Winning is something Sleepy's franchisee Kasey and her husband and business partner Ben know a lot about.

Since buying their Sleepy’s franchise, based in Kotara in New South Wales, back in November 2014, the husband and wife team have won every Sleepy’s award possible and have risen to the top of the sales board. But if you’d told Kasey a few years ago that she would be the owner of a franchise she wouldn’t have believed you. “I was very anti-franchise because I’ve got my own set of business ideas”, says Kasey.

Flexibility in the business

Kasey’s parents have always been self-employed and this gave her the idea to go into business for herself. “I’ve never worked for someone else, I’ve always been self- employed”, says Kasey. Seeing her mum and dad run their own business and the flexibility it gave them as well as the lifestyle they’ve created for themselves gave Kasey the confidence she needed to build something on her own. “It was always appealing for me to have my own show”, shares Kasey.

Trained as a beauty therapist, Kasey ran her own beauty therapy salon until the birth of her first child. During this time Ben was working in property development but the couple began wanting to “do their own thing” and were seeking financial security. “We had children to feed”, says Kasey. “We could live on baked beans for three months while we waited to sell a house but that wasn’t necessarily what suited them”.

Buying a franchise

Looking for a suitable business they could run together so Kasey could still spend time with her children was what made the couple consider buying a franchise, although Kasey was reluctant at first. “I didn’t want a bar of franchising”, admits Kasey. “Where Ben really liked the security of franchising”. So what changed Kasey’s mind? “The figures”. “We wanted to buy into something that was already making money because we felt like the position we were in life meant we didn’t really want to build something, we wanted to invest in a something that was already proven to be successful”.

Looking to invest in a franchise, Kasey and Ben nearly bought a butcher business until they saw an ad for a Sleepy’s store in Kotara in the paper. “It said the business was making $200,000 profit and that appealed to us”, says Kasey. During the first interview with Sleepy’s Management, Kasey and Ben explained that she wasn’t going to work in the business.

To which they were told that “this isn’t going to work” unless Kasey was involved. “That built a lot of trust initially because I was like they aren’t willing to accept anyone’s money”, explains Kasey. “They wanted us to succeed as much as we wanted to succeed”.

Kasey believes that Sleepys is suited to a husband and wife team and that has been the key to their success. “Ben’s strengths are in analysis, stock and cash flow of the business and my strengths are in sales and growing people including our staff and customers”, says Kasey. “Initially in the first 2.5 years my role was selling and I was the number one sales person and now I’m the number four sales person in the business. Nothing makes me happier than that because that shows me that I’m doing my job of building my staff up”.

Choosing the right staff

For someone that never wanted to have staff let alone own a franchise business, Kasey understands that “choosing the right sales staff is key” to running a successful business. “What Richard Branson, a key inspiration on looking after your team I learnt was once you build your business you don’t have to work seven days a week – I work three days”, says Kasey. “The people we’ve employed have been with us for 2.5 years because we don’t rule with a dictatorship we do the opposite – we make them feel like it’s their own business”.

Kasey’s approach to staff explained best by this Richard Branson quote: “Your client doesn’t come first in your business. It’s your staff that come first. If you look after your staff then they’ll look after your business”, means she runs her store a little differently than most. “We work to everybody’s strengths”, says Kasey.

“I don’t have my sales people trying to do admin or marketing. My sales people sell and that’s it”. Kasey and Ben have even hired an administration person freeing up time so Kasey could focus on doing what she does best: moving between sales, marketing and team building.

Benefits of owning of a franchise

The biggest benefit of owning a franchise for Kasey has been the clear goals and targets. “I’m super competitive and I love that my franchise keeps me really focused because it gives me some measuring sticks to compare myself to, and until I had every record at Sleepy’s I didn’t sleep well”, she explains. Her team lives and breathes sales targets all month and nothing stands in their way. “When we bought the business we were at $2.5 million turnover and we’re on track to do $4 million this year (2018)”, says Kasey. A result she says couldn’t have been achieved without her sales-focused team. “My three best people have completely different sales techniques”, But that’s what’s great about this business, it doesn’t require one type of personality to be successful”.

Beauty therapy, property, butchers and beds can’t possibly have anything in common. Or can they? “I know it seems really separated - beauty therapy and selling mattresses - but it isn’t”, explains Kasey. “It’s all about building a relationship with the customer. It depends on how much they trust you as to whether they are going to buy from you”.