Case Study - Jenny Boreham
Jenny, who opened the FASTSIGNS® centre in Chelmsford in 1996, is a good example of how starting a franchise can lead to an exciting and rewarding career.
After leaving school at 16 and marrying at 19, Jenny, by her early twenties, was a single parent with two young boys. She says, “I always knew I could be a good businesswoman and was determined to have a career. Although it meant that when my children were young, I often found myself cooking dinner with my coat still on, I don’t regret a moment. Developing a franchise business with the support I received from FASTSIGNS® gave me the confidence I needed to overcome the challenges I faced.”
Jenny, who particularly recommends a FASTSIGNS® franchise to couples who work well together, explains, “Making signs may not seem like the most obvious or attractive prospect for women. But I had confidence in the product and knew that FASTSIGNS International provides an amazing amount of support to franchisees. Managing my own centre has been rewarding and enjoyable since the beginning.”
The Chelmsford centre has been honoured by FASTSIGNS International, Inc. at the last two company conventions. In 2005, Jenny received the FASTSIGNS® “International Marketing Maximisation” award for her marketing efforts to build awareness of the products and services that FASTSIGNS® offers. At the 2004 FASTSIGNS® convention, Jenny and her staff received a sales achievement honour for achieving the second highest sales of any single FASTSIGNS® in the United Kingdom in 2003.
According to Jenny, successful FASTSIGNS® owners are people who aspire to run their own business in prime locations of major cities in the U.K., but who want to do so with less of the traditional risk of starting a business from scratch. “A candidate does not need to have technical knowledge or expertise of sign making – I certainly didn’t! Managerial, sales and marketing experience is much more desirable,” she says.
Jenny, for one, is not surprised by the increasing number of successful female FASTSIGNS® owners in the U.K., the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Australia (where locations operate under the SIGNWAVE® name). “The statistics show that women are highly motivated to run their own business and are very good at it,” she says.
