Entrepreneur and Bright & Beautiful Founder Rachel Ray presented a specialist session at the lively networking British Franchise Association ‘Women in Franchising’ event, held on 20 November.

Speaking about how women can identify their core values and build their own personal brand to achieve success. Rachel also talked about her own business background, making the move from her job as an accountant to setting up on her own professional housekeeping business in which she currently manages 48 franchisees nationwide.

The Women in Franchising event, now in its second year, was created to give women within the franchising and wider business arena the opportunity to listen to presentations and participate in discussion groups led by successful and inspirational women from within the industry; sharing experiences, best practice and knowledge.

Rachel was asked to run an interactive session by British Franchise Association head of operations, Pip Wilkins, after her business Bright & Beautiful was recently recognised as a finalist in the Emerging Franchisor of the Year Award. This award showcases the newest franchisor businesses that are standing out from the crowd. These franchisors have been franchising for less than five years and already have a track record of excelling in their fields.

Bright & Beautiful was founded in 2007 when Rachel, herself a busy working mum, spotted a gap in the market for a domestic cleaning company that provided full fair employment rights for its team, non-toxic cleaning products and an exceptional housekeeping service for its clients. Since then the business has grown from strength to strength with franchisees around the UK employing carefully vetted professional housekeepers and servicing thousands of clients.

Pip Wilkins, head of operations for the British Franchise Association, said: “Women in Franchising was created to promote the industry and champion women in business, Rachel was a perfect advocate to help us raise awareness. As a woman who has created a successful business, Rachel has achieved considerable results through hard work and dedication to her brand, and feedback from the day was unanimously strong for Rachel’s specialist session, showing we’d made exactly the right choice to inspire our attendees.”

Rachel Ray added: “It was an honour to be asked to speak at this event and to meet so many inspirational women. The franchising business model opens up huge opportunities for women to run their own successful business whist maintaining a healthy work/life balance. At Bright & Beautiful we have already helped 48 women to start their own business and I’m passionate about reaching out to others to equip them with the know-how and self-belief to achieve their full business potential.”