Fulfilling a lifetime ambition with MBE

Peter Petersons

Taking redundancy three years ago enabled Peter Petersons to fulfil his ambition to have his own business.

Previously, he had worked in the UK and all over Europe as an IT specialist. He decided that the time was right to become his own boss and thought that franchising was the right way to go about it. He began his research into franchising by reading a specialist magazine and then visited an exhibition, where he met MBE for the first time.

Peter explains: “That visit was an excellent opportunity to see the various franchises on offer and to narrow them down to a shortlist. I liked MBE particularly because I felt it fitted with my previous IT career. I wanted to work in a proper business with the opportunity to grow and expand.

“Another major consideration was that MBE is well established and, with more than 4,500 centres around the world and its UPS connection, it has a lot of credibility.”

After the exhibition, Peter visited MBE’s head office and, once he had decided to make the commitment, he researched his chosen area with MBE’s help. He opened his centre in Weybridge in November 2002 and, already, is planning to take on another centre in a nearby town.

Peter enjoys being a franchisee, running his own shop and the variety of the work. He comments: “If you choose the right franchise, you are supplied with a business model that works. You have the benefit and experience of other franchisees. You buy into a system rather than doing it all from scratch, which enables you to avoid making costly mistakes.

“You are provided with everything you need to start up. Franchisees pay for ongoing support from the franchisor but I feel I’m getting good value for money from my franchise fee - MBE’s head office is always there when I need advice or help.”

When he is not hard at work, Peter play bass guitar and is an active member of a Latvian band called Arvids un Mursiteji (roughly translated as Harvey and the Wallbangers). He is also interested in photography.

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