We were delighted to welcome our member and Finalist in our Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2011,? Suzie McCafferty of Platinum Wave as guest speaker at our Spotlight Dinner last night at Tigerlily Edinburgh.

Members who attended were Elena Torres of Exec Air Charter & Xclusive Travel Club who is also an Ambassador in our Exec Team, Biju Krishnan and Gosia Bak from Lubiju?& VIP Smiles, Val Wishart from Beyond The Numbers, Ranjit Anderson from Scoot,?Mike Crerar from Geoghegans and Eddie Robb from As You Like It Holidays.

Having enjoyed a delicious meal and excellent service from the staff at Tigerlily, Suzie shared her story with us and quite a story it is. ?She started her first business, Smart Cartridge (UK & International) at the age of 23 with one shop selling re-filled printer cartridges at Haymarket in Edinburgh and within 6 years had built it to 70 shops in 6 countries.

By the age of 30, Suzie was the youngest Board Director of one of Randstad’s companies – Select Appointments. ?During this time she ran 3 separate professional service franchise brands developing a franchise network turnover of around ?30M, generating ?1M+ in management fees annually.

Suzie launched Platinum Wave in 2011 to put her international franchising and business experience to use, by helping other businesses to grow within home and international markets through the franchsising business growth model.

Platinum Wave provides franchising & business consultancy & support services to SMEs and corporate organisations at each stage of the franchising journey: ?from developing new franchising propositions, to working with established franchise networks to enhance their business and franchisee performance, to assisting mature franchise networks to expand overseas through international franchising growth strategies.

Platinum Wave’s clients include Baguette Express with 70 franchises in the UK & now expanding internationally, Razzamataz Theatre Schools (funded by Duncan Bannatyne, Dragon’s Den) and Australian franchisor Jim’s Mowing which has more than 3,000 franchises worldwide.

Amongst Suzie’s many achievements, she is one of the youngest franchisors in the UK to grow their business internationally, the youngest Chairperson for the British Franchise Association’s?-?Scottish Franchise Forum (2009 & 2010), the youngest franchise consultant to attain British Franchise Association membership and is a regular speaker at business and franchising events throughout the UK.

Additionally she is also a Chamber of Commerce Business Mentor and Young Enterprise Scotland mentor for Stewarts Melville College. ?How she fits those into her hectic schedule is beyond us!

Attendees not only enjoyed hearing Suzie’s story including her top 10 tips for franchising a business but also having the opportunity to ask questions of their own and there were plenty of those.

Here are some of the comments from our post-event survey:

“My first Spotlight Dinner, it was the perfect mix of business and banter!”

“Personally, this has been the best event I have been to, perhaps as the franchise model is of interest to me. ?However the speaker really made the event a huge success and I would urge WeDO Scotland to repeat this one down the line for those who couldn’t make it.”

“An excellent & informative event. ?Suzie, to quote her tagline certainly knew about ‘Bringing Franchising and Business Together’.

“The speaker was excellent, showing real expertise and knowledge of growing an international business through franchising and the discussions were very informative. ?The food was also excellent and the company great fun.”

“Great event, I enjoy mixing business with pleasure.”

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