Having spent most of his career working in IT and Telecoms recruitment sales without any recognition or opportunities for promotion, Luke Stevens felt frustrated and unfulfilled in his career path. "My heart was no longer in the industry and I was struggling to maintain my motivation to succeed. Having thought long and hard about my career prospects I decided that I wanted a job that allowed me to be more hands on, be active and not stuck behind a desk pushing paper. I decided that I wanted a radical change and after being told by my former employer that "you can't change corporate policy" I decided to prove them wrong, to get my opinion across and work as hard and as long as I wanted to with all the benefits being for myself."

Luke spent the next year investigating different career paths and without any contacts and a fear of coming up against obstacles he was becoming increasingly disillusioned. Luke then found the light at the end of the tunnel when he stumbled upon Local Services and decided to call them and find out what it was all about. "I spoke to Steve Baker Local Services chief executive, arranged a meeting and discussed with him opportunities within the company for myself to train and develop my own business as a PlumbLocal franchisee. I was very impressed with the company and their growth figures and could really see the potential. I found Steve to be extremely helpful, he was compassionate to my situation and my desire to succeed and answered every question and doubt that I had about starting a PlumbLocal franchise."

Whilst Luke had started his career from school as a carpenter he had no professional plumbing experience but says that this was not a problem due to PlumbLocal's excellent training programme. "The training was very intensive and took place over a 12 week period with an equal mixture of theory and practical. It was hard work but thoroughly enjoyable. All the lecturers were extremely well qualified, very helpful, supportive and eager to teach everything they knew. I personally found that being taught by exprofessional plumbers made learning easier as they had mastered many problems and could answer even the most difficult questions. I am very proud that I gained the qualification of City and Guilds 6129 in Plumbing and with the support of PlumbLocal am currently studying for my NVQ Level 2 in Plumbing which is assessed in the workplace."

With a strong marketing campaign supporting Luke in securing his first customers, he launched his business in January 2006. Following his first year of establishing clients and continuing to learn the trade, his PlumbLocal company achieved a turnover of over £80,000, exceeding all his expectations. Luke hopes that his success will continue and plans to expand the company with another van in the next few months of trading. "I have recently recruited an apprentice and have every belief that that my business will continue to grow and expand by maintaining existing, and gaining new clients, through building a reliable reputation within the industry providing customers with a dependable local service at a sensible price."

Luke's long-term plans are to continue being a handson plumber, however after this he foresees that he will take on more of a management role as the business grows. Luke concludes: "PlumbLocal really have given me the back up and encouragement to succeed. The support team are always at the other end of a phone and will happily answer any questions or give advice on a job. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of sheer hard work, the willingness to learn and the self-motivation required to succeed which you must be prepared to put in. In return nothing beats being the owner of your own successful franchise business - it's the best feeling in the world."