Successful duo join Rosemary Bookkeeping

Oct 17, 2014 | Clients in the Media, News

Rosemary Bookkeeping, a client of Coconut Creatives, have announced that they have two more franchisees in the starting blocks this month. Alexis Draper and Carol Bridgman have just joined the team and are set to build successful businesses over the next few months.

Carol found that in her previous career as a management accountant, her work/life balance wasn’t flexible enough for her needs and so she began researching options for working at home. Alexis has a wealth of business experience as an Assistant to a Company Secretary which involved a short period of time working in Bermuda. She also took on a long-distance bookkeeping course because she wanted to develop her interest in working with numbers. Both found the Rosemary Bookkeeping website and experienced their own personal ‘light-bulb’ moments.

“I felt as though I was in the wrong career for a number of years and so I embarked upon a long distance bookkeeping course. At the same time, I started up my own mobile beauty business as, besides working with numbers, this was another passion of mine. Unfortunately my small business did not get off the ground due to some adverse circumstances and I found myself unemployed for quite some time. I persevered with my bookkeeping course and after searching for the next step in my life, I came across Rosemary Bookkeeping. This will now hopefully be the start of a whole new future for me,” explains Alexis.

The Rosemary Bookkeeping franchise now has over 20 franchisees nationwide, servicing the SME market of over 4 million businesses in the UK. The franchise is based on a business concept that has been established and refined since 2002 providing a unique bookkeeping system with a fully-supported franchise package. Franchisees obtain huge flexibility with superb work-life balance potential.

“I’m looking forward to the flexibility of the franchise. My previous working hours were 8am to 4pm and there was no flexibility to it so if I needed to be at home for a delivery, for example, then I had to book that as holiday. We love to travel so it was very frustrating having to use my valuable holiday time to sit at home all day,” explains Carol.

“Working for myself definitely excites me; being in charge of my own destiny, the rewards I receive will be linked to the amount of effort I put in. Having enough freedom to feel that I’m the person making decisions but also having the safety net of an excellent company like Rosemary behind me,” she adds.

Rosemary Bookkeeping delivers intelligent bookkeeping services to SMEs, accountants and franchisors ensuring a consistency of delivery and high-quality work. Their practical, down-to-earth and friendly approach provides clients with information that enables them to understand and make decisions on their businesses, gives peace of mind that HMRC will be happy, whilst charges are fair and reasonable.

“I am looking forward to facing the prospect of networking and meeting people and having to build my own clientele base. Also I’m really excited to be a part of the franchise network, being able to liaise with the franchisor and other franchisees,” says Alexis.

The franchise is backed by four successful entrepreneur business women, Claire Watson-Bardot, Joanna Dennis, Sarah Carlile and Lisa Curteis who have over 60 years of business and bookkeeping experience between them. As an Associate Member of the bfa Rosemary Bookkeeping has a proven ability to sustain a franchise network successfully.

Serial franchise owner strikes again

Sep 30, 2014 | Clients in the Media, News

Zul Chagani is the latest franchisee to take advantage of the multi-store franchise opportunity at Baskin-Robbins. Zul has been so successful with his first store in Amersham that, he decided to open not just his second store, but his third store as well over a period of just a few months. Zul is now the proud owner of Baskin-Robbins stores in Amersham, Willesden Green and Wembley.

Baskin-Robbins already have nearly 150 stores in the UK and are now offering single store opportunities for new franchisees. Single store investments require a minimum liquid capital investment of £60k and a minimum total launch cost of £120k of which 50% will normally be funded by a high street bank.

Zul’s franchise journey began over 13 years ago with Pizza Hut and he hasn’t looked back since. Zul is an extremely successful business man and, to date, he is the proud owner of eight Pizza Hut restaurants, 15 Costa Coffee shops and is now taking great advantage of the multi-store franchise opportunity at Baskin-Robbins.

Baskin-Robbins offers its franchisees a high level of support, whether they choose to open one store or ten, from world class training and operations support, to innovative marketing and menu development.

“Zul’s success has been due to his hard work and dedication to his businesses and he now has a fantastic portfolio of businesses in our industry. We knew that he would be more than qualified to open his second and third Baskin-Robbins stores in quick succession. We’re looking forward to see Zul’s new stores’ development and we’re looking forward to seeing what he’s going to do next!” explains Jim Johnstone, UK Managing Director for Dunkin’ Brands.

Baskin-Robbins is the world’s largest chain of ice cream speciality stores operating in a market worth £1.8 billion. Since 1945, the brand has introduced 1,000 unique, fun and much-loved ice cream recipes, frozen drinks and creative ice-cream cakes.

“As a family we have always liked Baskin-Robbins products. The children love it, we love it and it just fits well into our existing portfolio. For us it is important that we like and believe in the product we sell. That’s how we’ve chosen our previous businesses as well,” explains Zul.

