Neil Collis joined us to run an Ed’s business in Sevenoaks in early 2014. Let’s hear what Neil has to say about his first eighteen months with Ed’s.

“My joining story is slightly different from your typical Ed’s operator in that I had already been running a gardening business when I joined Ed’s. I am from New Zealand originally and I think I embody the pioneering can-do spirit that we have a reputation for.

“I have loads of energy and I am very ambitious and certainly not scared of hard work. Whilst I have never been fazed about running my own business, I am impatient for results and as a one man band was a bit frustrated and desperate to develop my business quicker than I was. I guess I wanted to turbo charge my growth. I was confident that Ed’s would give me the marketing engine to do this and also, very importantly, the flexibility to shape my business as I wanted to.

“My rationale was what’s the point of having your own business if you don’t have the scope to realise your goals? I had the idea that I would love to build up my Sevenoaks business and then structure a deal to sell my customers in the Dartford area. This would let me focus on running an efficient business on my doorstep and pocket a tidy cash sum in the process. Quite an attractive outcome, but a very long way off it seemed when I started out with Ed’s.

“However, only eighteen months in and can you believe I am at that stage already! I’ve now got one full time employee and another who is almost full time. I’ve also packaged part of my business up for sale and have already had a few interested parties come forward. Ed’s has been even better for my business than I thought it would be.

“If you are not afraid of getting your hands dirty, the sky really is the limit. I now have a full time employee and find my biggest challenge is to meet demand – a very nice place to be. Aside from giving me the engine to grow my business, Ed’s has also given me a lot of support in packaging up the business I am selling and a strong steer in navigating the selling process. This has been a huge bonus, especially when I am so busy actually running my business.”

“I am so glad that I took the bold step to join Ed’s. I can vouch for the fact that joining Ed’s was the best thing I could have done to take my business to the next level.”