Let me explain.

I think I was lucky; I sold my house at the height of the last boom and have been renting ever since. However, now I really can’t work out whether I should feel lucky or not.

I miss owning a house; I quite liked doing a bit of DIY and I like to feel that the place is really all mine. I particularly liked plastering the garage. So much so that I can recommend plastering to anyone; just remember to start somewhere a little “hidden”.

It’s not quite the same when you rent. You are generally not encouraged to do DIY. Landlords don’t always have the same sense of taste as you do; which is a shame since I have impeccable taste in plasterwork.

So, every now and then, in between polishing my hawk and sharpening my trowel (oh yes, I know my plastering), I check the property news to see whether I should start tripping down to the estate agents and seriously consider buying something.

The problem is, the news is always mixed.

In one paper, it is the time to rent while in another it is time to buy. Today for example, at My Finances we read about the advantages of owning, at the Independent we have the strength of buy-to-let market and from the Nationwide we have the depressing statistic that this appears to be the longest price depression since figures began.

As a private individual looking at my own house, my take on this is rather simple. Nobody really knows so it really comes down to whether you like DIY enough to take a risk.

If you are lucky enough to still have a job in these difficult times then if strip away the advice of those with vested interest you are left with the reality of generally flat house prices.

The statistics from Nationwide are particularly interesting. So much so that I sometimes draw trend lines on them or look at the length of previous price depressions. This lack of DIY has left me with too much time on my hands.

To me, the stats indicate that prices are unlikely to change in the near future. I guess prices could go even further down but it seems likely they are close to the “true” minimum.

So long as this situation stays the same, renting or buying really becomes an equivalent option. I mean, as I said prices could drop and so there is a little more risk in the buying option but a little less chance to do DIY in the rental.

Strikes me that either you pay for the finance of buying (or for the rich: “give up the interest payments on your capital”) or you pay a landlord for taking the risk of financing your property.

So there we have it. Risky DIY.

As for buy-to-let; yes asset prices are low but can you be sure that the Eurozone crisis won’t combine forces with our deficit to knock out all assumptions of what is really a low priced asset?

Personally, I’d rather put my efforts into the exciting things we are doing at GreyRidge…

Which reminds me. The relevance of this to GreyRidge.

Well I guess that the nice thing for us is that whatever way the thing goes, we have software systems that suit all types of property companies. Whether they are helping people rent, looking after buildings or involved in buying, we are likely to have been there done that.

That statistic is in sharp contrast with the British Franchise Association 2011 figure that “About 90% of all franchisees reported profitability over the last 12 months”.

On the surface this could mean that the current recession an ideal time to be in franchising and that just about any franchise should succeed.

The demand is clearly there; there are lots of people out there desparate for a job and there are certainly a few of them looking for a good way to spend their redundancy payments.

The reality is that, as many experienced franchisors will point out, good recruitment is still one of the biggest challenges facing any franchise.

The reason for this is what I call the “franchise dilemma”.

In simple terms, you have two apparently conflicting aims. You want to grow and therefore you need to attract lots of applicants for your franchise. Yet when your hard-earned prospect franchisees get to your office, you then need to reject many of them ruthlessly.

The risks of bad recruitment are clear; many franchisors have told us that recruiting the wrong franchisee incur costs that far outweigh any franchise fee. Managing the problem franchisee is costly in terms of time and money and is the fastest route to a failed franchise.

This is not to mention the poor failing franchisees who lose their money and their self-esteem (and will certainly tell everyone about that).

On the other hand, good recruitment brings rewards that all franchisors dream of: an increased franchise network; more reliable income and better brand recognition.

Therefore I read this guide to franchise recruitment from the Franchise Magazine with a great deal of interest.

I’d like to add my own view to this.

Sometimes in business, some things truly are fundamental to success while others are just details that affect your business in much smaller ways.

In my view, solving the Franchise Dilemma effectively is just about the most important thing a franchise can do.

In turn, good franchise recruitment largely rests on three things.

Firstly, careful and monitored use of advertising channels and recruitment money.

Second, a compelling, properly priced and truthful business proposition. If you have to embellish your proposition, one day, this will come back to haunt you.

