Jennie Mills is a nominee for a prestigious award
Rainbow Derbyshire’s Managing Director Jennie Mills is a nominee for Young Female Franchisee of the Year Award. The bfa HSBC Franchise Awards 2019 takes place in June 2019.
Hosted by the British Franchise Association (bfa) the event recognises those in franchising. The award is for those who have shown excellent business awareness in the past year and are under 35. Exceptional growth and development have been made within Rainbow Derbyshire, and this is two reasons why she has been shortlisted.
“I’m so happy to be on the shortlist for this award. Being new to the industry and only running it for 4 years, it shows that I’m doing something right. I was completely new to the industry, and being nominee shows I’m doing things right. It gives me the motivation to continue growing my business and my team. Being a nominee for this is a rewarding accomplishment which I am so grateful for. I’d like to wish all the other nominees the best of luck for the awards night”.
Life before Rainbow
Before Rainbow, Jennie had been a professional scuba diver, after taking it up as a hobby in her late teens. Her work included working at a salmon farm in Scotland, to working at Pinewood Studios as a Safety Diver for various film productions.
With no prior business experience, Jennie became Managing Director of Rainbow Derbyshire in April 2015. From there the business has gone from strength to strength year on year.
Rainbow Derbyshire has become the only franchise in the network to provide pond cleans because of Jennie’s scuba diving past. Past projects include cleaning a blue chip company’s lake.
Hard work pays off
Pip Wilkins, CEO of the bfa, stated: “Jennie has enabled her business to thrive in the East Midlands. Being part of the trailblazer group for the betterment of the brand and twice recently winning Franchisee of the Month, Jennie is an integral franchisee who pioneers improvement within the network.”
Andrew Brattesani, Head of Franchising at HSBC, stated: “Year-on-year Jennie has continued to increase her turnover after taking over the resale of the territory. Although not from a business background, Jennie has done tremendously well in growing her business.”
Since her nomination in March (2019) Jennie has been to present to the judges at the HSBC HQ in Birmingham. She demonstrated the key areas of growth within Rainbow Derbyshire. Two other finalists are up for the award also, both are from other franchises industries.
In the meantime, while we patiently wait to hear who has won, read the Q&A’s that the bfa asked Jennie. They ask her about franchising, being shortlisted and what the future holds for Rainbow Derbyshire.