Working relationships

A marriage made in heaven? Or a partnership in the pits? Fortunately, working together as a couple in a franchise, it would seem that practically all partners fall into the former category.

Think about it. You have the great benefit of working with someone you love, rather than being stuck in the office with people you don't really know - or particularly like, come to that. You can plan your working schedule around your family and home commitments without ensnaring the wrath of your boss who has no such time for trivialities. And also, you will actually allow for a higher degree and standard of work, because both of you know each other inside out, and can plan the business decisions without any hassle.

Speaking to four couples, each one has no qualms about working together, and in fact, this decision has turned their working lives around for the better.

Andrew and Helen White, Attiva

Like many other couples, Attiva franchisees Andrew and Helen White met at work. They met 18 years ago while working for Natwest Bank. Fast forwarding to today, the couple discovered Attiva when Andrew paid a visit to the National Franchise Exhibition. He kept an open mind about the type of franchise they might go for, but didn't know of any health franchise apart from ladies-only clubs. 'The sophistication of the brand initially and then the conversation with Craig Farman, Attiva MD, was very open and empathetic to our circumstances, while not being pushy at all and very professional,' explain the Whites.

Andrew and Helen took the training together, and this covered a very wide area. 'We learnt about the industry, financial matters, employment law, help with the business plan and getting the finance package together, planning and refit of premises, health and safety and many trips to an existing club to get hands-on training.'

The franchise has proved to be the right choice for the couple. The couple's business has paid dividends both financially and personally. 'We are quite traditional when it comes to money, ie: it all goes into and out of one single money pot! We share the same goals and support each other through difficult times but also share in the success.'

The couple say that with family commitments, sometimes the franchise can clash with vital engagements such as school runs and looking after their children. But both recommend this style of work to other couples. '100 per cent assuming you both are totally behind the idea from the start.'

Commenting on the future, Andrew and Helen say: 'We see the opening of the first club in our local town as a great vocational benefit to the community. But also it will give us the experience to develop and look to open more clubs in surrounding areas in the next one to two years.'

Paul and Emily Burrough, Sign-A-Rama

Sign-A-Rama's Paul and Emily Burrough first met in 1998 when Emily joined Portland Outdoor Advertising as an account manager (now known as Kinetic Worldwide - part of WPP Group) where Paul was already working as a London buying manager. Emily left the company two years later, worked at a competitors for a year and returned at which point the pair got together as a couple.

'We decided a couple of years ago that we would like to own our own business,' say Paul and Emily. 'Our stumbling block was the fact that all our knowledge was in outdoor advertising and this was very much a London-based industry. We had decided that after more than 10 years of living in London, we wanted to move west and therefore realised we needed to explore new industries in order to meet our lifestyle requirements.'

To see what was around, Paul and Emily had signed up to businessesforsale.com - generally out of interest - to see what was available, and received an email alert on a signmakers business for sale in Salisbury - Sign-A-Rama. 'After visiting the premises and talking to the previous owners and the UK head office personnel, we decided it was a proposition we wanted to get involved in.'

According to Paul and Emily, the training was 'great'. 'Firstly we went to Florida for an Orientation Tour - we flew out for a weekend and had a day's tour around three successful Florida stores, talked to the owners, then visited the headquarters and met with key people including Ray Titus, the president.'

'A couple of weeks later, after signing the contract, we flew again to Florida for two weeks to attend the "Sign-A-Rama University" - an international training centre with dedicated trainers where we were taught on all kinds of subjects ranging from marketing, sign-making, business skills to sales and so on... on our return to the UK, we spent the next week in a Gloucester store and then three weeks training in our own store before we were left to our own devices!'

One benefit, in Paul and Emily's view, of running a business jointly, is that it saves on salaries: 'Earnings or payments made stay within your own personal set-up rather than paying an external person. Also, of course, the value of commitment to your own business is immeasurable.'

So long as you have a strong relationship and excellent communication with each other, then these are great advantages of working together. 'You have the benefit of working alongside someone you trust, who has the same interests at heart and understands any stress you may be under and the reasons behind it.'

'The disadvantages are that it is difficult to get away from the "office" - you need to be disciplined and have a cut off point in the evening when work can no longer be discussed, otherwise it is very easy to get totally obsessed with the business. The other obvious disadvantage is time off together - this is a pipe dream at the moment!

'As long as you are happy to work together, then we would definitely recommend franchising for couples - to be your own boss and be in charge of your own destiny, is certainly appealing to us.'

Paul and Emily plan to continue to grow year-on-year, their staffing levels, their customer base and their income levels. 'There are various options that we could branch out into depending upon demand; for instance buying in various equipment (engraver, flat-bed printers etc) in order to offer more services in-house. This would need to be assessed and decided over the coming years.'

