Best Franchise Under £10k? High Returns, Full Ownership (Episode 158)

👉 Ready to start your own online store? Start here: https://dropshipunlocked.com/online-event?el=podcast-158-best-franchise-under-10k

🗣 In this episode, Lewis Smith and James Eardley compare traditional franchises with a modern alternative — high-ticket e-commerce using the HomeTurf Advantage™ model.

If you’ve ever considered investing your savings into a franchise but want the flexibility, ownership, and scalability of an online business, this episode breaks down exactly how the Dropship Unlocked model delivers the structure of a franchise without the restrictions.

👉 Prefer to watch this on YouTube? Check it out here ➡️https://youtu.be/TJ0LPnzJwOs

Topics Discussed:

★ Franchises vs. High-Ticket E-commerce: Why more investors are turning away from traditional franchises and choosing online ownership models.
★ The HomeTurf Advantage™ System: How Dropship Unlocked gives you the structure, support, and systems of a franchise without taking equity.
★ Full Ownership, Zero Royalties: The freedom of owning 100% of your business with no licensing fees or profit splits.
★ Location Freedom: How to build a scalable business that runs from anywhere — with just a laptop and Wi-Fi.
★ De-risking Your Investment: Why starting a high-ticket e-commerce business under £10k can outperform many £50k+ franchises in ROI.
★ Who This Is For: Those with savings or redundancy payouts who want to build long-term income streams with full control.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

Pick up a copy of Lewis’ book: https://dropshipunlocked.com/book
Get Shopify for £1 a month for 3 months: https://dropshipunlocked.com/shopify
Get a free trial with a professional phone line: https://dropshipunlocked.com/circle

Key Takeaways:
★ Structure Without Restriction: The HomeTurf Advantage™ gives you a franchise-style playbook but full ownership and creative freedom.
★ Start Lean, Scale Fast: For under £10k, you can build a business that generates recurring online income with minimal overheads.
★ Freedom Over Franchises: No rent, no staff, no royalties — just systems and scalability.
★ De-risked Growth: Proven frameworks, expert coaching, and data-backed decision-making make this one of the smartest modern business models.
★ True Ownership: You’re not buying someone else’s brand.

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LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/dropship-unlocked
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Website: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/

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★★★ Dropship Unlocked – Lewis Smith ★★★

