Greg Harrison worked in the building services industry before he invested in Ivory Tower Cards, a greetings card franchise specialising in shop-within-shop fully stocked display stands in independant retail outlets.
Explains Greg: "My wife and I were attracted to Ivory Tower Cards because we knew that greetings cards were a safe, recession-proof industry and the people at Ivory Tower promised a start-up package that meant we were earning good money from day one."
As part of the franchise package Greg was told that cards would be placed by Ivory Tower in one hundred shops in the greater Belfast area. The couple live in Country Antrim, just north of Belfast. "In fact," says Greg, "the product was so well received that Ivory Tower actually handed over 129 shops for me to service. My franchise basically means that i have to service these shops on a regular basis and use my spare time to open new accounts. I've now been going just over a year and i have my product in 254 shops in Northern Ireland."
Greg's day begins with him reviewing his route of shops to service and prepairing his products. Ivory Tower brings out approximately 6 new designs every month, so there's always something new for him to show his customer.
Once his route is finalised and his cards are prepared - which takes around half an hour in the kitchen over a cup of coffee - Greg sets off. "I really like the sense of fredom i have." he says. "If it's a horrible day or my children are on school holidays it's no problem for me to take a few days off. Once i'm in the shop it depends very much on the character of the shopkeeper. Some of them make you a cuppa and want a chat, others just want to pay you and get the new product on the display stands as quickly as possible. You soon learn what each customer wants and on average I service about 12 shops a day. Some of the busier shops need a visit every two weeks, while the quieter ones are visited every 6 weeks. The way i'm growing i should have over 350 shops by next summer and then my wife will give up her part time job and help me in the business - we're both really looking forward to that."
Greg told Making Money that Ivory Tower has been of great assistance in developing his business. Not only did the company do far more than they promised Greg, they assigned a development manager to him for a week after he'd been trading for a few months. "This really helped my confidence," Greg remembers. "I got a real boost from all the extra accounts. I ring head office every week or so and talk over my progress. It's nice to know you're talking to somebody who's worked in the area with you and not just some suit in an office who wants you to hit your targets so he can keep his own manager happy. It's a team thing. Ivory Tower spent a month driving around Belfast in a van when i started up, so they know the problems in my area."
All in all the Harrisons are very pleased that when they were investigating the possibilities of franchising they chose Ivory Tower. Says Greg, "The understand the business from the street up and so we feel very comfortable working alongside them, The cards have proved very popular in my area and the sales figures are better than the projections i read in the company's brochure."
