FRANCHISING CASE STUDY – Mrs. Fields

It was a very big step for me to move to Australia in 2006, leaving behind my husband and 7 year old daughter JiaYu Wang in Shanghai for a country where I had no family and few friends.. However my husband and I were keen to find a better environment for JiaYu to grow up and become educated.

I arrived in Melbourne looking for a business to meet my Visa requirements and to work towards permanent residency. After careful evaluation I chose a new career and business in Food Retail. This was a complete change from my past experience in office roles with large companies. However on examining my skills I realized that my written English and technical knowledge of the Australian regulations would not make me successful in a business based on these skills such as importing or accounting.

Food is a low risk business as it is always in demand and I liked the Mrs. Fields store at QV because it was small and easy to operate. Initially I had not considered buying a franchise but I’m glad I did. The friendly support team have taught me a lot about business and how to be successful, and my sales have grown by at least 20% per annum since I took over and we continue to set new records.

Initially my spoken English was not strong and one of the best pieces of advice I received from the support team was to recruit some multi lingual team members to help with communication between suppliers, customers and other team members. They also extended my training time to give me an opportunity to improve my communication before taking over the business. I’d have to say they have been very patient with me!

Business in Australia is very different, however I love retailing as it is all about serving customers and learning how to communicate effectively with them in English.

Having the support of a good franchise system has really made it easy, and I now look forward to the time when my family can join me in this great country.

Information Supplied by:

Mrs.Fields

Phone: +612 9998 4800

Email: info@mrsfields.com.au

Website: www.mrsfields.com.au