Real estate franchise, Go Gecko, has emerged from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed, with serious expansion plans lined up for 2010.

Geoff Doyle, CEO of Go Gecko, said that 2009 was a successful year for the company. “We opened five offices in September. I think we started the year at about 22 offices and we ended up with 28. We didn’t look to grow our business but we focused on our existing franchisees and looked to make them more dominant in their local markets, and as a consequence, the sales volumes increased and we had seven record months,” he said.

Expansion plans centre around Adelaide and Brisbane with two new franchises being opened in Adelaide this year. There are currently 21 outlets in Brisbane, with another 20 planned for 2010. Ten to 12 franchises will also be opened in Sydney.

“We’re looking to have substantial growth during 2010,” Doyle said. “We’re at 28 offices now. Our plan is to get to 60 next year – so we’re looking to double in size.”

According to Doyle, one of the biggest mistakes that franchises can make during difficult economic times is to keep quiet and try to ride it out. “I think you have to grow in tough times,” he said. “If you try to shrink and control costs and tough it out you run the risk of going broke. I think it’s more important to play to your strengths.”

“Everyone is looking to tough it out or contract but there’s fantastic opportunities to grow your business during tough times and that’s the approach we took and it has held us in good stead”.

Go Gecko was ranked second in the ‘BRW Fastest Franchise’ list of top 40 performing franchises for 2009.