One year on... Spring clean
Andy Galloway is a franchisee with NIC Services Group operating in Scotland. He talks to Business Franchise about his fi rst year in franchising
What did you do before investing in your NIC franchise?
I spent many years working in the family business. My background had always been within the accounting and fi nancial side of business, and I worked for one of the large banks. I then rejoined the family business in the engineering department, where I stayed for fi ve years before looking for a fresh challenge.
How have you found the past year? Really enjoyable! It’s been great meeting with customers (both existing and potential) and getting to know my cleaning teams. It has certainly involved a lot of hard work, but I am really enjoying the work-life balance that I now have. I can watch my son play football, which I was rarely able to do before. I really enjoy the face-to-face aspect of the business, building up relationships with both my clients and my cleaning teams.
What are the benefi ts of running an NIC franchise? Defi nitely the support that is off ered from head offi ce. As someone who was completely new to the cleaning industry, I found the initial training invaluable as both an introduction to the industry and the NIC business as a whole. I have found the ongoing support given to me by my business development manager to be priceless; they have been there to off er help and support both on growing my business and with the operational side of running my business. I was in the fortunate position of acquiring an existing customer base when I joined, which meant I hit the ground running in terms of sales and generating an income. I have been building on this with the support off ered to me. The back offi ce admin support is fantastic. This saves you a lot of time as NIC handles everything from payroll to invoicing your customers and credit control. This allows you to use your time effi ciently and concentrate on building relationships with your clients and growing your business.
What has been your most memorable moment of the past year? I think it would have to be winning the tender for a housing association, which was the very fi rst tender I had worked on. With the help and support of my business
Andy Galloway
development manager and the team at head offi ce, we were able to secure the contract, which gave my business a fantastic boost. Another great moment that stands out for me was when two of the pubs where I manage the cleaning were awarded the Loo of the Year Platinum Award for their toilets; this was testament to the fantastic job being carried out by my cleaning teams.
Is there anything that you would do diff erently with hindsight? When I fi rst joined NIC, my primary focus was on the existing customers I acquired and building my relationships with them. I think if I had my time again I would have started growing my business and obtaining
new contracts a bit earlier, although I now have a very solid customer base.
What are your plans for the next year? I will be concentrating on further expanding my business. Over the past year a lot of my time has been spent on building my relationships with the client base I acquired and ensuring the service we off er continues to be of the highest standard. A lot of hard work has gone into making my business a success over the past year and I want to now concentrate on building and growing that business further using NIC’s tried- and-tested business model and fantastic support network.
info@nicfranchise.co.uk March 2018 |
BusinessFranchise.com | 31
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