{"id":5507,"date":"2020-06-05T15:16:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T14:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=5507"},"modified":"2020-06-15T17:17:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T16:17:22","slug":"david-abbott-the-alternative-board-tab-thames-valley-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/david-abbott-the-alternative-board-tab-thames-valley-west\/","title":{"rendered":"David Abbott, The Alternative Board (TAB) – Thames Valley West"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

David Abbot is logical, systematic and likes to ensure he has all the facts so he can think things through before he makes decisions. He has been with TAB since January 2017 and currently works with 18 members (all business owners themselves).<\/p>\n

Prior to joining the franchise David trained as an HR manager, having gained a business studies degree, working with companies such as BA and Honeywell. Eventually he was tempted into the headhunting business by a supplier and, having learnt the business for 5 years, decided to set up on his own.<\/p>\n

David built up his practice until, some years later, he was approached by a US company interested in buying the business. The sale was successfully completed and he continued working for the acquiring company for a few years. Circumstances change and David decided to buy back the business, but after running it for a while longer he decided that he wanted to do something else.<\/p>\n

At the time David was working with a coach to consider options for his future; he established that a B2B franchise could be a good way forward. David didn\u2019t want to start from scratch again and was keen to develop something within a tried and tested framework.<\/p>\n

He looked at a number of B2B franchises and eventually found The Alternative Board (TAB) via LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

What made David choose TAB over other, similar, franchises available?<\/h4>\n

David explains: \u201cI like and believe in what TAB does. It\u2019s a good thing and provides an invaluable service to the business community; plus it plays to my strengths and I really like the people. At every stage on the TAB \u2018recruitment\u2019 process I expected to see something I didn\u2019t like, but that wasn\u2019t the case, so I thought, I\u2019d better do this!\u201d<\/p>\n

David had about two thirds of the required funds available and borrowed the balance from the HSBC franchise unit; they were one of the funders TAB suggested he speak to.<\/p>\n

He has found found the TAB training and support to be, in his words: \u201cBrilliant! Because of my background in HR, I was slightly cynical about how good the training would be, but the quality was outstanding. The ongoing support is very good, with the right people who have the right attitude and want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

TAB practise what they preach, and all TAB franchisees sit on a \u2018peer board\u2019 each month with other TAB franchisees. It\u2019s so helpful for them to learn from others who have done it before. There is also some good learning experiences to be gained about managing your own TAB Boards.<\/p>\n

Every new venture faces challenges, with TAB David says that: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to sell the service and talk with conviction about the benefits of the TAB membership. Unless you can do that, you won\u2019t make it. I\u2019ve had to sell my own services before so it wasn\u2019t a great shock when joining TAB, especially as it\u2019s not a \u2018hard-sell\u2019 process.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main challenge was logistics and scaling. I had a tsunami of activity which meant there was a lot to deal with – but it was also a nice problem to have!<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all, one of my biggest challenges has been that your lead generation activity has got to be continuous \u2013 it doesn\u2019t work as well if it\u2019s turned on and off. Keeping the faith that the tried and tested marketing techniques work is important and taking a deep breath and committing to spending on lead generation and marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

David has also experienced lots of \u2018highs\u2019 in his TAB business saying that the first time you realise you\u2019ve made a difference to someone is a hugely satisfying moment, adding that: \u201cTAB is unusual in that we focus on the business owner personally, as well as their company. Most business owners don\u2019t think about their \u2018personal vision\u2019 so there are some real \u2018wow\u2019 moments when we work through that with them!\u201d<\/p>\n

David reached his business goal in January 2020 which meant that he would spend less time on business development and more time playing golf, but then COVID-19 hit everyone. Since then he\u2019s been busier than ever supporting his members. He is now exploring the opportunity of bringing in a facilitator to work with him, with the hope that he can sell his TAB business in about 2 years\u2019 time whilst retaining the ability to run a TAB board or two.<\/p>\n

What would his advice be to someone thinking of buying a franchise?<\/h4>\n

\u201cTrust your instincts. Ask yourself, do I want to be working with these people? I knew I could recruit members I liked, but I needed to like the TAB people as they are the embodiment of the business. If you like and feel comfortable with them it\u2019s more likely to work. I came away from TAB\u2019s Discovery Day thinking I really like these people!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe TAB recruitment process was very good, including the openness of their Due Diligence process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Abbot is logical, systematic and likes to ensure he has all the facts so he can think things through before he makes decisions. He has been with TAB since January 2017 and currently works with 18 members (all business owners themselves). Prior to joining the franchise David trained as an HR manager, having gained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[943],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-alternative-board"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/David-Abbott.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}