The Candidate

No Kitchen Industry Experience Necessary

We train you in all of the areas that you need to be a success in your business.

If you possess managerial, organisational and communication skills and have good inter personal skills you are an ideal candidate for a Dream Doors franchise. Add to those skills drive, ambition and enthusiasm and the winning formula is complete.

Our format has proved itself to be particularly successful for husband and wife teams but has also been highly effective for other partnerships and individuals. Starting from a home-office within a year you will be managing your own Dream Doors showroom. As the kitchen facelift can be done at a fraction of the cost, in just one day and with much less disruption than a full kitchen refit the earnings potential for franchisees is excellent.

Case Studies

Chris Hann's Story

Chris Hann operates the Dream Doors Lincoln franchise and has been running his franchise for 6 years. He won the prestigious Dream Doors Top Franchisee Award for outstanding turnover with over £550,000 in December 2009 and assists Head Office in sharing methods and best practice on running his franchise with other franchisees. Chris has demonstrated the determination, resilience and abilities to succeed as his own boss.

"One of the most enjoyable aspects of the business is that you are driven by your customers and not by a boss".

Elaine Ryan's Story

"We found ourselves sitting directly opposite Dream Doors at a Franchise exhibition, and some of their team were demonstrating how quickly and easily an old kitchen could be made to look like a new kitchen - just by changing the doors and worktops. I was impressed by what I saw and said to John: "that's something I wouldn't mind having done in our own home". It was at that point we realised there must be a market for people who would rather have a quick kitchen facelift than have their entire kitchen ripped out. That was the moment we started to think about buying a Dream Doors Franchise.

At first, even though John was happy to get stuck into working full-time in the new business, I was nervous about leaving my existing job and losing a main income. All of my experience in the past had been working with children and although I loved the job it didn't give me the flexibility I wanted. Now, running my own business, I've found ways to merge work and home life more effectively and I get to see more of my own children.

In the early days, when John was getting things off the ground, I did seriously think about working part-time at the school and Dream Doors but it soon became clear that this would be unrealistic and that it would make more sense to commit fully to the franchise. I definitely made the right choice and don't regret taking the step to becoming my own boss.

Some people might think that being a Dream Doors franchisee requires a lot of technical knowledge but it doesn't. In reality you don't need any kitchen industry experience at all. Everything I wanted to know was covered in the training provided. I've never fitted a kitchen in my life and would never want to but that didn't matter because our franchise manager, Bryn, helped us recruit a great team of fitters.

For John and myself the bulk of our daily work involves selling. Although it wasn't something I was completely comfortable with at first I've been out on sales visits a lot more recently and have discovered that I'm very good at it. In fact I've been successful with nearly every appointment I've had lately so I'm enjoying it a lot.

One thing I would say is that running a franchise with someone you're so close to can be challenging. John and I often have very different ways of working but if you're mature about things you can use these differences to benefit the business. Most Dream Doors franchisees are husband-and-wife teams. What we've learnt from listening to them, as well as from our own experiences, is that when the doors to the showroom and office close in the evening any work problems should be left there to deal with the following morning."

Chris and Mags

Chris Jones, and his wife, Mags, bought the Dream Doors franchise covering the Peterborough area in October last year. On 1st August 2009 they opened the doors to their showroom in St Ives, just outside Huntingdon, to a flood of interest from the local community.

Chris said: "We advertised heavily in the lead up to August, and were being asked for weeks before the showroom opened, 'When can we come and see you?' 'When will you open?' People weren't actually knocking down the doors, but it felt a little like that - we took 44 appointments on the first day - and that's a Dream Doors record.

I've been flat out since then and have been going out on three appointments almost every day. My conversion rate has been as high as 55 percent and I'm thinking about bringing in some help as the business has already become too big for just the two of us. Thankfully we have a great deal of support from Head Office and, in the day-to-day running of the business, from our Franchise Manager, Deena Garside.

I have to credit Dream Doors for the training and support which has been excellent. Managing Director, Troy Tappenden's enthusiasm is infectious. He's very focused, and always willing to listen, to offer advice and try new things to help grow the brand. In the last year alone Dream Doors has invested heavily in advertising on television, introduced new finance and sales training courses, plus organised regular 'best practice' days where we get to network and learn from our more established peers.

The selling side of this business has actually surprised me. It hasn't been as difficult as I first thought, especially when you consider that I've never worked in sales. I think that this business is as recession proof as it gets. I'm glad I went against the advice of my friends who were very nervous about the economy. I bought a franchise even though I genuinely didn't appreciate how well it would work in this economic climate.

We're now getting more referrals. Last week when I went to collect a cheque from a customer he told me to go and talk to his neighbour though he wouldn't tell me why. At first I thought it might be a complaint about how the van was parked! She invited me in and, when I asked how I could help, she told me she wanted the same kitchen as her neighbour. I quoted for it there and then and sold the job for around £4,500. Now that's what I call keeping up with the Joneses!

Our sales in the first six months were more than £100,000, and we're on target to smash through quarter-of-a-million pounds in our first year. I've got another couple of orders to finalise this week and we'll have achieved £100,000 in the first two months since the showroom opened. At this rate, we will recoup our total financial investment next year, which is pretty good for a retail business in any economic circumstances.

I wasn't naive coming into this, and I know running a business isn't easy, but we definitely made the right decision. I get so much satisfaction from seeing a job through from start to finish. And the reaction from customers at the end is phenomenal."

Mags said: "The support and training from Dream Doors has been superb right from the start and the weeks induction was essential. The sales training we had at Head Office was amazing and really valuable as neither of us had any experience in sales. It was a lot to take in at the beginning and I felt a little out of my depth but I've surprised myself at how much I did take in and which elements of the training I'm now using every day.

We can phone or email our Franchise Manager, Deena, at any time and I'm no longer surprised to get an answer straightaway even when I've sent her an email late at night or over the weekend. She's pitched in to help us out on a number of occasions. Having someone like Deena, who really knows her stuff, is so important to us because we knew absolutely nothing about the kitchen industry before we started this business.

We have a family franchise here - our son, James, is one of the kitchen fitters - which is exactly what we wanted. It has been hard work, especially because at the same time as running the business I've been completing a degree in social work, but I wouldn't change a thing. Although I planned to go back into social work part-time next year I don't think that will be possible now - not unless we start recruiting staff. This business has grown quicker than we'd anticipated and I'm not sure I'm ready to pass over the reins to someone else just yet. The showroom is my baby after all and I'm just enjoying myself too much.

None of this would be possible without the help of Dream Doors. We knew this business would be great the first moment we walked into the head offices in Gosport and met the team. We had a really good feeling, we get on well with everyone here and our dream of running our own business has now come true."