Latest / Work It Like A Mum / From Finance to Franchising: Samantha Acton's Journey to Balancing Entrepreneurship, Family, and Community Impact with Domestic Angels

Transcript

From Finance to Franchising: Samantha Acton's Journey to Balancing Entrepreneurship, Family, and Community Impact with Domestic Angels · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, i'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women Job Board and Community.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: In this show, i'm honored to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, set boundaries and balance, the challenges they've faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Shy away from the real talk?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: no way.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Money struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance We cover it all.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Think of this as coffee with your mates the mixed with an inspiring TED talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you cozy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: This is the Work It Like a Mum podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward thinking employers.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Ready to find your perfect job?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Now back to the show.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this week's Work It Like a Mum podcast episode.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Today I'm delighted to be chatting with Samantha Acton.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Samantha is the founder of Domestic Angels, a cleaning and domestic services franchise business that she founded over 20 years ago and that serves communities throughout the UK.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: We're chatting about why Samantha moved into entrepreneurship after working in financial services for many years and the shift from corporate to running her own business, how her business has evolved and changed over the years, and how she's combined running it whilst raising her family.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned for a couple of easy to implement business tips that Samantha believes will make the most difference to your own business's success at the end of the show.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, samantha, for joining me today.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to chat with you and learn more about you and your experience and domestic angels.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having me along.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: This is really good fun.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such good fun.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: You know I love chatting to you, so it's definitely gonna just feel like a coffee with a friend.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to chat with you.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: That's a huge compliment.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, absolutely So.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: If people haven't heard of Domestic Angels, could you just give us a bit of an overview about who you are and what you do and who you help?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, so Domestic Angels, we help people in their homes with housework, home help, spring cleaning and tendencies holiday homes, so anything that ends in the ying-ing category is basically what we do.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: The way it works is I'm the franchise or Domestic Angels, so I developed the business and the business model.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I actually ran the business for many, many years before I franchised it.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: The franchisees own their own Domestic Angels businesses in their own home territories.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: They employ their staff, who are called angels, who deliver the service into the client homes, and the clients enjoy the services which are delivered.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Now, the wonderful thing about that all of that is there's a common denominator where it's a symbiotic culture, because the reason I started Domestic Angels is I wanted to be the mum of my own choice at home, with control over my time and my life, of my money, control over going to the school gates, control over being able to get the dinner on the table and how I lead my life and how I spend my time in the workplace.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: And that's exactly what the franchisees look for.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It's exactly what the angels look for, but it's also what our customers are looking for in all the age ranges, or even, if you know, if their mums or dads who are going out to work.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: They want that as well.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: But also our older customers are lovely senior clients.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: They actually want the same too.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: They want help at home so they can use what energy they've got to go out and enjoy their lives.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's brilliant.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I'm saying that.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: The next door neighbours to me are really elderly.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: They were both in their 90s.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: They're both still in their own home, which is fantastic, and I see a cleaner go around a couple of times a week and I think the Heavals have a gardener as well, and I think that's a really good thing.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: It's kept them in their own home, being able to have that external help.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, being able to stay in your own home is so, so important.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: People don't realize just how important it is for how you feel about your life.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Your pride, your dignity's got all your memories around you.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: It's so.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Therefore, it's good for the mental health and independence.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: People don't want to feel frail and vulnerable, they want to feel independent.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So being able to function at home and by having help in mix all the difference.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: My favourite story was a wonderful lady who was in her late 80s and I went round to see her.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It's beautiful bungalow but clearly hasn't been able to look after it for a long time and she said now I just need a couple of hours a week to help because I'm a very busy person and I need what energy I've got to go to the local church hall to serve lunches to the elderly people.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: That is just joyful as it was.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I went in and looked around because we do surveys of our client houses to find out what needs doing, the expectations etc.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And I could see in the kitchen behind the kettle that the tiles were particularly grimy.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: So when the first visit took place, i went round afterwards to have a look and I said to the angel, can you make sure you have a go at this because I want to show the client.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: And I said come and have a look at your kitchen now.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: And I directed a rile.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I said oh, oh, oh, i didn't realise it was so bad.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Because two things happen the energy's running down and you get used to what's going on?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you do.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: You don't actually see it.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Do you see it every day?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: you don't see it in the same way.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: And also the eyesight can change a lot due to medical conditions or just not going to the optician, those kinds of things, so you don't see it.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: But doing that clean vastly improves not only their physical health but their mental health, because the dig sees back in place.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, i live in a lovely home and to do that kind of work is, oh, it's magic, absolutely so did you always want to run your own business there?
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: because you obviously started?
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: not, you started in financial services, but were you one of these kids?
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: because you don't like you.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I'm a you know remy of business, but I had that itch, i think, as a child.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I remember having a lot of sweet stalls and selling things at the end to the drive.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: You know helping my mum and dad with car boot sales.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I wonder if there was something you know in the back of your mind like that in your childhood.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I look back, it makes incredible sense.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I never fitted in anywhere properly.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I did, i was comfortable, but no, i was a very good girl, totally compliant and met expectations and did my A levels.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say did you do business studies or anything?
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: No, i didn't.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I did European social policy with French.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I'm meant to work in Brussels, oh right, let's not talk about that.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: And I went into financial services.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: I went and got my job and started on the so-called career path.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I tried to do what was expected of me, although that wasn't a conscious choice.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I just went with it.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Did you enjoy it, though?