Finally, a determination to recruit only those who meet your carefully prepared recruitment criteria. The best franchises also have a clear set of recruitment criteria that they stick to without compromise. They understand that the franchise fee is small-fry compared to the long-term advantages of a successful new franchisee.

There is even a virtuous circle to all of this; good recruitment breeds good news stories and even more effective recruitment.

Smart franchises have a logical and well-presented business proposition. Good franchisees will respond to a good proposition whereas only fools will buy a bad deal. The one thing that good franchisees and bad franchisees have in common is that they will talk about you.

Users of our software products benefit from a professionally managed hosting environment.

Why Managed?

In the past, many companies managed their own software environments. This is a complex task as it involves buying, setting-up and maintaining complicated hardware and software products.

Many companies are now deciding the use a managed environment to lower the overall cost of managing their data. The advantages are clear: software companies and data centres have the skills and resources to create an environment that is perfect for modern business software.

By offering services to many clients, we are able to offer a standard of service that few internal IT departments could compete with and at a fraction of the cost.

Your Hosting Environment

We buy our server space from our partner Rackspace, one of the world’s largest data centre providers and in our opinion, the best.

Our customers benefit from:

• All of the latest hardware and software required to run our applications
• Our insistence on industry standard managed databases with class-leading security and reliability
• High speed network access with multiple redundant internet connections
• High end servers providing responsive applications
• Top of the range dedicated firewalls protecting your data
• Availability of the system to a target 99.99% availability during office hours.
• All essential maintenance carried out at convenient times (usually overnight at weekends)
• Nightly backups with a backup history maintained for 2 weeks
• Our committment to do any work required to restore the system in the event of problems

Your Data

We understand that keeping your data with us can seem like you have just handed us the keys to your most treasured valuables. That’s why we take special care of it. We:

• Use class leading database software, internationally recognised as the most robust and reliable in the world
• Insist on the latest security patches and virus checking software for our own servers.
• Automatically apply Windows and database updates outside work hours.
• Use top of the range Cisco firewalls dedicated to ensuring your data is safe.
• Use servers dedicated only to running your software.
• Offer an anytime data retrieval service where you can get an up-to-date copy of all of your data
• Make and securely store full backups of your data every night.
• Can usually rescue your data in the event of a catastrophe to within 5 minutes of the problem
• Make and securely store copies of your software application every time they change.
• Never look at your data without your express permission

Our Service Level

We don’t get many faults to fix and so we are in the enviable position of being able to offer fantastic service levels for fault and problem fixing. During UK working hours, we have always started work on faults as soon as we are aware of them. Usually, our integrated bug-fixing tool spots and reports the fault as it happens and often before you see it. In many cases you won’t even have to pick up the telephone. At the very worst, we guarantee to start work within 1 hour of the fault being reported.

Technology Stuff

If you are technically minded you might like to know our applications use the latest version of Oracle’s flagship database accessed via Apache web servers, all hidden behind top of the range Cisco firewalls. The whole infrastructure runs on top of Windows 2003 with redundant disks, power supplies and network connections making sure that servers are reliable. Our code uses PLSQL and Java to generate webpages using (X)HTML, javascript and CSS which can be accessed from any web browser on any device.

Rapid development and implementation brings competitive advantages earlier and “best-in-class” return on investment.

Zero capital investment in new server hardware, zero staffing costs for running servers and networks.

Any time, anywhere access to systems and data. Stay connected whether in the office, at home or on the road.

All of our products are built on this framework, ensuring our products can be tailored incredibly quickly and that the end result is of a high quality.

Answers in a box has launched its new human resource management system, Answers HR into the Canadian market by signing a strategic partnership with Ontario-based consultancy ENGAGE human resources solutions, who will distribute the product, following support from UK Trade and Investment.

Husband and wife team, Alasdair and Julie Ross, have spent years in the development of Answers HR, which is much more than your typical human resources management system, as Alasdair explains:

“Answers HR is a fully secure web-hosted employee self-service system offering employers everything from holiday and absence management to relevant policy and procedures. A major difference to other HR systems is that it has been designed with the end user in mind making it easy and intuitive for employees to use and access, and all at about a third of the cost of similar HR software.

