Partner feature: BOQ (Teaming up for a shiny future)

Buffed has aligned with the Bank of Queensland to strengthen and grow the franchise and to forge the way for social franchises in Australia. Buffed is a social franchise which offers shoe shine and cleaning services from portable stands as a means for individuals who are long term unemployed to secure their futures through small business ownership.

The dynamic partnership between Buffed and the (BOQ) is focused on building a strong and collaborative relationship. BOQ is a founding partner of Buffed and therefore the Wise Foundation; the not-for-profit organisation which launched Buffed in November 2011.

BOQ are an established but also growing business that is forging into new territories and a business that’s synonymous for being proactive within communities at all levels. Importantly for Buffed it’s also a corporate entity that embraces the value of empowering individuals.

One of the inaugural Buffed sites is located within BOQ Centre’s foyer in Brisbane where Buffed Franchisee Grant Richards operates his shoe shining business. Outside of their central office location BOQ has 260 branches throughout the country.  This means having the internal capacity to effectively manage the obvious property matters that a network of this volume would require. Buffed has already been very fortunate in leveraging the wealth of knowledge and networks from the senior staff in the property management department.

BOQ has further extended their commitment to this venture by providing Buffed Franchisees with a compelling offer that includes business banking accounts and merchant facility services.  This allows affordable and accessible banking services which allow the franchisees to operate a premium service to their own clients.  Offering clients the ability to pay for Buffed services using EFTPOS is an added value to our clients and that is possible because of the support of BOQ.

Beyond the launch BOQ have continued to have Buffed involved in their many events including a national conference, their annual general meeting and internal staff events.  This has allowed Buffed to refine the manner in which we develop and implement a mobile service that will create additional commercial opportunities for franchisees.

The Buffed social franchise model has a significant focus on the upfront training and ongoing development of our franchisees.  The Buffed Franchisee Development programme will provide franchisees with a comprehensive cross section of all the fundamental components of managing and growing a small business.

The majority of the training modules delivered each week will be presented by industry experts.  Buffed is fortunate to have the support of BOQ and other organisations that can assist across various areas of their franchise business including Banking, Finance, Customer Service, Sales, Financial Literacy, Budgeting, Marketing and Communications.

The Buffed mentor programme also aligns each franchisee with individual mentors that will offer their ongoing assistance through regular meetings. The current Buffed franchisees have already expressed the benefit they receive from such relationships with BOQ staff.

The national network that BOQ operates is largely made up of owner manager branches.  At the BOQ national conference their thorough knowledge of the Buffed initiative demonstrated the strong internal support for the model.  In addition the commitment from these owner managers to support Buffed as we expand into their cities and regions was overwhelming.

The founding partnership with BOQ is still within its first year however it has already proven to be of significant value in developing a unique social franchise business.  The level of support from Chairman, directors, CEO (both previously and new), senior executive, central office staff, owner managers and branch staff alike has been heartening.

Over the next few years Buffed is confident this partnership will continue to develop and prosper in a way that can offer collective benefits to not only BOQ and Buffed but other organisations that pursue corporate community partnerships.