“The visual effects of the Baskin-Robbins store are modern and show the contemporary nature of this historic brand, which really appealed to us. We met with Jim Johnstone, the UK Managing Director of Baskin-Robbins, and he was very helpful. We have since established an excellent working relationship with him. He put us on the right track and Chris Gray, an International Business Manager for Dunkin’ Brands, has been excellent in helping us set up our three stores,” adds Zul.

Zul will have the opportunity to expand his portfolio even more in the future and, with his success and enthusiasm so far, he looks set to have a bright future with Baskin-Robbins. With Baskin-Robbins, the investment at store level is low. Owners can open 10 Baskin-Robbins stores for the same cost as one Drive Thru in the Quick Service Restaurant sector. Owners can then spread their investment rather than relying on just one location.

This press release has created wide spread coverage on franchise related websites and social media. It will also be included in upcoming print publications. To find out how Coconut Creatives can help you generate great PR why not contact us

Extending a hand to fellow franchisees

Sep 29, 2014 | Clients in the Media, News

Who better to support franchise business owners with growth and development than another franchisee? As small business and franchise owners themselves, TAB (The Alternative Board) coaches are perfectly placed to support other franchisees with their businesses. This is the most recent development at TAB and many franchisees have been taking the opportunity to tap into this unique market for their services.

TAB is the world’s largest peer-to-peer support and business advisory franchise. Their franchise owners run dynamic, membership-only board meetings to facilitate peer-to-peer support and offer one-to-one coaching for business owners. TAB empower business owners to achieve more; more profitability, productivity and personal fulfilment.

Supporting fellow franchisees gives TAB business owners the opportunity to share their franchising experiences with others to coach them through their businesses and is an extremely rewarding venture. Two franchise owners who have been taking advantage of this opportunity are Clare Chaney, franchise owner in the North Downs and Ian Gregory, franchise owner in Mid-Cheshire.

“I’ve found that being a franchisee myself is a definite advantage when coaching franchisees. I know that within set business models there are things that they can and cannot change and I can empathise with them and see where they are coming from. I can then find ways to work around certain problems. TAB are particularly supportive as a group and that runs from a regional level through to an international level. I have a very good example of being a franchisee and being part of a supportive franchise which I find extremely beneficial. I can suggest to franchisees that they maybe ask their franchisor if certain aspects of the business can be changed around to suit them but still adhere to best practice within the franchise,” explains Clare.

Since 1990, TAB franchise owners have helped over 13,000 business owners achieve their personal and professional goals. They have close to 25 years’ experience in the SME sector and their worldwide network of over 200 franchise owners are supported by a team of experts in all essential business disciplines. TAB are an associate member of the British Franchise Association, promoting ethical franchising.

“Being part of a franchise can be insular but sitting in on my boards often opens franchisees minds. In some cases, as a result of one of my board’s advice a franchisee has been able to drive their franchisor to change their policies because they are backed up by sound business coaching and experience,” says Ian.

“Working with franchisees is so rewarding and each franchisee I work with has been growing quarter on quarter. One of my franchisees is 12 months into his business and eight months in with me and he’s already more profitable than the other franchisees in his network. The challenges for most franchisees lie in the sales and marketing area so the ideas and development the board brings is quite significant for them,” explains Ian.

“I love doing what I do and being part of TAB. Knowing that my franchisee members are growing their businesses faster than others in their areas or sectors is a great reward. Two of my members are about to open their third franchises and the other is about to take on his fourth member of staff. All of their businesses are growing really well and our time spent together has been extremely worthwhile,” says Clare.

In the UK, there are currently 930 franchise systems in operation. Combined, they contribute £13.7 billion towards the UK economy. With over 22,400 franchisees in the UK, there is a huge opportunity for TAB franchisees to tap into the UK franchise market. Using exclusive TAB planning and development tools, franchise owners unlock the real world experience and skillsets of their board members to deliver an invaluable and inspiring service. Franchisees enjoy a regular and predictable income stream with significant opportunity for additional revenues.

“As a franchisor I have experienced TAB for my franchise operation for a number of years and I wholeheartedly endorse the benefits of both the monthly meetings and follow up mentoring. These sessions enable Tabbers to focus on strategic elements of the business that quite easily could have been forgotten about due to the demands of day to day operations. As franchisees run their own businesses with the support of the franchisor, the same pressures apply to them also. Logically, there is no reason why TAB membership could not be of direct benefit to thousands of franchisees also,” Mike Hanrahan, Franchisor, Maid2Clean.

Why do franchisees need business coaches in the form of TAB franchise owners? The answer is simple. They want to improve their businesses and set goals for themselves. In order to reach those goals they hire a coach to help them get there. If you’re a business owner who wants your business to reach a new level, consider hiring a business coach.

