Starting your own business - advantages of the franchise option

Samantha Action is something of a Dorset business superwoman. But even this heroine was brought to her knees by the demands of a busy work life and being a new mum. Like any working parent, Samantha dusted herself down, kept calm and carried on, but her role in the cut-throat financial services industry meant a return to work just six months after son Jack was born 17 years ago. The pressures and demands for her time, both at home and at work, sparked a lightbulb moment. After taking the first available opportunity for redundancy, Samantha regrouped and a spur of the moment opportunity presented itself. After helping a close friend find a trustworthy, reliable cleaner, Domestic Angels was born. In 2002, Samantha recruited her first Angel and hasn’t looked back since. Despite being a novice in a business sense, Sam’s forward-thinking and professional values shone through in the early days of the business and Domestic Angels now boasts as many as 20 staff and more than 130 clients across its four Dorset branches. In 2016, Samantha franchised the business, offering the same flexible home-based management solution that had been the catalyst for her own work / life balance 14 years earlier. A two-time winner of regional and national Venus Awards, Samantha Action is one of Dorset’s sharpest business minds and a true champion of women in business.