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Our franchisor interviews have been designed to give you an insight into specific franchise businesses and how they were started. By interviewing the franchisor, we can arm you with their perspective on areas such as the business itself, why they chose to go down the franchising route, their achievements and challenges, and what they look for in a successful franchisee - vital information for those considering franchising their own business or becoming a franchisee themselves.
David Overton, Managing Director of Optic-Kleer is passionate about each and every one of his franchisees’ businesses. Optic-Kleer has the most technologically advanced windscreen repair system currently available on the UK market and has over 2,000 5-star Google reviews from happy customers.
David Watts is the CEO and Founder of Chrysalis Partners, a Business Coaching and Consulting franchise that offers services to the huge SME business sector. Using his 16 years of industry experience to establish the business in 2017, David aims to address the shortfalls in the coaching marketplace UK wide. Whilst the biggest challenge to date has been the pandemic, it has also one of the company's biggest achievements. "For our franchisees the negative impact has not been that difficult because all of our systems and strategies are designed to work remotely with no need to visit the client’s premises. This reduced the negative impart for franchisees during the pandemic."
Elliott Shuttleworth is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in the leisure and hospitality industry, including owning and operating two of the most profitable stores within the UK’s largest Adventure Park operator, Flip Out. In 2020, Elliott launched his latest venture, Boom Battle Bar. whichfranchise talks to Elliott about this unique franchise opportunity, the story so far and his plans for the future.
After ten years as a successful franchisee, Nick Howes has taken on the role of Franchisor for Leadership Management International (UK) and has big plans for innovation and growth whilst remaining true to the five decades of history that have made LMI one of the world’s most trusted leadership and people development organisations.
Jabbar Mumtaz is no stranger to franchising. Having run a network of 17 Subway stores in London, Jabbar decided to use his experience and skill set to bring two successful Australian QSR brands to the UK. In 2018, he purchased the UK master rights for Crust Gourmet Pizza and Donut King. Crust and Donut King are part of RFG, Australia’s largest multi-brand retail food franchise. Jabbar plans to shake up the UK’s competitive QSR market with the opening of stores across the UK. Jabbar talks to whichfranchise about his franchise journey so far.
Trulawn is an established name in the artificial grass industry. Having decided to launch its franchise towards the end of 2019 – the lockdown in early 2020 gave them a significant challenge to overcome. Despite everything that has happened they still have managed to show significant growth this year; due to the volume of people working from home, and spare cash available as a result of cancelled holidays – the market became very buoyant. Ian Parry, joint founder and owner of Trulawn, talks about the decision and journey to franchising the company and how in 3 years the business has more than quadrupled in size. He discusses the challenges of 2020 with COVID-19 and how the business had to quickly adapt, implement new methods and technologies and swiftly instil confidence back in its customers.
Since starting his Agency Express journey, Ben Brookes has helped to grow the company to over 110 franchisees. In this article, Ben talks about why the need for a single solution for the thousands of for sale and to let boards erected daily, led to the formation of Agency Express in 1998. And why franchising was the preferred choice for expanding the service nationwide. Ben also talks about the company’s successes and achievements to date, as well as overcoming the recent challenges of Covid-19, and ultimately why Agency Express is one of the leading franchises in the UK today.
Nigel Botterill has built nine separate million pound plus businesses of his own in the past decade including the UK’s fastest growing franchise and Entrepreneurs Circle (EC), the country’s largest membership organisation dedicated to helping small businesses to grow. As someone who has helped set-up more people in business than anyone else (and supported over 20,000 entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneurs Circle) we interviewed Nigel on his latest opportunity, the Entrepreneurs Circle Coaching Licence.
Richard Cage talks to whichfranchise about the EnviroVent franchise opportunity and his journey to joining EnviroVent; the UK’s market leader in home ventilation systems. After leaving school Richard worked in a local family business selling carpets and furniture, and it was there he developed his passion for sales. This early experience allowed him to apply for sales roles within major FMCG companies, as well as other franchise businesses before starting at EnviroVent as Franchise Manager, and progressing to Head of Domestic Sales. “It was a mixture of curiosity, luck and the desire for a new challenge brought me into franchising some 16 years ago. The reality of working with franchisees and the nuances of franchising, quickly became apparent and I found myself becoming a huge advocate and incredibly passionate about the industry – so much so that I can’t see myself leaving the industry now.” Richard talks about the company’s successes and challenges to date, including how they had to adapt quickly during the COVID-19 situation
As well as being the Founder and Managing Director of Total Guide to Ltd and managing her own Total Guide to franchise in Poole, Liz is Mum to Florence with another baby on the way in August. Liz started her career at a local internet start-up where she was made partner at the age of 21. At the age of 26, Liz left the company to set up Total Guide to. Liz now has plans to develop Total Guide to franchises in all major towns and cities across the UK. “It isn’t an easy path and you have to have a good team around you to support you and deliver the day to day side of the business while you focus on getting all the systems in place.”
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