Brendan & Melanie Neely, Jordan's, Bolton

Brendan and Melanie Neely have been partners since they met as students at Sheffield University in the late 1980's. Since then, Brendan pursued a career as a chartered surveyor, while Melanie became an experienced administration manager with a local authority. Jordan's has enabled them to combine their skills in property and administration.

'As a chartered surveyor working in Manchester, I had been aware of Jordan's for many years,' says Brendan. 'Indeed I had dealt with the local offices when seeking information on rental values etc. I had always found the staff to be professional and polite. I first became aware of the franchise opportunities via the Jordan's website and have never looked back!'

Brendan and Melanie received two weeks of comprehensive training at Jordan's' dedicated training centre at Wilmslow. 'This covered the fundamentals of letting and property management, it was supplemented by two further weeks of on the job training when the office opened in Bolton. Training was undertaken together.' Brendan says that the joint franchise arrangement does have financial implications. 'Having both committed 100 per cent to the venture, we are prepared to accept lower initial wages taken out of the business than if I was paying a member of staff which has significantly helped cashflow during the crucial first 18-month start-up period.'

When discussing the gains of being Jordan's franchisees, Brendan says that there are several. 'There are many key advantages - total 100 per cent commitment to the business; willing to work far longer hours for less money than normal employees; ability to discuss key issues regarding the business at any time; greater flexibility in decision-making process etc.'

However, Brendan and Melanie do find that they have to resist the temptation to continue talking shop at home. 'It can be difficult to escape the pressure of the job. When both parties are working in the same office, holidays can be practically impossible until a business matures to a level when you can employ other staff.'

Despite this risk of not escaping the job, Brendan and Melanie are all for franchising. 'I would strongly advise this method of working - couples can often make more sacrifices and work harder than usual business partners and this is a vital factor in the growth of the company. However, it is essential that the couples are working together because they have real complimentary business skills and not just because they are partners.'

Looking ahead, Brendan and Melanie have a very rosy future with this franchise. 'The future of the Jordan's franchise is very positive - the Neely's franchise has established itself as a major letting agent in Bolton - turnover thus far in six months of 2007 is almost matching the whole of 2006 - so growth is very pleasing. In December 2006, together with our business partner Robert Jordan, we purchased the Jordan's Manchester City Centre office which has been successfully trading since 1996. It has transformed the nature and turnover of our business and should enable us to develop further over the next few years.'

Roy and Ann Kelly, Cash Converters

Childhood sweethearts Roy and Ann Kelly couldn't have predicted that they would be running successful Cash Converters stores one day in the future. Roy (58) is married to Ann (57) and both are directors of two Cash Converters stores in Liverpool (one store for six years, the second store for two years). The couple met when they were at school and have been together for 37 years and married for 35 years.

Roy had previously worked in corporate and retail. However, the threat of redundancy loomed. 'I saw redundancy, however, as an opportunity - it was really quite useful to me at that point. I decided to go for something else. Ann and I saw Cash Converters quite early. We both liked it and found ourselves coming back to it over four months, and in the end we went for it.'

One of the great things about Cash Converters is that it includes both retail and financial services. 'The services are dictated by weather, so we are very conscious of that and the peaks and troughs that causes,' explains Roy. 'From September, the retail business rises to a crescendo in December. After that, it tails off a bit. And then after that, the financial aspect of our business is huge.'

To begin with, Ann didn't actually work with Roy as a franchisee - that was only later (six years ago). When Roy joined, he made sure that he had six months of training before he thought about looking at a store. Fortunately, Roy found that the training lived up to expectations. 'The training that Cash Converters offers is very comprehensive. You have a mix of on-site and classroom training. I personally found that the job training suited my personality more.'

'You can choose where you want to train, and another good aspect of the training is that the business development manager concentrates on both new and present franchisees.'

Roy says that the advantages of working together easily outweigh the disadvantages. 'We know each other well and when it comes to making the decisions, that's an advantage because you have someone else to help you make it, you have someone to bounce off. You can have a coffee with your partner and talk it through. It definitely takes the sting out of the decision-making process.'

'The only disadvantage is that you need to be careful about making sure you have a life outside of work. You have to be very disciplined and make sure that you don't take your work home with you.'

'Cash Converters is an interesting operation,' adds Roy. 'It's good to have the retail and financial aspects because they split the load in two. My wife has worked in the licencing trade so she is used to it, that's a distinct advantage.'

'At the moment we have two stores, but we are looking to expand. We are at the stage where we want to develop the business even further.'