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you're really career them.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: No, i can't say I did.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: I just did what I did because so many of us do and definitely more of us did.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I think it's less of a thing now.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: I just did what I needed to do to have a career, have a salary, therefore be able to buy my first home and be independent and move on in life.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: And no, i don't think I was happy in any of those workplaces.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: There was always something out of balance and then, certainly when I went back after maternity leave, totally out of balance didn't fit at all.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I was less able to tolerate the scenario.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I was less able to tolerate the situation as being a necessity.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I couldn't do it any longer.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: So what do you mean by that?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: then I want to expand on what you mean.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Well, a couple of things happened when I went back to work in 2001.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: It was before the law changed, so the law didn't allow me to go back part-time.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I know it's shocking for you youngy mums, but that's the way it was.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I did manage to convince my manager to allow me to just go back four days a week and I was still breastfeeding.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: He said I could use a stationary cupboard to express disgusting.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like, what am I doing here?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: I really was not enjoying the work at all.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: There was nothing in there that was making me go.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, i've got to get in and do it.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to that conversation.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: There was nothing or little there.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: There was a couple of people I really got on with and I enjoyed their company and I went on a training course for a week and one of the days we were in the BBC TV centre in Southampton and we took a coffee break when I was out on the balcony and they had the news broadcasting live on big screens and I watched an aeroplane crash into the World Trade Centre.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, yeah, whilst my six month old son was in nursery some 45 minutes drive away from me, and it just didn't add up any longer.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: It was so good.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: From there I went downhill and by Christmas I went to see the doctor the GP, wonderful man, and I still know him today and he said look, sam, i can tell what's going on here.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: I'm going to sign you off for three weeks.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: By the time you get to three weeks time, i know you'll have made the right decision.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I trust you and I didn't.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I didn't know what I was thinking, i just knew I'd gone into a dark place.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I wasn't processing it, i just I've helped, worn out like I couldn't think, like a.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I can't even remember it all.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: You know it's that black, but I did remember when I went back to work.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: It's like, okay, how do I get out of here?
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: And luckily I was in a position within that company where it's all about process change, how to implement process change for compliance or marketing requirement.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, that could affect team structures or combinations.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: So I just went on a mission to make myself redundant.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, how can?
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I?
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: How can I get out?
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I'm going to restart.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to restart Without doing something really naughty, so I get agreements against me, yeah.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I restructured myself out of a job, basically.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Oh well done And by the end of March I'd left.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: But here you go.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: This is how some people say it's dark, but I now know it as being a symptom of entrepreneurship.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I was out of that building by 10.30 in the morning because anybody in HR will know there's a certain procedure and you can't keep the people in the building because you want minimum disruption.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: And in my car and on my way home You have the radio on blast Any favorite songs on the way, yeah.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: I bought a family size bar of chocolate and a DVD copy of the Titanic because I'd never watched it before.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: And it been arguably is by then.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I hadn't stopped And I was on the sofa eating the chocolate, watching the film when my husband came home with our son because he was on the nursery run, and he said what are you doing here?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I said I've got something to tell you.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I didn't know, not know your plan then?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: He didn't know my plan.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: He didn't know what had been going on in my head And, quite frankly, i'm not sure I knew what had been going on in my head.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: He was just totally supportive.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I said, oh well, and explained.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: He said, oh OK, then shall I put the dinner on?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: And we just buzzed on and he never put any pressure on or said, well, what are you going to do?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: or anything like that.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: We just moved on and he let me find my way.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: That actually was quite genius of him, because what started to emerge was the entrepreneur in me that had clearly been suppressed for half a lifetime.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So you obviously had a plan to leave your job, and you engineered that and executed that plan.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Did you have a plan then in your head of what you were going to do after you left?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: No, I really am truly entrepreneurial.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: We don't plan heavily, we do.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: We wing it heavily, it's just like, yeah, i'll get there.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: It's ultimately, you find out and you go, that's where I want to be, but you don't think about the how, because an entrepreneur just goes that's where I'm going to be, i'm off and you work out the how as you go along quite often, and then when you start trying to plan out the how, it all is a very interesting process for an entrepreneur.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: We're just a little bit different to everybody else.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you find it's very like that, i'm going to do that, and then you start doing it, and actually I think that's quite overconfidence as well.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, i'm going to do it, and then you do it and start doing your gosh.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you think that.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, it can be.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: It's not an overconfidence, it's actually just, it's our superpower, it's what we do.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: We're the people who want to map it out, calculate everything, get it all in place and know for certain something's going to happen, and they tend to never get off the ground as a result.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so no, i didn't know what I was going to do.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Some of my friends went into complete shock and said what are you doing?
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Because I've been doing really well in my career I mean like super well And I had all of the bells and whistles and they just couldn't believe I'd gone and done that.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: And I got taken for walks around the park and was kindly talked to.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And how did that make you feel?
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Did that make you doubt what you'd done?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: No, they were actually incredibly supportive.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: They just couldn't believe it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: They wanted to understand why have you done it?
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: And by that time I was able to say I just couldn't do that anymore.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: You know, going out of the door at seven o'clock because I, after a month I've gone, had to be five days a week.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: And I could.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it was only four for a month.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: It's only for a month, so it's five days a week.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Out of the door at seven o'clock in the morning in the door seven o'clock in the evening And with a baby that was under one years old and some of my time was in the Isle of Man, so I was flying backwards and forwards as well.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I mean it was ridiculous.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: But apart from that, you know, the seven to seven isn't dissimilar to an awful lot of mums where they're going eight to six.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: It's a long day, five days away, even four days a week, when you've got a family and at home And all those things that you want to enjoy and be part of and run to the best of your abilities.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: And whilst equality has been fantastic over the last hundred years, it's actually a myth that you can have it all.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: You've got to find some balance, otherwise you can have a breakdown or heart attack or something.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, one of my friends who is incredibly entrepreneurial said come on, i need to talk to you, come on round, we'll have wine and more talk.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: And by the time we got to the end of the first bottle of wine, she said I've got a huge house here and three children, i'm running a big business and I've got 50 employees and I'm completely stuffed.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Can you find me a cleaner?
