Mark Stanton has just come on board to run his own Ed’s gardening business in Ramsgate and surrounding areas. His career experience gives him a great foundation for running an Ed’s business.
Mark’s very own gardening business! We asked him to tell us a bit about his decision to join Ed’s:-
The background…
“ Well, my background is in electrical and electronic engineering. Before joining Ed’s I was a European Sales Director for a large American Company. I had worked there for 30 years and managed a team of European salespeople.
Although I had a successful career, increasingly I felt that the joy had gone out of my job. I was travelling way more than I wanted to. My health was suffering due to stress, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. My wife was frequently telling me that she would rather I was fit, healthy and alive than a successful businessman who was ill and highly stressed. We realised it was time for a major rethink.
As luck would have it, redundancy came my way. I needed an opportunity like this and I jumped at it! The question was the what next? I have always found gardening and designing gardens enormously therapeutic, relaxing and rewarding. It’s true that I loved doing both my own garden and the gardens of friends and family. I even completed a diploma in Garden Design – just for fun! When I was particularly stressed through work, my wife would banish me to the garden for a few hours. Afterwards (apparently!) I returned a much happier person! All of this gave me the answer I needed. The future had to be a career switch to a gardening business!”
Why Ed’s garden franchise…
“I was attracted by the challenge and freedom of running my own gardening business. I also knew that a good franchise framework could help me to have a scale of gardening business to generate decent earnings.
My next task was to find the best in the business. Following much research, I decided there was no question that was Ed’s. Their brand, in particular, impressed me hugely.”
The rest is history and an exciting new chapter in my life was to begin.”
The decision-making process…
“It’s really funny but I felt I already knew a lot about Ed’s even before I’d spoken to anyone in the Ed’s team. Their public domain information was very informative and gave a great insight into what the Ed’s business and business model are all about. It was all very professional and informative but clear to understand where the value lay.
When I came to speak with and meet Ed and the Ed’s team, it all just reinforced my initial impressions. The feeling was they were very professional without any corporate stuffiness and there was a real sense of ‘all hands to deck’ to help Operators realise their ambitions. Although I asked all the difficult questions to be absolutely sure, it was an incredibly easy decision to make. I knew I loved gardening and I had every confidence that Ed’s was the right vehicle to support me through to achieving my goals. I felt like I just fitted in from the outset.
I’ve now done most of my training and have got my garden business set up and ready to go. There has been a lot to organise but I have been guided through it and have really enjoyed the whole onboarding process. It has all gone very smoothly without any glitches at all. It has been infinitely less daunting than setting up an independent business would have been.”
The future…
“My main challenge, after 30 years in a corporate world, has been to have the self-belief that I can become successfully self-employed. However, I’ve come to wholeheartedly believe that I really can. However, it is still great to have the safety net of a successful franchise behind me. I am now more excited than nervous about the future and it helps knowing that my wife and family (not to mention the Ed’s team!) all believe in me 100%. I’m more than ready to go and just can’t wait to get on with building my gardening business.”
We wish Mark all the very best with his Ed’s business.