“Another major inclusive benefit is access to an HR expert based locally to your business who cares enough to be interested in finding your business the right solution, rather than just a faceless call centre operative somewhere on the end of a phone.”

The new system certainly made an impression when it was launched into the Canadian small business market at a glittering event hosted by its new Canadian business partners ENGAGE. Mike Bennett of ENGAGE said:

“Partnering with Answers in a Box on this project and helping the product grow in Canada made perfect sense to us. As a growing consultancy, we were seeking ways to support the smaller sized businesses more cost-effectively and Answers HR hits the mark.

“Through the system we can deliver an effective toolkit of human resource material to local HR consultants that will help businesses to grow and become more strategic when managing their people issues. It is an exciting time.”

Answers in a box are also planning to take the product into Australia and have received interest from New Zealand, the Netherlands and Austria. Alasdair added:

“Going global with the product has helped us access a whole new market that we wouldn’t have got into in the past. It offers new opportunities for growing the business – it’s challenging and scary, but it’s also exciting.”

Answers in a Box are not only looking to expand globally, but also locally, and are also targeting local HR consultants who want help in increasing their client base.

Industry expert, George Hague tells us exactly how using technology can benefit your agency. “The majority of large agencies are now using software for functions such as billing and payroll processes, timesheets, expenses and scheduling, suggesting that software can provide real benefits in these areas. It’s selecting the software which is the most difficult part!”

BookCheck, a professional book-keeping agency that provides their clients with quality accountancy support through a network of outsourced book-keepers, used technology to keep their successful company thriving through the recession. Anthony Pilkington, Managing Director of BookCheck stated “Using technology has really helped save time with the mundane administration tasks such as generating invoices and timesheets. We have been able to grow and can offer clients the security that our other competitors cannot”.

BookCheck are thriving throughout the recession, and are one of the most successful outsourced book keeping companies throughout the UK. They used a technological system called Agency 360, by GreyRidge Software to develop their business, keeping them at the top of their game.

So how can using technology for a small part of your business, make a significant difference to your cash flow? George Hague states “By using software, it allows your staff to develop your business and help it to run, rather than spending unnecessary time on administrative tasks that can hold up your business and waste valuable time and money. This alone can save an abundance of time and money, freeing up your staff to push your business forward”. He also states that you should “shop around and find one that works parallel to your business, allowing those processes to be run smoothly, giving you the confidence that the administrative part of your business is being looked after securely.”

According to the recent research, we are now in the most difficult economic climate since Mrs Thatcher era. Don’t allow your agency to be blown apart like the cold war, do something about it. Fight for your success, combating competitors and unwanted time wasting, win your battle. Don’t let the recession pull you down, stay at the top of your game, let industry experts lead you to success, making competitors envious of your victory.

Industry expert, George Hague tells us exactly how using technology can benefit your agency. “The majority of large agencies are now using software for functions such as billing and payroll processes, timesheets, expenses and scheduling, suggesting that software can provide real benefits in these areas. It’s selecting the software which is the most difficult part!”

BookCheck, a professional book-keeping agency that provides their clients with quality accountancy support through a network of outsourced book-keepers, used technology to keep their successful company thriving through the recession. Anthony Pilkington, Managing Director of BookCheck stated “Using technology has really helped save time with the mundane administration tasks such as generating invoices and timesheets. We have been able to grow and can offer clients the security that our other competitors cannot”.

BookCheck are thriving throughout the recession, and are one of the most successful outsourced book keeping companies throughout the UK. They used a technological system called Agency 360, by GreyRidge Software to develop their business, keeping them at the top of their game.

So how can using technology for a small part of your business, make a significant difference to your cash flow? George Hague states “By using software, it allows your staff to develop your business and help it to run, rather than spending unnecessary time on administrative tasks that can hold up your business and waste valuable time and money. This alone can save an abundance of time and money, freeing up your staff to push your business forward”. He also states that you should “shop around and find one that works parallel to your business, allowing those processes to be run smoothly, giving you the confidence that the administrative part of your business is being looked after securely.”

