He earned BRL 1 million with bread packaging and tattooed the corporate’s model on his arm

At the height of the pandemic, in 2020, franchisee Gilsemir Pereira, 40, earned BRL 1 million from his PremiaPão unit in Recife (PE). In honor of the feat and the changes the company made in his life, he tattooed the brand’s digital currency on his arm. PremiaPão is a network specialized in advertising on bread bags.

“I worked in a bank, I had a closed mind. And it was PremiaPão that opened my mind. I had a great personal and professional growth in the company. Financially, I never imagined that I could earn such a high income. So, I decided to tattoo the company’s digital currency logo on one arm and my daughter’s foot on the other, as, because of my better financial situation, I was able to pay for my wife Mariana’s fertilization procedure,” said Pereira.

Their daughter, Giovana Maria, was born in July 2021. The two tattoos were done in September of last year. Pereira already had another tattoo: his Sagittarius sign, with the initials of his name and Mariana’s on the arrowhead.

Can Tattoos Hurt Your Career?

For Ghoeber Morales, a psychologist with a master’s degree in behavioral psychology from PUC-SP and specializing in career mentoring, Pereira can be seen as the company’s kiss-ass for some or as a partner who wore the shirt for others. “It is possible, yes, he could be labeled as a kiss-ass. That depends on the judgment of each one,” he said.

However, says Morales, Pereira’s tattoo with the PremiaPão digital currency logo should not hamper his professional career outside the company.

“The corporate world tends to look favorably on his daring attitude. Companies today have a greater openness in relation to the phases of an employee’s life. Tattooing the brand logo can show that he is the kind of fearless employee and that he has a real involvement with the company he works for,” he explained.

According to the consultant, Pereira can even use the tattoo to draw the attention of other franchisees, partners and customers. “Showing and telling the story of the tattoo in a lecture, for example, helps to give credibility and validate your experience with the brand”, he explained.

Tattoo is the company’s digital currency

The tattoo is PremiaPão’s digital currency, called PremiaCash. This currency is part of the company’s career plan: the franchisee adds points to each bread bag campaign. He earns 1 coin if he manages to print 10,000 bags of bread. Upon completing 300 coins, the prize is a cruise trip. Along the score there are other prizes such as trophies, dinners and tablets.

The name of the currency (PremiaCash) was chosen at the company’s last online event, in August 2021, with the network’s franchisees. The other names were PremiaCoins and PremiaMoney.

The franchisees chose the name in ten minutes, and I told them I was going to tattoo the logo on the coin. They thought it was a joke.
Gilsemir Pereira, franchisee of PremiaPão

Partners become company directors

In 2020, the revenue of the Pereira unit was R$ 1 million, with a profit of 42%. In July 2021, he and his partner, Thiago José Martins Silva, were invited to take over the chain’s franchise management.

But its franchise revenue dropped to R$700,000 (37% profit). “When taking over the chain’s franchise management, we had to leave some projects behind to dedicate ourselves to this new role. It was a choice thinking about the future not only of the franchisor but also of ours”, said Pereira.

According to him, the director’s role is to support franchisees, seeking innovations, new tools and training for the entire network.

Pereira, who was a banker, got to know the brand during his postgraduate course in marketing. Three months later, in 2017, he bought the franchise, but continued working at Banco Santander, where he had worked since 2008. In 2018, he left his job to dedicate himself exclusively to PremiaPão. The initial investment in the business was R$ 10 thousand.

At the end of last year, the two partners won a lifetime contract for their franchise with the network. Generally, a franchise agreement lasts for four years.

“The role of director and the lifetime contract with PremiaPão gave us even more enthusiasm to bring new things to the network, such as putting augmented reality in the bags of bread”, said Pereira.

According to him, the customer can have the experience through the application or point their camera at the QR Code in the advertiser’s image. “Then just enjoy the experience and watch the videos in augmented reality,” he said.

Tattoo is the materialization of the dream

Ariadne Mecate, a consultant at Sebrae-SP, says that the franchisee’s tattoo shows “how much he found himself and fulfilled himself” in the company. “When a person seeks to undertake, he is chasing a dream. The tattoo was the materialization of a dream come true,” she said.

For her, the position of director of franchise was a great achievement for the company. “It is the franchisees who are at the forefront of the business, they know the day-to-day operation and the pain of other franchisees. Therefore, their experience will add to the business as a whole,” she said.

Ariadne says, however, that the lifetime contract can be a point of attention for the franchisee. “The franchisee gives blood and makes it happen, and the company recognizes that. But he always needs to be motivated, to look for innovations and new ideas so that the company keeps growing”, she declared.

Source: Uol