My franchise story: Jane and Katie Brookes, Bright & Beautiful

Bright & Beautiful's first-ever mother and daughter team, delivers eco-friendly cleaning, tidying, laundry and ironing services to clients in Basingstoke, Andover and north of Winchester

How did Bright & Beautiful help you make the transition to becoming a franchisee?
Jane: We received an abundance of support from a variety of sources before, during and after we launched our new franchise. Our franchise consultant has been extremely helpful in guiding us through a lot of the initial hurdles and continues to be our first port of call for any issues or concerns we have. It’s a relief for us to have this constant support and know we’re not alone in our journey.

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Prior to launching our business, we received a pre-start training programme from the support office to help us with forecasts and planning our territory, including recruitment and marketing. We then attended a full week of training with hands on experience in our local area and launch support to help us in the initial stages of building our business.

We’ve also had continual encouragement and support from the other Bright & Beautiful franchisees in the network, who we can always reach out to as and when required. For us, it’s wonderful to feel part of such a strong community who only want to assist each other, without the threat of competition.

What’s the best part of being a franchisee?
Jane: Being able to enjoy the benefits of running our own business, while still having a support system and network you don’t have access to when you’re a solo business owner. The relationships built between ourselves and the wider Bright & Beautiful network have been extremely valuable and supportive, enabling us to meet and communicate with people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

We’ve also found that being part of a national franchise is a strong selling point for our customers, as people can see our franchise is professional, secure and reliable. Another huge bonus of being a franchisee is the access to the Bright & Beautiful branding - one of our favourite things is that everything is pink!

Top tips for women considering a career change and becoming a franchisee
Jane: Do your research and have the courage of your convictions. Even before you start to research franchise opportunities, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what a franchise is, if franchising is suitable for you and whether you believe in the brand and its values, which you will be investing in.

Opportunities are there for women to take and they have the chance to be their own boss and in charge of their own destiny. But you need to be prepared to work hard and, most importantly, enjoy what you do.

Both my daughter and I have come from completely unrelated backgrounds to the cleaning industry, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from considering a career change. I previously worked in the police within child protection, community policing and investigations, but I have been able to transfer the skills I have learnt to our new franchise business. And Katie’s psychology degree and experience in the hospitality industry have also been invaluable, as she has been able to apply her skill set to a business context.

One last piece of advice would be to get to know your fellow franchisees within your network and ask them about their experiences and the challenges they faced when starting out on their journey. We all know that expression: a problem shared is a problem halved.