According to the recent research, we are now in the most difficult economic climate since Mrs Thatcher era. Don’t allow your agency to be blown apart like the cold war, do something about it. Fight for your success, combating competitors and unwanted time wasting, win your battle. Don’t let the recession pull you down, stay at the top of your game, let industry experts lead you to success, making competitors envious of your victory.

Ever heard of the phrase “more haste, less speed”?

The PC Support franchise founders Phil Bird and Simon Albert are committed to this idea and they believe that it is now bringing them solid results. The PC Support Group is now the leading UK franchise dedicated to delivering outsourced IT support to smaller businesses. It is a business based on careful promotion of a winning brand formula.

Right from the start Phil and Simon have placed quality of service above uncontrolled expansion and they believe that it is this emphasis that makes them stand out from the crowd. Phil explains “Our original business was successful because of our dedication to giving fast, outstanding service to our clients. Our policy of ensuring that our franchises meet these exacting standards, has meant that our network is now much stronger than if we had purely gone for fast unmanaged growth from the outset”.

This approach runs right through the business. For example, In the last 2 months The PC Support group has announced a series of partnerships with trusted suppliers and companies that service the IT sector.

Simon is enthusiastic about these partnerships for the same reason that he is careful about network recruitment . “Recently, we have just partnered with GreyRidge, a excellent software company, Rackspace a world leading managed hosting provider and data recovery specialists, ABC DataRecovery.

In each case they were looking for a “win-win” situation whereby the supplier adds something extra to the range of services but also that the supplier standards match those of The PC Support Group.

Phil says “it is great that our franchisees can expand the range of services that they can offer to our clients but it is even more important that they can be sure that these are of a standard that our customers have come to expect from us.”

Ensuring that partners are of sufficient quality doesn’t just happen. Phil continues “Taking the example of GreyRidge, we first used them in 2007 and have worked with them between then and now. With this experience we are now absolutely sure that they are a class-leading company.”

When asked what ISO quality management systems mean, owners of SME businesses typically respond by saying either “a lot of bureaucracy” or “ISO is something that a company needs if it wants to work with the public sector”. This cynicism is usually based on the perception that quality management must inhibit effective management and that the organisation will sink under the weight of paperwork.

Early last year Equas MD, David Morgan, took the decision to tackle this perception by investing in technology. He explains “we knew that an effective quality management system had to be simple to use, capable of effective document management and, most importantly, be accessible to staff throughout the organisation – wherever they worked. We came up with the idea of a new product which we called “ISO Activ”, but needed a trusted technology partner to deliver it.

Equas approached their own software suppliers with the idea. Technical Director of GreyRidge Software, Tom Hill, describes what Equas were looking for: “David wanted an easy-to-use way of delivering and editing processes and documents without the need for a paper manual. This need developed into a concept of editable ‘wiki’ pages, supported with embedded standard office documents and the potential for mapping processes in an intuitive way”.

The result is an innovative product that could well transform the image of ISO in the marketplace. Businesses simply sign-up for the system and, with security and hosting all taken care of and with access to a flexible template system and documentation library, they can start the process of implementing ISO quality and environmental management systems in minutes.

David is delighted: “We are committed to breaking down the idea that ISO is all about paperwork and is simply something you get because a customer has asked for it. The new ISO Activ system is a core part of this approach. We know that with it, people will start to see quality management as something that is genuinely useful and easy to do”. Sales Director of Equas, Mike Dowd, says “the best thing is that it is as easy to understand as a paper-based system, yet it involves no paper and cuts down on bureaucracy. I am a technophobe and even I find it easy to use!”

After many months of design and development, the new software has now been launched and is already starting to prove popular. More than 15 businesses have started using the system with many more about to follow. David is particularly pleased that it is unexpectedly taking them beyond the SME marketplace and attracting interest from large corporations. For example, Equas are currently using Activ to implement an integrated quality management system for a company with manufacturing operations in six countries. In addition, Equas have just signed an agreement to franchise the new product in Canada and the US, and are in process of concluding a similar agreement with a German partner.