Tina – our Shrewsbury and Telford Family Grapevine Franchisee

Tina has been a franchisee for over 5 years

I came across The Family Grapevine as a business opportunity in 2004 when my daughter was attending a local Gymbobs class and I saw an advert in their magazine, RightStart. At that time I was poised on the brink of having to make a decision about my life – whether to go back to work now that my daughter had started school (probably as a low-paid secretarial temp) or to take the plunge and start my own business from home.

I had no background in business as I was the only child of two working class foreign parents and my self-confidence was low so the second option was a real step into the unknown for me and I had real worries that it would not work out. Thank goodness I came across The Family Grapevine.
My tentative investigations reassured me that the company was above-board, the opportunity seemed interesting to me and useful to the community at large and I could just about afford it as I had a computer and some software already and some DTP skills.

My main doubt was whether or not I’d be able to sell as the success of the business depends on this. I thought long and hard about it – I’d never sold anything in my life and didn’t think of myself as being a particularly capable speaker (I thought all salespeople had to have the gift of the gab!) But it sounded like there would be plenty of help at hand if I was struggling, so I applied. The “interview” felt more like I was interviewing the Directors than the other way round, but I came away from it feeling that with their help, I COULD do it.

And so I started building up listings, the ‘bread and butter’ of The Family Grapevine magazine. So far so good. But then came the day (and believe me, I put it off and put it off some more!) that I had to start selling – the words “cold calling” kept coming into my head and I’d freeze up – but there was no two ways about it – it had to be done.

I tried to think of it as simply ‘having a chat’ with someone who might benefit from the service I was offering and this made it much easier. I was just building a relationship, not “trying to sell them something” and came to see every contact with a potential advertiser as positive – even if they didn’t want to advertise (which most didn’t of course), they would most probably be glad of a free listing at least.

I learned that “No” only means ‘not at this time’ and it’s not personal – they’re not saying no to me, they’re saying ‘not right now’ to advertising in The Family Grapevine – all these little psychological ways of thickening my delicate skin!

All the way I benefited from advice and support from the Directors (plus a lot of grassroots support from my partner and daughter of course) and I’ve since been a ‘mentor’ to a new-start Family Grapevine in North East Cheshire, which now seems to be thriving. I only run my edition on a part-time basis as spending time with my family at home is very important to me and I shall probably never make my fortune from doing it, but I’m happy and it’s changed my life for the better as I’m now much more confident.

I’m glad I took that plunge, and even more glad it turned out to be the right plunge for me.

Tina Teearu, Editor, Shrewsbury & Telford Family Grapevine, 01743 351842