Having spent the past 15 years in media sales, starting as a sales executive and moving up through the management ranks to Commercial Director, James Frowde faced redundancy.

James always had a desire to run his own business and had been interested in the Property Industry for around 10 years, “I believe that building a company from scratch with no prior experience in a competitive market place would be risky. I have 15 years commercial experience but not in Estate agency.”

Researching how to start his own Property business, James started to look into franchise opportunities. “It’s the best route to market for me. By choosing a franchise I have the balance of running my own business alongside a support network to learn and gain experience.”

Initially the Redsones brand got him interested, “It was key for me to choose a strong/easily recognisable brand that stands out in a crowded market. Then after meeting Chris Gillam (Franchise consultant) and Manjit Virdi (Owner) I knew that Redstones would be a perfect fit - Ambitious, supportive, flexible, and organised.

The Redstones franchisees have also been very supportive and eager to help. This was not the case with other companies I spoke to.”

With the large territory and relatively low set up costs James decided to go ahead and invest his savings and redundancy money into the Redstones franchise opportunity to become the new Bexleyheath franchisee.

With a mixture of classroom and hands on training James was ready to start his own Property business, “The training has been superb, it has given me the confidence – I know feel like an Estate Agent with a good understanding of all aspects of running a property business; systems, customer service, staff and accounting etc

I like to work in an organised way and the systems in place at Redstones such as Jupix and LetMc will enable me to be organised but will also help me to provide the best possible customer service.”

Enjoying the independence of running his own business and now being in control is his future James is already setting himself goals, “My plans are endless but to begin with I will keep it simple, concentrate on my local area and establish the lettings business. Then I will move onto sales and take on staff within a year.

By year 2 I intend to open a shop front or multiple offices in my territory and during my third year I would like to make my business self-sufficient so I can start on a new territory in Kent - The long term goal is for Redstones to be a Recognised and successful Estate Agency throughout Kent.”

With a young family and another baby due in April 2014, James’ wife is not currently involved with the business start up, however once his franchise is established and the kids are back to school he hopes to bring her into the business.

Other future plans for James involve investing in property and build his own portfolio, which he believes being part of Redstones will help him achieve this too!

James’ advice to anyone considering franchising is “Research the market and plan. Spend time on your due diligence. Speak to current franchisees - I made 40+ calls to franchisees and this gave me a good idea of suitability.”

To find out more on the Redstones Franchise opportunity, contact us today!