Ed James – Regional Franchisee (Northumberland Tyne & Wear)

Regional Franchise of the Year 2007.

Caroline Cruz and Peter Home – Leighton Buzzard & Dunstable (Beds, Bucks & Herts)

Purchased territory: January 2006
Split territory: February 2007
Split territory sold for: £22,000

Caroline & Peter on their business
We heard an ad on the radio and thought Fastway was a good opportunity to be our own bosses. The split happened a lot earlier than we had expected. The purchaser heard our advertising and saw the van. He contacted our Regional Franchisee, Harj Thind, who helped us with the process of the sale. We are already approaching half of the level of earnings before the split and have much more time to develop and grow the business. Having a smaller area gives us much more time for saturation marketing and working with the sales rep. We are already working towards splitting again.

Advice
Follow the system, it works. Have a plan, follow it and work towards splitting from the start.

Ray Gordon – Witham Heybridge Springfield (Essex)

Purchased territory: January 2005 for £11,000
Record weekly earnings: £1878
Sold territory: June 2007 for £33,000

Ray on his business
I do the saturation marketing and work very closely with the sale rep. I tell him where I want new customers and he calls them to win their business. I am always looking for the customer who has his own vehicles on the road. I have a laugh and joke about taking their vehicles off the road and using me instead. It is a challenge but I do enjoy it. I have meetings all the time with the RF and we speak about what we can do next to keep growing my business, he is very supportive. “My record weekly earnings are £1878. I’m working hard with the sales rep to split part of my area off. In June 2007 whilst discussing a territory split I received an offer of £33,000 for the purchase of my entire territory. I accepted the offer and I am now happy to be easing down to my retirement at an earlier stage than I expected.”

Advice
If I can do it, anybody can do it. If you are thinking about buying a CF territory, don’t think about it just do it. The longer you think about it the more time you are wasting. Work hard and you will achieve your goals, if you sit by the side of the road reading a newspaper the business will not grow.

Robin Shields – Tingley & Horbury (West Yorkshire)

Purchased territory – August 2006
Record weekly earnings: £9,289.90

Robin on his business
With Fastway I am my own boss. I’ve only been a Courier Franchisee a short time but I split my territory in January 2007 to enable me to cope with the volume of deliveries. 90% of my business is local and this is where Fastway is so much better than any other courier company. I currently hold the record for the highest weekly earnings by a Courier Franchisee in England and I achieved that record in April 2007 just eight months after starting my business.

Advice
Keep on with saturation marketing and work with your sales rep to build your business.