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Posted:13-January-2021

Charlie Sendula shares with us his "rags to riches" journey with Signarama!

Signarama is the world’s largest signs and graphics franchise, with almost 900 stores across the globe. Having been providing visual communications to businesses for over 30 years, it is the most established brand in the industry.

Name: Charlie Sendula
Franchise: Signarama
Location: Enfield

Charlie Sendula owns the Signarama store in Enfield, London. Charlie’s is truly a “rags to riches” story – when he arrived in the UK 15 years ago, he had £100 to his name and spoke very little English. Since he opened his Signarama store five years ago, he has been able to achieve great job satisfaction as well as financial success.

However, the decision to become part of the sign industry wasn’t immediately a clear one for Charlie. Having previously worked in the hospitality industry during his time living in the UK, Charlie had to do some research to figure out which kind of business opportunity he was looking for.

“I could see the sign industry had loads of potential, but I had no experience of the industry whatsoever, so it made sense to look around for different ways to get started – start my own, buy somebody else’s, invest in a franchise.”

However, soon after Charlie made initial contact with Signarama, he began to realise that they offered a great deal of what he was looking for.

“I liked the brand and I knew they were huge in the States. They weren’t the only company I called, but their professionalism stood out a mile compared to the others. That was really important to me, as it reflected the kind of business I wanted to build myself. They responded to my enquiry straight away and invested a lot of time meeting with me and discussing how I could make a Signarama franchise work."

"They also had a cap on the royalties, which told me they weren’t being greedy and wanted the franchisees to keep more of the fruit of their hard work. It was clear that franchising offered me a great opportunity to learn about the industry quickly and hit the ground running, it was also a big plus that I knew I would have their ongoing support.”

Although Charlie had no previous experience in the signs and graphics industry, the training he was given by Signarama provided him with all the knowledge and skills he needed to become a successful franchisee.

“I didn’t know anything about the business, so I was really starting from scratch – but fortunately I am a very fast learner! We worked together to find the right location and develop a business plan to get the store launched and up and running a quickly as possible.”

Although the training provides a new franchisee with a strong foundation upon which to build their business, Charlie stresses that it is important that people interested in opening a Signarama franchise have the level of motivation and dedication to make their goals a reality.

“I’ve proved that you can learn the technical side of the business and the support I’ve had has been brilliant – still is – but you need to have the drive and determination, it’s not a franchisors job to try and teach you that. You need to be good at dealing with customers, you’ve got to want to go that extra mile and exceed their expectations. People’s branding and signage is incredibly important to them, you need to take what you do really seriously – a great job from us might be a real game changer for a customer’s business and that’s something I’m really proud of!””

Charlie’s vision for the near future is simply to continue running his store and he doesn’t hesitate to suggest buying a Signarama franchise to people considering their next career move.

“We keep growing, keep delighting our customers. I love this business and one day I will be able to step back from it and let it run itself, maybe even take on another one, but for now I enjoy it too much – it was a brilliant decision and I’d recommend it to anyone who is prepared to put in the graft and commitment.”

Interested and want to know more about Signarama?

The Signarama basic profile outlines aspects of their franchise opportunity

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