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Diary of a new franchisee: meeting and exceeding opening targets

Sarah Stowe

Patrick and Gill Weiner have been sharing with us the details of their introduction to being franchisees with Bedshed. Here Patrick talks about meeting targets and putting a personal touch to their business.

“After months of hard work, it was finally time to open our doors to the public. Instead of planning a formal launch, we channelled our budget into marketing and advertising to attract new customers. We wanted to let the community know the store was reopening under new management and a soft launch supported by local marketing was effective in that regard.

“My wife and I were definitely nervous in the lead up to opening day. Would we meet our sales targets?  We had high expectations for the store and had poured significant time and energy into making sure it worked.

“Looking back, I actually think the nerves helped, because the adrenaline spurred us on and kept us going through a very busy period.

“As it turned out, we had nothing to be concerned about. During the first few weeks of being open, the store attracted many customers, all of whom were supportive of Gill and I and the store.

“Bedshed had encouraged us to set weekly sales targets which we did with their guidance. We found this to be extremely beneficial, as it helped put our monthly target into perspective and gave us a frequent check-in point to see how things were tracking and make changes if we weren’t satisfied.

“One of the reasons I believe we’ve had such success to date is the way we have personalised the successful Bedshed franchise model to suit our individual style. We wanted to offer our customers something different. From day one, we decided to show our appreciation to our customers by gifting them with a jar of Yarra Valley Strawberry Jam regardless of the value of their purchase.

“In addition to this, we rented our own Bedshed van to extend our customer service experience and have control of our delivery process. This allows the last point of contact with our customers to be a Bedshed Nunawading employee who espouses the same core customer service values as us.

“We are very proud of the feedback we regularly receive from customers about our delivery team and the friendly but efficient service they provide.  We want every customer to have a unique and fulfilling experience when they shop with us.

“We’ve been thrilled with the volume and value of sales in the initial months and genuinely believe we can continue to replicate this success and generate a significant return on investment.

“Bedshed has been a committed partner in the success of our store from the start. The support of the other franchisees and the professional staff at head office has been phenomenal.

“A few months ago, my wife and I would have never expected to be able to have even a little time for ourselves, but here we are. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing we can go in to work; make decisions on how the store should be run and still have the time and flexibility to achieve the lifestyle we were looking for.

“As the business matures, I have no doubt we’ll have more and more time for ourselves but our unfaltering commitment to ensure continued growth means that we are very much hands-on franchisees.

“This is the final entry in the series covering my first weeks as a new Bedshed franchisee. I hope the series has helped those considering buying a franchise to understand a bit more about the trials, tribulations and rewards on offer.

“As Henry Ford once said, “Whenever you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right,” and we chose to think we can.”

The diary from the start: