Posted:23-July-2024
Riding the Wave of Opportunity - Iain's Revive! Journey
Owner of Revive! Northamptonshire Iain Wallis is in his happy place! Running a successful business, living in a bigger house and enjoying a healthy work-life balance with his wife who has been able to leave a demanding job in the NHS to join the team full time.
But back in 2006 if you’d asked the trainee Revive! technician Iain Wallis where he would be in eighteen years, he would never have imagined he would one day be the owner of two Revive! territories, employing eight people, running 10 vans and turning over in excess of £1m a year. But that’s exactly where the father of two is today.
Explained Iain: “It’s difficult for anyone to visualise the future. I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer, but I certainly wouldn’t have seen it like this then. You perhaps underestimate or overestimate where you can get in any one year, but you definitely underestimate where you can get in ten years. Once you start to get that growth, it doesn't get out of control, but builds its own momentum. If you're ready to ride the wave, be brave and make the decisions you need to make and grasp all the opportunities that come your way, it's surprising how big the business can get once it starts to gain its own momentum.”
Having trained at the Revive! academy and then while working as a technician in the territory he now owns, Iain could see the huge potential running a Revive! SMART repair business could offer. So, he bought out the previous owner in 2018 and began his own Revive! journey.
“Head office tells you at our initial new franchisee training we’re about to set off on a journey which will have different stages along the way – which has proved to be so true. For example, stage one for me was when I was a technician coming out of the van to start managing the business. That felt like a big step, but your hand is held to some degree by the Revive! team. Even though you’ve got plenty of other people who have been through that process to call on it still catches you by surprise a little bit.”
At each stage of Revive Northampton’s growth, Iain gained in confidence, and in his own words became ‘braver’. He’s built up a team of loyal, trustworthy technicians most of whom are still with him today, all benefiting from free private health insurance which Iain has introduced as part of their employment package.
Was there a lightbulb moment over the past few years when Iain recognised just how much he had achieved and could clearly see a bright future ahead?
He recalled: “It was probably gradual, but one event that stands out was a meeting with the service manager of one our biggest customers. He told me that they really could do with us coming in every day – it was at that point I said ‘right, we’ll employ two more techs and get two more vans.’ He was surprised and worried that I would be overextending myself by doing this, but I found myself saying: ‘we’ve got good guys we’ll find the work. We don’t want to miss out on this opportunity’.”
And looking for opportunities has become a major focus for Iain and his team of technicians. Whilst the technicians are competitive and as individuals want to place highly in the network league table, their belief in the Revive! value of Unity is strong. They all want to help each other and see their business flourish. This determination and teamwork saw Revive! Northampton reach the £1m sales milestone just before Christmas in 2023.
Looking to the future, Iain has identified retail sales as the major route to further business expansion. To this aim he bought the neighbouring Revive! territory in early 2024 which encompasses Lutterworth, Market Harborough, Corby and Kettering and includes a small retail workshop unit. He’s taken on a retail sales advisor and the team has already hit a record retail month of £15,000. Their target is to be doing £25,000 of retail work consistently every month by the end of the year.
“But” said Iain, “I realised when we hit the £1m last year I’d probably got to stage 2 of my ‘journey’! To grow any more we needed to flesh out our organisational structure and put systems in place to cope with the extra work and ensure we delivered to the standards expected. We were going to need help. So, this year has been about putting that infrastructure in place to enable us to get to the next level. We’ve had a lot of help and advice from the Revive! head office team and been able to draw on the experience of other franchisees.”
Summing up his Revive! journey so far Iain said: “Being part of such a successful franchise is priceless – you’ve got all that expertise to call on and support that you could never get if you were just doing it yourself. Having a nationwide network gives us such an advantage. The number of times I’ve said to a customer that we’ve got technicians across the country that can get this sorted for you, just leave it with me takes the problem off their plate. I think that strength in numbers is massive.”
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