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Top business tips: Roger Gillespie’s baker’s dozen

Sarah Stowe

When Bakers Delight founders Roger Gillespie and his wife Lesley took their baking skills to San Francisco for a spell it paid dividends.

Roger Gillespie told the National Franchise Convention 2012,  “San Francisco taught us the value of franchising, and about American sourdough. The Americans didn’t like our bread, but they loved franchising.”

The couple came back  to Australia with a taste for franchising, and have built up the bakery network  from 42 bakeries in 1992 to more than 700 stores across three countries.

Roger Gillespie shares lessons learned for running a good business:

Top tips: the baker’s dozen

  1. The first lesson is empowerment
  2. Nothing succeeds like success
  3. When you see a problem, deal with it immediately
  4. Hire ahead and get the right people for the job
  5. When it comes to staff, know when to hold and when to fold – don’t hang on to inadequate team members
  6. Be authentic and commit to a cause – “fan the fire and make a difference”
  7. Stay focused, but evolve the busines. Deliver on your promises and delight your customers. Business will increase if you focus on what you do well
  8. There are four Ds that can undo you: death, disease, divorce, discontent – you can work to ensure the last doesn’t get a hold in your business
  9. Act quickly – if you see an opportunity to make a difference, step in
  10. Nurture love for your brand by finding out what it is about your business that people love
  11. Get your franchisees/staff to love your business – “it’s all about how you recruit, they have to fall in love with your business”
  12. Network unity – creat a network that’s united and can see common vision. Don’t assume people know what you’re on about
  13. And the last one’s for franchisors: invest in technology. “We spend about $10,000 on technology per year per franchisee”.