Cloudy2Clear Bristol Gets Off To A Flyer!

Husband and wife team Graham and Susan Bayley have now successfully launched their new Cloudy2Clear franchise for the Bristol and Bath areas.

The couple, from Cleeve, decided to partner with the double glazing home services franchise after they both hit a crossroads in their careers.

"I was recently made redundant from my engineering job," explains Graham. "This was the second time this has happened in the last couple of years and, at 47, I was really beginning to look at where I was going in life. Jobs aren’t that easy to come by at the moment and, if I’m honest, I was also getting a bit sick of other people holding my future in their hands. With the kids growing up now and Susan also wanting to get her teeth into a new venture it all seemed to point to starting our own business."

But which one? As they had no business experience franchising seemed the ideal scenario. Even then they were faced with a myriad of options. "We looked at loads of franchises until we came upon Cloudy2Clear. The basic business proposition is sound, replacing failed double glazing is a service that will always be required. What we wanted to see was that the support structure was in place. The last thing we wanted was to go down the route of buying into a franchise where you got given a manual, were shoved out of the door and then you were on your own," comments Susan.

"Thankfully Cloudy2Clear were able to give us an in depth insight into both how their business worked and the sort of returns we could expect if we followed the strategy we were given. They also gave us an exhaustive list of current franchisees who were more than happy to give their time up to chat through any further questions we had. That was invaluable."

Once Graham and Susan decided Cloudy2Clear was for them things started to move rapidly. "Within four weeks we were on the training course," says Graham. "In that time not only were we fully kitted out and had our first local marketing planned but we were also receiving leads from the national marketing campaign Cloudy2Clear have been running. That meant that before we had spent a penny on any local advertising we had 17 customers ready for us for when we came off the course. I had also had the support of a neighbouring franchisee who has been good enough to let me go out with him for a week prior to the Head Office training to let me get a bit more ‘hands on’ practical experience, which is great. It’s obvious that this company works as a family, all the people we’ve spoken to have been extremely supportive as they’ve been through the start up period themselves."

So, with customers waiting and the training course complete how do they feel they’re doing? "We’re off to an absolute flyer," says an obviously very happy Graham. "We know this isn’t going to be a walk in the park, nothing is, but we’ve been give everything that was promised to us and more. At this point I’d say that our investment is safe in the hands of these guys and if we can even begin to replicate the success of the other Cloudy2Clear franchisees across the country then myself and my wife will have made a decision which will change our lives very much for the better."

Comments

[CYT]

Franchising is a great way to have a business and leverage of a strong brand. Business is all about brands, and if you start up alone it takes years to build a strong brand.

Sometimes things like redundancies turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

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