.

Advantages of Franchising

Established Branding: The most significant advantage of franchising is that counsellors need not spend time, effort, and money in building their brand. They already have a strong foundation of the brand they are franchising and hence do not need to put extra effort to build a brand image. This means that it is much cheaper and faster to set up a business via this method.

Follow Existing Business Process: When you franchise, you dont need to source different tests and offerings from other platforms/ companies. Everything comes as a package deal from your franchisor and hence is standardized. This is essentially what you pay for when you take a franchising package.

Business Support: When you deal with a franchisee, you get a team of dedicated personnel that guides you with your product setup and helps you when there is downtime. This support comes in very handy when technology isnt your game. This business support allows you to set up and operate your business faster and in a smooth fashion.

The downside of franchising:

Complete Dependency on Franchiser: Since the terms of franchising bind you, you may not have access to test resources that do not belong to your franchisor. You can only use the franchisors products agreed upon. Additionally, suppose your franchisor does not update their platform or offerings or gives you products that may not continue to stay relevant to your audiences. In that case, you may have no way out but leaving the franchisor altogether.

No Independent Identity: Since you are using the franchisors infrastructure to provide career counselling services, all products will bear their branding. Franchising implies that you will at all times use someone else brand name and not be able to build your name at all. Thus your efforts go into growing someone else brand image and not your own. This means that in the future, when you want to move out of the franchise, you will have significant reworking to do to create a separate brand for yourself.

Higher Royalty Cost: While it is a one time cost coupled with a percentage of sales, it does become significant if products given in return are limited. No matter the amount of business you are doing, the royalty amounts remain the same and are significantly huge when starting. Also, service teams of most franchisees are slow to respond, which could lead to higher downtimes. All-in-all, franchising could become a hefty expense if you are not getting enough clients, the revenue from which can be used to pay for the overheads.

Who is it made for?

Irrespective of its limitations, if you want to start conservatively and test and try your way to the more significant products, this could be a great place to start. While it may or may not be lighter to the pocket, it is lighter to set up and get going and hence is perfect for those who do not want to be surrounded by too much technology. It is also an excellent way to enter conversations and markets based on the goodwill of another company. If you are mid-career and looking for a jump while willing to ditch a personal brand, this is an excellent option to start.

2. Own Branded Career Counselling Setup

The next and popular choice to start a career counselling business is setting up an independent business. An independent business essentially allows you to set up your own career counselling business with a pool of tools and resources that you are comfortable. Thus, independent companies may need a little extra time and effort initially but fare well in the long run. It helps you establish yourself much stronger. An independent career counselling business essentially means you own your website and outsource different tests to integrate into your website. While the tools are still outsourced, the company carries your name and can be scaled up to reach larger audiences very quickly and without any brand bias.

Advantages of an Independent Enterprise:

Your own brand: The biggest advantage of an independent business is that you are not losing out on your identity. You get to have your business name on all collateral, unlike the franchised collaterals that bear the franchisors branding. As business owners, you get to establish your reputation and credibility in the market. This means that no matter what happens, you will always be known by your name and will never face a change in perspective which would be the case when you opt-out of a franchise.

More business control: When you own the business, you can choose what products and infrastructure to show. You can also choose how you brand your business and add a lot more offerings and features than a franchised infrastructure. An independent company brings extra flexibility which is great, especially when the goal is to scale.

Better growth opportunities: When you work with a franchisor, many activities are regulated by them. You have a limited set of offerings and tools that the franchisor is providing. There is zero flexibility in terms of offering customization. Also because you are working under a brand name, many avenues that require an independent brand such as speaking events etc. may get blocked off. An independent business allows you to tweak products and services as per the need of the clients. There is a broad playing field in terms of offerings. It will enable you to pick up offerings as per the requirement of the situation and capitalize on the opportunity.

