Posted:13-January-2021
Interview with Steve Lloyd, Signs Express Chester
Signs Express franchisee Steve Lloyd, who opened his sign making centre in Chester in 2012, tells us about his experience of joining a franchise.
Why did you choose franchising?
The main reason for choosing a franchise was the reassurance that I had the back-up of a successful organisation and a knowledge base in all the necessary disciplines that I could easily tap into.
What did you do before taking up a franchise?
Prior to taking up the franchise I had (and still have) a small specialised company installing and operating newspaper processing equipment. I would spend ninety percent of my working life overseas in such diverse places as Russia, Belgium and Dominican Republic.
How did you raise the finance?
I was fortunate that I already had a reasonable percentage of the money required but I was put in touch with a company who specialised in arranging the paperwork for bank finance. In the end I had a couple of banks offering me the required additional funds necessary and I went with the bank/relationship manager that I felt most comfortable with.
What training and support have you received from your franchisor?
The official training was a three week course at head office but the truth of the matter is that the training, encouragement and back up has been from the first moment that I contacted the Franchisor to the present day. From choosing a location to recruiting staff to managing sales the training has really never stopped.
What are the main challenges that you have faced?
Staff and cash flow have been the biggest challenges but both these areas just need managing correctly and once you get a handle on these they go from being the biggest challenge to the biggest joy.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of buying their first franchise?
Do your homework. The legwork at the start is the most important time that you can spend as all the research that you do in going to franchise exhibitions, talking to franchisor/franchisees and just driving around potential territories will pay you back massively in the end. I have always worked on a gut feeling that if you feel comfortable with a company straight away then this is normally correct. I had visited about five different potential franchise operations but when I first made contact with Signs Express I knew that this was going to be the one.
What are your plans for the future?
We will be looking to take on another employee in the next couple of months which will help us handle the amount of work that we have on the books. My long term aim is to bring my children into the business but as yet they don’t find ‘Signs’ as exciting as I do!!
Signs Express have over 70 franchised centres within their network and are the UK and Ireland’s largest signs and graphics franchise.
Interested and want to know more about Signs Express?
The Signs Express basic profile outlines aspects of their franchise opportunity
