The following provides background information with regard to establishing a Rain Store via the Franchise program. For more information or to request a prospectus, please contact us at franchise@rainafrica.com.

Characteristics of a Rain Franchisee

Ideal Rain franchisees are fairly rare and we are careful in whose hands we place our very special, unique brand. We follow a careful selection process to ensure that the franchisee is a good match for the Rain concept. Ideally, we look for the following in our rain franchisees:

Personal:

• Person should be highly self motivated, dynamic, keen and enthusiastic
• Have the drive and passion to succeed at all costs
• People orientated with good communication skills
• Be able to delegate, manage, discipline, train and motivate others
• Be able to set the right tone and atmosphere conducive to sales
• Be a positive optimistic type of person
• Must love working with people and have sales skills
• Must be entrepreneurial but also be a team player and be able to maintain the brand on behalf of the franchisor
• Must be honest, ethical and fair
• Needs to be highly presentable, well groomed, have a clean, neat physical appearance and be in good health
• Must subscribe to Rain’s ethics and core values
• Must be meticulous and pay attention to small detail
• Some creative flair is important for merchandising and display
• Professional businesslike attitude

Experience:

• Computer skills are essential
• Retail experience is useful but not essential
• Management skills are useful but not essential

Financial:

A franchisee needs to:

• Be financially sound
• Be credit worthy
• Have financial resources

By owning a Rain franchise, the following will be expected of you:

• Fair, ethical and dignified management of staff
• Honesty and integrity in all business transactions
• Community minded and service orientated with customers
• Ability to manage and run a business
• Ability to market and promote the brand effectively
• Abide by the brand guidelines and regulations and sustain Rain’s core values
• Create a happy, relaxed, calm working environment conducive to wellness for staff and customers
• Share the brand and products enthusiastically and with passion
• Excellence and attention to detail in every aspect of the business

Store site location and installation

Rain head office will evaluate potential store locations. Full and final approval of the site as a Rain location is required before any further steps are taken by the franchisee.

Very important considerations to be made when choosing a site for a Rain store are:

• Surrounding demographics
• Location of Rain competitors
• Trendiness and fashionability of the area
• Foot traffic
• Potential visibility from all angles
• Upmarket area
• Anchor tenants in a mall context

The Rain Team has the successful retail experience to be able to locate and choose appropriate site locations for a Rain store. It is important to note that while every effort is made to ensure that the proposed site will be able to host a successful Rain store, there are no warranties and guarantees given by Rain in that regard. By adopting an involved, proactive and informed approach to the selection of a site, we believe that through our experience, we will be greatly increasing the franchisee’s chances of success.

Our experienced Rain Team will provide the franchisee with a turnkey project – from blueprint to trading. The franchise fee includes the following services :

When you buy a Rain Franchise you will receive the following:

• A preliminary guideline from which to begin your search for a suitable location
• Evaluation/selection of potential store location
• Advice and assistance on lease negotiations and contracts
• Design and layout of the store along the lines of the Rain store in V&A Waterfront, South Africa
• Shopfitting drawings with detailed specifications
• The option of having shopfittings manufactured at lower cost in South Africa under our supervision for an extra fee. This is offered merely as a cost saving service to our franchisees and is undertaken at the sole risk of the franchisee.
• Assistance with legalities pertaining to import of body products
• The merchandising recipe/template for the display of stock
• All interior display containers and accessories
• Designed signage drawings and specifications
• Selection of ranges and products pertaining to each store based on store size
• Estimation of opening stock and replenishment stock requirements based on expected projected trade volumes
• Hard and software of point of sale system with integrated stock and financial system with opening stock preloaded and verified on the system
• Comprehensive store operations manual for the daily running of the store
• Complete product information manual with in depth product information and selling points
• Promotional materials
• Guidelines on staff selection
• Music selection and installation
• Full assistance with final store unpacking, set up, initial merchandising and opening trading

Comprehensive management and staff training on the following aspects of the business:

• General store management
• Store administration
• Management of staff and human resources
• Customer service and care
• Safety and security
• Marketing and public relations
• Store hygiene and maintenance
• Shelf merchandising and displays
• In depth product knowledge
• Selling tools and sales guidance
• Financial management – cash flows/budgets/targets
• Stock management and projections
• Ongoing new product development, accompanied by research and testing.
• Ongoing new design input for displays and marketing
• Merchandising guidance
• Continuous business support and advice