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I said that's a good idea.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I can do that.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: By the end of the second bottle of the wine we'd come up with the name domestic angels, and it really is as simple as that And I just went for it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: So you not even thought you wanted to have a cleaning bit like you will actually went to the off licence.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: You had no idea that you wanted to clean your business and then, like two hours later, domestic angels, trust your instinct And you'd hear 21 years later I'm here 21 years later.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Trust a story I love that, because there is a lot of this thing where you need a business plan.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: You need, you know, all this plan, calculate the costs.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: You know profit, all this forecasts blah, blah, blah.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, work it out as you go along.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Look, trust your instinct, ladies in particular.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Trust your instinct.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: This whole thing about need a business plan often comes from banks and bank managers, who are predominantly masculine in the way they think.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: You know yourself, you know your best, you've got great instincts, you've got great talents.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Go with it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had external funding?
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Not like yeah, i've got a business loan.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: You know most businesses have, but no.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've grown organically.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, because you can do that too.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: That's a myth.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, do you know?
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: what I mean.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I just have such a good conversation because, you know, i mean I'll be honest.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I sometimes get really paranoid and feel, quite you know, because I'll go on on LinkedIn and I'll see that one of my competitors has secured million or two million pounds in funding.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like gosh, you know, i've literally funded my redundancy money, which was not a lot, it was 5,000 pounds.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: And then you hit oh, they're going to grow faster, they're going to do what they want to do, all this amazing stuff that I can't afford to do.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And you do stick those doubts, don't you?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: You don't need it to go that fast, because you're in this field of self and your family.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: If it went too fast, you would be contradicting yourself because you just wouldn't have the time, and then what would happen is you would disappoint those clients that came flooding through the gate because you wouldn't be able to look after them, and then you'd feel down in the dump.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: So no, you don't need to do that.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: So no, hang in there, you're doing the right thing, thank you.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Don't worry about what other people are doing.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: You know those people who are in business and they've got big flashy cars on the driveways.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got big debts.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, oh, i love this.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that is a good thing, isn't it?
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I guess that's my next question for you.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: So you know, when you start your business, how did you then deal, i guess, with that comparison?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Are you looking at the cleaning businesses?
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Are you looking maybe people that were back in corporate and getting the big pay rises?
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: How did you deal with that comparison?
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: I mostly not look at them.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't pay any attention.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I was doing my thing in my own world, my own bubble, which is best for me and for my family and our home.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that's why you're in it not to impress anybody else, not even to impress me really but to get by, get underway and find yourself and be kind to yourself, because those first couple of years are brutal When you're learning to do things and you think, oh, i can have a go at this because that's new, and it bites your head off and you lose, yeah, and there's a lot of shiny objects, isn't there syndrome?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And especially now with online, you get paid a lot of adverts.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, you've always had the adverts Lots of adverts And there's lots of sharks out there.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: So the range of sharks include you go off to a networking, like, okay, that's what you do when you're in business.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: You go off to a network.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Now, as a small business owner and an independent, you will find that you will get at least five solicitors sit around you because they all want your business, oh, and they've no idea what it's like to be in business on their own or by themselves.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: They think it's okay, you, that you're going to take out some sort of overdraft or loan to be able to pay them extraordinary amounts of money to keep them in their suits and their cars and their lifestyles.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: That's your choice.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: I'm doing me.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: So beware the legal sharks.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: There are all the also the other perception sharks that I found.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Now these ones don't exist quite so much.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: The pandemic has done us some favours on this one.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: It's first part of this bubble.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: These ones, the perception sharks, said oh, how are you doing?
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, you based from home, are you?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, well, it won't be for long.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, let us you know, because you haven't made it unless you've got an office signed above it.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Now I don't get that.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Why do I need an overhead of either another mortgage or a rent, plus the cost of signage, heating and all of those other things, just to satisfy the needs of other people's perceptions of what success is Same as the car on the driveway?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: I've always worked from home.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I've worked from home 21 years now.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: You're an expert.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: You are.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Beware the perception sharks.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: It is not a truth and they don't take you seriously.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: They take you even less seriously if you're a cleaning business based from home.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: I can assure you.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: it is so prejudiced It's ridiculous.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: So you can stay away from them because they really aren't helpful and they probably don't know what they're talking about.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: They want to see things fit in their terms.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: So wearing a suit, driving the right car, working from the right premises, going to the right networking and all of those kinds of things.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: So be yourself.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Choose the places that are right for you to grow you and your business.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Please don't feel the pressure of the sharks out there.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: They are horrendous.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: I've done all of that.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: I've bent my fingers.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: You don't need to.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: You've got such a good sense of self actually, and it's you really have stayed in your lane and you really actually sounded like you've been quite clear on all your values from very, very early on in business.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And you know, where does that sense of self comfort?
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Was it something you've always had?
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: And it hasn't sustained throughout the 21 years.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: It has varied off when you think, oh, I'm going to say, well, maybe I'm not doing it right, I will go and join in that and see what happens.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: And then think, oh my God, I can't stand it.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: And what's happening is all of those different events, those networking events, those communities, those membership clubs, the chambers, all those things.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: They're in it to get your money, because they need to be able to pay for them.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean they're good for you.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: It means they are a business as well And you've suddenly become a customer.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that you're going to get a good service out of it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: So no, my sense of self these days is definitely because I am an old person.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: No, definitely not.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think so, And I love chatting with you.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: What was talking to me the early days?
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: how you got the business off the ground?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So you obviously found.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: You found your friend to clean her.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, I did.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: She was your first client.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming She was.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was my first client.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: She called me on the 11th of April 2002 at 10 past 11 in the morning, and I remember it very, very clearly because I put a little advert in the local newspaper.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I was going to say yeah, to see you put print.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah all, that's what you do.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: You put it in there.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Never do that anymore, but that's where you do, and I'd gone to my friend's factory to borrow her photocopier.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Is this the same friend?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: The?
