Sam Orders and Shaun Birley met in year seven at high school in Australia and have been friends ever since. After graduating from University in they were not sure what to do next – go into the corporate world and work up the career ladder, or do something different. Sam picks up the first part of their compelling story…
“When an InXpress franchise was suggested to us it felt like the perfect opportunity! There wasn’t a huge investment needed and eventually it would provide us both with the lifestyle and freedom we craved.
The early days were tough though and for a while we wondered what on earth we had done, especially when Shaun needed knee surgery and my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. That was the lowest point for us both. At the same time, our friends had their own places and were on good salaries, so they could afford to do things we couldn’t. We were working all hours for $100 AUD a week, I was living with my mum, and Shaun was in a tiny apartment. Luckily, we both had the drive and ambition to see us through this period, so we knew we just had to stay focused!”
Shaun continues the story “It was two and a half years after starting the business that we began to reap the rewards of it. We both went to the Rugby World Cup in the UK and then travelled around Europe and yet we still had the biggest month we had ever had, as we had a fantastic customer service rep on board who we had invested a lot of time training up!
We also started to pick up accolades from within the network and outside of it, including winning the Franchise Council of Australia’s (FCA) Franchise of the Year award (2 staff or less).
At this point, another friend from University – John O’Riordan – who was a fellow franchisee, came on board as our Franchise Manager. This meant that Sam and I could both fulfil our other aspirations. Sam headed to InXpress’ head office in the USA where he worked as the Americas Onboarding Director for 2 yearsbefore returning to Australia recently to take up the position of Operations Director Asia Pacific. I launched my own men’s lifestyle business, which means I get to embrace my love of fashion and travel.
These days we spend an hour a month working on the franchise, so within a short period there is no doubt that InXpress has given us both the lifestyle and freedom we wanted. Our friends whose lives we envied in the early days, are now asking us about buying an InXpress franchise!”.