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Sandip Chauham and Ketan Patel from Leicester became close “beer buddies” after moving into the same halls of residence at Nottingham Trent University.
After starting full time employment, Armadip (an initial 3rd partner), Sandip and Ket realised their priorities needed to change, not least to repay their student loans. This realisation gradually led them to develop burning ambitions to become successful businessmen.
A family wedding in the USA dramatically altered Ket & Sandip’s lives. They were introduced to the concept of franchising by Ket’s brother who had recently invested in a “Subway” franchise and was achieving great success. To pursue this opportunity, Amardip, Ket and Sandip considered emigrating. However, after much deliberation and taking into account a poor exchange rate, the inspired trio decided instead to research possible franchise business ventures within the UK.
After six months of detailed research, Armadip, Sandip and Ket were attracted to the Jani King concept.. Following an initial enquiry, the entrepreneurs were further impressed with the Jani King business model and the 10% margin realignment offered to franchisees. Consequently, their confidence in the Jani King franchise system quickly grew.
After a number of meetings with Jani King’s Paul Haworth, the trio examined all the potential challenges they might face, such as “Will we make this franchise into a successful business?” After considering various business scenarios and tactics, the trio were confident that, with hard work, they could make the franchise a success.
On 7th July 2004, Armadip, Sandip and Ket invested in a Jani King cleaning franchise, naming their new business: “ASK Consultants Ltd”. Following the initial training course, ASK Consultants Ltd started its first account on 1st October 2004 and the three budding entrepreneurs rolled up their sleeves undertaking some of the cleaning work themselves.
While confident that their new franchise business would succeed, Armadip, Ket and Sandip worked through a fairly slow start with a few transfers of accounts from other franchisees. This was not the start they wanted, so they decided to grow the business by selling themselves and carrying out specialist jobs such as “strip and seal” of wooden floors. ASK Consultants Ltd received ongoing support from Jani King’s training manager and this enabled the franchise to convert work demos into contracts.
The hands-on experience gave ASK Consultants Ltd a valuable insight into their customers’ expectations. Further new business followed. Ket recalls “After cleaning a pub in Leicester, the landlady mentioned her flat needed decorating. Of course, we jumped at the chance for the extra work and before we knew it, we were tiling her bathroom and painting the lounge - I don’t remember this being in our business plan!!”
Within four months, they received a major breakthrough when Jani King offered ASK Consultants the opportunity to service accounts for retailer Superdrug. By March 2005, the franchise still in its initial stage of growth, was turning over approximately £6,000 per month. Ket and Sandip then jumped at the opportunity for additional cleaning contracts in the Coventry area and within one month their turnover had grown to £22,000.
In November 2005, Armadip exited the franchise due to personal reasons. Ket and Sandip remained focused on their franchise and followed the implementation plan provided by Jani King to steadily grow their business and achieve success.
In November 2005, an opportunity to clean an Odeon cinema in Sheffield became available. There was an underlying concern that they were taking on too many accounts but, in true ASK Consultants style, the ‘can do’ attitude resulted in a further increase in turnover to £34,000 per month. This success provided a massive confidence boost to Ket and Sandip and motivated them to work even harder.
Ket and Sandip have put their business success down to the simple Jani King philosophy that ‘seeing is believing’. Sandip says: “You need to ensure that the customer sees that they are receiving a service which provides good value and good quality.”
Sandip and Ket are the proud owners of a large Jani King franchise region which includes Leicester, Warwick, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Doncaster and Sheffield. Splitting the region between them, Ket and Sandip work to ensure a high quality service is provided for all clients. With Ket having formerly worked in Customer Relations, and Sandip a former accountant; they have an ideal combination of skills for a successful business partnership.
In January 2007, Ket and Sandip collected two new BMW convertibles as self recognition of their hard work, although Ket is somewhat disappointed he couldn’t obtain insurance for the M3 Sports model!
Sandip and Ket are now proud that their customer portfolio consists of leading retailers and leisure groups including Odeon, Tenpin, River Island, Esporta, Superdrug and HMV. In total, ASK Consultants have 84 customers and, when recently taking over an additional “Next” account, their annual turnover reached the magic one million pounds!
Ket comments: “Now that we have reached the £1 million mark, the £2 million mark is our next goal and we aim to reach this a little quicker now that we have our structure in place. We plan to maintain the level of growth with all the challenges involved. We hope to continue our success and grow our Jani King franchise business indefinitely!!”
