Franchising with family
I
f you’ve ever thought you’d like to be your own boss, and have family members who could support or play a key role in that business, then mixing family with franchising could be for you. This can offer many benefits: you already know and trust your business partners; the bonds
and familiarity can aid a strong business model to grow and offer professional success; and a great work-life balance is well within reach. What’s more, the combination of varied career experience that comes with partnerships and differences in age and inclinations should complement each other. This route is not for all personalities, but we take a look at two case studies where, with trust, honesty and a united response, this strategy proved to be a success…
Vodafone
started school, Lucy thought the time had come to focus more on personal career development and made the decision to return to Vodafone as a partner agent. Lucy and Julian cover the Windsor and Maidenhead territories.
What made you decide to go into business together? We can be very open and honest with each other and use our skillsets in the best possible way. We see this as an opportunity to create an exciting future for our family. We had worked together in similar roles before so we knew what to expect from each other and how we could complement each other’s working style.
Julian and Lucy Fernando
Lucy and Julian met while working together in Vodafone’s Reading store. They have since married and had two children, Oliver and Dylan. Julian progressed to become deputy manager in the store then went on to manage a handful of stores throughout the home counties. Julian then decided to further his career within the Vodafone Advantage team, before joining the partner agent programme. Julian was an integral part of a small team that helped develop the programme, before taking on the challenge for himself. Lucy joined Vodafone as a sales adviser and progressed through the store to a more senior role. Once the children had
How do you divide the work? Julian is more focused on the sales side, and Lucy takes more ownership of the operations and day-to-day running of the stores. We must both be aware of the whole operation, but it means we can have more focus if we separate the work into areas where we have prior knowledge.
What are the benefits of working with a family member? We can be fully supportive of each other and completely open in our feedback with each other. Nothing is taken as a criticism, as we both know that we are working our hardest to make a positive impact.
What was the initial training and support like? And how has it been ongoing? As Julian had a very good operational understanding of the programme we were at a slight advantage. We felt fully supported by the management team around us and were given all the training we required to set us up
to become successful partner agents. Our regional manager has been especially supportive and is always available to provide feedback and insights into what we need. We are also provided with regular training by Vodafone to ensure our, and our team’s, knowledge and skills are up to date.
Have you encountered any problems along the way? Making sure that we built the correct teams in store took longer than we anticipated. However, with support from the Vodafone resourcing team, we have now built a team of trustworthy and hardworking individuals.
How has your life changed since you started your business? We have more flexibility to make decisions now and can manage our personal lives better. We are able to step away from the day-to-day running of the store and attend school concerts or parents’ meetings without feeling the guilt of taking time off. It has taught us to be more efficient with our time as we have to set our own deadlines!
What advice would you give to anyone considering a franchise? Ask as many questions as you can think of! Ask to speak to a current partner agent about their experience and if there is anything that they would do differently next time. Luckily, we have a good relationship with many of our peers and many of the ideas that have been shared have been invaluable.
What are your plans for the future? To expand! Now that we have built a solid team, we are confident that we will be able to get out of store more.
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