Autosmart : Todd Howard and James Musema on Changing Career Into Autosmart
How to use this video
This video features insights from a current franchisee sharing their experience with the Autosmart franchise. As you watch, listen for details about daily involvement, support, and challenges as well as successes. If this perspective resonates, the next step is to request more information and speak directly with the franchisor.
About This Video
This Autosmart UK Change Your Career video brings together two franchisees with very different entry stories into the network — and in doing so, addresses two of the most common prospective-franchisee questions about a mid-career move. Todd Howard introduces himself as a former hotel management professional who decided he wanted to be self-employed. He had used Autosmart products previously, knew the brand had been established for 40 years, knew it operated a tried-and-tested system, and knew it was an award-winning franchise. That combination — product familiarity plus a long brand track record — is the classic prospective-franchisee due diligence pattern. James Musema's story is the family-run angle. James operates an Essex-based Autosmart territory built on top of his father Chris Musema's 25-plus-year franchisee tenure. The story showcases the way Autosmart territories can become multi-generational operations — a long-tenure operator like Chris builds the customer base and the brand reputation over decades, and the next generation can either succeed into the existing territory or expand it. James describes his sales doubling in the first two years and the underlying business as solid and robust. The induction and onboarding process gets specific airtime in this video. New Autosmart franchisees go through several Discovery Days at head office plus field days with existing franchisees, followed by a week-long induction at head office covering products and demonstration technique. The handover from the outgoing franchisee includes a structured introduction to the existing customer base — meaning new operators inherit relationships rather than starting from cold prospecting. Autosmart manufactures and sells more than 300 different products, which gives franchisees a wide product door-opener at every customer call. For prospective Autosmart UK franchisees, the Howard-and-Musema piece is the right asset to watch when the question on the table is "is this a credible career change?" The Howard angle answers it for first-generation joiners with no family connection; the Musema angle answers it for operators considering succession into a long-running family territory.