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Transcript

0:00

If you've been thinking about buying a franchise business, but you'd prefer the freedom of an online business that you own entirely, I think you're going to find this episode really helpful. Maybe you've got like 10k saved up in the bank and you're wondered whether to buy a franchise or start your own business from scratch, then what we've seen work is to and with that. In place, it actually gives you something that a franchise never could. And that realisation changed my mind completely when I considered how to invest in a long term cash flowing vehicle. If you've ever thought that you needed to buy into a big brand to get the structure and the support, the reality is. Welcome to the Dropship Unlocked podcast. I'm Lewis Smith, the founder of Dropship Unlocked and with me is our client success coach, James Eardley. Now, when we're not recording podcast episodes or running our own e commerce businesses, you'll find us helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own high ticket dropshipping stores. So if you're ready to build your own six or even seven figure online business, then head over to dropship unlocked.com forward/start. Now sit back, relax and let's unlock your potential with the Dropship Unlocked podcast. For anyone who's perhaps left a corporate role, maybe they've sold a business or they've built up some solid savings, there's a new question that arises and perhaps now you're thinking, what do I build now that I have the capital and the Runway? So franchises often seem like a smart move. There's a plan in place, you've got a playbook to follow, but they are very expensive and they're quite restrictive and you're still tied off into having a physical location. So today we are exploring a new idea. Can High ticket E Commerce give you the control of ownership with the structure of a franchise, but without the extra baggage? So Louis, let's start here. For someone who is, who's got capital, they want to deploy it, what are the similarities between our model and the franchise model? Yeah, well, firstly that there is a lot of crossover. I mean, here's what we share within our Dropship Unlocked programme. When we get people to set up a business with our trademarked home turf advantage model of E commerce. Now it's really important that this is a model, so I guess you could think of it like a franchise in that we're giving you the structure and the support and the guidance, but we don't own any of your business. You don't report to us. It's Entirely your business. So with the home turf advantage model, we're giving you a clear, structured plan. So a business plan that you can just operate exactly as we set out. Our members will follow a very clear week by week, step by step blueprint. So it's, they get their store live, they get their suppliers signed in the UK and then they start running their ads, they start making sales, then they can outsource things so that their business runs without them. So in that sense it's very repeatable to execute upon. So it's very much like a franchise. It's kind of, you're not guessing at any of the steps, you just plug into a proven system that's already worked across loads of different niches. Like we've seen it time and time again from hundreds of members who've gone through the process and we've just ironed out all of the areas of confusion and uncertainty and the bits where people got stuck. So it's just a really smooth path to where you can avoid all the trial and error. So there are definitely elements that are from, taken from the franchise world, if you like, where, yes, it's that structure, it's that guidance, it's the sops, it's how you do things, the proven way of making this work, the market research to ensure that, you know, with a franchise, you're building the business in a viable location, location like that. Those are the types of things that we will upskill you on and train you on with the home. The advantage model to give you that support and accountability as well that you don't often get from a franchisor. So in our world, that's private coaching on zoom twice, if not three times a week. Expert calls where we bring in experts in different fields, community check ins where we're. You're able to jump into the community and ask questions of other members who are running similar businesses to you. So a bit like other franchisees who are operating their own stores around the country. So you're building your own business, but you're never building it alone. And the important thing is you have complete ownership of that business and that's key there. You can see the similarities there. If you're sat on maybe 10 to 20k, you've got some cash set aside and you know that that is a big opportunity for you to put that cash to work. You want to put it into a model where you're de risking that investment because you've got a proven system to follow. And that's why I can see a traditional franchise would be very attractive because you're buying into the SOPs, you got the support from the team as well to show you how to get that business set up. And so there's similar similarities there with our model of the specific type of E commerce. We do so selling products online. We've got a proven path for how to do that. We've then got the support of how to set up the business and the community backed around you to get you up and running. So clearly some similarities. But what about the differences, Louis? So how does high ticket E Commerce and our home serve advantage model, how does that actually go beyond the franchise model? Yeah, so there are a few core differences to this. So if you are at that point where James just mentioned where you've say you've got 10, 20,000, I mean, that's relatively low investment for a franchise these days. Like it's probably significantly more if you're looking at a, you know, a real serious franchise. But say with this model, you own 100% of the brands that you built. So there's no licencing fees from us, there's no royalty splits. Like we're not taking a cut. You are building equity from day one one in your own business. So that's the biggest difference. I think that it's entirely yours. And that's, you know, that's not to be underestimated because you're not answering to anyone. We're not chasing you, you know, every quarter for updates and profit splits and things like that. It's very much just owned by you, which means that you get to call the shots. It's so much less stressful to have a business like that down the line where you've not got, you know, a franchisor or an investor breathing down your neck, putting pressure on, asking for, you know, constant updates. It's just your business to do as you please with no strings attached. So that's a really nice difference. I think the other thing is that with a lot of franchises there, you are very much kind of tied into where the business is. You know, perhaps it's a gym or a coffee chain or whatever it might be. There's. If it's a brick and mortar type franchise, you are very much kind of wedded to being there. And I think the location independence that the high ticket E commerce business with our home turf advantage model, which is the model we teach at Dropship Unlocked, it gives you such location freedom. You're not locked into a postcode even. You're like, you can be anywhere in the planet and make sure that as long