NIC Local

They work mainly in the West Midlands and Worcestershire area. Find out about his journey so far and how they’ve achieved so much so quickly!

Where and why did it all begin?

My business partner and I own a recruitment business in the healthcare support sector. Around a year ago, we decided to diversify our interests, so we went to the International Franchise Show at Excel to explore that as an option. NIC Local was immediately of interest; we felt there might be some skills crossover in terms of managing a similar employee demographic, working with staff in support roles and managing shifts.

Unlike some franchises, with NIC Local we’re not limited to a specific territory – what a bonus! Not only can we manage our own time and travel, but we can also pitch for business in the areas that work for us and target the most profitable locations too.

You’ve launched your own business in the past, why not just do that again?

Being a business owner and having battled through the many challenges of starting from scratch was what made the franchise model so appealing! A franchise is the perfect hybrid – we don’t have the important administration tasks like invoicing and payroll, so we are free to concentrate on building our business. Right from day one you have a great brand reputation behind you and all the accreditations you need – genuinely, it feels like the best of both worlds.

What were the biggest challenges, in the early days?

I’m a trained and highly experienced salesperson – those are my core skills. I’m well versed in business development too but at the start, we made a few mistakes – all because we didn’t take time to understand the sector.

We applied our previous experience to a new sector and wasted time pursuing unsuitable contracts. Repeatedly, we found ourselves up against much larger and established competitors who were ready and able to shave their profit margins to secure the tender. We just didn’t want to be that type of business.

We do a lot of our most successful selling on the phone and once we started to listen and learn about the sector, we changed our approach completely and soon after won our first contract. It was the perfect piece of business for our new team and has in fact become our route into the whole healthcare cleaning sector!

Have you felt supported, as an NIC franchisee?

Absolutely – you have your own business but there’s also a whole team behind you who wants you to succeed just as much as you do!

On top of all the business services I’ve mentioned, we have access to fantastic marketing advice and materials. They don’t just ‘point you in the right direction’, they give you effective tools and back up their advice with experience and real-life scenarios.

There are the other franchisees too – sharing our experiences and learning is a brilliant shortcut to boosted results! We’ve tried a few different sales approaches, but now we’ve found what works best for us and it’s really reaping rewards.

Any surprises so far? Good or bad….!

We were surprised at how quickly we’ve managed to grow. We have started winning contracts through Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and have built a very healthy business pipeline. Currently, I’m the only full-time salesperson but we are already planning to recruit an area manager to expand our potential!

People management can be tough; not really a surprise as it’s such an important and complex part of any business – you have to be patient to build the right team. Finding good workers was a challenge at first but we have 11 cleaners on our books now – we’re already a strong and committed team and that’s really motivating for us all.

Cards on the table – any days your regret becoming a NIC franchisee?

Honestly, no. The buy-in was affordable for us and now that we are up and running, it’s proving to be very good value. With our experience of starting a business, we would evaluate our NIC Local franchise as a very sound investment which, just eight months in, is pretty significant and, I’d say, very rare.

What about more personally Mitchell, has your franchise brought changes?

Yes, the timings for cleaning tend to be morning and evening so my timetable has changed – I might have a leisurely morning, some time to go to the gym or relax and then a meeting in the evening. It’s a new work life balance for me and I have to say, it’s a welcome change!

I love selling – face to face, cold calls – all of it, so it’s great that, as franchisees, we can be totally sales driven. I get to do what I enjoy most of the time! NIC Local is very different to recruitment where, if the market is flat, you can’t create business – you can’t invent jobs. With cleaning there are endless opportunities – you can do as much business development as you can manage – you are in control.

Being totally honest, I’ve really grown as a person since investing in the NIC Local franchise. I’ve learned so much and overcome fresh business challenges. We’ve exceeded our financial expectations in less than a year, our reputation is growing and business is thriving. I’m proud of what we have already achieved and excited about where we’ll be next time we speak – watch this space!