Olaf Grewe, a recent franchise owner for Antal International, discusses why he joined the company and his experiences so far.

I have an international background having worked more than 30 years in the global FMCG industry across different areas and countries. My focus was the commercial aspects of the business as I was Regional Director GTME Europe / Managing Director. I also have spent 5 years working and living in London, UK although I was born and raised in Germany.

When I decided to start my own business, it was very clear straight away that I didn’t want to start from scratch. My desire was to join a successful company with a good business model and established tools & processes. This was the reason why I decided to join Antal.

After 32 years of being employed, I felt that in the “last chapter” of my career, I really wanted to do what I had a high affinity for, which is to help people grow. I did not want to be limited by the bureaucratic processes of large public companies anymore. I also really wanted to translate my vision and thought that I would only be able to do so by being self-employed.

I chose Antal over others that are available because it is a well-established company with over 20 years of experience, having an international company with offices across the globe, furthermore it is an English company and the culture really suits me having worked 23 years for a British company. Last but not least, the mentoring, training and support they offer is unique.

The training has been extremely professional and certainly one criteria why I have chosen Antal. It is a very good mix between In-house training, mentoring as well as 3rd party training.

The challenges I have faced while getting to know my new business were mainly to adapt to the change from being an expert with over 30 years of experience in my “old” area to move into a completely new territory and also to get more self-discipline but helping people to grow and develop their career and play an active part in this is an amazing reward!

My final plan for the future is now to become rich and famous!

In my opinion, franchising is the best, safest and fastest way into being self-employed, as you can build your business on established processes and tools, which makes it easier to settle.