Case Study - Chris Tranter

With his elaborately sign-written vehicle sporting an H15 OPC private number plate, 37-year-old Chris Tranter is a man evidently committed to his Cornwall-based greeting card business. However, taking over the thriving area of one of the company's highest-performing franchisees, and improving on it, didn't exactly sound like a stroll along the beach. Yet within a year, Chris had boosted his new territory's turnover by 20 percent, and confesses to having loved every minute.

The best thing about running an OPC franchise is the lack of stress. As soon as I left school I started working in sales and sales management. Then I worked for a firm that sold conservatories for 15 years. I made it to the top of the company and was on an excellent salary. A multimillionaire investor bought the business, but despite a great deal of investment, drove it into ground. The experience of working for him, and trying to keep the morale of the employees up when I knew the company was going under, was incredibly stressful. But I stuck it out, and when the end did come I decided to take about eight months off, get my head together and decide where my future was heading.

During that time I found out from my partner's dad - who was friends with the previous franchisee - that the territory was up for sale. I'd been used to earning very good money and knew that, if I wanted to earn a similar income and remain in Cornwall, I would either have to start or buy my own business.

So I got in touch with Steve and ended up going out merchandising with him, every day, for about a month. I saw the money that the business could generate, I liked what was involved, and so I bought the franchise from him in June 2007.

Today, I work out of the loft doing everything from picking and packing to merchandising. The loft has about 12 metres of racking, four shelves high, all full of cards. I probably hold a lot more stock than other franchisees, but I think it's important to buy the new designs and ranges because that's what sets me apart from the competition. When I took over from Steve, a lot of the stock was old, and some of the display stands needed replacing, so I spent some money sprucing things up. Now it looks fresh, inviting and professional, which makes a good impression on my new customers and helps build up the initial trust with them. As a new franchisee, the first couple of times you visit a customer, you're really just getting to know them. After that, the reliability and consistency of service are critical factors; if your customers can't rely on you then they might rely on someone else, which isn't what you want when you're trying to develop a business.

The week I started, I took on 145 accounts. Today I have 149 but I have replaced any that have closed plus increased by four accounts. They are working much more efficiently, mainly because I've encouraged my existing customers to take on more ranges.The year before I bought the franchise, one chain of convenience stores was selling around 17,500 OPC cards in a year, which I have managed to increase to 15,000 cards in just my first five months of trading. By going in, building trust and expanding my ranges in their stores, I added value to the chain to the point where they began to remove competitors'cards to make room for mine! Another time, I put an eight-foot display stand with full card options into a shop, and sales went from 80 cards a month to over 400 -I now have to merchandise that store every two weeks instead of every four! It's taken a lot of effort and financial commitment to get to this stage, but once the foundations of the business are place, it's really just a case of monitoring your stock.

The great thing about my OPC business is that it's only as stressful as I want it to be. I can choose to put in 14 hours one day, and then give myself a day off. Or I can fit an entire week's work into two or three days. However, it's important not to develop bad habits.You still have to work on the business, which takes ongoing effort, and remember to make friends, have fun and build mutually beneficial relationships with everyone you meet. Personally, I love the interaction with the public when I'm out and about. I have real fun and get plenty of opportunities to promote my services face-to-face without being pushy. With OPC, you don't need to do any kind of hard selling; it's all about building good relationships with my customers and their customers and providing an excellent service and quality products, consistently well. In the next year or so, I'd like to get the business up to 200 shops. If I then get some of those shops selling 400 cards a month, then the money really starts to get serious.