Matt Walker and his brother Brad invested in their first Grill’d franchise in 2005.

Within just five years they had expanded their portfolio to include sites in the Melbourne suburbs of Knox, Camberwell and Southland. 

The pair also recently took out the Multi-Unit award at the 2013 NAB FCA Excellence in Franchising Awards for the VIC/TAS region, and are in the running for the national award.

Matt and Brad opted for franchising as they knew first hand the struggles associated with starting up a new business from scratch. 

“We had both worked for other people in various roles and had both been involved in start up businesses. Having gained this experience we realised the challenges that we would face if we were to start up a new business ourselves – especially with speed to market,” explains Matt.

“We chose the franchise path as we realised the potential for growth and engagement with a well known brand that had established operations systems. The ability for a franchisor to have specialists in different areas such as site selection, brand, training, HR, operations and so forth, was also very appealing.”

Matt and Brad took the due diligence process very seriously, devoting a significant amount of time to uncovering all there was to know about both Grill’d and other brands prior to investing.  

“We researched a few different brands via several different avenues and decided on Grill’d as the one we would like to be involved with.

“Our research covered three main areas:

• Direct questioning of senior staff within Grill’d
• Engagement and discussion with various employees and associates of Grill’d
• Most importantly, understanding and engaging with the brand. We made sure that we intimately understood the business model and where it was heading over the next five years,” Matt says.

While they opted for Grill’d for a number of reasons; there was one thing that really stood out. “We truly believed in the brand message – if we were going to live and breathe Grill’d we needed to ensure we engaged with every component of what the brand stood for,” he explains.

During their time with Grill’d, the importance Matt and Brad place on both representing and embodying the brand has only increased.

“We already knew how important it was to not rely on the brand to do the work for you nor to solely represent the brand in your territory – however this is certainly a critical component of being a franchisee. You need to be the brand,” says Matt.

Despite their success, Matt and Brad, as is the case for almost every franchisee, have faced some challenges over the course of their franchising journey.

“For us the biggest challenge has been to realise we cannot solely guide our own destiny within Grill’d. Brad and I are ambitious people and have had to recognise that we are not the only ones making decisions that impact on our growth and expansion,” Matt explains.

Matt offers a number of tips for people looking to invest in a franchise:

• Research, research, research
• Understand the brand and relate to it
• Talk to people that work in the business and understand the ugly truths as well as the highlighted achievements
• Look for a franchise that is not in the business of selling franchises only
• Understand that there is a lot of personal time and effort in making the business work