Case Study - Maz Hussain and David Henderson

By the end of 2002, Maz Hussain and David Henderson had become victims of their own success. Having worked in IT for more than 20 years – for blue-chip companies including BP and IBM – both men were regularly working away from home for four, sometimes five nights a week. Although Maz and David were well-respected experts in their field, and both were well paid, they both longed for an opportunity that would help them to achieve a better work-life balance.

"To be fair, we looked at many different franchise opportunities during that time," Maz explains. "But something about the property market in particular had really piqued our interest, maybe because we had already been property investors ourselves, on a personal level."

For Maz and David, the decision to leave their lucrative IT jobs was not an easy one, and both men were clear about that any opportunity they pursued would help to give them a better work-life balance.

“Coming from outside the industry, we knew that we had a lot to learn," Maz says. "But the Bairstow Eves tried and tested operating model gave us the guidance we needed – as well as the confidence to drive the business forward, even when we came across a few teething problems early on."

Thanks to this initial and ongoing support combined with Maz and David's own ambition and passion for success, they have already reaped great rewards.

As a result, the pair have just opened their second Yorkshire office in Pontefract and are currently running one branch each, whilst they personally train their new branch managers. They are already planning to open their third branch next year – again in the area around South Leeds and Wakefield. Ultimately they plan to operate between ten and twenty branches in total, with a managing director in place to oversee the whole operation for them.