As businesses emerge from the sombre trenches of the past few months, eyes are on those who offer financially stressed consumers a silver lining and according to franchisee Rudolph van Zyl, Cash Crusaders is one of them.

“Cash Crusaders stores will be able to meet an immediate post lockdown need,” says Rudolph, “and not only in the trading of second hand goods, but people who will need to replace certain items that have malfunctioned during lockdown, will look for value-added quality products, not necessarily high-priced brand names.”

This sentiment stands true to the volume of traffic Cash Crusaders stores saw throughout their stores on the opening days of lockdown Level 3. In addition to the retail arm of the Cash Crusaders business model, customers are also able to trade in their second hand and unwanted goods OR apply for cash loans against their personal items for life’s little emergencies until things slowly ‘get back to normal’.

“What’s truly valuable as a franchisee in this regard is that Cash Crusaders Franchising has built a corporate business as opposed to just a franchise one,” says Rudolph. The operational strategy is geared towards retail, and franchisees with the right passion, entrepreneurial spirit and customer empathy for this environment prove particularly successful. Franchisees who enter the Cash Crusaders business with limited retail experience are expertly trained and the systems and tools offered by head office scale the business to make it easier to run.

The Cash Crusaders business has been built on 3 different business centres, so even though stores were unable to trade during the lock-down period, they’ve been relatively resilient to financial crises due to the business being able to meet an immediate need for their customers.

“Being a part of this type of franchised set-up that has withstood every financial crisis over the last decade, has driven me to open more stores in the coming year,” says Rudolph. “We conduct a significant amount of research into the areas where we set up our stores by understanding the customer and the community needs that stores will need to fulfil,” he concludes.

If you’re ready to succeed in a retail business able to weather the toughest of economic storms, visit the Cash Crusaders website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube channels.