Sandip Chauham reaches the magic £1 million.

A Trip to USA

A trip in the USA dramatically altered Sandip’s life. He was introduced to the concept of franchising by a friends brother who had recently invested in a ‘Subway’ franchise and was achieving great success. To pursue this opportunity, Sandip considered emigrating. However, after much deliberation and taking into account a poor exchange rate, the inspired individual decided instead to research possible franchise business ventures within the UK.

“Bearing in mind this was my first business venture, I soon realised I needed to step outside of my current surroundings and evaluate the opportunities around us,” Sandip comments.

After six months of detailed research, Sandip was attracted to the Jani-King concept not least because it offered guaranteed turnover and uncapped potential business growth. Following an initial enquiry, he was further impressed with the Jani King business model and the 10% margin realignment offered to franchisees. Consequently, his confidence in the Jani-King system quickly grew. After a number of meetings with Jani-King’s Paul Haworth, he examined all the potential challenges they might face, such as “Will he make this franchise into a successful business?” After considering various business scenarios and tactics, he was confident that, with hard work, he could make the franchise a success.

Whatever it takes

On 7th July 2004, Sandip invested in a Jani-King cleaning franchise. Following the initial training course, Sandip won his first account on 1st October 2004, rolled up his sleeves and undertook some of the cleaning work himself. While confident that the new business would succeed, Sandip worked through a fairly slow start with a few transfers of accounts from other franchisees. This was not the start he wanted, so he decided to grow the business by selling to customers direct and carrying out specialist jobs such as ‘strip and seal’ of wooden floors. Sandip received ongoing support from Jani King’s training manager and this enabled the franchise to convert work demos into contracts. “Whatever challenge a new franchisee is faced with, there is always someone at Jani-King to turn to for advice and guidance,” Sandip explains. The hands-on experience gave Sandip a valuable insight into his customers’ expectations. Further new business followed. Sandip recalls “After cleaning a pub in Leicester, the landlady mentioned her flat needed decorating. Of course, I jumped at the chance for the extra work and before I knew it, I was tiling her bathroom and painting the lounge - I don’t remember this being in my business plan!!”

Within four months, he received a major breakthrough when Jani King offered Sandip the opportunity to service accounts for retailer Superdrug. By March 2005, the franchise still in its initial stage of growth, was turning over approximately £6,000 per month. Sandip then jumped at the opportunity for additional cleaning contracts in the Coventry area and within one month their turnover had grown to £22,000.

Building the foundations to a fortune

Sandip remained focused on his franchise and followed the implementation plan provided by Jani-King to steadily grow his business and achieve success. However, he would be the first to admit that when difficult situations arise - as they do in any business - the support received from the Jani-King HQ has been like a ‘parental tough-love’. Sandip says: “As a franchisee, if your attitude is not right, you are in danger of damaging the brand for other franchisees. Therefore, I recognised that it is in the interests of everyone that the head-office team gets involved to help resolve any problems. ”

From day one, Sandip identified his customers as his first priority and provided a fast response to build good relationships for customer retention. This attitude contributed to increasing business growth resulting in a much higher level of profitability.

The sweet smell of success

In November 2005, an opportunity to clean an Odeon cinema in Sheffield became available. There was an underlying concern that Sandip was taking on too many accounts. He was also warned that he could fail and jeopardise his wider business operation, but, in true entrepreneur style, the ‘can do’ attitude resulted in a further increase in turnover to £34,000 per month. This success provided a massive confidence boost to Sandip and motivated him to work even harder. Six months later, Sandip hit his first milestone of £500,000 turnover, achieved within just two years of trading. His growth has been a mixture of working proactively to generate new business, supplemented by contracts received centrally from the Jani King (GB) salesforce.

Sandip has put his business success down to the simple Jani-King philosophy that ‘seeing is believing’. Sandip says: “You need to ensure that the customer sees that they are receiving a service which provides good value and good quality. Sandip is the proud owner of a large Jani-King franchise region which includes Leicester, Warwick, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Doncaster and Sheffield. Splitting the region between himself and colleagues to ensure a high quality service is provided for all clients.

He also knows determination has been a big factor in his success. Sandip comments: “I think the fact that I am passionate and really motivated to make my business a success is really important. Having the right attitude, being focused and knowing what I want from the business has helped a lot and ensured that our team has the right approach.”

Sandip adds: “I found, particularly in the early days, that from time to time, things didn’t go to plan. However, the important thing is to learn from the experience and not become negative as this can be a downward spiral.” Sandip had had the support of friends and family and is an active member of the local communities in which he operates. He also has a strong relationship with the Jani-King head office team. When asked what advice they would give to a prospective franchisee, the partners say: “Learn as much as you can from the Jani-King training programmes, get into good habits and work as hard as you can from day one.”

In January 2007, Sandip collected a new BMW convertible as self recognition of his hard work.

The first million

Sandip is now proud that his customer portfolio consists of leading retailers and leisure groups including Odeon, Tenpin, River Island, Esporta, Superdrug and HMV. In total, Sandip has 84 customers and, when recently taking over an additional &lsdquo;Next’ account, his annual turnover reached the magic one million pounds!

Sandip comments: “Now that I have reached the £1 million mark, the £2 million mark is my next goal and I aim to reach this a little quicker now that I have our structure in place. I plan to maintain the level of growth with all the challenges involved. I hope to continue our success and grow our business indefinitely!!”