James Greig

Age: 26
Business Est: 2004
Number of staff: 16
Growth: 50%
Turnover: $1.3m

WHILE larger corporations are still treading the market carefully, Bloomtools founder James Greig has thrown caution to the wind with a rapid franchising strategy.

The Robina web design company has recently established two franchises in New Zealand, expanding the company’s empire to seven offices.

“The way the market is at the moment many companies are scared to make any big decisions,” says Greig.

“We know we’ve got a great business model and we’re still marching on forward.”

Greig puts much of his continued success down to managing the company’s resources during a period of expansion.

“One of the challenges you face when you’re growing is making sure you’re spending time and resources throughout the entire business,” he says.

Greig says the company will develop the best processes for working with its New Zealand franchises before going global. He emphasises the importance of positioning new franchises for business success.

Greig’s advice for his new franchise owners is to expect to do the hard yards, especially until you can add more staff to the roster.

“Business is hard and can be tough as all business owners know.

Many people have a typical expectation of what business is like and only see the positives. They often don’t realise the amount of hard work that goes in behind the scenes,” he says.

Having picked up more large clients locally including Griffith University, the Franchise Association of Australia and the National Retailers Association, Greig says he is ‘very excited’ about Bloomtools’ future.

“We have spent the last two years preparing for our growth and are very happy to be able to continue growing given the state of affairs in the world,” he says.

When Greig founded the company in 2004 there was little competition for Bloomtools in the small business IT provider industry.

While he’s noticed at least three similar businesses coming to Australia since then, he believes the company’s innovative business strategy has given him a significant head start on the competition.

“We’ve adopted a strategy where when a business buys a website from us they don’t have to buy anything else. We provide regular free updates for our customers so when our tools are upgraded their websites are also automatically,” he says.