Case Study – Meet Helen & Bernard Imarhiagbe

Helen and Bernard Imarhiagbe

Both Helen and Bernard have an information technology, business and research background and Helen is also a professional secondary school teacher. Before taking on their Jani-King cleaning franchise, neither had any experience running a business or commercial cleaning experience but felt that the effective, detailed structure in place made previous experience unnecessary.

Helen and Bernard had often thought about starting their own family business over the past few years but were initially discouraged by the significant challenges associated with starting a new business, for example finance in terms of cash flow, finding and retaining customers, building a successful brand and making profitable impact quickly enough.  They had been aware of the option to start a franchise instead of a start-up and, after a period of thorough research and attending several franchise shows in London, Helen and Bernard decided that franchising was the right option to meet their needs as a venture with a secure chance of survival.

Once they had chosen the franchising route for their business they were faced with picking an industry and then a specific franchise provider. Helen explains why they selected Jani-King from the many choices on offer.

“Jani-King is an international organisation with presence in many countries. We were impressed with the extensive client list with large corporate chains and after listening to testimonials of franchisees within the industry, Jani-King was the perfect fit. Jani-King is one of the few major companies that source contracts for franchisees, giving new starter businesses a boost from the beginning and we were really impressed by that.”

After coming to a decision to invest in a cleaning franchise with Jani-King, Helen and Bernard started the extensive training process, including a five day course on business administration finances, operational cleaning tasks, customer service and support.

“Once our training was complete, we were impressed by the speed at which our plan was delivered. It took a few days after our franchise training for Jani-King to deliver our purchased plan instead of the contractual 150 days, we were delighted to be able to get started so soon! Jani-King also provided us with a walkthrough to introduce new franchisees like ourselves to each account which made starting work much less daunting and helped us familiarise ourselves more quickly and efficiently.”

Helen and Bernard purchased Plan 4 with the intention of increasing turnover. Their next steps are to expand their business by increasing turnover through increased franchise investment.

“We found the Jani-King franchise process very supportive and never pressured. They provided extensive training, staff recruitment support and extensive walkthrough accounts. We are very happy with our choice.”