Business Startup

WHEN former accounts clerk Sally Carr saw an advert in her local newspaper to open up a Slimming World franchise it gave her just the opportunity she was looking for to start up her own business.

“Since having my little girl I had been working fulltime” said Sally, “and putting her in nursery was a complete nightmare, she was crying all the time and I was just going through the motions of being in work, so I knew that I needed to do something different.”

And that’s when Sally took the plunge to become her own boss.

“I never thought I would get the funding for it” she said, “so when I did I was absolutely delighted. I love what I do now and it has made such a difference to my life. I have got the best of both worlds, I can enjoy time with my daughter, but I can still go to work.”

Sally, who is from the Knowsley area, said she was particularly keen to open up a Slimming World franchise because having gained weight during her pregnancy herself, she knew how difficult it was to diet and felt she could empathize with her members.

She said: “Because I have been through this process myself, I felt that I was in a much better position to advise my members and they seem very comfortable knowing they are talking to someone who has faced the same difficulties they have.”

As well as having a two-year-old daughter Paige, Sally is now pregnant with her second child and says now that she is her own boss it will be much easier to return to work.

“I run two classes” said Sally, one on a Wednesday evening and one on Saturday mornings, so even with two children this will much easier to manage.”

Once 30-year-old Sally made the decision to start up her own business she came along to Train 2000 for free help and advice under the business start-up programme. “I had never heard of Train 2000 before” added Sally, but I saw an advert in the Kirkby Extra and decided to go along.

“I had never put a business plan together before and I really couldn’t have done it without my adviser Amanda, she was brilliant and really easy to talk to.”

Sally runs classes at Christchurch in Bootle at 10am every Saturday and the County Methodist Church on Ludlow Avenue, off County Road each Wednesday at 6pm. Classes are currently well attended but as Sally says ‘there’s always room for more’. To find out more about Slimming World or to book your place in one of Sally’s classes please call her on 07952 237 279.