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: same friend.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: She said come on, i'm going to use my stuff.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Why don't you need just to get your phone.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: She's a good friend.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: And somebody else gave us a monitor and a tower to put a computer under the stairs.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: you know that kind of thing.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: It was all dial up then And I'd yeah, i'd gone over and I was using the photocopy And the phone rang and it was Tina, and Tina was my first cleaner.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: you remember her name Because I remember my first placement in recruitment and she was called Carrie.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I won't say her surname, but you'll never, ever forget your first, do you?
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: No, you'd tell her.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: you'd tell her, and Tina stayed with me for eight, nine years.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: I think It was quite good.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: So I learned a lot from her and with her.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: So you got her job with your friend and then did you obviously try and get her other jobs.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: How did you?
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, i did.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: I did, and do you know what?
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: It was very simple, because people wanted companies that could provide cleaning help at home, that were employed, because it's not something that a lot of people do.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: So I made some cards, because that's what I was photocopying onto white card our little logo and bit of dip, and I bought them home, cut them up with kitchen scissors So they're all furry, bad hoses, and then in the evenings, when it was time for our son to go to sleep, i'd stick them in the push chair and go out and stick them through people's letter boxes.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: And that's how people found out about us.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: You've got to go and tell people that you're there, okay, and people phoned up and said I'd be very interested and got more clients for us, and then I had to find another member of staff.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, put another advert out.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I think very quickly I went up to four or five angels and it kind of stayed like that for five years, because when you employ people for the first time and it's your business, it's a whole different story to managing a team in the workplace, because you haven't got any backup.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: You're it And you've got to learn about everything.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: And yet I had a legal helpline and I had one or two people I was prepared to talk to, because you've got to make sure that you get the right sounding board.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: But you learn a lot of lessons and there's a lot of heartache involved, but that's what my franchisees don't have to do that because I've been there and done that.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that was probably the most consuming part of the first few years was learning how to employ people, and learning a skill is quite an art form, whereas the wage roll was really simple.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I went and spent a day training course at HMRC and learned how to run the wage roll with pencil, rubber and paper, and my trainer was Ellie King And I still know Ellie today.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, right.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Give a shout to Ellie King.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: She's still at HMRC.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: And so I learned to run the wage roll And I did the wage roll myself for a few years before I handed it out to accountants to do.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: But it meant also each month when they send the wage lips in I spot a mistake at 10 paces.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: It was so simple, so that was really really good to do.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: And that's like the sharks come back to the sharks.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: You'll have accountants say how do you wage roll?
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Just farm everything out.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: You know you get all of that marketing stuff to your new business.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Put out stuff, farm out stuff that you don't do.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: No, have a go yourself and then farm it out Because, a it's cheaper And B you need to know what those people are doing for you.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Do you know what?
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I've done some copywriting training before, and just online, And she said you've got to know enough to be dangerous.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So when you start outsourcing that you can then spot the mistakes and can spot if you've been taken for a ride.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly exactly.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: And you need to learn your business, learn, learn, learn your business.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that you know the first five years a bit sketchy, you know what I was doing, yeah.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I just I've got an image of you pounding the streets in the bus chair, in rain or shine.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I think that's just great And I think there'll be so many moments listening to this thinking.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: That just sounds like you know they can see themselves.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: You know, if you know, if they've got an entrepreneurial spirit, they can see themselves doing that.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, with the dialogue computers stuffed under the Yeah, touch the trash.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly, i've got to hold it together.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: I've got to make this to be I'm going to pay those nursery fees.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's an incentive.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it wasn't until a little bit later that, well, this is getting bigger.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: I looked at the angels of them and there was one or two who had so a little bit more sparked them and a little bit that they would.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: They clearly wanted it a bit more, so I started to give them a couple of hours a week supervisor work, just to take the edge off me, and that just organically kept growing and growing and growing.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: And then in 2012, yeah, 2012, we were crowned national home-based business of the year.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: I was like what's that all about?
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: And I couldn't have been more shocked if I tried, because it's like we've done something relevant.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: There's so many out there, what's going on?
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And that was the moment when I realised I was an entrepreneur and I actually owned a business.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Oh right, you'd been doing it for 10 years, yeah, but I'd just been doing it.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: It's what you do.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: You do stuff.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: That's all being the trenches, aren't you Yeah?
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: you need to bring the money in and you need to make things happen, and you need to take care of your child, you need to take care of your family, you need to do this And it's just, oh, i've done something that might be clever, oh, and this actually might be my talent.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: And a bit of reflection and thinking was like well, yes, it is, because the thing I really enjoy is the creativity of business, so creating solutions and the organic, and it gave me so much freedom that I'd never had in the corporate world, which is why I can now say, well, i never fit it because it suppressed that I couldn't be free.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I love that because I do feel the same, because you know you talk about freedom and sometimes you think it's freedom of ours.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: You know you can work, you push your child in the book and work around your family or whatever, but actually it's the freedom of creativity.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: You can do what you want to do.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: You can take the business however you want to do, you can try new things And especially it's becoming so creative as well with social media And that if that is something in you, if you're in a role and they're often, you know you're in a big company they're quite small roles.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: You're often a very small fish in a huge pond and it can become quite monotonous.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: And I actually think that's the best thing about business is all the creative elements you can do to make it a job.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously we've all got things we don't enjoy, but actually you can do it.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: You know, make it something you really enjoy.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you really can, and that's just amazing.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, how much fun is that?
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Nobody told us that when we were at school.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: No, i don't know.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I don't even think.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Gosh, they get paid for this.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: It's great.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, you know those teaching policemen people in schools.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: They're training you for the sausage factory.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Well, they didn't tell you this secret.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think they should have two teaching entrepreneurship at school?
