Exclusive Interview


“Anywhere there is a sensible person that wants to invest in him or herself, then we are happy to set up shop”


Troy with his wife Vicky Tappenden


Dream Doors is a huge success thanks to its excellent business model and franchisee support. Can you tell us a bit more about the recruitment and training process? And, how long does it take to become a franchisee? Right from the start we walk our prospective franchisees through the process. Our business development managers (BDMs) will visit franchisees once they sign up, even before their training course begins. We give them the manual, help open accounts with suppliers and prepare to kickstart their business with local marketing. Once this is all set up, franchisees will go through induction training, which is two weeks at head office and one week up in the north of England with our suppliers. It’s pretty full on, but it’s to make sure everyone is happy and confident with the process and can hit the ground running. Our BDMs then visit franchisees every week to provide in-territory support covering every facet of the business. Franchisees trade


immediately, but their showroom is officially opened within six months.


Tell us more about how you help franchisees with their marketing... We have four people who work in our head office marketing team, and we also use two external marketing companies on certain projects. At Dream Doors we really push our marketing as we know it’s very important. We spend £500,000 on pay-per-click and Google each year, which generates 80,000 visits to our website each month. We have, on average, 57,000 unique visitors to our website each month, which is where we generate 60 per cent of our franchisees’ leads. We have won lots of awards for our marketing, and it’s something I’m very proud of.


Is there anywhere in the UK in particular Dream Doors is looking to set up? Nationwide. We go where the consumer


needs us. We have four stores in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland. We’ve also got one in Truro in Cornwall and another on the other side of the country in Norwich. We are dotted around the UK but there are still plenty of places we would like to open a store. Anywhere there is a sensible person that wants to invest in him or herself, then we are happy to set up shop. And as a mature brand, with franchisees retiring, we have plenty of resale opportunities coming onto the market, too.


What’s the secret to being a successful Dream Doors franchisee? It’s simple. You need to work incredibly hard and follow the franchisor’s model. This is not just an investment into a business, this is a life choice and one that requires a lot of graft at the beginning. You have to be dedicated and give it everything you’ve got because, at the end of the day, it’s your business. The results,


26 | The Franchise Magazine 2018


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