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Bizzone rolls out Australian franchise plan

New Zealand business support company Bizzone is franchising its operations into Australia.

Formerly known as Sarah Trotman & Associates, the company was set up to run onestop-shop business expos in key New Zealand cities.

It also publishes a business support magazine for small and medium sized business owners and operators and established the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards.

Bizzone is offering that package to its own database and through the Franchise Alliance in Australia.

Trotman is confident of a good uptake.

“Australia is a nation of small businesses with 1.8 million having fewer than 20 staff. It’s also close to home and they speak our language. So it’s a logical place to begin our offshore franchising.”

Trotman is considering later making the franchise available in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

“A trip to the UK to look at business support initiatives prompted us to think global. We realised what we are doing is world class.

“We are one of the few organisations to have cracked the secret of getting business owners to come and take time out to work on their business.”

Bizzone ranked 29th on the 2008 Deloitte / Unlimited Fast50 list. It is one of only three companies solely owned and operated by a woman to make it onto the list.

Bizzone has gained CarboNZero certification.

It also plans to launch an online business expo in 2009. Trotman says research shows over half the attendees at Bizzone Business Expos buy a product or service there. Most of the rest plan to purchase later.

“The online model will make it easy to complete follow up purchases. It also connects business owners into an online community of likeminded people.”

This article originally appeared in Bright magazine as ‘Business support company goes global’ on December 2008 / January 2009. Issue 31.