Trading Jobs Has Been a Raring Success!

Swapping her sales job with Autotrader for editing her own Raring2go! magazine has been a great success for Birmingham-based Penny Beddows.

Penny Beddows, from Sutton Coldfield, was a sales rep for Autotrader and struggling to balance her work life with her family life. Then she got the news everyone dreads - she was being made redundant. However, her bad news quickly turned into the best thing that could have happened as she took ownership of the Sutton Coldfield franchise of Raring2go!.

Raring2go! is a high quality quarterly A5 magazine which provides parents and carers of primary school children with a definitive hyper local guide of what to do and where to go. Each edition is packed full of family friendly editorial, event listings, celebrity features as well as highly relevant advertising. This advertising is aimed at informing parents of the wide range of activities available to them both on their own doorstep and much further afield.

Penny took over her Raring2go! franchise in the spring of 2013 and has not looked back since. She is now much happier in both her work and family life and really enjoying providing her local community with a great service.

Penny explains:

"When I was made redundant it was obviously bad news, but I already had an idea that I wanted to become a Raring2go! editor as I used to work with Trish, the Raring2go! operations manager, before she moved jobs. She had told me there was no magazine in the Sutton Coldfield area and was pushing me to give it a go.

It really appealed to me as I have always worked in sales so I knew I could make that side of the job work, and also it would allow me to have much more flexibility so I can spend more time with my two children, for example I can now work from home in the school holidays.

So far it could not have gone much better, profit levels are great and I am getting new customers coming on board all the time. I have advertisers who have been with me since I started and quite a few on annual deals. Also there are new businesses launching in the local area all the time that are keen for exposure, so the sales side of things is going great. It’s also nice thinking you are giving the local family community a service they can really benefit from, everyone I speak to is so positive and responsive about it, I know if I wasn’t editing the magazine I would be using it to see what is going on for my kids.

The training and on-going support has been excellent, I am lucky as I already knew Trish who did all my training and I actually share an office with her now so the on-going support could not be better for me. I would definitely recommend a Raring2go! franchise to anyone who is considering it, it’s the best decision I have ever made. It gives you so much flexibility to work around your family life, and is also very rewarding both financially and personally, so I really can’t recommend it enough."

Raring2go! now has 52 editions across the UK operated by 46 franchisees and is always looking for ambitious individuals to join them. Raring2go!’s comprehensive franchise package includes:

• First six months of Management Service Fee (MSF)
• First magazine (10,000 copies of a 32-page magazine)
• An exclusive territory
• A comprehensive operating manual which is always up to date
• A bespoke Magazine Management System and Client Relationship Management system
• Design skills and social media training
• A bespoke computer system pre-loaded with Raring2go! Software
• Quality stationery pack and branded merchandise
• Localised web page
• E-mail accounts

Raring2go! Is an associate member of the British Franchise Association as well as the Encouraging Women into Franchising group.

For further information about the Raring2go! Magazine franchise just click below

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