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think you can teach entrepreneurship.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: I think it's something that is inherent within us And I think it's part of your DNA.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I think it's part of a lot of people's DNA in this country.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: But what I do think they could do is actually have some form of classes.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: You know, you talked about doing your stalls And so where?
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: oh you know, there's that paperclip challenge that some schools do, don't they?
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: When I head to that, what's that?
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: It's a given, a paperclip and say, see how much you can upgrade that.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: So you go and say I would like to take this paperclip for your packet of blue tack and go, all right, then you have to talk them into it.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: And he said, why?
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Well, because I need to commit this challenge.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: I go on then, good luck, and you take the packet of blue tack and I'd like to upgrade this packet of blue tack for your set of really nice crayons.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: And you get crayons, and then you have to keep trading and growing, trading, growing, justifying and seeing how far you can take it and what you can persuade people to do Great.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Sounds like an apprentice challenge.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: But doing things like that would be really, really great, because the youngsters who prepare to reveal their natural entrepreneur selves will blossom through and really get something out.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: But the others will also learn about being in a team and how to coordinate and facilitate managing your manager or doing the admin behind it.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: So it would be good for all character types to do those kinds of things on a regular basis so that then, when they're getting ready to move on from education, they might already have their own side hustle underway and feel confident about it.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, something would be really, really good.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I've read some things on social media and obviously the only Europe business isn't all shiny and it isn't all rainbows and unicorns There is.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I've sort of said you know, we encourage people, young people, to go to university and incur £50,000 worth of debt.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's what it's obvious at the moment.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: And then someone says, oh, i'm thinking of starting my own business, that everyone oh no, that's so tourist, why are you doing that?
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I try and talk them out of it and you think, well, actually you know, we're encouraging people to get £50,000 worth of debt going to university And it isn't always, you know, the best thing for people, right?
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Not everybody.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: So there's an interesting thing that's changed culturally for us now as a country, in that it's nothing unusual for our university graduates to leave with their income streams underway in the form of small businesses.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: It's known as a portfolio career.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: I have a very, very dear friend who is a university lecturer.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: She talks about her students now graduating with their portfolios underway.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: So they're already generating an income with their own businesses based on the subject area that they've been studying, and they will also take a position with the small corporate, for example, but only on a part-time basis, so that it's the income streams.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: the portfolio is not compromised.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: So they have two or three streams coming in and then they're broadening their experience at the same time.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: So being self-employed coming out of university is becoming more and more of a thing.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: more and more Certainly, our son has been self-employed right from the moment he walked out of university.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Wow, what's he do.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: He's a professional yachtsman and engineer.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Wow Yeah, so he's sales and races ocean going performance yachts.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Wow, amazing.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's be proud.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: He flew back to Antigua yesterday to pick up one of these boats and he's sailing it back to the UK, so that should leave port tomorrow, i think, if the weather's right.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Right, what a lovely job.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: What they're able to do is we have a generation coming through who are actually physically able to live their dream from the get-go.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they can see it's possible.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Actually, they're associated with all its ills.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: I mean it's good and a bad thing, but you can see what's possible Yeah.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's really interesting how the generations are so different and how it's shifting and that there is this cultural shift, just as there's a cultural shift that has been going on for quite a few years, but the pandemic has accelerated it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: For parents, predominantly mum.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: So I don't actually want my time and my life to be controlled and dictated by an employer anymore.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Even if, given loads of flexibility, the ability to work from home, somebody is still got control of it, and I know you know the difference of what I'm talking about here.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: They want to have their own business so that they are in charge and can generate their income on their own terms and run their lives.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: That time that we all had in the pandemic was a shop people into realising.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Actually, the one thing they haven't had for years was time.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: And time is the most precious thing actually.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: It's actually.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: You can't get time back, you know, and once it's spent, it's gone.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: It's not like money.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: You can make more money and time.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Your time is your most valuable.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: You know commodity actually.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Some wise person said to me a few months ago it's actually one of my franchisees.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: She said look, the money comes and goes, but time only goes.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's really shiver.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I know I know What a point.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: I think you know the pandemic you know you talked about.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: you were on that balcony.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: You saw a plane go into a tower in New York and that was your moment and it made you reassess.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: And actually the pandemic was that for a lot of people as well.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: It's that moment made them reassess and think, oh, what's important, who do I want to spend this time with?
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: that only goes.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, i feel for those people.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: I really really do.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: I was you, but many years ago and it's a shocker, it's upsetting, and I know some of you an awful lot of you have had to go back to work because you weren't able to see what the options were, or maybe your confidence wasn't quite in the right place to just say I'm not going back, or you know you might have other commitments and not feel up to it, but I know that feeling.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: You know don't be alone.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of you out there and I was one of you and you can make those steps away and live your dream and live your life on your own terms.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth is Yeah, and you and all your franchises.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: So what made?
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: when did you see?
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: obviously won the award 2012?
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: .
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: When did you decide to franchise the business and why did you want to make it to franchise them?
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: Well, so a year or so after the award, i decided that I probably needed a mentor, because if I was really going to be a business person because, don't forget, i don't need to just realise I was I probably needed somebody.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: So you've not had a coach or anything up until that point?
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: No, wow, you are like impressing me more and more.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: You are such an inspiration, you guys out there, remember worse.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Women in particular are far more talented than we realize.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: We can do this.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: We can do this.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: So lovely chat.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Martin came along and here's a dormant which is Dorset Mentoring.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: That network exists all over the country.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: It's cheapest chips.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: It costs a minimum nominal admin fee a year, about 100 pounds.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: What's the source?
