A Harrogate business owner is set to appear on the hit BBC show The Apprentice.
North Studio founder Rachel Woolford will battle against 18 candidates to win a life-changing £250,000 investment from Lord Alan Sugar.
Ms Woolford will appear in the 18th series when it begins on February 1.
She founded North Studio in the middle of the covid lockdown and now owns two branches, one on Cold Bath Road in Harrogate and the other in her hometown of Leeds.
North Studio is described on its website as “a boutique independent wellness space offering a range of classes and workshops”.
In her BBC profile for the show, she said:
“I have no doubt that starting up during covid made me a tougher person all round.”
She continued to say her biggest business success to date was “creating a strong community of clients who loved the service we provided, despite all the restrictions and limitations in place.”
While she sees her biggest business failure as:
“Not asking for help. For a long time, I did absolutely everything in my business — teaching classes, payroll, cleaning, accounts — you name it, I was doing it. Once I learnt that it’s ok to delegate and outsource some of these jobs, I started to scale my business. I finally understood the phrase ‘work on your business, not in it”.
She aded she was business savvy from a young age and even said:
“When I was seven years old, I went missing, only for my frantically worried mum to find me by the roadside selling my toys shaking a biscuit tin full of coins and shouting “toys for sale, everything must go today”.
She said thinks she is deserving of Lord Sugar’s investment because “anyone in business works hard, but I work harder.”
Rachel is one of three contestants from Yorkshire in the competition this year vying for the ultimate business deal.
You can watch the latest series at 9pm on Thursday, February 1 on BBC One.
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