Meet the team
There are over 30 people in our Head Office team that are dedicated to supporting you in some way.
With any franchise business the ongoing support is crucial to your long term success and we have invested heavily in both people and technology to ensure that you get the support you need.
You are welcome to come to our HQ in Solihull and meet the team yourself. We have regular 'Open Days' or you can make a personal 1:1 appointment. Just contact Cat on 0121 765 5556 and she will arrange that for you. Alternatively you can e-mail her here.
Here's our team:
Franchisee Development & Support
This team is headed up by Michelle Downey and includes Marcus, Sarah, Jeannie and Alisa. Their only role in life is to help you to succeed and if you come on board as a franchisee then you'll have lots of contact with these guys. They'll become your 'new best friends'.
Franchisee Recruitment
Cat Foulkes leads this team and they will steer you through any questions or queries and also assess your suitability for this business as part of our Application process.
Marketing
Mark Creaser heads up our Marketing team which is responsible for providing franchisees with an ever growing portfolio of marketing materials and inititiatives that will help you to grow your business. Mark is also our 'brand guardian' - he makes sure that anything happening across our network supports our brand proposition.
Tech Team
We have 10 full time members of this team and they make sure that thebestof continues to develop and evolve. The team is led by Nigel Davis and they also provide technical support to franchisees, where necessary. They also take care of all the hosting and maintenance of thebestof web site and the Admin Console that you will use to manage and operate your site.
Finance
Brenda Brown is our Finance Manager and her and her team take care of the money. Simple really!
Search Optimisation & Traffic Management
Jo Davies is responsible for managing our 'SEO' (search engine optimisation) and for driving traffic to the website. We currently get around 1.3m unique visitors each month and have over 400,000 pages indexed on Google with over 70,000 in Top 10 positions. It's performance like this that makes is much easier for you to develop and grow your business.
Leadership
The Managing Director of N5 Ltd is Andy Hurst. Andy has full day-to-day responsibility for thebestof.
Stuart Bevins has the responsibility for building our network of registered members (local people in your area who use your site) and he will work closely with you to help you build this important part of your business.
Meanwhile, our commercial director, Paul Chapman, handles all commercial opportunities that thebestof generates.
We are a very 'flat' organisation and you can expect to get to know all three of these guys pretty well if your Application is successful.
Lastly, of course, there's our founder and CEO, Nigel Botterill who retains a hands-on role in driving the business forward.
Franchisee Consultation Group
The 'FCG' as it is known meets three times a year when franchisees and the Leadership team come together for a day to plan the next stages of development of the business. Working so closely with franchisees means that we can adapt and adjust quickly and also respond to opportunities.
Franchisees are invited to join the FCG and they normally serve for one year. 2008 members include:
Kevin Bourne, Bromley
Russ Green, Stoke
Andy Rao, Shrewsbury
Dean Cox, Leamington Spa
Paul Daniels, Chester
Nick Taimitarha, Richmond
David Fernando, Wimbledon & Kingston
John Dunn, Loughborough
Jane Windle, Ormskirk
Simon Pitts-Drake, Cirencester