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Again, I didn't.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: It's cool.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: The one in Dorset is called Dorman Dorset Mentoring, but you'll get a mentoring Sussex Mentoring.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Just type your county in a mentoring.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: You'll find it and you've got these lovely people who do it on a voluntary basis and they're people who've been serial entrepreneurs, who've got great experience, a lot of knowledge, and you get matched together with what you need.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: And Martin was a real number cruncher and he's got an MBA from the Cranfield University and done all of that and stuff And he came in and crunched the numbers.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know you could crunch numbers like that.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, quite detailed, which was really interesting because as an entrepreneur, i go well, if this is coming in, that's going out, so therefore we're going to be there.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: He writes it all down, puts in equations, makes it all add up and is all okay.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: So I got into that and understood it.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: He said look, you could keep growing the business in this way, which is, if you think of it's triangular I was at the top and none of my supervisors the angels but it's going to go like this And the distance between you and the client is going to get greater and greater and greater.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Therefore, the ethos and the culture of the company changes because the connectivity between you, the supervisors, the angels and the clients changes.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: The angels are going to feel different, they're going to operate differently, and I understood what he said.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: So the simplest way of dealing with this is to multiply.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: So okay, how do you do that?
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: And he said by franchising.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: So that's the F word.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: Went to one of those shows in 2005,.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: Thought I was in a big ocean surrounded by even more sharks.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not doing that.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Those people are trying to sell me an empty shoebox for lots of money.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: I don't like them.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Anyway, after a year of proving and persuasion, i agree with him.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: He was right that I could actually franchise domestic angels on my terms.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: It didn't have to be like the sharks that I'd seen.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: I could totally preserve the culture.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: In fact, i could improve everything and make it more effective and go with it and develop the franchise with minimal risk.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Because everybody say oh, you want to franchise your business, you need deep pockets.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I did it myself.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: It's absolutely fine.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: I became the live client to the NBA cohort of Bournemouth University.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: That's free of charge, you just have to put in the effort.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: They analyzed the marketplace, they analyzed the company, they analyzed the franchise world and worked with me.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: Loads of questions and you just have to be really, really open.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: And then basically presented 15 amazing projects at the end of the year, full of a number of words I've never heard before since, but I understood what they were talking about.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: I particularly like the risk registers which were had red, amber and green lights.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I get that.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't do this, that's a problem.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: Go with that.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: I developed the franchise version of domestic angels based on what came out of the NBA work and it was absolutely fantastic.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: And I did it all in house.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: I designed the software.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I found somebody who would make the software reality based on what I had designed, not what on their interpretation.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: You know these IT developers.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: The best example you're making a cup of tea.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: You see, this is another type of shark, the IT shark.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: You're making a cup of tea.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: You say to them right, i want you to design a piece of software to make a cup of tea, and they give it to you.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's, he tastes funny.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: You put the milk in first, didn't you?
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: And they said well, yes, because that's simplest way to write the programs up.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: No, i never have it like that.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: I have milk last.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: You need them to follow how you do things, and there's not many of them out there, but they do exist And we've got a lovely chap, andy, who follows what we need, and if he thinks there has to be a variation, we talk about it rather than him doing it differently and spending too much money.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: So that kept the cost down as well.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: And then we went live with our first franchise in 2017.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: And on the basis that she knew that it wasn't, completely ready.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: So how did you find her then?
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, I put an advert in the primary times magazine.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: I've not heard of the primary.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: You know the one that goes into the book bags for the school kids.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Oh right, Yeah, Yeah, it was in there, Oh amazing.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: And then she's.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: so how's the franchise involved?
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: You obviously said it all up.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: You made sure that everybody's got what they need to be successful.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: She came on, She let your beta.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, she was, she was the whole thing.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: So I just kept it a one for a whole year, because it's like oh, trying it out, i get that Trying it out, trying it out.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: And then we got two more.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's good, that's good, still trying it out, still trying it out.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: And then the first one took a second one.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, this is good, this is good.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: And then, a year later, somebody else came on board.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, this is really really good.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: And then, six months later, we had a pandemic.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Actually people.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did the.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I mean I think mostly people have got their cleaners and domestic stuff.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: You know, if they're not domestic stuff, domestic help is back and now.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: So pandemic arguably consumed two years of what would have been the normal business pathway.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: It was a deviation which shook everybody up.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: Of course, we all know that And we've all got really big, whole heartfelt stories that we can share.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: You know, i don't think anybody was not impacted in some way.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: What it did for me is it sharpened me as a franchise or so.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: There was a lot of talking franchise world about yeah well, this is the time to bring people on board and this do that.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: I need to just get the ones I've got through this not just as businesses but as healthy human beings making the right decisions for themselves, because that was a big deal, a really, really big deal.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: So I did actually stop everything for a couple of years and just focused on that and preserving what we're nurturing them.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and learning myself because I harden up considerably as a franchise or as a result of the pandemic, because it beat me up considerably with the legislation we had to look at.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: I mean that's a whole different podcast, to be fair with what we did, because we legally challenged the treasury, we you know loads of stuff that was preventing us from surviving.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, with what would you mean around furlough and stuff?
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: furlough, being able to look after our dementia clients or you know whoever it was.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: there was so many stops.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: It was ridiculous.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, i rolled my sleeves up and fought for what I believe is right And, yeah, it took a couple of years to come through that.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: So I would say it's only since I came back from holiday last summer that I have been looking to grow again, and then that took a couple of months again to lead into that and settle things down and go.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: yeah, everything, everything's good.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: Now I feel I'm ready to meet our next franchisees and go for growth, because I'm in the right place.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Everybody in the team is in the right place.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the nation's in a better place as well.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: You know, I know this is not easy and there's obviously lots of things going on.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: But an awful lot of it is media.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: you know it's been custom-made back to very, very recently, in autumn 22, when the news persistently said Oh, recession, Where was the recession?
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: is now Recession?
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: is it never happened?
