Find Success with 7-Eleven
For Mandeep Singh, the desire to continue to strive to achieve while having the flexibility he needed for his young family was a key motivator in his transition from being a 7-Eleven corporate store manager to a 7-Eleven franchisee.
Mandeep joined 7-Eleven in 2016, as a store manager.
“I really enjoyed being a corporate store manager, but I wanted to do more. The energy from the team was infectious. I wanted to do better, and the high performance culture of the team really connected with me.”
Mandeep found the atmosphere at 7-Eleven very motivating, with one on one encouragement and support for his personal goals.
“Everyone was very approachable, it wasn’t like someone was your boss in your store, just lots of support and encouragement to succeed. When I was looking at what I wanted to do next, my State Manager, Nick Maddox, encouraged me to spend some time thinking about what my goals were, and what I needed to focus on to achieve them,” he said.
In choosing to become a 7-Eleven franchisee, Mandeep said that the structure and support available was really important to him.
“When I joined 7-Eleven, I had only 7 months retail experience. Before I joined, I was in procurement and graphic design. Before I was at 7-Eleven, I was already looking into restaurants and operating my own business. I had run businesses before and knew how hard it was. My daughter was about to be born, and I wanted to make sure my next move would give me not only the chance to be successful, but also the flexibility my family needed,” Mr Singh said.
“7-Eleven has a really well developed structure and system which I had used as a corporate store manager to manage the store. The system lets you focus on running your store and managing your team. Marketing and everything else is taken care of, and there is lots of support and back-up for helping you manage your business’ performance,” he said.
His experience as a 7-Eleven corporate store manager helped to ensure Mandeep could hit the ground running as the owner of the business with the support of his team.
“I knew the store well as I was running it for two years so the transition was easy. My team continued with me, I know them well and they have really helped support my success. You need to support your team wherever you can, and my team respect me for what I do. I lead by example, I do what I ask them to do. It’s really important to show them that what they do is important. We have dinners as a team every few months, keeping them motivated is really crucial.”
Mandeep’s next focus with his team will be on increasing fuel to merchandise conversion rates to take advantage of the volume of customers coming to his store to buy fuel. He sees coffee as a strong opportunity for growth.
“The next thing is fuel conversion, we have such an opportunity with the volume of fuel customers so I’m going to be working with my team to be the first 7-Eleven fuel store in Western Australia to be selling 500 cups per day,”
Mandeep has also embraced the chance to take ownership of driving customer engagement through community support.
“I make decisions about my local area marketing and community support. I can create really strong connections with the local community by being part of their local clubs and organisations. That investment in the community over the past six months I have been the franchisee has not only helped those organisations with their work in the community, but has also given me new regular customers. Our weekend trade is busy because of the connections with the local sporting clubs.”
The transition to becoming a franchisee has proven to be a good choice for Mandeep and his family, with the store continuing to enjoy double digit growth.
“The key difference between being a corporate store manager and a franchisee is stronger financial benefits and more flexibility for my family. My wife works in the store with me, we juggle our work around our family responsibilities and other commitments. It means we can both work, and still have family time. I spend more time in the store as a franchisee, but I can schedule that around what suits me, and spend time with the local community on the weekend. For me, I think success is driven by being true to myself and working hard.”
If you would like to be like Mandeep and find success with 7-Eleven, get more information on becoming a 7-Eleven franchisee at: http://franchise.7eleven.com.au