Loughton-based Devyan Joshi and his wife Alpa joined the in-toto franchise network in October 2008. With two children under the age of six, franchising was an important lifestyle choice for the former investment banker and IT coms specialists.

"We wanted a change of life style - it's as simple as that", reflects Dev. "We both wanted to spend as much time at home with the children as possible and to take control of how we spend our time."

"I never rated the generic franchise concept - but what stood out about in-toto was the autonomy we're given while benefiting from the national infrastructure, support network and of course, the credible brand, which works for us and reassures our customers."

" in-toto is different to many other franchise concepts because the company has clearly recognised that flexibility is key to a successful and driven network of like-minded businesses. And that's what really works for us."

Signing up to in-toto in the middle of one of the worst recessions the country has ever seen was an interesting dimension for the husband and wife team, who admit that it was simply a case of 'knuckling down' and getting on with it.

Despite the uncertain beginning, business quickly took off with an exceptionally good trading year in 2009, which created a strong start to the business and placed them second highest in in-toto sales across the country.

“We relish being masters of our own destiny. We know our brand and product proposition is in the very safest of hands.”