Alexis Draper – Rosemary Bookkeeping Franchise Northwich

20140730_161437Alexis Draper has successfully started her own bookkeeping franchise business in Northwich after a difficult scenario resulting in her being out of work for over 3 years.

Alexis brings varied and extensive experience spanning 28 years to her new business, including experience working within large organisations, a medium sized family business and small businesses in roles that have included office supervisor, company secretarial administrator, accounts clerk and running her own beauty therapy business.

Yet, despite her broad skills, Alexis found herself unemployed due to unfortunate circumstances which ended up in a very long 3 year court battle over land surrounding her house.  “The malicious nature of the dispute made me quite ill and I spent a lot of my time trying to deal with the legalities of the situation, a lot of times staying up late into the night and early hours of the morning reading through statements and legal jargon.”

Despite the difficult situation, she remained as positive and proactive as she could,  teaching herself about litigation, taking a long distance Bookkeeping Course  and completing a 2 year Beauty Course. By February 2014 she was ready to start thinking about setting up a business, and came to FranchisingWorks Find Out About Franchising workshop to explore her options. She says:

“My initial thoughts when I first went on a workshop were that this is definitely for me.   I was at a point in my life where the structure and support of a franchising business was best suited to me.  The particular franchise I chose is Rosemary Bookkeeping due to my relevant qualifications and I have always enjoyed working with numbers.  They had also already been approved by FranchisingWorks so immediately I knew that all the leg work for due diligence had been done and it would be a trustworthy business to invest in.”

With advice and support from the FranchisingWorks Business Advisor, Alexis completed months of preparation, research and planning to start her Rosemary Bookkeeping business. She secured an investment from the FranchisingWorks Licence Fund of £7,500 to help her to start up the business in Northwich, offering outsourced bookkeeping services to small businesses and accountants in the surrounding areas. Alexis comments:

“I am so pleased that I was introduced to FranchisingWorks through the Jobcentre and feel that it has turned my life around.  It gave me a very detailed insight into a world I was not familiar with.  My assigned mentor was very attentive and helpful in all aspects of the businesses I was interested in.  I was led through the whole process step by step and never felt that I was out of my depth with all the support that I was receiving. 

I think that if I had gone through this process alone and without the help of FranchisingWorks that I would have been very overwhelmed and probably not gone through with it. I feel positive and confident about my future and would never have been able to do it without FranchisingWorks.