Tony Parker purchased his first La Porchetta restaurant in Townsville with borrowed funds in 2006. Six years on, he is still with the brand and would invest in it again.

While there were no La Porchetta restaurants in Queensland before he opened his venue, Tony discovered the franchise during visits to Melbourne and Wagga Wagga.

Fond of the fact that the business model offers value for money (he has a large family of five children), and armed with previous experience running a small business, Tony began to do a little research.

“I used the internet to research as much as possible and approached head office to take the next step,” he says.

“I spoke to several stores during my investigations to find out as much as possible. Given La Porchetta is a fixed fee franchise system it was a little difficult to source financial information as this was not monitored from head office.”

Tony uncovered a wealth of information about the business via this research, and he was impressed to say the least.

“The appeal of the brand, the family friendly market and to be honest the fixed franchise fee structure was appealing. It is disheartening when the more successful you are, the more the system takes. “

“I believe systems should reward the better franchisees by having a sliding franchise fee scale. Lets face it, the more successful franchisees cause the system less grief than those who are not doing so well,” explains Tony.

If Tony could offer a few pieces of advice to people interested in becoming a La Porchetta franchisee, the first would be to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

“I think the important thing to remember before entering into a system is to try and envisage how this will impact of your personal life. I think this is forgotten most of the time,” he says.

He also advises that they have a business plan in place and look to the future.

“Look ahead five years. What do you want from this? Crunch the numbers. Consider worst case scenario and consider personal circumstances.”

While many people choose to invest in a franchise because it means they will have the support of a well known brand, Tony stresses that this alone will not lead to success.

“You have to treat the business as your own and use the system in the background to support all that you do. Just because it is a franchise doesn’t mean you don’t still have the same issues as every other business in Australia.”

“Staff, cashflow, red tape, government agencies, customers, marketing, paperwork etcetera. However in a franchise, you are part of a proven system and you have the backing of support office to deal with those issues.”

Tony cites opening his restaurant as a “great achievement,” however the people he has met and the friendships he has made along the way are also up there.

“Along the way you achieve many little goals that go un-noticed except for you personally. Having made some great friendships along the way is important to me but is not necessarily a business goal.”

He and his wife Caroline also won the La Porchetta franchisee of the year award in 2012.

Tony says if he had his time again, he would invest in La Porchetta.

“Being a franchisee with La Porchetta is very rewarding. It has a great team from the top down. There are many great franchisees in the system and our annual conferences are looked forward to every year.”