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Easiest way to have good mental health in this country is to turn the news off.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: quite frankly.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: You're absolutely right.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: I think that's probably you've given so much advice and that's another great advice and that's another great tip that you've given.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: And the lovely.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: The other lovely thing that has happened since we've been coming out of lockdown is whether an exponential growth in demand for help in the home Yeah, because people are at home, well, yeah, but also they found out having time just you and I.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: They found out about time And one of the easiest ways they can buy time is by having somebody come in and help out with the housework.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and also people are less likely to want their elderly relatives to go into nursing homes.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: Rather, organized payments to have help home to keep whoever it is Auntie, uncle, mum or Dad in their own homes.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: So it's about quality of life.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Choices have shifted dramatically Now.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: This started in 2008.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: When we had the financial crash.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: We all braced ourselves.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: It was going to get.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: The end of the world was nigh then you see in the media, and we got to the January thought right, what's going to happen?
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: We had one phone call from a client.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: A phone up and said we're going to have to suspend services because we had actually over borrowed and we can't do this anymore.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: So it's OK, totally understand.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: I've been expecting calls.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: It's fine, we'll see you another time.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: The majority of calls after that was we've been reflecting on things, and we would rather use the money we usually go out to dinner with to have help at home so we can all be together eating dinner at the table this evening.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: So it started to switch.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: Then the time value started to switch And then pandemic has completely accelerated that.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: So the growth in demand for help at home, in particular, employed help rather than black market help, has grown loads.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: And this is where, as a country, we've shifted away from the attitude that help at home is about having somebody below stairs that is in service.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: If you go to northern Europe, that just doesn't exist.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Everybody has help at home.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: And now we've got this growth that we're levelling up into that attitude towards life as well, which is great.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: So we need to do that.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, the whole thing is coming into line.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, after a couple of tough, couple of years, it's fine.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: You know, not fine, because obviously it was doing so well before, but you know, it's really sounds like you're in such a positive stage of business.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: It is because sometimes I say he's out, he's working now.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: He's an antique at the moment.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: He graduated last year and he's now independent.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: He's financially independent.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Now my time and my purpose has shifted dramatically So I can properly facilitate the growth and support franchisees in the way that I want to, to make sure they all get to enjoy the benefits that I've enjoyed for the last 21 years.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Are you hiring franchisees across the UK or is it in a particular area?
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: No across the UK And what we do is we design the territory around where our franchisees live or predominantly function.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Now I know in the traditional franchise world it says, no, you should map the territories and stuff.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: But when we worked with the MBA cohort they said, don't do that.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: And very rightly too, because say, for example, you were interested, elizabeth, you don't want a territory that's 10 miles down the road from you because it happens to be available.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: You need a territory that works around where you live, all around your school gates, because that's where your strong network is, because you're going to start telling people that you have now decided to your own domestic angels business underway and you're looking for clients, you're looking for staff and people say, are you?
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, i know somebody and you know, having those initial chats are really, really important.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: So it needs to be on your turf and also easy to access, because, as a busy mum, you don't need to be driving an extra 10 miles a day on top of everything else you're doing, because it will be 10 miles there and 10 miles back.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: So we haven't mapped the UK and paid thousands in advance.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: We around our good candidates and then that way we can get it right.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: And do you know what?
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: It ends up with?
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: some gaping holes along the way.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: So what, don't care, i need people to be successful and happy.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: So someone's listening to this and is, like you know, thinking it sounds like a brilliant business.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: You know they'd really get involved.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you know they will be able to satisfy that entrepreneurial itch.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: They'll get that time back.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: What would you say the benefits or I suppose the difference on starting your own business from scratch, and not necessarily a domestic angels business or starting any sort of business or a franchise?
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, so look, not everybody is insane as you and I and won't start with a blank piece of paper.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: But actually see, I feel like because I did color me beautiful, not for long, for a couple of years.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And so sort of a franchise.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: You pay for training and then you do get a patch, so actually it's a franchise.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Actually, that was really helpful for me because that laid a lot of foundation on business.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: You know, built a website, learn a bit about social media and you know that isn't ever wasted.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: So I definitely think it's a good way in.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, You cut your teeth.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Look, if you start your own business, you start with a blank piece of paper and then you've got to learn everything and you've got to do everything yourself.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: So you've got to develop your social media pages.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: You need to build your website.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: It's your shop window.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: You're going to need it.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: You're going to have to recruit your own staff, your own customers.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: You need to learn how to speak to them.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: You need to learn your own processes, how you can onboard those customers, because you have to log everything, make sure everything's done correctly.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: You might be capturing them, keep reengaging.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: There's all of those processes going on in the background that you will not have even thought about because you've got a great idea and a blank piece of paper, fine.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: However, if you go for a franchise, you're actually going for a business in a box where that's all done for you.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: So you think, oh, my goodness, yeah, but there's an investment.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: There's an investment when you've got a blank piece of paper.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, i mean, i spent my redundancy money like that.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: That's just the tip of the iceberg, because it's actually it's more and more and more than it is.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: So the cost to start from a blank piece of paper will invariably be higher than the investment you'll put into a franchise.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: And I guess as well.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: It's probably a lot more squiggly when you run your own business.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Start a business from scratch to that point of success.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is, It is.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: So you have an awful lot of defined processes within your domestic angels business in a box, so you know exactly how you're going to recruit people.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: You know exactly what the process is.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: You know exactly how you're going to approach customers.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: You know exactly how you're going to do marketing.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: You get on all the training, you get all the sport, you get mentoring for the first 90 days And then you've got a weekly team meeting, which is all the franchisees together plus the business coach and anybody else who wants to join in, and you get myself and the business coach on tap, as well as each other, because the franchisees talk to each other and say what do you think about this, what do you think about that?
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: So you're never alone.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Where's that blank piece of paper?
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: You are essentially on your own.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: You will get sounding boards, but you won't get as much structure and teamwork as you do in domestic angels franchise.
