Anyone can understand business owners wanting to escape from Britain’s struggling retail sector and beleaguered hospitality industry for a much more lucrative life as an estate agent.

We see that all the time at EweMove, with people approaching us from phone stores, travel agencies, hotels, pubs and restaurants, all realising they could make a lot more money, and probably have a less stressful life, as part of our network of franchisees.

But what about those who are already doing really well financially in their current businesses through tireless hard work and effort?

It’s not so hard to understand why they choose to join us, once you realise that what they’re seeking is predictability and a much-improved work-life balance.

The shift from shopping-in-person to browsing-in-person-but-shopping-online sent retailers into a tail-spin long before most of us could spell pandemic, and even the most exceptionally skilled salespeople found that customers who did venture into their bricks-and-mortar shops to pick their brains would merely thank them and leave empty-handed, only to order the item at a cheaper price from an internet store.

The world of hospitality, precarious at the best of times, had the life squeezed out of it the moment the first lockdown forced restaurants and hotels to bolt their doors, and the succession of shutdowns, restrictions and assorted uncertainties meant many of them, previously robust and viable, would never unbolt those doors again.

There is a lot of sympathy for those who’ve survived in retail and hospitality, but sentiment doesn’t go far when you’re working very hard in those sectors for little reward.

But your dream home’s not a commodity to be purchased online. Estate agency is still very much a people business.

Hence the exodus to safer havens, including our franchise network here at EweMove where people with highly-developed sales skills and a belief in above-and-beyond customer service fit in particularly well.

Most will go on to earn far more than they could ever have dreamed of in their previous jobs, just by following our proven formula, and others will find a different form of comfort.

That’s because they’re moving from an environment that was essentially controlling them to one in which they will be firmly in control of their own lives and destinies.

They’ll need to work hard, yes, but they‘re used to that because they always did. And a lot of the day-to-day uncertainties have gone.

People always need homes. If they’re not buying them, they’re renting them. Which bodes well for our franchisees, as they’re encouraged to build up a portfolio of rental properties under management that gives them a reliable, residual income as well as an asset they can sell on when they exit.

As we say of our business formula: it works if you do.