A Successful Franchise Story – Paul Cederman’s Interview

Where does a franchise owner begin? What were the easiest and hardest part? Tips for beginners February 3, 2017

We will have interviews with people working in the franchise industry – franchise owners, franchisees, employees, franchise attorneys and people, who have tips for your business and growth. Today we have Paul, a successful franchise owner in Australia.

Interviewer: Hello, Paul. Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about your business? What do you do for a living?

Paul: Hello, I’m Paul Cederman. I’ve been running a franchise business for 6 years. I’ve worked with both contractors and franchisees. We started with cleaning franchise and grew to gardening, rubbish removal and more. Currently, we cover Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth, and soon to be Brisbane.

What does your job consist of?

My job these days consists of things like helping franchisees and management with ideas, opinions and supply them with what’s needed to achieve company goals. Ensuring 360° happiness principle which is in the core of Fantastic Services success so far – happy employees, happy franchisees, happy customers. We are achieving this through a culture of collaboration and great customer service. And this is one of my main tasks – being a link between our Australian and European offices and helping them work as one team.

How did you get into the business?

I started by working for my now business partner Anton in London helping to run his small cleaning business, we then proceeded to start an inventory company which was later purchased by Fantastic services Europe two years after I moved back to Australia. After this Anton and I kept our business relations and we came to an arrangement to bring this new business model he had created into Australia. We have always thought Australians deserve more than what they receive now in terms of customer service, hence we decided to replicate the successful business model from the UK to Australia with just slight amendments taking into account Aussie culture.

What was the hardest part on your way to success?

Understanding and amending my role in the organisation. I use to be the one giving ideas, managing almost all processes, being involved in most of the decisions. But then at one stage, I realised we I needed more time to be on the road and hear our franchisees and their ideas (which are sometimes great, but they were often not heard). Also, I had to realise can’t scale our business if I am involved in every process, and it’s actually the people who make our business what it is and I need to listen to them and their ideas and put them into practice. We have great talents and professionals who only need the authority and supports they could grow in the organisations and as an individual, hence create great experiences for our clients. So yes, maybe understanding delegation and support was the hardest part. I am glad I did it though since otherwise, we wouldn’t be in 4 cities serving more and more clients.

And what was the easiest part?

The easiest part is meeting with happy and successful franchisees each day, they come in, tell me their stories about what is happening on the road and in their lives, we have a laugh, discuss what’s happening, direction, any changes they might want to be made, etc.

Can you recall the moment you felt you’re on the right track?

When I could step back and let the business run with management in place to ensure all departments run efficiently and smoothly for our franchisees making sure they are both successful and happy.

If you could turn back time, would you do something different?

Yes, many things, starting out I was probably a bit younger and more naive than I thought, wanting to take over the world and offer every service possible, this just wasn’t viable nor fair on our partners. Is better to focus our full attention on the services we do offer than trying to give a little bit of attention to 30 different services.

Do you have any tips for beginner entrepreneurs?

Stay motivated, stay optimistic, and don’t burn out too soon, you need to take a step back sometimes, realise that the world won’t end without you, and taking a break from doing 18 hour days can not only give you the rest you need, but also your staff a rest from you.