As part of our occasional series of articles featuring our new franchisees, we recently spoke to Brinder Bains, our Richmond franchisee, to get his personal insight into why he chose Redstones.

Welcome to Redstones Brinder! Tell us about your career prior to becoming a franchisee

It’s been quite an interesting road to life as a Redstones franchisee. I trained as an electrician in my younger days and branched off into residential property quite early on. At the time, it mainly consisted of buying the odd flat, renovating where necessary and then renting it out. Somewhere in all of this I ended up buying my local Indian restaurant and running that for almost 10 years before selling it and returning to my electrician roots!

So immediately prior to launching your franchise you were working as an electrician?

Yes, I was working on electrical contracting and property maintenance for landlords.

When did you find out about franchising?

I seemed to spend a lot of time and effort preparing properties for landlords to let. It occurred to me to be a natural progress to start offering that service to my landlords, as I had been doing that for my own properties for some years too. Franchising seemed the natural route.

Why did you chose franchising over an employed career?

Having been in business all of my life, employment was never really an option for me.

Why did you choose Redstones over other lettings agency franchises on the market?

Having known Redstones founder, Manjit Virdi, for a number of years, there was never any doubt that Manjit could and would only ever be involved in something solid and worthwhile.

The support of your family is obviously important when launching your own business. Will your wife be involved in the running of your franchise?

The plan is for my wife to take an active part in the running of the business. We do hope to employ staff progressively and maybe tailor our own roles as time passes.

How did you raise the finances required to invest in your Redstones franchise?

All of my investment came from my savings.

How have you found the training and support you received from Redstones?

I have received every ounce of support I would have expected to receive from Manjit and Redstones. It has been as easy as can be so far. I feel I have all the tools at my disposal to build as big a business as I endeavour to build.

What challenges have you faced while getting to know your new business?

The analogy I prefer to use takes me back to my restaurant days. ‘If the bin hadn’t been emptied, I had to do it myself’. What I suppose I mean is, all of the minute things about setting up a business have been down to me. I don’t have any staff as yet and have found myself carrying out a range of tasks, from buying stationary to populating my own Redstones micro-site. Whilst it certainly takes up your time, the satisfaction of edging slowly closer to launch is wonderful.

What ‘highs’ have you experienced with your Redstones franchise?

Taking delivery of my sign boards was definitely very exciting. Seeing one