Market Focus
What is a typical day for you as an Extra Help franchisee? It’s really hard to describe a typical day with Extra Help, as each day is different. I don’t tend to have set office days or days when I’m out and about – it’s not one of those businesses where you can plan your week in advance because the client comes first, so you may think you have an office day but it can quickly change if you need to go and see a prospective or existing client. I sometimes do cleans and home-helping myself, as I think it’s really important to have that experience, and I often supervise home-helpers and cleaners, particularly when it’s a first visit, to make sure they know what’s expected of them and the client is happy with their work. When I’m in the office I’m usually on
Extra Help Natalie Cooper
Prior to running her Extra Help franchise, Natalie was a support worker looking after disabled young adults and, more recently, worked in a school as a teaching assistant
the phone answering calls, following up enquiries or interviewing new home-helpers and managing the finance and admin side of the business.
Have you faced any challenges in running your franchise?
For me, the main and ongoing challenge is making sure that I have enough quality home-helpers. In particular, I have to ensure I have the right home-helpers in the right areas to service my clients, as I cover quite a large territory.
What marketing tools do you use to grow your franchise? I do regular leaflet drops in targeted areas and advertise within local magazines, including hospital and bereavement
editions. I also regularly use social media, such as Facebook, and other websites, such as Google Business and My Local Business, to promote my services and often take referrals from other agencies, too.
Would you recommend a franchise opportunity with Extra Help to others seeking to run a franchise? Yes, whole-heartedly, and I often do! I really love sharing my passion and take every opportunity to talk to people about my business, especially any prospective franchisees that are interested. I have helped out at franchise exhibitions with Extra Help and thoroughly enjoy speaking to the attendees and telling them all about my business – hopefully my enthusiasm is contagious!
Minster Cleaning Services
How have you found running your franchise so far?
When I started in 1992, the UK was in the middle of a recession, so the first couple of years were the hardest. Starting your own business is not for anyone who is afraid of hard work and, despite what you may read in some adverts, there is no magical ‘get rich quick’ formula. But the support I had from the team at Minster was superb and, whatever problems you may encounter, help is always available, either from head office or from another franchisee.
What attracted you to franchising? I’d been running my own frozen food and video rental businesses for 20 years but declining markets in the retail sector and the prospect of even greater dominance by the multiples persuaded me to look for an alternative. I set out to find a business proposition, which offered ample opportunities to satisfy my personal ambitions in a more stable marketplace. I identified franchising as the best option because of its relatively high success rate.
What transferable skills did you have? I had extensive people-management
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experience and organisational skills from many years running my own retail business.
Why did you choose this sector, and why Minster?
I thought that a management franchise would make best use of my management skills and, as an essential business service, there will always be a large market for office cleaning. I spent over 12 months planning my career change, visiting exhibitions and franchise companies, before deciding that Minster Cleaning Services was the right one for me.
Minster had a proven business model,
where systems were in place and all the groundwork had already been completed, and large territories offered virtually unlimited potential. After meeting Minster’s founder and now chairman, Alan Haigh, I decided to take on the vacant Minster Essex territory.
What are the benefits and challenges of running a management franchise? Provided that you have a sufficiently large territory, a management franchise can give you the opportunity to build up a substantial business, which, with the right
management team in place, is a valuable, saleable asset. Most of the challenges come from managing people so it is important that you have the right skills to cope with this.
Rob Wilson
Rob Wilson is one of Minster’s longest-serving franchisees, having started his Essex franchise in summer 1992. Now, nearly 25 years later, annual turnover at Rob’s Essex branch is around £1.8million from an excellent portfolio of clients
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