Case Study - Eve Armstrong

Eve Armstrong began her career in franchising after realising that working for someone else wasn't providing her the job satisfaction she needed. Eve says: "My previous job had become a bit stale and after working for over ten years, I knew that I had not met with a really exciting challenge and needed something fresh. I knew that self-employment would provide me with the challenges, excitement and enjoyment that I wanted from my working life, and having built up a base of key business skills I wanted to use them to my advantage."

Losing weight with LighterLife helped Eve focus her search and after researching various options, Eve decided to invest in a LighterLife franchise. "I had actually been a client with LighterLife and could see the results, and it was obvious to me that the programme worked," says Eve. "My firsthand experience of LighterLife combined with an attractive business model made me realise that investing in a LighterLife franchise made sense." It was this unquestionable belief in LighterLife that gave her the confidence to change career: "It was a product that I knew worked and so I was confident that the company would be equally as successful."

After undergoing rigorous training accredited by Edexcel, designed to give complete knowledge of the product, the company and how to run a successful franchise, Eve opened her doors for business in October 2007. Her previous experience in both customer facing and office based roles have provided a fantastic background to assist her in running her own franchise. Eve is involved in everything from dealing with admin and general office duties to holding weekly sessions with clients and is fully supported by a Regional Business Development Manager who is always on hand to help.

Eve's motivation for investing in a franchise was to meet exciting new challenges, which is exactly what she has experienced in the two years since beginning her new career. Eve says: "I started in the West End of London and built a strong client base from scratch. Then, after a year, I decided to move to Bromley, Kent in order to be closer to home and have a better work/life balance. This meant starting the business all over again in a new area. LighterLife is a programme whose results sell itself, so I was backed by an excellent product, but it was still a challenge building up my business again whilst turning all my training into reality."

Eve's advice for anyone considering starting a franchise is to not be scared and to hold your nerve. Eve says: "It has been a great opportunity to test my complete business skills along with my client focused skills. It has been a steep learning curve to work with clients, suppliers and head office to run a successful and a high standard business. I am confident that my clients have benefited from my hard work. It is much harder work being self employed and I really have to go that extra mile, but it is definitely worth it. My future goals are to continue to see my client numbers climb and hopefully run a second LighterLife franchise in an additional territory. I want to expand the business as a whole to give clients a complete service."