Neil Collis, Ed’s Garden Services

Neil  covers areas in Sevenoaks

“In December 2013 I started my Ed’s Garden Services franchise in Sevenoaks.

Why did I join Ed’s? Well, we had just moved from New Zealand to the UK as our twin boys needed to be close to Great Ormond Street Hospital to meet their medical needs.  I’d always enjoyed gardening and really wanted to run my own gardening business but knew that, in order to provide financial security for my family, I was going to need a lot of help. Ed’s gave me a vehicle to turbo-charge my business so I could waste no time getting it to the scale it had to be.  Ed’s gave me peace of mind that I was adopting a business model that had been proven to work numerous times.  Ed’s also gave me the necessary freedom  and flexibility to be there for my family when it most mattered.  Finally, I particularly liked the fact that you can split your business with Ed’s – that means packaging up a group of regular customers as a business for sale to release capital and free up capacity for further expansion. This capital growth model fitted very well with my longer-term dream to move my family to Cornwall.

Joining Ed’s has been a great decision for me. The scale and financial performance of my business have exceeded even my own ambitious expectations.  I have already been able to split my business twice in less than four years since setting up.  I genuinely enjoy what I do and have built a great team. I work hard but I also have an excellent work-life balance.

Ed’s nominated me for the bfa 2017 Franchisee of the Year award – a very prestigious award in the UK franchise sector.  I was thrilled to win a place in the Finals.  This shows just how far I’ve come on my Ed’s journey”.