National Tax Credit, NTC, is a national business consulting group which provides businesses with the resources to save tax dollars and find additional tax rebates. The Company specializes in finding and processing tax credits for businesses. NTC is the industry leader in the tax credit business and has provided these services throughout the Alabama, Georgia and Florida market for over 20 years. In 2010, the organization realized that the demand and need for services extended far beyond the organization’s ability to service and the need for a national sales and service team was apparent.
The National Tax Credit management team convened to discuss growth channels and how best to expand the tax consulting service business. The corporate headquarters, based in Gadsden, Alabama, had expanded, staff had been added and the business was grown to the extent it could be, but the need for an aggressive channel of growth required investigating alternative expansion models. NTC hired Franchise Marketing Systems to help evaluate whether there was an opportunity to franchise the business model and how the franchise channel might fit into the growth plans. Franchise Marketing Systems came into the business and provided a franchise feasibility study for NTC. The franchise consultants from FMS interviewed the management team members, spent time in the field with clients and dove into the books of the NTC model to understand how a franchise strategy could affect the business model and whether the systems were in place needed to replicate the model effectively. After a month long franchise feasibility study, Franchise Marketing Systems determined that the model could be a viable franchise offering and presented a market study to validate the findings.
The National Tax Credit concept was one that relied on a professional person who had the ability and business acumen to interact with business owners and CFO’s to introduce tax solutions and business management strategies. The actual processing work and tax work was and done at the corporate office by a team of CPA’s and tax consultants, so the concept allowed a professional without tax preparation experience to consider being part of the distribution efforts. With this leveraged expansion concept, the opportunity to market to recent layoffs and other professionals considering entrepreneurship opened up the concept to the general franchise marketplace. Franchise training would consist of sales, communication and management training needed for a new franchisee to be able to walk into a potential client’s office and present the tax solutions effectively. Upon review of the concept of franchising, NTC decided to move forward with the franchise development strategy and retain Franchise Marketing Systems to support the development work.
Franchise Marketing Systems created the franchise strategic plan and conducted market research to best position the NTC brand for efficient franchise growth. The concept was structured as a territory-based franchise system where franchisees would purchase the rights to areas based on the numbers of businesses in any given market. NTC would provide the back-office support, tax processing work, lead generation and overall guidance to franchisees who would essentially become the field consultants to businesses in their market. The money flow would come through National Tax Credit processing from the IRS and then be remitted to the client and the National Tax Credit Franchisee. Franchise Marketing Systems brought in recommended franchise legal counsel and offered NTC qualified franchise attorneys to help with the FDD and franchise registration process. Franchise Marketing Systems operations team developed the franchise training programs, operations manuals and documents needed to teach and mentor franchisees on how to manage the day to day business and learn the key operating elements of the business. Franchise Marketing Systems marketing team worked with NTC to develop branding, franchise marketing materials and an overall sales presentation to be able to recruit franchisees and offer franchisees the necessary tools to promote and sell the NTC services.
The National Tax Credit franchise offering was immediately successful in capturing market share once the model was launched with 26 new franchisees joining the system in the first 12 months of marketing. Franchise Marketing System’s sales team managed recruitment and oversaw new franchisee training and development. After only a short time period on the market, the NTC franchise was purchased and rolled up into another organization, largely due to the effective scalability as proven through franchising.
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FMS is a team of expert franchise consulting professionals based in Canada that provides solutions for franchise development, franchise consultation, and expansion of businesses globally.