Losing his job may have seemed like a cloud in Sunny Sachdev’s life – but its silver lining led him into a lucrative new future as a franchisee with The Massage Company
“The redundancy was the kick I needed,” he says from his thriving massage centre in Sutton Coldfield. “I started looking at various different business concepts and came across franchising, then The Massage Company.
“I really liked the brand and what it represented. The Massage Company introduced me to a few estate agents and we looked at a number of properties.
“The training covered everything from the recruitment of staff to systems and processes, and it’s been great.
“There are dedicated teams in the national franchise group who support training for our therapists, front-of-house, and for me as a franchise owner, and there are people I can link in with when I want any guidance or support.
“Even in between the lockdowns the demand has been there because of the product we offer and the quality of the massage we deliver.
“Since we reopened in April we’ve been very busy. We’ve got a very good core base of customers who come typically once a month and we also attract between 250 and 300 new customers every month.”
Sunny says franchisees hoping to follow in his footsteps need to be good at people management, be flexible and adaptable, and know how to engage with customers and do what’s right for them.
“Every day’s different,” says Sunny, a former call-centre manager in the UK and abroad. “You need to keep growing the business, which is what it’s all about.
“My plan always was to grow within the brand and build more centres. Right now we’re at a stage where we’re on a good trajectory in terms of building our customer base and our members.
“The business is about to hit its two-year mark, and our focus is to get it where it needs to be in terms of profitability and get the team settled and then see what next year brings.”
