Having spent 25 years in both small and large business management and leadership positions Clare established The Alternative Board in the North Downs area in October 2012, and is now running three boards and looking to increase her territory membership and create further boards. Joining initially with a 2 years option to acquire the North Downs territory, Clare converted her option to become a full franchise owner after 15 months.
Clare was one of the founding directors of Education Digital and was instrumental in the launch of Teachers’ TV, the DfES funded television channel for the schools workforce. She spent thirty years in the media industry, working within the independent production sector, broadcast sector and latterly the new media sector. Prior to setting up Education Digital, Clare was on the board of Brook Lapping Productions and played a central role in the company’s strategy, financial planning, development and policies.
Launching her TAB Business
It can be a real bonus when starting any business if you have existing contacts that you can call upon to help you in the early days. Clare didn’t have any contacts in her territory but that didn’t hold her back. Within a week of completing training she had her first ‘host’ who accommodated Clare’s marketing events and with a lots of networking, she soon started to build a reliable and useful lead and contact base.
Clare took a bold step after about 8 months of running her TAB business when she decided to take responsibility for her own introductory calls. She sent batches of emails to potential members and followed them up in a timely manner to secure meetings which proved so successful that other TAB franchise owners have followed in her footsteps. Clare said, “The hardest part for me was doing some cold calling myself but the results were outstanding which were rewarding and kept me motivated.”
Business success so far
Clare saw the possibility of growing a significant TAB business and has been tenacious to build it as quickly as possible. Her vision is to have at least two associates working with her and have in the region of 50 members. In the first year Clare held herself personally accountable, setting KPI’s for member recruitment activity to keep her on track. Since activity leads to success, she was prepared to put in the hours to deliver that success and challenge herself on regular basis to ensure the business grew. Her tenacious nature led to her achieving the record for highest number of members signed by a TAB franchise owner in their first year as well as breaking records for monthly billing 18 months from launch.
I saw the value of The Alternative Board immediately and have been committed to sharing that value with as many people as possible. I have a genuine passion for helping businesses, so much so that my ‘personal vision’ is to become a respected member of the local business community. This passion and enthusiasm has allowed me to build the business at a very quick rate. There’s also a great added bonus in that, because I work where I live, I no longer have to spend hours commuting to the City every day!
Contributing to the TAB community
Clare, as with other TAB franchise owners, is always prepared to share her experiences (whether positive or otherwise) with fellow franchise owners. Lots of her colleagues have used her methods and made progress in their own TAB businesses and Clare is equally quick to implement ideas and good practice from others which she admits, have undoubtedly helped in her success.
