Leicester, United Kingdom (PressExposure) August 14, 2010 -- Helen Watts discovered the CityLocal web franchise in the business section of the Financial Times.
Previously working as a Business Analyst, Helen was looking for a new business opportunity and says "Following a redundancy, I decided that I would like the opportunity to work for myself. I was looking at various options for running my own business, either as a consultant or possibly with a franchise. I also felt that I would like the opportunity to do something a bit different from my previous role."
As part of the research about setting up a business, she looked into business networking and attended some networking events. This made her realise the importance of getting businesses and services known to potential customers, and concluded that the CityLocal offering was ideal in promoting local businesses.
Helen continues "I think CityLocal is positioning itself as the prime local web site for business listings and local community information. The listings are very comprehensive and enable small businesses to have a good web presence. The listings also have high rankings on search engines which most small businesses struggle to achieve. The link with community news and events drives more people to the site."
Helen continues "The training was very comprehensive and there is also a lot of follow-up support via the forum, the training videos and documentation that is available. The support and guidance of a nominated franchisee that helps you during your first months in business is really a good idea. The communication via Head Office was good and all my questions about their web business were answered promptly.
What excites me is that although there is a 'template' for the franchise. Each franchisee has some freedom to operate and develop the business in the way they envisage their business to operate. The business is not just an on-line directory, but off-line promotions can be developed as well as business networking events. Also, because the business is home-based and you are your own boss, not only do you have the flexibility to work outside of the normal 9 to 5 routine, you are also working for your own financial gain."
With a six figure investment already injected into the development of the business model, on the 1st of August 2010, CityLocal launched its new upgraded UK website that took over 7 months to develop and is backed by a further serious investment. Zakir Daud, Director of CityLocal comments "We are positioning ourselves to become one of the most recognised groups of hyper-local sites for every town and City and the UK and Ireland. Our network has responded favourably to our new roll out and we are now looking forward to the next phase of development."
If you are interested in discovering how you can be your own boss and start your own local home based business in an exciting market place, visit http://www.citylocal.co.uk/businessfranchise/ today to find out more about this unique web opportunity.