My journey as an Express Employment Professionals Franchisee started about 2 years ago when I finally decided to take the plunge and become a Business Owner. I fell in love with the staffing temporary employment services industry while working for a company that specialised in Staffing and Resourcing as a Financial Manager for over 10 years.
Over the years, I got to understand the staffing & temporary employment services industry from the side-lines, and I conducted my own research on the many opportunities that this industry had to offer. When the opportunity to finally join a temporary employment services brand presented itself, Express Employment Professionals was an obvious choice as they stood out to me as the expert in Temporary Employment Services industry. The brand provided me with the opportunity to become an SMME that is supported by a big brand, with all the necessary resources in place. My journey was set to grow to greater heights.
I acquired an Express SA Franchise in November 2019, and We were branded as Express Employment Professionals (Fourways). Our onboarding process into Express SA was carefully guidance and made easy by our Franchisor Developer. We attended an induction and continued to be trained through our online platform, Express University. We officially opened our offices on the 02nd of March 2020 and two weeks into our opening, we were hit with the challenge of the President of South Africa announcing that the country was going into a hard lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Becoming an Express Franchise was one of the best decisions that I ever made, especially during the toughest times of the COVID-19 pandemic. I found myself in a space where our office was “IT & all systems ready” for any challenges that laid ahead of us and we were able to seamless switch from a physical office environment to working from home. The skills that we acquired in the midst of the pandemic have been quite valuable. Our presence in the social media space grew. Finding new business without face-to-face interactions was an interesting challenge which continuously evolved. Resilience was the order of the day. I can proudly say that the Express Employment Professionals SA’s family support including all my fellow franchisees has been outstanding. Our Associates continued to be paid on time week after week, thanks to our highly skills and dedicated payroll team.
The highlight for Express Employment Professionals (Fourways) was being announced as the Office that achieved the Highest Revenue for Permanent Placements in respect of the 2021 Financial Year. This has been our proudest moment and it would not have been achieved without all the support that we received across all our offices and Express SA Head.
My recommendation to any future franchisees is that when you chose to join Express SA, you are choosing a brand with ethics, a brand that appreciates it associates & staff, you are choosing Excellence. Express SA is place where clients are not treated as a number, but each client is given a personalised service. Our aim is to positively impact our clients’ businesses through mutual partnerships.