Posted:23-July-2024
Meet the owners: TJ Sutherland and Steve Brown- Rosemary Bookkeeping Newbury and Basingstoke
Meet the father-daughter duo at the heart of Rosemary Bookkeeping Newbury and Basingstoke.
Father and daughter duo Steve Brown and TJ Sutherland are the longest-serving franchisees in the Rosemary Bookkeeping network.
By purchasing Rosemary Bookkeeping Newbury and Basingstoke in 2010, they were the third-ever franchisee to buy into the franchise and have driven business for the brand for 14 years since.
TJ oversees all of the operation with the support and guidance of Steve who has now taken more of a back seat.
Thus, the business epitomises one of the pillars of franchising: to invest in the future with a legacy passed down to ensure the security and success of one’s family.
Hence, the business is steeped in the family’s values, creating a workplace where staff thrive by maintaining a positive culture that ripples across the entire operation, from staff welfare to customer care, brand relationships, and growth.
Together they live and breathe Rosemary Bookkeeping.
As TJ herself says, it’s been her lifeblood for so long that if “you cut [her] open, there’d be Rosemary in [her] veins.”
Overcoming challenges and driving innovation
The business even maintained well through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring new business avenues and supporting local businesses trying to stay afloat like takeaways during the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme.
Highly respected amongst their staff, fellow franchisees and ServiceMaster Ltd Head Office staff, Steve and TJ are trusted to innovate and drive Rosemary Bookkeeping forward through trailblazing ideas and their deep understanding and care for the brand.
TJ is the head of the Rosemary Bookkeeping Development Taskforce – a trusted collective of franchisees chosen by our Head Office to innovate the brand by discussing challenges and solutions and trial initiatives that support our development strategy.
For example, TJ was a long-term advocate for our mascot Teri Cotta!
They have been vital in introducing a fully remote working, manager-owned model and software to benefit our compliance and operation efficiency.
As the bookkeeping sector continues to be shaped by technological advancements, TJ ensures that we stay ahead of the curve by finding advanced high-tech solutions for the Rosemary brand to utilise.
She has been active in helping us to work closely with our (now) partners at Xero and Intuit Quickbooks to allow our bookkeepers across the brand to become qualified in this software and provide bespoke and expert support to their clients.
Supporting their peers, staff and clients
TJ’s extensive knowledge of the Rosemary model means she is trusted to support the training of any new franchise business and mentor them to be the best they can be.
She always voyages to our head office for multiple days of the two-week training academy to support recruits to understand the ins and outs of our unique Rosemary System.
She also uses her experience to give advice that must be lived to be taught, to equip them on their journey.
This helps her in turn, as while looking to recruit more staff to help with their growing capacity, she has outsourced a handful of clients to two franchisees she has trained to help with her team’s workload.
Alongside franchisees she has mentored, TJ manages a large team of professionals.
One of TJ and Steve’s longest-serving employees has been on the team for eight years and was recently named Rosemary’s “Bookkeeper of the Year”.
This employee was ‘home-grown’ and was trained by TJ to develop her skills and achieve qualifications and training on bookkeeping software and processes.
Their highly skilled staff allows for a fully remote model which creates, the opportunity to manage individual clients, with TJ and Steve’s support.
The larger team means the business has expanded alongside many of its clients.
One has even chosen to remain with Rosemary Bookkeeping rather than hire in-house staff to manage their accounts as their business grows, as the expansive team means Rosemary can offer almost 365-day coverage if necessary.
Interested and want to know more about Rosemary Bookkeeping?
The Rosemary Bookkeeping profile outlines all aspects of their franchise opportunity and allows you to contact them for further information or to ask a question.
