Advices received!

          I interviewed one of the biggest franchisees of Wizard by Pearson his name is Edgar and he has more than 10 Schools. I learned a lot with him and it was great to understand his point of view that is very different from many franchisees. One thing that let the Franchise market interesting is exactly that, everybody has to follow the rules from the franchise, but you can manage your business in a different way or have some attractions that can differentiate you even from other franchisees. This difference and his strategy was the most important to me in my interview.

          I used some questions from the instructions and other questions that I was curious about the business, I didn´t ask about the fees and royalties because we have the same franchise and I already know about it. What I was curious about, was how he has more than 10.000 students how many new inscriptions he had a week and how to manage all the things. So let´s go to the Questions:

Do you consider franchise a good business?

Franchise is the most secure business we have today, the key is to choose a good franchise, franchise that the people know and give concrete results for you and for your clients.

Why don´t open your own English School instead of buying a franchise?

It was the opportunity I had, I was an English teacher at Wizard, I believed the method was great, but my boss was moving to another country, and she offered the school for me. I accepted the deal and the beginning was very difficult because I didn´t have any experience as a businessman or even as manager.

when did you succeed?

When I realized that I was broke! That was the pivot. I decided to shoot the last bullet. I hired a salesperson! She sold one course, two courses and three courses, when I realized the last of the month I had more 20 students in my school! So, I decided to hire more salesperson. Today in all our schools we have more than 100 salespeople. We enroll about 2000 people a month.

How do you manage all of it?

A great team! My job today is just hire and motivate them to make better every day. I have great managers and partners that help me to manage the whole thing. At the same time we enroll we have graduates getting out and people who are giving up studying or stopping for some reason, so I must have a great control, and that would be impossible without a great team.

How many salespeople do you think is a good number for a franchise?

Depending the size of the city you are in, at least one salesperson for every 50.000 inhabitants. But this is at least. The demanding will let you know how many salespeople you will need.

What´s your mission? Since you arrived in the “TOP” more than 10.000 students, more than 10 franchises, etc etc etc.

Help other to achieve their potential, and help our country to become a bilingual nation.

Why this mission?

First of all, because is the mission of our franchise and I really believe that learning another language brings better education and opportunities to the people.  

What is your advice to me as a “small franchisee”?

Hire more salespeople, know the numbers of your business, hire new people at least once a month, don´t be afraid to take decisions and don´t delay your actions when a decision is taken, take care about your team, control, control and control.

Our conversations were very good, I liked a lot the advices that I received, and I will apply it as faster as I can. My eyes “were opened”. I was afraid to hire more salespeople and told him that and he told me that the salesman has to pay himself, it will never be an expense unless you let it happen. Sometimes I take to long to fire people and it became more and more expense. I learn this year Hire slow, fire fast. This is extremely important, because more you delay fire a bad employee more expenses you will have.

This is it!

Now let´s report our progress with U$ 100,00 chalenge.

this week we made one procedure:

we had a profit of R$ 80 (about U$ 23,00)

Total profit so far U$ 

275,40 + 23,00 =  U$ 298,4

Leonardo Krieger