Dynamic Business

So when do you take the plunge?
For Hoffman, the decision to take on a franchise came down to the support the company offered. “It was the upfront training. If we were just going to buy a motel, I’m pretty sure we’d be broke by now. With those businesses, as long as you’ve got a chequebook, you’re in. I came from a building background—I was a roof tiler—so it was a complete change of lifestyle overnight.”

The two-week intensive training course Hoffman and his partner Sandy Cook undertook was invaluable and took away much of the risk of embarking on a new business. While Quest’s training was the sealer of the deal for Hoffman, it was by no means an overnight decision.

“For us, it was three years in the planning,” Hoffman said. “We talked about it for a long time, but I’m so glad we went that way. We’ve been there four-and-a-half years next month and we’ve never regretted it. You learn every day.”

For Stevenson, the decision to take on her own franchise was inspired by her own experience working in sales and marketing at Quest. “I’d always had a desire to own my own business and we’d looked at many other options and this was the best for us.”

Suriano says there were two distinct groups of franchisees; around half are home grown (former company employees) and the other half are new franchisees. “In terms of most of our franchisees, they would be in their mid-forties, probably sitting in a middle or senior management level job, looking beyond their current role to 20 years down the track and not liking what they see,” he says. “They see the whole business opportunity and the chance for independence.”