When Dan started YMWAV in 2010, it was accessible by definition. A music student with a van, helping friends. No corporate structure. No barriers. Just a decent service done properly. When we built the franchise, we made a deliberate decision to keep it that way. The YMWAV franchise costs £4,000 to join and £350 a month to run. Fixed. Not a percentage of your turnover. Not a sliding scale that grows as you do. A flat, honest cost that we’ve held to since day one. You don’t need a van to join. You don’t need removals experience. You don’t need a business background. What you need is the right attitude, a commitment to the long game, and a genuine care for the customers you’ll serve. That’s accessibility in practice. Not as a marketing line. As a model. SME News is one of the UK’s leading publications for small and medium-sized businesses, published by AI Global Media and read by business owners and industry professionals across the country. The UK Enterprise Awards are now in their eighth year, recognising outstanding achievement across a wide range of UK business sectors. The judging is independent. An impartial panel assesses nominees on merit, looking at publicly available information alongside any materials submitted by the business. There’s no ceremony, no black-tie dinner, no table to buy. Just a genuine assessment of the businesses doing it properly. Which is exactly the kind of recognition we respect. The Most Accessible category isn’t just about price. It’s about who the door is open to. Our franchise network includes people who’ve never run a business before. People who’ve left the armed forces and wanted structure and community. People who were working in other industries entirely and decided they wanted something of their own. People who started part-time and built it into something full-time. Paul joined in November 2023 and turned over £189,000 in his first full year. Erikas started as a driver and now owns three branches. Abass called it the best business decision he’s made. Ross went from one van to three in under a year. None of them fit a single profile. That’s the point. A franchise that’s only accessible to people with capital, industry experience, and an existing business network isn’t really accessible at all. YMWAV is built for the person who has the drive, the character, and the commitment, and just needs the right platform to build from. This award joins a growing list of recognition in 2026. Cat Robson-Scarborough, our Co-Director, was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Global Woman Awards and is a finalist in both the Best Business Women Awards and the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Across the wider network, we hold 22+ industry awards including Elite Franchise Top 100 2026, Best Emerging Franchise 2025, and a Global Recognition Award. We’re proud of every one. But the SME News award feels like a particularly honest reflection of what we’ve actually built. Being recognised as the most accessible removals and franchise network in the UK doesn’t mean the job is done. It means we keep the door open. We keep the cost fair. We keep vetting franchisees for character rather than capital. And we keep building a network where anyone with the right attitude has a genuine shot at building something real. If you’d like to find out more about joining YMWAV as a franchise owner, visit yourmanwithavan.com/franchise. If you need a move, you know where we are.