Lee Southern This is Me

Education

 View all 11 references Web References

1. 1. Barking Mad - Home from Home Pet Care - Meet the team

   www.barkingmad.uk.com/meetthet - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/4/2008   Last Visited: 2/4/2008

   Photo of Lee Southern

2. 2. British Franchise Association: GROWING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMonday 26th December 2005

   www.thebfa.org/papers/051226.a - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/26/2005   Last Visited: 7/14/2007

   They helped Lee Southern, managing director of Barking Mad, a full member of the bfa, get her pet care franchise off the ground more than three years ago.
   
   She came up with the concept of placing dogs with host families while their owners went on holiday because she hated the thought of leaving her own Dalmatian pup, Bronte, in a kennel while she was away.
   
   She said: "There was clearly a demand for this service and I wanted to explore franchising as an option for growing the business. The bfa was helpful in the early stages in terms of carrying out preliminary research, and then once I started working with two of their affiliated advisors, a franchise consultant and a franchise lawyer, things started to take shape."
   
   The biggest challenge, she says, was preparing the operations manual. "You may know what needs to be done, but your new franchisees don't, so you really need to spell everything out in detail," said Lee.
   
   Two pilot franchises were launched; one in a rural setting and one in a city centre to test the viability of the business in different environments, and the franchise officially launched at the National Franchise Exhibition in 2002. Barking Mad now has 37 franchises.
   
   "Every one who has come to see us found out about us through the bfa website," said Lee.

3. 3. Video/Audio/Electronics

   scotland.franchiseopportunitie - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/12/2003   Last Visited: 2/17/2006

   This unique enterprise was originally born out of Managing Director Lee Southern's, own reluctance to use kennel facilities for her Dalmatian puppy Bronte. She hated the thought of leaving her in a kennel environment, but was shocked to discover no suitable alternative existed. Lee quickly discovered she was not alone in her bid to find a secure, caring and professional service.
   
   Having discovered a niche in the market place she set about creating Barking Mad, home from home pet care. She soon won valued customer loyalty and satisfaction, and as a result began to receive an increasing number of enquiries from pet owners, not only in the Northwest, but as word spread, from many other parts of the country.