Guy Elliott, National Franchise Manager of Sleepy’s, joined us for a brief chat at the Sydney Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo, August 2022.

We covered some of the key aspects of the Sleepy’s franchise business including the type of people that are best suited, any common misconceptions about the brand or industry, as well as what he loves about what he does and more..

What is your business?

“Our business is Sleepy’s and Sleepy’s is is seller of mattresses and bedding accessories. 

Where are you located?

Sleepy’s is located up and down the east coast of Australia, including Tasmania. We're not in WA or the Northern Territory. 

What do you love about the business and what you do?

I love the the variants or the variation in the role. My role covers not just franchising but also areas of maintenance and property and leasing within the business. 

So being a small business, it's quite varied and concentrated. I love that that we can sell to assist people achieve the very, very best sleep that they can have. And so we, we focus a lot on sleep, health and gaining that for each customer. 

What do you look for in the right-fit person to be a franchise owner, can you describe them?

The right fit person to I guess any franchise really is. Firstly, that person has to be enthusiastic about what they're wanting to do. They've got to like the product. Often people say to us, I had no idea that I would ever be selling mattresses, but until they understand the product and understand the benefit of sleeping on a great bed, you don't have that same appreciation until you understand and learn that. 

What’s a common misconception you believe people have about your brand or niche?

A common misconception, I think, is that it's not a sexy business, if I can call it that. Beds are not the most exciting product to sell, and often people can't picture themselves selling a mattress or accessories to go with the mattress. 

But once in an understanding what the product can do to the human body in achieving a great night's sleep, it becomes quite a selling process where you're wanting to solve the customer's problems and help them achieve that best night's sleep possible that we're all aiming for. 

What would your advice or guidance be to people looking to get into their own business?

My advice for anyone going or wanting to go into a business for themselves is really understand the the product and understand what you're getting yourself in for. 

Any independent ownership of business, in my opinion is, it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of thought process. It takes a lot of emotional energy. 

And I think that's underestimated sometimes by people. So I think that the understanding of what you're getting yourself in for, first of all. Secondly, know the products and be really prepared to be able to sell that product as well. 

What is your key focus for the next 12-18 months?

As always, our focus is to get the best from each of our franchise businesses as well as our company stores. 

There's a lot of and probably always is a lot of talk about economics and what the effect of things like interest rates and, you know, more recently and still currently covered and how that will affect the consuming public in some ways. 

There's a lot of change. In other ways, there's no change at all. These things are upon us pretty much all the time, so you've got to stay in front of that. But your aims and your goals shouldn't change if your goals are to grow the business and grow the profit of franchisees within the business, that should not change. 

All that may change is what comes at you from left field, and that you've got to address that on a day to day basis as you move forward.”