When taking on any new business as the proprietor it’s your responsibility to ensure that the business is set up properly. You have to have the correct tools and machinery for the work you’ll be producing, you also need to ensure this equipment is fully maintained and all of your staff are properly trained to use it, plus ensuring your new business is marketed effectively. All of this activity is stressful to cope with when opening a new business.
Here lies the supreme benefit of opening your business with the support of a franchisor.
When you become a franchisee of FASTSIGNS centre you will not need any prior experience of the signage industry. We will provide you with dedicated support and training as you go through the process of establishing your new business.
We kick start your journey with a four week training program and follow this up with consistent guidance and support from the head office team as you launch your centre, which continues as your business moves into growth and then maturity. We also arrange targeted training from the FASTSIGNS team in the US, who share specialist knowledge to ensure your skills are kept as up to date as possible.
The four week’s initial training consists of two weeks at our state-of-the-art training centre in Dallas, USA where you’ll take part in our Foundations Training Programme. You will learn everything about how to run your business successfully as part of the FASTSIGNS network. You’ll learn about materials and how they are used to physically make signs or develop new graphic design skills, focus on sales techniques and marketing strategy plus so much more.
On your return to the UK, you’ll spend a week in your FASTSIGNS UK mentor centre. The mentor program ‘buddies’ you up with an owner of an established and successful FASTSIGNS centre. Your mentor will help you apply the knowledge that you learned whilst on Foundations and get to grips with the realities of day to day life in the centre.
Your final week of training comes at a time of great activity and excitement. As your centre prepares to soft launch, one of our business consultants will spend a week with you in your centre to ensure you are comfortable in your new environment and are ready to take on orders!
Once the four weeks training is complete, the head office team will be on hand to support you daily. Our business consultants will visit your centre at a minimum of a fortnightly frequency and as a team we will ensure you remain on track with your marketing plan and other learning or resource needs.
As your FASTSIGNS centre develops and further establishes in to a mature centre, we ensure that you have training, knowledge and resources to keep you at the cutting edge of the industry.
FASTSIGNS UK has regular visits from the US team, who pave the way in technological advancement in the signage industry, which we reap the benefits of. As the UK is slightly behind the US in terms of signage trends, the US team are able to work out the best way to deliver services to customers, before they are popular in the UK. This means that you receive the knowledge and understanding of a signage application whilst the concept is still in its infancy in the UK market, putting you at the front of the curve when it does take off in the UK.
A real time example of this is the digital signage phenomenon; the UK market is currently dipping its toes in to the digital pool, whilst this type of signage is becoming increasingly common place in the US. FASTSIGNS UK brought our Director of digital and exterior technology over from the US to deliver a week of seminars to show our UK franchisees the best way to sell, use and create content for digital signage. This training was then followed up with frequent interactive workshops where franchisees, salespeople and graphic designers are able to ask questions about their digital signage challenges.
It is the ethos of FASTSIGNS to keep our teams as informed as possible, we deliver this through dedicated training and are on hand to offer support and guidance to any of our franchisees, no matter how long their centre has been established.
Recent Comments