The downside of an Independent Enterprise:

High time and efforts: While the setup cost is low, an independent business challenge is to ensure the right infrastructure and brand are set up. Since there is no spoon-feeding by an external agency, you need to sit down and figure out things to create your brand. Also, since you are building your brand, you will have to continually look out for resources to give your clients useful resources to plan their career decisions.

Constant communication: Effective communication is crucial with external stakeholders. As an independent counsellor, you need to continually communicate and create quality on social media to make sure you are seen by the right audiences who will avail of your service.

Who is it made for?

This is an ideal option for almost any counsellor, be it a beginner who has just gotten a certification or a mid-career professional who wants to move out from the corporate role to a freelance role. The options to set up your own business are vast, and hence you can create a unique brand while keeping every choice in your hand.

The final verdict?

While it may be a daunting process, I feel an independent business is much better an option even if you are a newbie counsellor. The flexibility and independence it brings along with it are best for long term growth. While it demands efforts, they pay off eventually since people know you by your name and not some other random brands reputation. This personal branding helps you grow more than a franchised product because here, people trust the counsellors ability rather than the branded products ability.

Companies like Edumilestones play perfect partners to people who want to set up their own business. The CCA Edupreneur program is one of the best career counselling course in the country. It helps them set up their career counsellor platform with both co-branded and white-label options.

Edumilestones partner solutions are the best solutions for setting up their career counselling practice. Indias only B-B career counsellor first platform with more than 3000+ leading independent career counselling platforms and their practices being created and supported by Edumilestones.

Edumilestones CCA Edupreneur program includes the 3 key essentials of setting up a business i.e career counselling training, own branded career counselling platform, and even business and marketing support. This makes the program a preferred choice for anyone who wants to set up their independent business while utilizing industry-leading tools and resources.

The CCA Edupreneur programs success can be easily understood because google reviews list this as the highest-rated career counselling program in India.

Under the CCA Edupreneur program, Edumilestones offers 2 types of plans depending on the career counsellors needs and the type of support required.

Co-Branded Career Counseling Platform:

Edumilestones offer a co-branded career counselling platform space for career counsellors who are just starting and want a budget-friendly platform while still maintaining their branding on the forum. The platform will have the counsellors branding along with Edumilestones branding. Co-branded websites and products help new counsellors leverage the Edumilestones brand value while also building and maintaining their brand identity.

Benefits:

Leverage Edumilestones brand name and trust.
No yearly maintenance charges
Dedicated Support
Quick set up
Highly scalable platform
Dedicated counsellor dashboard to track assignments
Career counsellor training
Marketing support and training

Who should go for it?

If you are passionate about career counselling and have a knack for helping students plan and visualize their career choices, this program is made for you. Be it teachers, HR professionals, study abroad consultants, educational consultants, trainers, or practising psychologists anyone can set up their co-branded career counselling platform. This platform is ideally suitable for up to 300 counselings per month.

White label Career Counseling Platform:

One of our most sought after counselling platforms, the white-label career counselling platform allows you to create an Edumilestones microsite but with your branding everywhere. This means that you can use Edumilestones testing and analysis platform while still maintaining your branding on all pages.

Benefits:

100% branding on all pages
Customizations as required
Independent payment gateway
Helps create a professional brand and improves networking
Accurate and validated results
Scalable design to add more testing services without downtime
Flexible as per the branding needs of the client
Dedicated technology support
API integration possible
Dedicated Support
Create your network using white label solutions
Career counsellor training
Marketing support and training
Set up your pricing

Who should go for it?

White-label platforms are suitable for anyone who wants to set up a full swing career counselling business with over 300 reports per month. Teachers, HR professionals, study abroad consultants, educational consultants, trainers, or practising psychologists, or anyone can opt for it.

It is backed by professional technology without adjusting on business branding or needs for additional process integration, and customization can avail of this service to enhance their career counselling business.

The way forward

Career counselling is an upcoming professional and has immense growth opportunities available in the Indian and foreign markets. All you need to do is choose and invest in the right infrastructure at the right time. We have brought you all the possible market options, and now the choice is yours.

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