How Xero helps the franchise model grow the small business economy: Green Acres

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“The Green Acres mission statement of ‘creating quality time’ is enabled by our Xero partnership” – Jason Hill, General Manager, Green Acres

Small businesses are the powerhouse of all economies because as a group they are the biggest contributor to a country’s GDP.

One way we’re helping small business grow is by connecting them with accountants and bookkeepers. Another great way to grow the small business economy is the franchise model.

The franchise model

Franchises allow a wider range of people to participate in self-owned businesses with significantly less risk, more support and much greater efficiency. But when we look at franchises, we usually see a lot of focus on the operating model, but not the administration and finance side – often the painful part of running a business.

With cloud accounting, it’s much easier for the franchise company to include accounting software and business processes as part of the franchise model and value. This might include regular admin procedures, a standard chart of accounts (useful for benchmarking of course), proactive monitoring and business coaching.

Using Xero gives franchisees such as Green Acres the ability to manage their business a lot more efficiently and allows them to have more time to focus on developing their business strategy, looking after their customers, performing more jobs and having more free time.

Green Acres: Using Xero for insights and visibility

Green Acres is one of Xero’s valued franchise partners. Over the past four years, they have added 295 new franchisees across the country on to Xero. And they’ve been a 100% paperless organisation since 2015.

Having franchisees from Kaitaia to the Bluff meant that having a solution that was available 24/7 from any location and any device is crucial to the Green Acres business running efficiently.

“Technology is a major part of franchise life at Green Acres. We have a vision of representing excellence in business, and one of our three strategic pillars is being portable and easy to do business with. Xero aligns with and supports our vision and strategic plan” says Jason Hill, General Manager, Green Acres.

Xero gives Green Acres’ business advisors visibility over a franchisee’s business performance. It also allows for easy benchmarking across the group and to develop actionable insights in a franchisee’s business.

“Our partnership with Xero is crucial to the continued growth of our brand and our franchisees’ individual businesses. It is literally giving our franchisees back hours of time every week.”

Train the Trainer day

Xero recently ran a Train the Trainer day at our Auckland office, for the Franchise Business Advisors and the Sales Advocate Trainers form Green Acres. Our education team upskilled them on all things Xero.

During this day, we went through the fundamentals of Xero to develop their basic knowledge. The format of the day was split into two groups. The Sales advocate trainers went through setting up organisations on Xero and the Franchise Business Advisors went through more advanced features of Xero.

Here is what some of the advocates said about the day:

“The session expanded my knowledge of the site, functions I was unaware of and how to use the support that is available.” Kurt Kjestrup – Wellington Regional Manager.

“I was really impressed at the Xero Marketplace, leaves me feeling confident that Xero will continue to be innovative and make our franchisees’ lives even easier.” Ethan Gordon – Green Acres Business Advisor.

Want to know more? Read more about Green Acres.

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