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: I keep saying domestic angels franchise is because franchisees operate differently.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: We happen to be really big on this because I referenced those sharks in 2005 for the franchise exhibition who I felt were selling empty shoeboxes.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: I cannot bring myself to do that, so I have not just filled up this shoebox.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I've stuffed it and overfilled it And it is an investment, it's not a sell.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: And because when you decide that you've done, say, your first five year term and you don't want to renew because life's moved on, you want to do something else, yeah, that business is worth money And they're going to sell it and return on your investment.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: Now we know that from one of our franchisees that if the full investment of £10,000 when she got underway the end of her five year term, her territory was worth £60,000.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: Wow, right.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: And then, along the way, you earn your profit as you go along as well, which ought to be between two and £3,000 a month Down to your effort.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: It's not easy, especially in the first year.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: You've got to put the hard work in, but it's completely doable with the family.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: And you make your money back then within three, three bits of months, won't you on that investment?
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: And once you get up to scratch and you're earning, that I like.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: I've got to scratch my money back.
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm always reluctant to get into that conversation because, well, actually, you look how much you're going to make back when you sell it.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: I love that Yeah.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah real investment.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you think about you know you might buy a buy to let in the hope it increases value.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: You post it, put it in your pension, aren't you in the hope it increases your money in an iser?
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, so with a buy to let, you would say you bought a buy to let for £100,000.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: Let's make it easy.
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't expect to make that £100,000 back in the first year.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: Two years, three, you expect to make it back when you sell it.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, so a business is real estate in itself.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: So don't look about how fast you're going to make it back.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: You're going to look at how much you're going to earn on a monthly basis.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: Once you're up and running And you start to earn quite well, quite quickly, that's all like within the sort of three to six months, depending on how sparky you are and what your energy levels are at.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: It's when you sell your real estate.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: That's when you get the return on your investment.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: I love that analogy you've come up with there, actually, because it's so often the franchise world focuses on well, how soon do you get your money back?
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't on a buy to let, so why do you think you would on this?
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, there's two income streams coming along there.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you've also got that time, haven't you?
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's hard to run a business and it's more time consuming than you probably think, but it's that time that you can choose when you're going to spend that time.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: So if you want to spend that time while the kids are at school, when the kids have gone to bed, you've got a lot more freedom about when you spend that time.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: I'm a very early waker, so it's nothing unusual for me to start five o'clock in the morning And then, by the time the house was waking up, it's like hey, everybody ready for breakfast?
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: Right, do the school run and then do some more, but I would have to have 20 minutes in that for school pickup Because I'm tired.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Please you can do that.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: You haven't got anyone saying no, no, no.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: nine to five.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: Where are you?
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Happen to wiggle your mouth?
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: You know that was the trick when you were nice to work from home for a corporate.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: You'd have to wiggle your mouth every 10 minutes, so it looked like you were online.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely, Absolutely.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm just saying the amount of things that need to be done during the daytime, But there's other stuff that, as business owners franchisee business owners can be done morning, evening, weekend, And it's fine.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: So you can vary it around and flex around.
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: So I think we might have got away from the question but added value to the answer.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: You've added so much value to this episode.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: The whole franchise thing is you get a lot of training, you get a lot of support, you've got a lot of processes and structures.
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: Probably another thing I would want to mention about domestic angels, though And this came, i'm glad, from the NBA cohort because it was something that I was really keen on It's.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to make it a certain shape and say that's it, nothing moves.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: That's the way it is.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: I leave an awful lot to chat about so that we can really embrace the personalities that come on board.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: So when you start a franchise, you have a franchise agreement that's called a pilot agreement, and the reason it's pilot agreement because I don't know quite how it's going to work.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: But also it says in there as a franchisee, if you notice anything that could be better and improve you should, you're obliged to put your hand up and talk about it and get involved and help that happen.
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: I have insisted on leaving that in the agreement because the world evolves and changes.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: I am not going to assume that what was correct six years ago is correct today, or what was correct 21 years ago is correct today, or the best it can be.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Technology changes the way that we operate and interact, changes the way that we communicate changes, the combination of personalities changes and evolves And we need to keep that moving.
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: So that's a really big deal for me And I hope that is part of what attracts the wonderful people who come to domestic angels because they want to contribute and help grow this and help improve it and add to it all of the time.
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: And we do get some great ideas from the franchisees, which of course we all discuss because we're very good at chatting and then we make happen.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Brilliant.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: So where can we if someone's listening to this and thinks I want to learn more about having a franchise or maybe even becoming an angel?
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: where can people learn more, get in touch with you and connect with you?
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: And Okay, so you can give me a course If you're like I've got to speak to Sam.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: It's 07985281120.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: Just phone me up.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: I love a chat And there's no obligation.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: If you're just thinking, well, i might like to have a franchise, but it's not domestic angels.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: But I've got a question, call me.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: It's fine.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: It's all about helping each other, about raising each other.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: So please, please, do that.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: You can see our website, which is franchisedomestic-angelscom.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: If you've got questions but don't really fancy a phone call, you can watch at me on that same number or email me on sam at domestic-angelscom.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth knows how to get hold of me.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: That's always a good.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're in, obviously, on LinkedIn, and you're in our Facebook group as well, working like a mom, so you are in lots of different places.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: Hopefully as open and accessible as possible for some of the amazing people out there who would enjoy and benefit what domestic angels has to offer And, at the same time, we can enjoy and benefit their talents, expertise and energy.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, brilliant.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: Well thank you so much, Samantha, for joining me today.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: It's been an absolute pleasure to chat with you.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: Oh no, you Thank you so much for all you do.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: You're amazing What you're doing.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you And you Thank you.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work It Like a Mom podcast.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett And let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: You can also follow my recruitment site, investing in Women on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep on chasing your big dreams.