Rakesh Mazumear, Tooting

Before I became a CeX franchise owner I was working long hours in the finance sector. I decided to quit my job when the credit crunch kicked in, work had become more stressful and I was fed up with working ridiculously long hours for the benefit of the shareholders.

My mother introduced me to the concept of franchising when I was younger. She was a sub-postmaster and was given guidelines on how to run her post office...just like a franchisor would advise a franchise owner. So I was aware of the benefits of becoming a franchise owner: namely access to a tried and tested business model and an ongoing support and training package. I decided to invest in CeX for two main reasons: not only did I like the concept of buying, selling and trading entertainment goods such as DVDs, mobile phones, CDs and computer games, I also liked the fact that the existing stores I had visited had a good atmosphere.

I cannot rate the training and support package highly enough! I was put on an eight week training course, which covered everything from retail sales through to product knowledge and management training. I can contact my Franchise Manager at any point if I need advice and when I was preparing to launch CeX Managers travelled from existing stores to help me recruit and train my staff.

My business has got off to a flying start. On the first day alone my Tooting-based store made £6,000 and since then it has averaged a weekly turnover of £20,000. At the moment I am working all hours, seven days a week until the business is properly established. However, I am more than happy to do this now if it means I can reap the rewards later and achieve a £1.1 million turnover by the end of March 2010.