Case Study - Sidney Friend
My Father was the first to buy a franchise and I worked as a technician for him around 1987-1988 and I loved the job, however I decided to go on my own as a self-employed decorator.
Work was very hard to come across except the work passed to me by my father through ServiceMaster. My Sister and Brother-in-law also went on to buy a ServiceMaster franchise.
I met my wife Jennifer and both decided that buying a franchise would be better security for us, so we decided to go for it when a local area became available, so we got married in July 1993 and started ServiceMaster in October 1993, we both have worked very hard to help the business to grow, buying a further 3 franchise areas along the way.
The difference between being self employed decorator and being part of ServiceMaster is, the support network which you receive from ServiceMaster LTD which you need from time to time, the contracts that they work hard to get for you, also the ServiceMaster name, it has been around now for quite a long time since 1959. A recognised name goes a long way in gaining business and residential contracts.
The benefit of working for myself is that two days are never the same; every day is a new challenge when meeting new people. The flexibility is also great with having a young family, as you never know what will crop up. The rewards are also high as we are now able to employ staff and we feel like this is a great achievement.
We have two sons who are now growing up and are always wanting to help out in ServiceMaster so who knows ServiceMaster might carry on to the next generation of 'Friend's'.
