Frequently Asked Questions

How much travelling is involved?

• Following our experience in lockdown, we are now offering online services as well as face to face appointments
• Zoom has opened up opportunities to us, we can do our initial free consultations online as a client shows us around their house on facetime and we can screen share on zoom to show them how we work

Can I manage my own time?

• The role is full-time but is flexible
• Lots of our architects prefer to have an admin day when they don’t take bookings from clients
• You can adapt the week to suit your bespoke schedule / preferred way of working
• Bear in mind that once you are busy you will need to schedule in 2 / 3 workshops a week
• Occasional evenings or Saturdays if you want
• Lots of our architects do the school drop-off and pick-up
• You are in charge of your diary so you keep control of the things that are important to you like sports day, going to assemblies, parents evening etc
• We work in a systemised manner and use a client relationship management system that means you don’t have to hold lots of information in your head

What tools will I need?

• With the Pride Road model, you will be outsourcing your planning and building regulation drawings to a Chartered Technician
• You will just be doing hand drawings at the concept design workshops
• You will not need any expensive software, just a good laptop and phone
• You will be outsourcing your CAD drawings
• We will help you to interview and find the right person near to you
• Over time you tend to become their best client, feeding projects to them after you have done the concept design workshop

Can we be flexible around the school holidays?

• Because you are in control of your time you can choose your holidays
• Some of our architects take the whole of August off, this tends to be a quiet period
• Pride Road HQ will help to monitor your calls and schedule your social media while you are away
• Many of our architects work around children, you can catch up with admin in the evenings if this suits you

Will you help me get set up and run the business?

• A franchise model sets you up with a huge amount of business training
• You will receive ongoing support from a business consultant and coach
• We help you with the initial business plan, profit and loss accounts and marketing strategies that could take you a long time to learn by yourself
• Our website, logo and branding our all established for you to benefit from
• We will train you in networking and marketing strategies
• You will learn how to track your business and receive support in reaching your goals
• Our most recent Franchisee attended a Discovery Day in June 2019 and then started trading in her own business in January 2020
• You can continue in your current job until the training starts, normally one or two months before you would start your business

When will I start earning money?

• A Franchise model typically breaks even a lot earlier than starting up on your own
• We will guide you through a profit and loss exercise so that you can anticipate when your business will be profitable and budget for this
• We can help you source funding to start your business and fund you for the first few months

Would you help me give costsings advice if I don’t feel confident?

• At Pride Road, we have development days every month which helps us all to keep up to date with our CPD obligations
• We recently invited a Quantity Surveyor to update us on this issue
• Pride Road will help you with general costings using our experience from many years of working in the domestic sector

Can I be based anywhere in the UK?

• We have Franchisees across the UK, including the South of England
• Despite the distance, be reassured that Lisa will make regular visits to check how things are going
• We use online video conferencing to keep up to date with each other
• We have various WhatsApp groups (Marketing, Technical, Franchisees) so that we all keep in regular contact
• Pride Road HQ is always just a phone call away, Lisa will prioritise her Franchisees and is very quick to respond

What insurances will I need?

• Our experienced Franchisees earn similar to their previous full-time salaries but work hours that suit them
• We will show you forecasts for your likely earnings during the onboarding period
• The majority of our Franchisees are over the VAT threshold of £80,000 per year

What about Professional Indemnity Insurance?

• We will help you to get quotes for this during your training period
• You will also need Public Liability Insurance

How are Pride Road different?

• We have pioneered the method of on-site/online concept design workshops
• These place high demands on the architect’s ability to think on the spot and produce high-quality hand-drawn plans in a timely manner, in front of a client
• This time-efficient approach allows a client-focused design and a close collaboration with the customer

Looks great! How do I join?

The process will be adjusted to suit your individual needs. Generally, it goes:

1. Discovery Day
2. Work shadowing Lisa
3. Lisa visits your territory
4. Set up your Ltd Company
5. Sign Letter of Intent
6. Negotiate and sign the Franchise Agreement
7. 10 days Training
8. Start your business!