Phil Mowat - Managing Consultant

Phil Mowat heads the team at Ashtons. He serves as the first contact point for prospective clients, and his priority is to evaluate their requirements and offer professional advice on the most suitable approach for their business.

Following a post university career in events, Phil jumped head first into the franchise industry in 2009. His sister Nicky, was running a makeup artist booking agency. Pondering her growth plans, she looked at the franchising model. Phil, growing tired of 16 hour days and late nights in venues, hopped on a train to the NEC and visited the National Franchise Exhibition to learn all about franchising and what was needed to develop the business into a franchise. Within 5 years the agency had grown from a team of 10 makeup artists to 350, operated by a network of 40 franchisees. Reaching critical mass and due to rapid enhancements in technology, more time allowed Phil to pursue other opportunities in the industry, whilst remaining (to this day) a director of the company.

He took a role as the Head of UK Operations to help an Australian brand (Local Appliance Rentals) open up and expand into the UK. Phil led the operations, onboarded and trained new franchisees, and managed the day-to-day business, whilst liaising with Head Office in Brisbane, 10 hours ahead (he couldn’t get away from the late nights!). The business saw rapid network growth, from a starting position of 5, to reach 35 franchisees in the 18 months he was with the business.

Working as a qualified Business Coach and the National Strategic Partnership Manager for ActionCOACH UK followed this. He worked with business owners from a variety of sectors, on a 1-2-1 and group basis, helping them to systemise their business, build a team around them, to allow them to work less, but make more profit. Putting systems in place is one of the vital aspects of franchising, but it’s also so important for any business to be successful. Alongside the business coaching, the strategic partnership work was to build partnerships that provided win-win-win solutions for the franchisor, the franchisees and the partner. This included partnering with the high street banks (NatWest, HSBC, Santander and Barclays), to run educational seminar and events programmes to bring the business building system to business owners around the UK.

His last move was across to another global franchise operation, working as the UK Country Director for Expense Reduction Analysts. He led and managed the 100+ network of franchisees (business consultants), as well as the internal departments and his own franchise support and recruitment teams. His biggest achievement was to help navigate the business through the challenging Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions, ensuring franchisees were able to thrive as franchisees and the franchisor could continue to grow, in very tough market conditions. This role opened his eyes to the world of consulting and the exciting opportunities that exist to help businesses to grow.

Phil joined Ashtons as a consultant in 2019, becoming Managing Consultant in April 2023.

Phil loves the variety of businesses and industries he gets to work with via Ashtons. One day working with a small “mum” owned business to a much larger corporately owned operation the next day.

Phil is an Advisor member of the bfa (British Franchise Association) and gained his QFP (Qualified Franchise Professional) qualification in 2022.

Contact Phil:
0330 016 0028
enquiry@ashtonsfranchise.com