Is there ever a right time to start your own business?

Well… going by almost everything you see and hear on the news at the moment it would seem like now is a terrible time to start a business - or so you’d think. Access4Lofts recently had a call with a man who was seriously considering the franchise, and he, more or less, put that exact worry to them: is this really the right moment to be going out on your own?

It was a fair question, and Access4Lofts completely understand why he asked it. They’re also glad he brought it out into the open rather than just going away and gradually talking himself out of it.
It deserved an honest answer: things genuinely are hard right now for a lot of people, and it’s no use pretending otherwise - the public is feeling the squeeze, the housing market has stalled, and you can’t open the news without reading about another business closing its doors.

So, why isn’t any of that showing up in Access4Lofts’ numbers?

The thing about hard times is that they don’t always land evenly across every industry. Some sectors are struggling badly, and a few are quietly having their best year on record, and home improvement sits firmly in that second group, as one of the very few areas actually growing currently.

When money feels tight and the future feels uncertain, moving house or taking on a huge renovation can feel like a bit of a gamble. So, people start to think about how they can do more with what they have, such as better use of the space they’re already paying for, a bit more storage, a little value added for whenever they do eventually move.

You can see it plainly in what’s happened this summer at Access4Lofts. June, July and August are traditionally their quietest months, and yet July 2026 turned out to be the second highest month they have ever recorded, more than 30% up on the same month last year.

Still weighing it up?

Hopefully those figures paint a rather different picture for you. Access4Lofts can appreciate that doubt and uncertainty might still be holding you back, especially when everyone around you is advising caution. So, here’s the of one of their most successful franchisees, who very nearly didn’t join them at all.

Mark Jowett joined Access4Lofts at the very start of 2022, when the world still felt deeply uncertain, and he got cold feet just a week before his training was due to begin. He’d paid his deposit and he was ready to go, right up until he told friends and family what he was planning and every one of them insisted he was mad to be starting a business in the economic climate at the time.

They all meant well, of course, and were just looking after his best interests as friends and family should, but they didn’t really know anything about our industry or how it worked. So, Access4Lofts put Mark in touch with five or six franchisees who had wrestled with those very same doubts before taking the leap, and each of them told him the same thing: “ignore the noise and get stuck in!”

Where’s Mark today?

When Mark joined the franchise, the average franchisee was turning over around £120,000 a year, which is already a business most people would be thrilled with. Mark now owns three franchise territories and has just done £460,000 in sales in the first seven months of this calendar year alone, which puts him on course to finish not far short of a million by the end of 2026.

It is amazing to think now that Mark almost didn’t join Access4Lofts! Mark was very understandably nervous about leaving his current job and investing a lump sum in a new venture. Even with a proven business model like Access4Lofts’, which had already brought success to its franchisees; even so, making the move to a new career is a major leap of faith, however, it sure has paid off enormously for Mark!

“I had such an easy job before, with a guaranteed income, so leaving that was scary. That’s one of the biggest reasons I chose to join a franchise. I could have that knowledge base and established reputation behind me from day one. It’s incredible really. By August 2023 I’d had my best month ever. My turnover in the previous weeks had even been more than I had earned in an entire year in my last job! Of course, that’s turnover, not profits, but it’s still a major milestone. I showed my wife, and she said “wow!”. It’s nuts – this really is the best thing I have ever done.”

Access4Lofts can see his journey climbing month by month on their central accounting system, from his very first month right through to today, and it’s the sort of graph that makes you do a double take. The cautious chap they spoke to early this month certainly did, and his first reaction was that he’d like to learn how Mark did it!

So, shall we have that same conversation?

Access4Lofts will walk you through the real, live numbers with absolutely no obligation. Better still, if you’d rather hear it straight from someone who has actually done it, just say the word and they will put you in touch with a franchisee, or even two, so you can ask them anything you like, including whether they ever doubted it themselves.

Click the Request More Info button below to read more or to schedule that call.