After 10 Years at Mr Electric a look back and reminisce over some pivotal Moments

Firstly there are a lot of people that have helped and influenced me along the way so sorry if I have missed most of those out. I will go through in chronological order. Some 25 years ago my old manager in the factory I was working forgot his name but we used to call him the Fat Controller. Thank you Fat Controller for making me redundant and forcing me back into franchising. The second person I never knew his name stood about 4ft tall. At that time I had visited a depot of Highway Glass and the owner made me feel that I was not good enough for Highway. I was working out my redundancy period feeling crap after my meeting with the Highway franchisee then along came this 4ft guy dressed in a security mans uniform. His hands did not even show beyond his jacket sleeves he was tiny smaller even than Ant or Dennis Wise. I looked at him and thought if that guy can sit in an interview for a security job I can be a Highway franchisee. One of my proudest moments was when that Highway franchisee who made me feel I was not good enough called and asked for my help as he was struggling.

I then went on to build a decent business before selling up and Joining Rainbow there was no great influence then until many years later when I was with Mr Electric. I was invited over to the head office in Waco Texas where I attended a development course around the Five Levels of Leadership a book by John Maxwell. This opened my eyes to the fact that although I had been successful I knew very little about how to run a business and go past a certain level. Which for me was around 13 employees from this I went on various courses and now have no trouble running any size business. The next major influence was being recommended to read The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen. One day I was listening to the CD while cursing Mr Electric for the fact that I getting no work from our site. The chapter playing at the time was all about BLAME what actually happens when you blame someone else is you pass responsibility onto them. I was doing just that not considering what I can do to make my site better and work for me. That was the job of our franchise head office. I took over that responsibility now I get circa 24,000 views and loads of work from my sites compared with the average Mr Electric who gets about 600 views a year. I'm helping the others get to where I am and will pick up many tips along the way.

People I would like to thank are Philip Milburn from Highway Glass who helped when I thought that's it I've gone bust. The Dwyer Group for opening my eyes to self development. Marilyn Castree from the Chamber for introducing me to various courses all more or less free. Stuart Harvey and Peter Archer for their help and support when I had a massive problem with a company I was doing work for last year. Nick Smith from Homeserve Alliance for going out of his way to introduce me to contacts. Karyn Tracy for helping with coaching of my sons, helping me to bring them on and decide if they would take over or I would sell. My sons Luke and Dominic for taking over so well allowing me to sort of retire. The team at Fab Networking for helping with getting my car charger arm of the business up and running.

Obviously would like to thank all my staff and fellow franchisees for their help and support.