This press release has created wide spread coverage on franchise related websites and social media. It will also be included in upcoming print publications. To find out how Coconut Creatives can help you generate great PR why not contact us

Would bookkeeping add up to the right future for you?

Aug 29, 2014 | Clients in the Media, News

Did you realise over 500,000 businesses were set up last year? Did you know over half of those may not be around in two years’ time, with the biggest reason being poorly managed finances. However, one fact that is certain, all of these businesses will need a bookkeeper to record and manage their transactions. It won’t matter what the economy’s doing, it won’t matter whether they want the service or not, it is government-enforced legislation.

Qualified, professional bookkeepers, like Rosemary Bookkeeping franchisees, have a vital role to play in the health of the country’s small businesses. A bookkeeper will often be the first person to spot signs that a company is heading into difficulties by flagging up late paying debtors or cash flow issues which is why many business owners rely on them and trust them to keep their bookkeeping in order. A bookkeeper can add significant value to a business to help it grow and succeed:

“Before we started using a Rosemary Bookkeeper, we had little visibility over our numbers. Since working alongside Christina Gray, Rosemary Bookkeeping’s franchisee in Southampton, we had a great set of numbers to review every month which has helped us not only keep on track but plan for further growth. We couldn’t achieve this without using a professional bookkeeping service which fits seamlessly with our business, understanding our needs and being proactive when it counts most,” Sarah Carlile, MD, Coconut Creatives Ltd.

The average annual earnings of a standalone bookkeeper in the UK are around £25,000 and most bookkeepers charge by the hour thus creating a cap on earnings. However, as a Rosemary Bookkeeping franchise owner, you are guaranteed a recurring income with average 50% net profit margins and excellent growth opportunities to build a management-style business far in excess of this. Rosemary Bookkeepers bill per document rather than per hour which is far more productive. Better for the bookkeeper, more transparent for the client.

Here are a few skills that might make you suitable to be a bookkeeper and grow your own business servicing the SME market of over 4 billion businesses in the UK:

• A methodical approach to your everyday work
• A penchant for keeping records
• An attention for detail
• Enjoyment of networking with other business owners.

Rosemary Bookkeeping is one example of a successful bookkeeping franchise business which offers intelligent bookkeeping services to SMEs and accountants ensuring a consistency of delivery and high-quality work. Their practical down-to-earth and friendly approach provides clients with information that enables them to understand and make decisions on their business, gives peace of mind that HMRC will be happy, whilst charges are fair and reasonable.

This press release has created wide spread coverage on franchise related websites and social media. It will also be included in upcoming print publications. To find out how Coconut Creatives can help you generate great PR why not contact us

Franchisees multiply at Rosemary Bookkeeping!

Aug 14, 2014 | Clients in the Media, News

Rosemary Bookkeeping’s franchise network is due to get even bigger in the coming weeks as two more franchisees finish their training. Ashish Brahmbhatt and David Vasey will both be launching their franchises this month.

Ashish will be running Rosemary’s very first family-run franchise, he will be running the business with his father and sister-in-law and each of them will take on a different role within the business. Both David and Ashish are looking forward to completing their training and building a successful business.

David originally enquired about the franchise opportunity in 2010 and has just made the decision to take the leap and join Rosemary as a franchisee. David will be operating the Haselmere franchise in Surrey and, with a varied background in customer service, finance, sales and marketing, he is confident that he has the skills and expertise to run and grow his franchise.

The Rosemary Bookkeeping franchise now has over 20 franchisees nationwide, servicing the SME market of over 4 million businesses in the UK. The franchise is based on a business concept that has been established and refined since 2002 providing a unique bookkeeping system within a fully-supported franchise package. Franchisees obtain huge flexibility with superb work-life balance potential.

“I had known about Rosemary Bookkeeping for around 4 years and I liked the friendly and personal approach of being given concise details of the business and I feel that I will be able to adapt my existing skills accordingly as a franchisee,” explains David.

“I am looking forward to being able to work for myself but still have the business backing of a well-established franchise and to be part of a growing team. Initially, I want to operate the franchise personally so that I can get to know the full workings of the process then, hopefully, I will be able to expand the business utilising sub-contractors.”

Rosemary Bookkeeping delivers intelligent bookkeeping services to SMEs, accountants and franchisors ensuring a consistency of delivery and high-quality work. Their practical, down-to-earth and friendly approach provides clients with information that enables them to understand and make decisions on their business, gives peace of mind that HMRC will be happy, whilst charges are fair and reasonable.

The franchise is backed by four successful entrepreneur business women, Claire Watson-Bardot, Joanna Dennis, Sarah Carlile and Lisa Curteis who have over 60 years of business and bookkeeping experience between them. As an Associate Member of the bfa Rosemary Bookkeeping has a proven ability to sustain a franchise network successfully.