By Claire Reilly

The Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo was held in Sydney over the weekend, with a range of Australian and international companies showcasing their business models to potential franchisees, including fast food retailers such as McDonald’s and Oporto, as well as other well-known businesses such as NAB, Clark Rubber and VIP Home Services.

Vodafone had a stand set up to recruit business sales agents, while Crazy John’s and Telstra were searching out licensees to own and operate their own mobile phone stores.

According to one representative at the colourfully-branded Telstra kiosk, the expo was a good opportunity for the company to “refresh the applicant pool” and find new licensees to bring the Telstra name into more suburban areas, especially in Sydney where the company is looking to gain “greater penetration”.

Regulatory bodies were also well represented at the expo, with both the ACCC and ASIC on hand to offer potential franchisees advice on credit, loans, debt and the financial aspects of franchising, as well as regulations in consumer law and the Franchising Code of Conduct.

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While there were a diverse range of franchisees on display, each had a range of literature to offer potential applicants, replete with stock photographs of smiling entrepreneurs and savvy shoulder-padded business women – possibly pulled from an online database under the title “powerful woman gives PowerPoint presentation to engaged CEOs”.

A stock image signifying franchise success!

One company that had pulled out all the stops for the expo was Home IT Business, which claims it "can virtually train anyone to be a success trading on the sporting exchange”. The “lay trading” company was offering expo attendees a glossy brochure filled with business mission statements, lifestyle photos of expensive houses and shots of smiling blond families.

Although the company has only been active since 15 September 2011 (according to ASIC business names index), it has already accrued some impressive testimonials – which Current.com.au has taken the liberty of reprinting, verbatim, below:

“To the Customer Support Team a THANK YOU, after my purchase you put my mind even more at ease which was important to me due to my husband being too naive to see this opportunity. If you knew him personally, you’d know exactly what I mean! Even after him viewing the program he was sceptical as he felt his income was enough. However I thought if I could make extra income maybe that situation would change. Well it has, now I make more money than my husband spending only an hour a day at my computer whilst he still spends most his time at work.”

And from another happy franchisee:

“Relying on the pension is one tough gig, I was eating toast and butter on a frequent basis, this business has given me LIFE back again. I now frequent all you can eat buffets as a secondary option to my favourite steak and rib house. LIFE IS GOOOOOD"

Life IS good: An image in Home IT Business' promotional brochure.