Posted:01-February-2023
How Jamie swapped accountancy to become a successful Christmas Decorator
For 20 years I worked as a qualified accountant for numerous large businesses. Accountancy came easy to me and paid well. It’s a solid career. A respectable job. Once the pandemic was over I decided after 20 years of spreadsheets it had become groundhog day and I needed a new challenge and the ability to recap the rewards of my hard work. After much research I came across The Christmas Decorators.
What made you choose The Christmas Decorators Franchise?
I had some experience installing Christmas decorations for a franchise and loved it. I would be thinking while I worked that there were better ways of doing the job, efficiencies that could make the business better and more profitable so when the opportunity came up to buy a Christmas Decorators franchise, I felt it was the right time in my life and ready to put my money where my mouth is.
What has been the biggest challenge that has contributed to your business success?
I think one of the most important life events that has made our business a success was leaving school at 16 years old after my GCSEs and heading off to Art College. At the end of my course at 18, I thought that there wasn’t going to be a decent living for me in the creative industry so got a run of the mill office job and fell into accountancy. I studied hard weekends and evenings whilst working and qualified when I was 24.
But my passion for art and design has always been with me, from day 1 as a Christmas Decorator I realised that art is a deep rooted passion of mine and when you combine passion and work the results are very impressive for our customers and massively rewarding for me.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the business?
The freedom that it affords me. After working for big businesses for many years I never found that the harder you worked the better thought of or recognition you got. Whereas running my own business I get to see the results and find this hugely rewarding.
How have you found the training and support?
The training and support is brilliant. We are going into our third year now have attended additional training every year. To help reinforce some of things we have been learning during the set up of our franchise. There is lots of training on offer which is in depth and gives you all the tools you need to run your franchise.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone buying a franchise?
To really commit to the franchise, throw yourself into the deep end and just enjoy yourself. Make sure you fully understanding what you are buying into making sure it’s the right franchise for you.
How do you see the future for your business?
The future is bright. We have doubled our turnover in our second year and then we plan to just keep building from there.
One of my strengths as an accountant was identifying inefficiencies and making improvements to processes, making things quick, slicker and streamlined. These skills are all transferable into the franchise world and I intend to set up my business to be ran as best as it can be.
Interested and want to know more about The Christmas Decorators?
The The Christmas Decorators basic profile outlines aspects of their franchise opportunity
