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 Fast Track for Businesswomen
Jenny Boreham, Chelmsford, Essex, England
Jenny Boreham is an exception to the rule that more men than women buy franchises as a way to start their own businesses. Jenny, who opened the FASTSIGNS® centre in Chelmsford in 1996, also is a good example of how starting a franchise can lead to an exciting and rewarding career.
After leaving school at 16 and marrying at 19, Jenny, by her early twenties, was a single parent with two young boys. She says, “I always knew I could be a good businesswoman and was determined to have a career. Although it meant that when my children were young, I often found myself cooking dinner with my coat still on, I don’t regret a moment. Developing a franchise business with the support I received from FASTSIGNS® gave me the confidence I needed to overcome the challenges I faced.”
Jenny, who particularly recommends a FASTSIGNS® franchise to couples who work well together, explains, “Making signs may not seem like the most obvious or attractive prospect for women. But I had confidence in the product and knew that FASTSIGNS International provides an amazing amount of support to franchisees. Managing my own centre has been rewarding and enjoyable since the beginning.”
The Chelmsford centre has been honoured by FASTSIGNS International, Inc. at the last two company conventions. In 2005, Jenny received the FASTSIGNS® “International Marketing Maximisation” award for her marketing efforts to build awareness of the products and services that FASTSIGNS® offers. At the 2004 FASTSIGNS® convention, Jenny and her staff received a sales achievement honour for achieving the second highest sales of any single FASTSIGNS® in the United Kingdom in 2003.
According to Jenny, successful FASTSIGNS® owners are people who aspire to run their own business in prime locations of major cities in the U.K., but who want to do so with less of the traditional risk of starting a business from scratch. “A candidate does not need to have technical knowledge or expertise of sign making – I certainly didn’t! Managerial, sales and marketing experience is much more desirable,” she says.
Jenny, for one, is not surprised by the increasing number of successful female FASTSIGNS® owners in the U.K., the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Australia (where locations operate under the SIGNWAVE® name). “The statistics show that women are highly motivated to run their own business and are very good at it,” she says.
 White-Collar Business
Paul Bentley, West London/Hammersmith, England In 2004, after 12 years of working in the legal publishing and the exhibition market, Paul Bentley was overtaken by entrepreneurial spirit. Realising that he wanted “a white-collar business that offered a clean, professional environment,” he began exploring how he could start his own company. Paul looked into a number of franchising opportunities before settling on FASTSIGNS®. He opened the new sign and graphics centre in the Hammersmith area of west London in autumn of 2004.
Paul joined the FASTSIGNS® system with a strong background in the media, publishing and advertising industries. For five years, he was a publisher with Euromoney Institutional Investor, overseeing the publication’s circulation, editorial and advertising functions. Paul then moved to American Lawyer Media, a large U.S.-based legal publisher, to become its operations director. In that role, he managed operations of the company’s London office.
As he explored opportunities for his own business, Paul says, “I found there were no other FASTSIGNS®-type operators in or near west or central London. FASTSIGNS® offered the kind of professional environment that I wanted, and was a good fit with my skill set. It’s a type of media sale, a business-to-business sale, and sales driven.”
In opening his own sign and graphics centre, Paul also returned to the work environment of his college years. While a student, he made spending money by creating signs from vinyl and polystyrene and selling them to exhibitions. “That was in the very early days of vinyl,” he recalls. “The industry has shifted to full colour graphics, but the sales process isn’t all that different.”
Today, Paul’s FASTSIGNS® centre targets business customers, specifically, the advertising agencies, law firms, banks, event planners and exhibition halls of west London. In the year since it opened, the Hammersmith FASTSIGNS® has recorded steadily increasing sales and built a loyal base of return customers.
“Paul’s started to get regular repeat customers,” says Andy Simpson, a former FASTSIGNS® U.K. franchisee and now the U.K. franchise business consultant (FBC) for FASTSIGNS International, Inc., the worldwide franchisor of FASTSIGNS® centres. “Paul and his staff offer great service and quick turnaround, which customers need.”
“I am very happy with the career choice I made to open my centre,” adds Paul. “It was, quite simply, the right move for me at precisely the right time.”
 A Service-Led, Father-Son Business
Trevor and Mark Davies, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England A father and son with unique backgrounds in motor racing and small business management are among the newest FASTSIGNS® franchisees in the U.K. Trevor Davies, who previously owned a food industry company, and his son, Mark, a racing driver for Renault Sport U.K., opened a new FASTSIGNS® centre in Huddersfield in spring 2005.
The Davies decided to locate their centre in Huddersfield “because of the outstanding commercial and residential growth in the area,” explains Trevor Davies. “We wanted a service-led business that would utilise our skills in an exciting, growing industry.”
The elder Davies, who brings 25 years of business ownership experience to the centre, previously owned GB Bakery Supplies. Mark Davies raced for the ELF Renault Clio Cup, which sports enthusiasts say is watched every race weekend by the U.K.’s biggest motor sport crowds. The Clio Cup is considered to be a proving ground for drivers aiming to graduate to Touring Car racing.
Given the younger Davies’ background, it is not surprising that the Huddersfield centre offers race team vehicle graphics as one of its specialty services. “We also have the latest digital sign-making technology in our centre, and can do full colour graphics, large-format signs and graphics, trade show exhibitions, exterior and interior signs, vehicle graphics and a host of other kinds of signs and graphics,” Trevor says.
Open less than a year, the Davies’ centre already is operating ahead of plan in terms of sales, due in part, the father and son say, to the support they receive from FASTSIGNS International, Inc. They also attribute their success to an ability to work well together, and to a good division of responsibilities in the centre. Trevor handles sales and marketing operations, while Mark works in design production and general management. “We’ve developed a great system that plays to our individual strengths,” says Mark.
“My dad and I knew that working together potentially could have its challenges, but so far, everything is working far better than we had ever hoped,” he adds.
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