An opportunity to deliver high volumes of business

The launch of EC Credit Control's first UK franchisee leaves just three remaining regions available for individuals seeking a serious business development opportunity in credit management and debt recovery. Stuart Anderson interviews its first UK franchisees

Taking responsibility for the entire Northern region of the UK - including Scotland, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and York - is an ambitious proposition for prospective franchisees, but Tom and Vanessa Stein are bringing a strong franchising background with them having previously developed a chain of three McDonald's restaurants over 12 years. In fact, it was the size of the opportunity and the potential for building a large sales force to deliver high volumes of business that attracted the couple to become EC Credit Control's first Regional Franchisees in the UK.

The couple signed up for their territory in March and, having completed the sales of their restaurants and visited Australia and New Zealand for their initial five week training programme, launched their business in September. 'The training covers all aspects of the business and was first class, they looked after us extremely well,' says Tom. 'We have now moved into offices and taken on our first seven sales people to start bringing in business across our region.'

EC Credit Control has developed and proven a unique set of services in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand for providing comprehensive value-for-money solutions to the cash flow and invoicing issues of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). 'Our charges are very, very competitive in the UK and we also offer some unique services, such as enabling the client to follow the progress of the debt recovery in real time on their own computer, and providing robust terms and conditions of sale which save SMEs a lot of money when it comes to enforcing their debt collection,' reveals Tom. 'We're looking to recruit another 30-35 sales people to cover the territory by the end of Q1 2008, and if we reach our turnover targets we'll be very happy.'

With the EC Credit Control head office team in the UK until the end of the year to support the Steins and meet with prospective franchisees in the remaining three regions (East, West and Southern), now is an excellent time to find out more about this opportunity to develop a sizeable business.