as you have a WI FI connection, you're good to go, you can run the whole business remotely. And that is really liberating. And again is not something to be underestimated because just because you are happy to kind of go to an area at the moment, will that be the case forever? I don't know. But with this, you don't have to worry about where you're located because the business basically travels with you. It's a hundred percent online, you don't need any stock, you haven't got to buy anything. The other thing as well that I think makes it massively beneficial to go with a model like the Home T advantage is that you can scale without staff. So with virtual assistants and automations you can build a really lean system that runs without you packing boxes and answering every call and having to, you know, employ a whole team of people and then worry about all of the different HR policies around that. Like that becomes stressful. It sucks up time and energy and money. And I think actually it's very, very liberating to know that you could effectively run this entire online business yourself, maybe bringing in one virtual assistant to, to help you and the whole thing is then outsourced. So to bring this to life, I'll share some real examples here because we've had members take redundancy packages or payouts from maybe severance payouts and turn them into income generating stores in under 90 days. And that's often the position that someone who considers starting a franchise is in. They've had a lump sum cash injection of some kind and they think, well, how do I deploy a portion of that capital to get an ROI in the lowest risk way possible. So Suraj is a good example of this. Someone who jumped into the programme, scaled past 100,000 pounds in sales in just a few months with his business using our model from a standing start as well. And then there's Adam. He's another example of someone who's built a repeatable system that generates 70 to 100,000 pounds a month now in revenue from his business entirely online, doesn't take any stock and it's all because they followed a really clear metric driven launch path. So if you want to hear more about that, you can check out episode 139 of the podcast, which was titled From Zero to a Hundred Thousand Pounds in Six Months. It's a really good breakdown of how quickly things can go when you follow a proven playbook. That's a great episode to get lined up as well. As the interviews that we've done with people who have generated this kind of cash flow from a business that they had no prior experience in. So in a similar way, they've bought into a model which is the home turf advantage. They've deployed that model into their laptop if you like. They've built the Shopify store, they put the systems in place to make that business run and sell products online. And then they've got cash flow coming out after a few months of hard work to build that business from the ground up. And then you're in a place, as you say, with 100% equity of that business. It's all yours. And that's a fantastic place to be in with control over a business like that. Now let's talk about risk control and how we take control of this business because that's where a lot of people freeze up when they've got some cash to deploy. They're worried that they don't want to make the wrong choice in what, what, what horse they back if you like or what investment they go after. So for someone who's a very analytical, pragmatic, pragmatic person, and they would benefit rather dashboard dashboards to check their analytics rather than just guesswork, how would you say that this model really de risks that launch phase and will give them control over a scalable business? Sure. So there's a few things. The, the way that we build is very much milestone led. It's based on a very specific, proven launch plan. So you're tracking progress each week as you go. So for example, you've, you got the process of like setting everything up, then you're building your store, then you're signing your suppliers and you're kind of checking these things off as you go as milestones. You then launch your ads, then you make your first sale, then you start to put systems in place to automate the process so that it can operate independently of your time. The metrics part of it is really important because if you are quite numbers driven and you want to make sure that you're using metrics over your own like gut instinct or intuition, then some of the key performance indicators that we follow, things like roas return on ad spend or you know, how much does it cost you to acquire a customer, your, your CAC or your aov, your average order value, those things are all tracked, they're all reported, they're all there on paper, in, in Shopify, on the screen. And so you know exactly what's working, you know why it's working and So I guess it gives investors a peace of mind that their capital has been executed and deployed efficiently because you can really start lean. You're not, we're not saying you need, you know, £80,000 to, to start a franchise or, or a business like this, you know, for under 10k, you can get this thing up and running, making sales and have a new income stream that then makes you a lot more than 10k down the line if you set it up correctly. And so that's our goal. It's to help you start lean and test and scale up with confidence really to get you to that point of making a full time income from this eventually so that it can become a new income stream for you. So yeah, if you've got five to ten thousand pounds and you deploy that properly, that can go a really long way here. I would argue a lot further than it could go in the equivalent investment into a franchise. 100%. I mean, if you fast forward in our journeys, when we were considering where to invest our savings at the time, you fast forward to where we've got to now. We've now got 100% equity over control over stores that we've built. We've got data back that we're selling products that have been selling for almost five years in my case, since when I started this business and now I generate consistent income for myself and I've just followed a proven plan to set that up in the first place. So we'll show you how to find the right products, sign the suppliers, build the store, run the ads and then you can just really control the key figures, the metrics at the top of the business to make sure that you're scaling comfortably and get to the goals that you've got. So it's, it's a fantastic position to get to and you just have to put that work in initially to build it. But, but you know, everyone knows if you're going to create a successful business, of course there's going to be work involved to get that off the ground. So if anyone thinking fantastic, that sounds great, but maybe they're not the most technical person, maybe they haven't run an online business before. What would you say to those people about how much involvement they'll need to take in getting set up and how much technical prowess they'd need to have? Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about the technical side of things because that's very much step by step it's covered. There will be a bit of time input initially because it's ultimately as your business and so you want it to be set up right. And I'd argue that, that without that time input would you really have a good enough understanding of how your business is set up and operate and functioning. So I think that's, that's important initially to have a bit of time to put into this. And by a bit of time, 10 to 15 hours a week, something like that, is probably a good kind of amount of time to have set aside for this. And once you've got proof of concepts in place and you can see this coming together and you've got sales coming in, we'll then show you how to hire virtual assistants and run your daily operations. So you're basically removing yourself from any of the kind of day to day stuff. We'll show you how to automate the fulfilment of many orders and even of customer service in certain cases. So leveraging AI and automations and making sure that really the whole thing runs even independently of a human's involvement. So to a certain extent, let alone your involvement and then eventually just systematise the whole business so it runs like a well oiled machine. So you start with ownership with this and then once you have ownership of that business and you've put in some time to understand it, that's when you can then build leverage. And we guide you through exactly how to do that throughout the programme. So to answer the question, can high ticket e commerce be a franchise? The answer is yes, but better. There are benefits to it over and above a franchise because you get structure without the restriction, you're getting the support without the huge overheads of a franchise. And you're building an asset that is truly yours to scale and eventually to even sell. So if you're in that position where you're ready to deploy capital into something that's smarter than just another franchise licence or putting it into a savings account, head over to dropship unlocked.com forward/start and there's a short video that I recorded where I break down the step by step launch roadmap. And if it makes sense, you can book in a call, have a chat with us and we'll talk about getting you started. Are you enjoying the podcast? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment or a review and we might feature it in an upcoming episode. And for detailed show notes and resources, visit dropshipunlock.com forward/point podcast. If you found value in any episode of this podcast, please could you take just 10 seconds to leave us a quick five star review on Your favourite podcast app. It helps us more than you can imagine. And who knows, you might just hear your comments read out on the show. Thanks for being a part of our community. Your support helps us keep delivering new episodes to you every week. Now, let's answer a question that we've had in from a listener. And if you've had any questions that have come up while you've been listening or watching to today's episode, then all you need to do is comment beneath the YouTube video version of this episode and it might just get featured in an upcoming recording. So that is exactly what Oliver Murphy, 25, has done. So I'm going to put his question to you now, Lewis. He said, fantastic episode. I've been watching the podcast for a. While now and every time I watch. It, I get excited and raring to go. Then questions set in. So here we go. I work full time as an engineer and I was wondering, how many hours on average do people work on their websites while working full time? I know it depends on the person, but do you have an average number of hours? Yeah. So, firstly, love the question. Oliver, great to hear that you've been enjoying the podcast and it sounds like you'll be joining us inside the masterclass very soon. So the truth is, it does vary, and I know that's not the answer that you were hoping for, but some people do like early mornings before work. Others, if they work a really early shift, maybe they do evenings after work. Or other people who are just crammed throughout the week might just have to do it on weekends. As a rule of thumb, if you kind of wanted an average, I'd say if you can consistently alongside a job, be putting in an at least an hour a day, that's enough to keep momentum without burning out. I'm not saying that you're then going to build a business overnight and everything by next week, you know, have sales flying and it probably will take a little bit longer than that with just one hour a day. But that's kind of the minimum that I would say is needed to really ensure consistency and build momentum without you, you know, burning out. There are members in positions where they will do a lot more hours than that. We've seen members who, for example, have just taken redundancy and then they join this as almost like a second job or a new job for them, and they'll say, I'm going to build my entire store, I'm going to contact suppliers, I've got all the hours of the day and they're putting in, you know five, seven, even ten plus hours a day. So they obviously move faster. But I'd say it's not about cramming in hours just for the sake of it, it's about continuing and making steady progress with this because I think you want to know exactly what to focus on at any one time and you'll be surprised how things can move if you can keep that focus, keep keep your mind on the task that it's working on. Even if that's just one task in the day that takes you an hour, things can really start to move once you lock into that rhythm. So yeah, hopefully that answers your question. Oliver. Great question. Common one as well, because people are considering doing this often alongside a job and it's exactly how I started along Summer nine to five I told myself I'm going to aim for two hours a day. So I did a bit before work, a bit after work and yes, I spent less time on my phone or less time watching Netflix. But the long term benefits are massive when you do a little and often a little bit every day rather than like you say, cramming, trying to do loads once every two weeks. So great question. Now onto a recent review that we've had for the podcast as well, because we love to shout you out if you say nice things. If you enjoy the podcast, let us know because we'd love to shout you out. That's what Daniel Arthur6075 has done. He left us recently a lovely YouTube comment, so we're going to highlight that now. Daniel said, great episode and I can see that this business is really taking off, so keep going. Thanks very much for your review Daniel. We really appreciate it. Now, before we end this episode, can. We ask a small favour? Leaving a review for this podcast helps us a lot and it takes you just a few seconds. Your support keeps us motivated to bring you the best content. We'd love to hear what you think and we might be able to share your review if you in our upcoming. Episodes thank you for joining us on. This episode of the Dropship Unlocked podcast. We hope you are leaving with new insights and inspiration to fuel your entrepreneurial. Journey to kickstart your e commerce business. Head over to dropshipunlocked.com start. It's the perfect place to start and get access to resources that will help you build your business from the ground up. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button for more episodes packed with strategies. Tips and success stories. Plus, if you enjoyed this episode today. A five star review would mean the. World to us and you might even get a shout out on the next episode. Thank you for choosing to spend your time with us today. We can't wait to bring you more insights on the next episode of the Dropship Unlocked podcast.