The exhibitor list at the franchise exhibition in Manchester was wide and varied with businesses opportunities available starting from as little as 5000 pounds all the way up to 100,000.

Most of the exhibitors used standard shell schemes and stuck their posters on the wall ready to greet potential franchisees. A few had spent a small fortune, with bespoke stands, purpose built for the exhibition that really stood out from the crowd.

The attendee list of franchisors had all the usual suspects including Cash Generators, My Home, Punch Taverns, Chips Away and of course CityLocal.

There were a couple of really interesting franchises that captured my attention. One offered a beauty treatment that promised a tighter belly after a few treatments. They were doing free treatments to anybody daring enough to lie on their bed and expose their belly in front of the public.

There was another unusual franchise which stood out in my mind. It was a tiny van, emblazoned with logos and specially built to provide sandwiches & coffee to business parks. I can imagine people queuing to buy lunch from this well designed business on wheels.

The exhibition was really busy on Friday until around 2:30pm. Then the crowds slowly started dispersing and the exhibition closed at 5:00pm. Fran Info the organizers laid on free drinks and snacks for the exhibitors after the venue closed and this was our chance to talk to the other franchisors.

I find that on Friday you meet a lot of serious punters whilst on Saturday you get a lot of "tyre kickers" attending. People have to take time out from their normal work routine to attend on Friday and are therefore more serious about starting a business, whilst on Saturdays you get some people attending that have no intention of ever buying a franchise.

Later that night, we ended up in a beautiful Italian restaurant just across the road after a busy Friday. Gio (5/7 Mosley Street - Tel: 0161 228 2030) has to be the best Italian restaurant in the UK. The food was excellent, the service exceptional and the bill for all 6 of us including drinks came to 120 pounds. It is well worth driving to Manchester just to eat in this fabulous restaurant.

On Saturday the exhibition did not start until 10:00am so we had time to check out of the hotel, dump our luggage into the car and have breakfast at McDonalds.

Saturday was a lot busier than Friday but fortunately for us the exhibitions finished at 4:00pm. No sooner had the last attendee left then everybody started dismantling their stands and within an hour most of the exhibitors had finished and were heading home.

We were in our car and reached Leicester at 8:00pm just in time for some lovely home made cooking courtesy of Zak's lovely new wife Auzma.

All in all, the exhibition was well worth attending, although not as busy as Birmingham. Our next exhibition is in Doncaster and we hope to see you there.