A few months ago Michael Finn could only dream of being his own boss and owning a business. In the past two weeks, the dream has become reality.

Having spent a week in the classroom, with the My Window Cleaner Director’s and having a pre-launch marketing campaign executed by the team, Michael is now up and running and providing service to his first customers.

I also spent time with Michael, on his first three days of trading, to make sure everything went smoothly; which of course it did.

We flew out to Spain, to meet Karen and Dave on the Saturday morning. After a welcoming lunch, it was straight into the classroom, with laptops open and a PowerPoint presentation on our history, the Operations Manual and to go through the agenda, to get the week started.

The course was hosted at the Marbella Golf & Country Club, with great views of the Mediterranean & an equally impressive classroom facility. Each day we started at 9am prompt, only stopping for lunch and continuing through to around 6pm, before a team dinner. There is much to learn; going into detail on our powerful and user friendly IT system and sales & marketing, were subject areas that we concentrated most on.

The five-day course is great fun, as well as a huge learning curve for any franchise partner. Michael rose to the occasion, picking up subject areas very quickly and with great enthusiasm and gusto.

The pre-training pack and presentations that we send through prior to the week really help a franchise partner to settle in and they already have a good understanding of how to operate their My Window Cleaner franchise.

After five great days and a short flight home, Michael had a few days to turn the theory into practice.

The pre-launch campaign went very well (& continues to do so, with new customers coming in every day) & our Customer Care Team started to fill Michael’s diary.

So, I joined Michael on Monday this week, in his territory of Willesden and Brondesbury Park. Unusually, the first customer was a commercial customer, not a residential one. A car showroom owner that required his windows to be cleaned, inside and out, every two weeks. We took our time and delivered a “superb service” (the customers words, not ours!!) & turned that one-off job, into a two weekly service, at £140 a time.

And then onto the residential customers, for the next three days, most wanting an outside and inside clean, as well as their gutters being checked; yes, autumn is on its way. Everything went to plan and Michael achieved a 100% re-booking of regular work.

We did have time to complete some leafleting ourselves, as well as some canvassing, which picked up six new customers. The concern of existing competition never materializes; ask any of our franchise partners!

Michael’s business plan shows a planned turnover of £900 in month one. This, as well as his average customer spend, will be easily achieved & he is ahead of target already. With future planned meetings and regular communication from the MWC team, Michael is well on his way and not looking back.