Why Henry and Fay Hamann took a leap of faith and became InXpress franchisees

From launching an innovative tech firm to starting a plumbing business, kicking off any enterprise requires courage and conviction. But it was faith of another kind that helped set Henry and Faye Hamann on the path to not only become the franchisees of InXpress Redhill, the shipping franchise, but also to grow their business across the world.

The story behind the spouses’ success started when Henry lost his job. “The company I was working for went into liquidation,” he explains. While they immediately started looking for employment elsewhere, months passed without any result. “It was very difficult for us,” he recalls. “And then somebody at our church offered us money to help us set up our own business.”

And it wouldn’t take long before the Hamanns took him up on the offer. But while they were compelled to start a business of their own, the couple felt that building something from scratch would take too long to turn a profit. Fortunately the couple found the solution to their predicament: franchising. “I liked the idea of getting the keys to an operation we could start up immediately without a major setup,” says Henry. For the best part of a year, he looked at numerous franchises but none of them were to his liking until InXpress caught his attention. “It fit me perfectly because I had worked in shipping for many years,” says Henry. “Then I contacted the guy from the church and asked if his offer was still on the table. Not only did he say yes but the money offered was the exact amount needed to buy the franchise, including VAT.”

However, just because the entrepreneurs had the money they needed, that didn’t mean purchasing the franchise was without challenges. The money still hadn’t been transferred when they set up a dinner meeting with John Thompson, founder and CEO of InXpress, to buy the franchise. “I called the bank and told them that the money was coming: I said I would write the cheque even without the funds in the account,” says Henry. Having ended the conversation, he rushed to the station to catch the London train. It wasn’t until he was hurrying to meet the founder and buy the franchise that the bank manager called him back. “He told me that they would honour the cheque but that I should never ever do this again,” laughs Henry. “So yeah, we nearly bought the franchise with a bouncing cheque.”

The success or failure of any enterprise depends on how well founders attract clients. Fortunately, the couple was able to rely on their personal networks to source their first customers, with Faye setting up a meeting for her husband through a contact at a charity they’d been involved in. This person helped them set up a pitch with a big company just months after launching their franchise. “At the time I didn’t even own a laptop,” Henry says. “So I was going to have to do the whole presentation with just a few brochures.” And even if she’d helped set up the initial meeting, his wife started to worry that they may be in over their heads. “Faye told me not to go and make a fool out of myself: she thought no big company would do business with a one-man-band like me,” he says. Luckily the prospect of failure didn’t deter him and he walked out of that meeting with 10% of the company’s worldwide distribution.