What’s your recipe for an ideal kitchen?
IF THINGS aren’t cooking in your kitchen, Helen Mahon can help.
Helen has became a kitchen design guru since taking on a Dream Doors franchise.
To create the ideal kitchen, she suggests: ‘If you are not sure what you want, think about what you don’t like about your current kitchen. Then consider how you use it.
‘Do you cook a lot, or is it all microwave meals? Is the room used for entertaining?’
‘Look at your friends’ kitchens and search the internet to see what suits you. I love deep drawers for storing pots and pans, but that might not be for everyone. I also have a boiling water tap.’
Helen, 53, who runs the Norfolk Dream Doors franchise with her husband Philip, says: ‘Twelve years of offering replacement kitchen doors, fitted kitchens and kitchen services has honed my eye for detail and ability to focus on customers’ needs.’
Alex Waite, Dream Doors’ director of franchise recruitment, says: ‘Helen had no previous experience of the kitchen industry, but with our help and her drive she has built a very successful business.’
Dream Doors has 19 franchise territories available nationwide at a cost of £29,950 each.
For most franchises, industry experience is unnecessary. At transport franchise Driver Hire, more than a quarter of the 83 franchisees are female. Oxford franchisee Elaine Thompson says: ‘I find transport managers welcome a woman’s voice in what is mostly a man’s world, and in recruitment women pay greater attention to detail.’
Driver Hire franchises start from £35,000.
Dream Doors, 02392 604630; Driver Hire, 01274 361073.