Time is Money

If time was for sale, how much would you pay for it? An hour here, a half day there… it would be handy. Tom Shanahan and David Kelly sell it.

In 2003 the two hard-working Dubliners met having spent good years with multinationals. Tom had 12 years with Motorola and five with Zomax, where among other things he handled its outsource call centre. David had his hands full as operations director for NTL, and when a project threw them together, they clicked as friends.

“We were doing very well at a senior level,but we both knew we wanted to move out of the multinational world and get into something that was our own”, recalls Tom, pictured on left with David. “We looked at a number of different business ideas, but we both felt there was serious potential in the virtual office market, providing services to small to medium sized business. So we put together an outline business plan and a contact suggested approaching Greg Swift in DCEB. He thought it was a good idea but probably needed more work. DCEB gave us a feasibility grant for almost €5,000 in November ‘05.”

Ireland’s business culture was evolving rapidly. Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) were popping up everywhere, services were expanding, and professionals were busier than ever. What Tom and David had seen was the potential to free property developers and pest controllers, financial advisers and physiotherapists of their ringing telephones while never having to neglect a customer. They knew that advances in call centre technology and software could harness email and the web, contact and diary information, sales details and so much more. If a client could trust you to look after their customers professionally, to resolve their queries while they got on with the job in hand, the freedom and time saved would be precious.

“As part of our feasibility research we went to the British Franchise Exhibition in Birmingham in Autumn ‘05, which is where we came across Kendlebell. They had been operating in the UK for a couple of years, and what they were doing wasn’t a million miles off what we wanted to do. The one thing obvious from our research was that to get involved in this business would involve a lot of investment to get the software right, the debugging and so on, it would have been into six figures to develop it to the standard where we wanted to pitch our business. But here was Kendlebell who had already developed and integrated these technologies.

“We began discussions and decided to buy the master franchise for Ireland, and signed the agreement in February ‘06. That gave us the complete rights for all the franchises in the Republic. We located premises in Fairview in Dublin and we started trading on the 1st of June ‘06.”

Today their pilot franchise employs seven PAs to look after the 220 busy clients. This operation also serves as a shop window for potential franchisees who can see the services in action.

“Typically a Kendlebell client runs a small business, say between one and ten employees,” says Tom. “It’s usually an entrepreneur, very busy and conscious of his time and conscious of having a professional approach. And what we say to our clients is that we give them their time back. They outsource their telephone answering and PA work to us which lets them get on with their work.”

“Our unique selling point is we’re very personalised, we take time to get to know their business, so the PAs who are handling their affairs understand how best to serve a client. Secondly our systems are very strong - everything is automated, so the client is kept up to date by email or text message. It’s a flexible service and clients can patch calls through to us whenever it suits them. And finally we’re affordable. The typical bill is between €100 and €150 a month.”

Building up business among SMEs was new ground for Tom and David, who had been used to having the might of multinational status behind them. “We did a lot of talking,” says Tom. Networks such as DCEB’s Link! and PLATO and Business Network International offered invaluable opportunities to learn from others involved in new businesses, and also to soft sell the Kendlebell message. They chose their staff carefully and invested in a very effective website, securing DCEB funding for both strategies, and they regularly attended trade shows. They will complete a three-year business plan in May 2009 and are firmly on track to meet the targets set out.

Tom and David’s success and enthusiasm is proving infectious. They began to put greater focus on growing the franchise network last year, and along with Fairview there are now three others in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Kildare. Another five are set to emerge over the next eight months or so. Their push to grow the brand got a welcome boost last year when Kendlebell scooped the “Best Emerging Franchise 2007” prize from Irish Franchise Awards. This award is given annually to the newest and most promising franchise to be introduced. This has greatly increased the level of interest in the Kendlebell franchise and will surely help to grow the franchise network even faster than planned.

© 2008 Dublin City Enterprise Board. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission from the D.C.E.B.

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