Building on their experience in sales, marketing and lettings, partners Ben and Daisy made the decision to launch their own lettings business in the Welsh county of Glamorgan.
“We wanted to start our own business and we decided to go into lettings because the market is quite stable and profitable and we clearly identified a gap in the Swansea market for Belvoir’s brand and service levels,” says Ben. “Plus, I’ve had previous experience in the industry so I thought we could do a good job of it.
“My girlfriend Daisy and I decided to team up as we believed the venture would be far more profitable if we were both doing it. Plus, she’s been one of my best friends for 10 years and we’ve worked together previously so knew we could work together and be a good team.”
Ben did extensive research on which lettings franchise to invest in before deciding on Belvoir because of its friendly people and well-known branding.
“I contacted several lettings franchises and Belvoir was the one I got the best feeling from and the best response,” says Ben. “Then I did more research which re-enforced my initial findings of how good they were. I liked the branding, liked the people I’d been speaking to and liked the people that I met at Central Office – I generally got a good vibe all around.”
Ben and Daisy have now completed Belvoir’s intensive training course at the company’s Central Office in Grantham where Ben says he learnt a lot more than he expected.
“The training course was superb. I enjoyed every single day and learned far more than I thought I would – it completely exceeded my expectations,” he says. “The most helpful thing was meeting the staff at Central Office as it re-enforced the fact that we’d have the support of everyone behind us. It was also good to meet the other new franchise owners and mingle with like-minded people who were at the same stage as us – everyone came up with different ideas and it was good to exchange our thoughts. On a couple of days we were even visited by staff members from already established offices too and it was great to meet them and see how their businesses had progressed.”
The boyfriend and girlfriend team are now working hard towards the launch of Belvoir Swansea, which they will initially run between them before taking on extra staff next year.
“We’re really looking forward to opening the office and being part of the successful Belvoir brand,” says Ben.
