"Since winning the Ifwecanyoucan Challenge the business has moved forward more than I could have imagined.Looking back I didn’t really understand most of the questions people asked me when they were writing articles about me for the press. I was really pretty naïve and probably didn’t know much about running a business even though I was convinced I had something worth pushing and the determination to get Healthy Glow going, whatever it took.
How times have changed. And I’ve learnt so much in such a short space of time.
Winning the Challenge has been fantastic. I
seem to have done lots of things right, I’ve done lots of things that I didn’t realise I knew how to do and I’ve met lots of people who have pointed me in the right direction and offered support when I needed it (I’ve met a few who I wasn’t too keen on but you’ve got to expect that – you’re never going to click with everyone).We’ve got the set up in Tees Valley spot on. I’ve got two Healthy Glow franchisees in place – in Darlington and Stokesley – and we work really effectively as a team so we never let a customer down. Both of the girls do 60 spray tans a month (about half an hour per tan) and two thirds of the business is down to repeat customers which is perfect.
The next step was working out how to grow from there – and I’ve got the guys at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum to thank for an introduction to Graham Mylchreest from Be Franchising. It turns out they were looking for an opportunity that they could open up for women in the County Durham area to buy into as part of the LEGI programme – helping them to get back into work. So all of a sudden I’d got a partnership and my first master franchise licence was in place. Tada!
I’d also been doing a lot of work with my Google adwords which seemed to be working well (I rank number one for spray tanning) and one day I got an enquiry through from a woman with a marketing background who was looking to get back to work after having children. What I didn’t realise was that she’s from Germany – I didn’t even know that the adwords were international!
So I went about getting a ‘Passport to Export’ through UKTI so that I could get as much information as possible on the German market – do my homework! Germany is way behind us in terms of their attitude to sunbeds but things are changing so it’s the perfect time to get into the market.
I’ve teamed up with Claire Mitchell who’s a brilliant marketeer – who I met through ifwecanyoucan (she was a finalist in the Northern Echo area) – and we went out to Germany together to meet with Christina and we’ve started discussions about a master licence for her part of Germany.
The Germany trip was a valuable learning experience, I have decided to concentrate on the UK for the time being as I think the control of another country would stretch me too far at this stage. We need to expand in the UK first and that is where hopefully an Entrust programme called Coaching for High Growth will help, with guidance from people who have done it before.
It was great to spend time with Claire and we were able to get our heads together in how we are going to market Healthy Glow in the UK. Quite scary that we both had to go to another country to get time to talk to each other without interruption, but fab anyway!
I’ve been signposted to all sorts of people – and they keep telling me that I’m doing everything right and they can’t add anything. And eventually I was signposted to the very person I needed to speak to apparently – and the Forum had already put me in touch a few months earlier!
I’m in the process of getting my product IP sorted (I know what that means now!) – and I’ve got the supply sorted. In fact, I set the girls targets and it means I can pre-order because I know exactly how much I need. It’s a big relief because I went through a very dodgy period when I wasn’t sure I could get the stock I needed when I needed it.
I guess the next step is rolling it out! Which is so exciting and has come much quicker than I could ever have imagined.
I’d like to think I’d have got to this point eventually but winning the Challenge and the support I’ve had along the way has certainly got me there quicker and it’s given me so much confidence to trust my instinct, get on with it and not let any hurdle stand in my way.
I know there are lots more opportunities and lots of challenges to come but the ‘tada’ moments keep coming – and long may it continue."
The 2010 Challenge is now underway - you can now enter online at www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge until the deadline of May 3rd
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