Penny has an expert eye for a great franchise opportunity
"There is no way we would have grown this fast if we had tried to start this ourselves and I am convinced it would have taken years to get to this point,” - Penny Brierley, X-Press Legal Services Franchisee
Gloucestershire franchisee, Penny Brierley, is an opthalmic optician who had always dreamed of having her own business. But she had never considered the possibility that any independent enterprise would be something outside her profession.
“I’d always wanted to run my own business but, for a variety of reasons that included having two small children, it never happened – until now,” Penny explained. “I trained as an optician and worked in this field for 20 years. I really loved it and enjoyed helping people. Unfortunately, as time went on, I found I was less and less resistant to my patients’ bugs because I kept getting ill with sniffles and coughs.
“I think it must be an occupational hazard but I was fed up with feeling off colour and decided that I needed to do something else,” Penny continued. While Penny was considering her options she helped out friends in their businesses and soon discovered that she enjoyed the variety of sampling different areas of commerce.
In early 2005 she started to look more seriously at some ideas to find something permanent, when she became interested in franchising. She already had a limited understanding of the concept since she knew the franchised chains of opticians and had read about it in national newspapers.
“I liked the idea of going into business for myself but without being entirely alone,” Penny said. “I selected a few franchises, found out more about each one before making appointments to meet the franchisors and talking to their franchisees.
“I was especially interested in X-Press because I thought being involved in the property world would be interesting, especially the variety of searches. Going to several councils in the area meant every day would be different.”
Penny continued: “The other big advantage was that this is a business that doesn’t need premises, at least initially, so start-up costs and overheads are kept to a minimum. This allows you to grow at your own pace.”
Penny became a franchisee with X-Press in February 2006 and her client base grew very quickly in the first three months. Husband Graham, who also worked in the optical industry, had been on the X-Press training course so that he could step in at a moment’s notice if Penny suddenly needed extra support.
“Graham went to the course very much as an ‘in case’, with no intention of giving up his job at the time. However, he was becoming tired of the amount of travelling he had to do and so he opted to join me,” Penny said. “We are very excited to have made such a flying start.
We are delighted with the number of clients we have and how quickly word is spreading about our service. There is no way we would have grown this fast if we had tried to start this ourselves and I am convinced it would have taken years to get to this point,” Penny went on.
Now that her two sons are in their mid-teens and more independent, Penny has more time to invest in developing her business with Graham. They believe that friendly, flexible service, combined with energetic marketing, have enabled them to grow the business so successfully.
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