David Aston, Baker Tilly

Successful businesses have clearly defined strategies, know how to generate profits and manage risks and have teams to support this.

Any strategy must satisfy the stakeholders’ personal objectives. They must clarify and articulate their goals and objectives for their own purposes and direction, as well as for potential investors.

A strong sales and marketing strategy will ensure the market proposition is clearly defined. Is it a niche website or a specialist estate agency using the web to generate leads? A substantial database of seekers and sharers is essential as two-way sales appear to be needed to earn commission.

Market research to identify potential customers/competitors will direct the sales, marketing and pricing strategies. Currently, a competitor is ranked 61 places above Adam’s company on a Google search under ‘Office Sharing’.

Service quality will be critical in retaining customers and Adam is correct in identifying that a strong CRM system is required.

Investment will be needed for marketing and website development, but the risk of the model being copied could hinder organic growth, making investment harder.

Franchising works best where the business model can be replicated easily. Using the web to generate leads and people to match both parties could be a replicable model to allow expansion into new areas, but a niche website will not require replicating, so franchising could be less appropriate.

Rupert Merson, Partner, BDO Stoy Hayward

For many new business models that are easy to copy, the key challenge is to get big fast – to grab a share of the market before it’s no longer there to grab. Franchising is one solution – if the idea is easy to replicate – and can be a good source of cash and staff.

But for franchising to work, the concept needs to be well established. The franchise model needs to be well documented. The business model must be tried and tested. How extensively has Adam researched the market opportunity? How will the model replicate?

Web-based exchange businesses demand hefty up-front investment of time and money until they can break even. The fixed costs in many franchises are stepped up with the opening of each outlet. Adam isn’t after replication; he’s after scale.

Adam’s key issue is all about motivation and reward. If it’s sales people he needs, he should pay them a salary and commission. A franchise structure will just complicate things.

First and foremost, though, Hawkes needs to sort out his own motivation. The resource his business needs most is his own. It’s a big leap to give up a good job for the relative unknown, but that’s what entrepreneurship is about – and it’s the real reason why he’s at risk of losing his business opportunity to someone else.

David Hughes, Saffery Champness

The key issues for Adam and his business partner appear to be articulating the market proposition, obtaining appropriate funding and clarifying what they want to achieve.

Speed may well be the keyword here. Adam may have identified a potentially lucrative market niche but, as he has already identified, it’s going to be difficult to protect his idea – and probably not so difficult for larger, better-resourced competitors to copy the concept and roll it out more widely.

Therefore, it’s vital that he move quickly. Alex may have hit upon a means of connecting clients with the right offices quickly and at minimum cost, but he now needs to grow the business swiftly – perhaps across Scotland, initially – if he is to make a sizeable enough industry ‘footprint’ to protect his lead. To do that, he’ll need funding beyond that which can be attracted in the short term through commissions alone.

Despite being a startup, officesharing.co.uk is generating revenue and is able to demonstrate potential to financiers. He should consider devising a marketing strategy and business plan geared towards rapid growth, with a view to approaching a small-scale venture capital or business angel backer, perhaps one with a track record of growing technology companies.

Such a backer may also be able to assist him with the technological issues he needs to address, as well as helping fine-tune his ideas for providing added value.

Finally, franchising may not be the answer in this instance: successful franchisors develop tried, proven, business models and established brands before selling on franchise rights.

Although Alex’s idea is potentially lucrative, it isn’t the case yet. But once these are in place, he and his backers should look to reap the lion’s share of the reward for themselves.