Business Doctors Case Study-Terry Houghton

Date

Feb 10, 2017

Operations Director for a manufacturing company, Terry Houghton, found himself facing redundancy when the company went into administration.

At 50 years old, and having spend 30 years in large organisations, the option of investing into a franchise was not something he had considered before. However, since joining Business Doctors four and a half years ago, as a regional franchisee, he has not looked back. Terry's Merseyside based Business Doctors franchise has been very successful and he is now a mentor for other franchisees in the North-West.

“After 30 years in manufacturing, I applied for similar jobs and had a couple of interviews but I wasn’t able to find what I really wanted, so I gave up on that idea and looked at buying a business instead.”

With his years of experience in the commercial sector Terry was motivated by the concept of running his own manufacturing business but the companies he came across for sale were not desirable due to the lack of saleability.

“There were issues with these companies – mainly that they are heavily reliant on the business owner, which meant that when they left, there was no business to sell. This kind of scenario isn’t peculiar to manufacturing; I’ve seen SMEs from all sectors make the same mistake. Businesses need proper structure.”

This sparked an interest in coaching businesses but still with the idea of running his own business, Terry attended the British Franchise Exhibition in Manchester to see what franchising was all about and what his options would be.

“I didn’t know anything about franchising at all at that point, and I hadn’t realised that you could coach businesses as a franchise.”

Terry spent several months researching his options, trying to find a franchise opportunity that offered everything he was looking for in terms of how he wanted to work and one which would support him throughout.

“I didn’t have the confidence to build my own brand, so the franchise route seemed a good idea. Even franchises in the same sector are all quite different. I wanted to enter a situation where I felt my expertise was valued, and not one where there was too much head office control.”

Having looked at the offering from Business Doctors, Terry felt this opportunity "ticked all the boxes" and it has not let him down!

“I’d never considered franchising before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there have been no nasty surprises even though it was scary – not from the perspective of doing the work, but actually getting the work.”

Now Terry has entered the small business world via Business Doctors, he is delighted at how dynamic this sector is in comparison to the corporate world.

“In an SME people make decisions and act on them, rather than debating something for months. If I make a suggestion I get to see the results fairly quickly.”

With the ability to use his experience to his advantage Terry has achieved excellent results for himself and his clients. The support Business Doctors have provided Terry has given him a very high level of career satisfaction.

Terry now enjoys using his influence to add value to businesses from a saleability perspective, which he failed to see when searching for business to buy himself, as well as through expansion.

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