Case Study - Judy Mizen

Judy Mizen, a franchisee in Basingstoke with Platinum Property Partners recounts her experience so far:

Four years ago, I was a physiotherapist in the NHS and after nearly 20 years had reached the post of clinical specialist in a regional neurological rehabilitation unit. I was combining being a full time mother of three with working weekends at the local hospital covering respiratory care in the intensive care unit.

With my youngest child due to start school, I was considering what to do with the rest of my life. I wasn’t excited by the obvious prospect of returning to more full time physiotherapy, and didn’t fancy being a classroom assistant – the other bastion of mothers after years out of the job market. Fortunately due to my on-going part time work and personality, lack of confidence wasn’t my problem; it was lack of ideas and knowledge. I loved property and was able to wield a power tool with the best of them, thanks to my father. Having extensively refurbished two of our own homes and loved it, I could think of nothing I’d like to do more – but how to make a living out of it?

Whilst at a property show at Olympia I met Steve Bolton, one of the founding partners of Platinum Property Partners LLP. PPP’s core deliverable is training their members to set up and operate high quality professional house share accommodation with the benefits of market leading returns on investment and reliable and impressive month on month cash flow. At the end of a whirlwind first year, we had three properties up and running in Basingstoke.

For many within the franchise industry one of their first goals is to replace their annual salary in their current day job. One advantage of coming from the public sector was that this was easily achievable and exceeded by the end of year one! Going from working in the public sector to self-employed business owner, however, was a big cultural shift.The NHS offered a job for life with a good superannuation pension scheme and predictable career progression. Forming my own limited company offered none of these benefits.

There were so many things that I knew nothing about – my biggest knowledge gaps were in the areas of company structure, book keeping, accountancy and tax. I had absolutely no idea what a balance sheet was or the difference between capital and revenue, and P and L could have stood for anything. Being part of a franchise was invaluable to me, whether it was advice from my mentors, the team of solicitors, accountants, mortgage brokers, or indeed my fellow franchise partners with business backgrounds.The support was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed acquiring this new knowledge.

A franchise can allow you to develop innate skills and aptitudes that you’d otherwise not have had the opportunity to explore. Just because you’ve not done something before doesn’t mean you won’t be good at it – you can teach an old dog new tricks (but that’s not to say the old tricks aren’t still useful)!! It has not always been easy; in the commercial world you sink or swim on your own merits, and you have to promote your own value and negotiate your own terms; no one will do it for you. A franchise softens this learning curve and is a little more accommodating along the way but when it reaches a hand down to pull you up it is down to you to seize it.

Now when asked ‘What do you do?’ I answer without hesitation: ‘I’m a property developer’, and it feels great to have reinvented myself for real. When I’ve told people what I’m doing, most have been quite surprised and impressed, and some have even said they wished they’d taken a similar plunge.

The Franchise offers a tried and tested ‘toolbox’ of options for profiting from property, and as the market alters we are trained and supported in new investment methods, which means we don’t have to spend time and effort trying to find out what the ‘next best thing’ is, or worry about being left behind. Thanks to PPP’s guidance and support I’ve been working with a family member as a passive investor in my business, which has worked very well for us both.

Since becoming a franchise partner I know I’ve not only been able to build a solid property business, but have also improved my overall business and personal skills and reassessed my goals and objectives for the future.