Adam Bannister: What attracted you to this franchise?
Claire Perera: The chance to choose my own hours, as I have two children; doing it at my own pace.
And the challenge really – I was getting a bit bored.
I have met so many other mums and made loads of friends
Claire Perera, Go Kart Party franchisee
AB: That’s interesting. Running a business – though often with good reason – is generally associated with longer, more unpredictable hours. Is this franchise very flexible then?
CP: Yeah, they have been quite open about letting you do what you want.
AB: So you can turn bookings down if you need to?
CP: Yeah – I can accept as many or as few as I want in my territory, and if I turn one down I just pass it on.
Franchisees’ success rates really vary, but I don’t know how much of that is to do with the area or the person. I don’t know any of the other franchisees well enough to be able to comment on that.
AB: Could it have anything to with overlapping territories – too many franchisees going after the same business?
CP: No, because they have been quite strong with how they distribute the areas, so a lot of it is probably to do with the region itself – the demographics.
Some people seem to be doing extremely well, most people are doing OK, and some people are struggling.
AB: How about yourself?
CP: From the sound of it, I’m doing pretty well. I’ve done 140 parties in 10 months.
AB: How many does that translate to a week?
CP: I do weekends mainly. On average about three or four parties a weekend – but it depends.
AB: So if you want to be a Go-Kart Party franchisee you should be prepared to do weekends?
CP: Yes, you have to: that’s when most people want to hold their children’s birthday parties.
You need to put effort in during the week to get the customers, and then you actually have to go out at the weekend to do parties, fetes and other events.
They sell it as a part-time or a full-time opportunity. It’s literally up to you how much effort you want to put in.
