This month, Northwich-based Pink Spaghetti PA Services is celebrating its 15th Birthday – and what a 15 years it’s been!
Where it all began
Back in 2009, co-founders, Caroline Gowing and Vicky Matthews, met at their children’s swimming classes and became friends over motherhood, a love of lists, Greys Anatomy and a common dissatisfaction with their corporate careers, which they found more and more inflexible and unfulfilling.
Born out of this friendship and a dream to be their own boss, came Pink Spaghetti – a very special Virtual Assistant business which has gone on to help dozens of women like Caroline and Vicky start their own business – creating a flexible career which works for them and puts them in control of their own future.
Pink Spaghetti Mid Cheshire
The initial conception of Pink Spaghetti was Mid Cheshire (which is still one of our top-performing franchises today). Originally, Caroline and Vicky were aiming at domestic clients, busy people who needed support with everyday tasks and general home admin (in fact, one of their first jobs was taking and picking up dry cleaning for a busy family!). Over time however, they were asked more and more to support clients with their businesses (many of them were entrepreneurs themselves) and they soon realised there was a gap in the market for highly-skilled, organised and tech-savvy support for small business owners. Over the next few years, Pink Spaghetti Mid Cheshire went from strength to strength as Caroline and Vicky used their years of experience as a senior PA and project manager to not only support but also help grow their clients’ businesses.
The Birth of the Pink Spaghett Franchise
After a few years, Caroline and Vicky made the decision to look into franchising the Pink Spaghetti concept. Their dream was to enable people to create a successful business which was on their own terms and could fit in with their lives without compromising on financial success. They honed their business offering, walked the walk, talked the talk and after lots of methodical and in-depth research, the Pink Spaghetti Franchise was launched in 2012. And so began the journey to the award-winning Virtual Assistant franchise business we love today.
From humble beginnings, which started as a plan around a dining table, the Pink Spaghetti franchise has now grown its turnover to £3m as a network.
Empowering women to run their own business
With over 50 franchisees (who between them employ over 120 people), Pink Spaghetti is now an award-winning Virtual Assistant franchise which has transformed the lives of countless women across the UK. Being your own boss and being in the driving seat of your own career remain the key to our success. Combined with a rich and supportive network, a market-leading training programme and the support of a dedicated support team – our franchisees can hit the ground running and speed towards profit much faster than if they had done it alone.
A rich and supportive network of virtual assistant franchisees
At the heart of Pink Spaghetti is our supportive, inclusive and inspiring culture. Carrying on the respect and friendship started by our co-founders, Caroline and Vicky back in 2009, our franchisees lift each other up, collaborate, and most importantly, create lasting friendships which transcend just ‘business’. Our annual conference is testament to this, where we come together as a group each year to celebrate success, learn and inspire each other to go on to even bigger and better things.
Always looking forward
In 2023, we sadly lost our co-founder Vicky to a brain tumour. Her legacy however remains, and we are inspired every day to be positive, support one another and deliver the very best service for our customers. Vicky was the queen of business development and so her tips, presentations and how-to guides remain part of our training to this day.
Caroline meanwhile remains at the helm of Pink Spaghetti. She is passionate about delivering the best franchise model in the industry and this is reflected in our inclusion as an EWiF Ambassador, BFA member and our Best Franchise Workbuzz 5-star satisfaction award, which comes directly from anonymous feedback from our franchisees. We are also proud to be listed in the Elite 100 top franchises across the UK, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Home Instead, Subway, Kumon and Right at Home.
And what about Mid Cheshire? One of their biggest customers started life as a small task writing Christmas cards for the owner many years ago. Today, that client has expanded across the globe and the Mid Cheshire admin team is their complete ‘back office’ function – a testimony to how relationships start and blossom when trust and integrity meets skill and common sense!
Encouraging Women Into Franchising Awards
As Pink Spaghetti is a proud EWiF ambassador and celebrating its milestone birthday, it seems particularly fitting that Caroline has this month become a finalist in the ‘Woman Franchisor of the Year’ category at the EWIF Awards 2024. We will find out if she has won this prestigious accolade on the 18th of October so watch this space!