Two times today I was reminded that the skills and experience that FMCG jobs provide, can open up many more options than you think.
The first came in the form of an email from one of my clients. They required me to start the search for a Marketing Manager to replace one of their employees who was leaving to start their own business.
Leaving a stable secure role with a Blue Chip employer to jump into the relative unknown world of managing cash flows, negotiating leases and trying to make a profit was the option they had decided to take.
The second was a call referring a candidate to a role I was looking after. The call was from another candidate “Harry”, whom I had been working with to secure a senior sales management role. I always welcome referrals and in this case it was a strong candidate with great experience so I immediately rang his number and booked him in for a chat.
So I asked “Harry” if he had secured a role since our previous discussions. He explained that he and few other senior FMCG experienced ex-colleagues had put a syndicate together to launch a retail concept. He was a bit secretive with the details and explained he couldn’t say much at the moment.
In the above two cases the people obviously had experience, resources and the ability to take the leap of faith and start these businesses. But what if you are young, keen have the ability and desire but not the capital to make the dream of running your own business happen?
Well this opportunity is now being offered by Bakers Delight in the form of a new concept called MTO – Manage To Own targeted at young inspiring entrepreneurs.
The idea is for potential franchisees to get the training and management experience of running a Bakers Delight franchise and once they have successfully completed the program, which would take around 12 months, they are assisted by Bakers Delight to purchase their own franchise business.
The program overcomes many of the financial constraints for potential franchisees by paying them while they do the 5 month Franchise Training Program and also while they get the practical skills by managing a Bakers Delight for 6 months.
I think it is a great idea as takes out much of the risk associated with taking on a small business, not only because it is part of a franchise system, but also because you have the security of an income while getting the experience required to be successful.
It also gives you the opportunity see if you can cope with the early starts and if you can count to 13.
Tim
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