Choosing to close the chapter on one career path in order to start another can be daunting, leaving many people unsure of their next move. For Ed Weatherford, that meant leaving a 14-year long career in the sales and management sector of the hotel furnishings industry. But, Ed didn\u2019t plan on leaving his years of experience behind him. Instead, he leaned into his passion for sales and design and chose to look for an opportunity that would allow him to learn about it even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to choosing a new career path, it\u2019s essential to pursue not only\u00a0a business that aligns with your goals and values but also fuels your passion. Thanks to expertise furnishing hotels with everything from carpeting to window coverings, Ed was able to easily identify the industry he wanted to join \u2013 and found the perfect way to bring his passion for design into his daily work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything fits and comes together like a puzzle,\u201d explained Ed. \u201cWindow coverings were always both a functional challenge, as well as a decorative challenge and I enjoyed that. Going into window treatment sales and my own business just seemed like a natural next step.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Ed initially looked into starting a business from the ground up, he realized that franchising was a much better option and began researching window treatment franchises. Although Ed came across several different franchises within the industry, one quickly stood out from the rest: Bloomin\u2019 Blinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI thought it would be smart to have a proven business model and national brand recognition behind me. Plus, I loved the idea of having access to a supportive network of franchisees, so I started looking into window covering franchises,\u201d said Ed. \u201cBloomin\u2019 Blinds immediately popped out at me \u2013 when I dove deeper into the website, I just had a great feeling about the brand and leadership team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Ed continued to look into Bloomin\u2019 Blinds, he saw how important customer focus, integrity and honesty were to the brand, and \u2013 after having an open conversation with brand CEO Kelsey Stuart \u2013 knew it was meant to be. The two talked about the importance of finding solutions that work for customers, as opposed to simply selling them a product, and Ed was impressed by how passionate Kelsey was about staying focused on creating a strong customer experience, which leads naturally to more sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything Kelsey and I discussed got me more and more interested in the Bloomin\u2019 Blinds opportunity. This is a company that believes in high integrity and a certain sales method and operations highly similar to mine. Kelsey just hit all the right spots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once Ed was officially on board, Kelsey, Kris and Kevin Stuart \u2013\u00a0the brothers that helped found the business\u00a0\u2013 got right to work preparing him for success and Ed was amazed by how in-depth their training and franchisee toolkit were. The leadership team made sure that Ed had access to all the necessary tools he needed to succeed, from videos to scheduling software. Ed immediately felt the support of the team and saw how essential the knowledge he was given was to his success as a Bloomin\u2019 Blinds franchisee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to years of hard work building a strong franchise, Kelsey, Kris and Kevin all have their areas of individual expertise and make sure they\u2019re available to chat anytime a franchisee has a question about everything from installation to repairs or product questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re always looking to improve the brand. Plus, I know I can pick up the phone and call them for anything,\u201d explained Ed. \u201cWhether it\u2019s calling Kelsey about a product, Kris about a question on installation or Kevin for repairs, I know I\u2019m getting the best knowledge out there and that support is invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ed began his journey with Bloomin\u2019 Blinds at the beginning of 2019, and with a little under two years of full operations under his belt, can attest to the importance of listening to and following the guidance of the Stuart brothers \u2013 and has continued to excel within his local community in Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you follow what Kelsey, Kris and Kevin have developed over their time with the company and utilize their support structures, your biggest problem is keeping up with the growth and call volume \u2013 and that\u2019s not a bad problem to have,\u201d said Ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Choosing to close the chapter on one career path in order to start another can be daunting, leaving many people unsure of their next move. For Ed Weatherford, that meant leaving a 14-year long career in the sales and management sector of the hotel furnishings industry. But, Ed didn\u2019t plan on leaving his years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-franchising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloominblinds.com\/rochester-hills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}