Joining franchise helped us succeed

Richard Williams and his wife Caroline are ex-naval officers who now run a property management firm in Burgundy which is part of the Les Bons Voisins nationwide franchise

What is your business and how long have you been trading?

We run the Burgundy branch of Les Bons Voisins, which is a nationwide network of property management firms for home and gîte owners. It is a franchised business. We started in October 2009 and have just completed our first year of trading.

Did you do the same trade either in or out of France before?

Not at all. My career included being a Royal Navy helicopter pilot and latterly a management consultant. My wife, Caroline, was also a naval officer and a nurse and, after leaving the navy, became a professor and nursing consultant.

What qualifications do you need for this kind of work?

You need to love getting on with people and gain great satisfaction from sorting out their problems; we do a great deal of admin-related work such as liaising with artisans on build projects and sorting out telephones. You also need not to be afraid to get your hands dirty; cleaning a gîte on a Saturday morning may not be the most glamorous work, but it allows us to live the life we do. You also need to learn to speak the language and integrate into the French ommunity.

Why did you think it would work?

I was attracted to the idea of a franchise. We were the 37th group of people to start with Les Bons Voisins, so all we had to do was follow the recipe. There are never guarantees with any business, but it was a good track record and it has allowed us to get the business to where it is far faster that we would have done otherwise. We phoned around some of the franchisees before committing, and the support and marketing is something we continue to appreciate.

What type of business set-up are you?

I registered under the auto-entrepreneur scheme, which is quick, easy and allows me to keep paperwork to a minimum. We have no employees.

Would you be brave enough to tell us your income?

The plan was for me to get the business up and running while Caroline continued her part-time consulting work in London. We’re now at the point where the business is strong enough to support us on its own, so performance to date has exceeded expectations. We’ve worked hard, and are looking forward to a few quieter months to recover a bit.

What has surprised you?

It has been a pleasure to see the reaction of the French artisans. Working on a par with them has helped us to integrate and be accepted. I’ve also been pleasantly surprised as to how quickly word has spread; we now get inquiries purely through word of mouth. We’re the only Les Bons Voisins business in Burgundy, so we’ve had to work hard to keep our profile high, but the inquiries we get suggest that it won’t be long before others join the network in the region.

How do you market yourselves?

We pay our subs to the head office and these go directly to advertising. With more than 40 businesses now in the network, it means that we’re able to create a presence at a relatively low cost to ourselves. We also market at a local level using newspaper articles, personalised flyers and word-of-mouth. The access to marketing has been one of the greatest benefits to us as part of the network.

Who is your market?

It is fairly wide-ranging, including second home owners and gîtes. We cater for all nationalities, but primarily the British at the moment, though I do have garden contracts with five French clients, all in the local area. Sitting on a ride-on mower on a Friday afternoon sure beats the M25.

What was your biggest mistake and your biggest success?

In the early days, we did make a few mistakes under-estimating the time and cost of a job. We are learning as we go along. It has really helped to have the support network in place from other members of the network, especially when trying to quote for a difficult job. Our biggest success to date has to be the landscaping of a garden in a pretty Burgundy wine village. Caroline’s expertise is in gardening, but it was hard work carting more than five tonnes of rubble out and three tonnes of gravel in. The end result was one that looked spectacular and the clients were delighted.

Did you do a business plan?

Absolutely. My military background does mean that I sometimes overplan, but we’ve worked hard to build a sustainable and flexible business. The mentoring offered by Les Bons Voisins helped us with this and I am now able to act as a mentor to new members of the network.