Director swaps laptop for paint guns!

Phil Quartly, Revive! Surrey franchisee earned the Champagne moment for February with an outstanding start to his business. Phil took on the franchise in 2007, and had an excellent month in November, usually a quiet month.

The poor weather in January slowed sales down, but Phil would not be kept down and produced just under £5000 in February, an outstanding achievement given the weather we have had.

Revive! spoke to Phil about his progress to date:

Q. How did you achieve these excellent sales levels so quickly?

Phil: A number of marketing initiatives worked well in February. I also had a decent number of National account jobs passed to me by Head Office. The editorial that we ran also worked really well and we have a number of enquiries from that.

All in all, with some good marketing and word getting out about the quality work I am able to do, the month turned out to be pretty good!

I felt that things were starting to work well in January, it was just the weather that affected the final sales total. In February I was determined to push on, and its really that hard work and strong customer relations that have created the success.

Q. What are the challenges that face your business?

Phil: Well, the big hurdle and the one that causes the most trepidation is committing to the further expense of an employee. That's why I am looking forward to the employment seminar in April, I think that will help a lot. I need to get the business up one more rung of the ladder before I am really ready to employ but I feel we are almost there.

Q. What is the competition like?

Phil: To be honest the competition are pretty hit and miss with their quality and service standards. I don't feel that they are user friendly and really want to help the customers. Far too often people seem not to turn up on time, or at all, and this tarnishes the name of people in our industry. I pride myself on my service levels and this seems to be an effective way of growing a good reputation and a reliable service.

Q. How do you feel about the change to a Revive! Franchisee?

Phil: I really enjoy it! Its great to be in business for myself but I like the support. Denz and the training team are always available for technical support, the admin team do a good job, all round it feels that I am in business for myself but I am certainly not on my own. My wife and I agree that we made the right choice of business with the right people!