“Business was going well, so there was a crossroads really, where we could continue to organically grow or go down the franchising route.”
This wasn’t a decision Eddie took lightly, and he researched each avenue carefully.
“I did a bit of googling and looked at other people, businesses and industries that have been through the whole process of franchising. We also had a conversation with a consultant.”
Part of Eddie’s strategy was to get people from the local area to try out their services. It provided a good sign of whether it would be a service the community would use. The trial was successful.
“The next step was getting the business ready to a point where we could market it as a franchise. We needed a proposition that people could buy into.”
Initially, marketing was through word of mouth. It naturally evolved from there.
“We found directories were the most effective – we went poland rcs data from one to four franchises quite quickly. We still do most of the things that were done back then. We use lots of traditional forms of marketing.”
Nowadays, their marketing strategy has been carefully developed. Attending exhibitions, advertising in magazines, and paid advertisements on Google have also helped the growth.
Maintaining the vision
As the saying goes, your business is only as good as the people you have. This rings true for Progressive Sports.
Some of Eddies’ employees and industry connections bought into the franchise straightaway.
“We’ve got about 25 franchise territories in the country, with a presence in a lot of the main cities.”
Maintaining the high standards that Eddie strives to achieve meant that the people he brought in needed to equally care.
“When someone takes your baby, takes it to another area. Then you want to maintain those high operating standards. We didn’t want anyone to dilute what we were doing, so we regularly provide support.”