Tabitha Beasley found herself at a crossroads a year after having her daughter.

The strategic marketing expert was due to return to work at the London agency where she had been employed for 10 years, after a blissful maternity leave, but felt unable to be a mother, commuter and career woman.

After a eureka moment – and a lot of hard work – those problems feel like they were in a different age.

“There are so many fantastic small businesses in the area but no real marketing support,” said Mrs Beasley, who grew up in Tenterden.

“London agencies are quite expensive and daunting for small start-ups. I realised there was a niche market for one-to-one marketing support that was actually using other local businesses like third-party copy writers, photographers and PR.”

"Working mothers are the hardest workers I have ever come across..." - Tabitha Beasley, The Marketing Assistant

In March last year, the Marketing Assistant was born from Mrs Beasley’s home in Aldington, near Ashford.

“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “I offer my clients the same service they could get from an agency and the quality of service they would get from a London firm because that is where I was trained.”

Building the business has been a never-ending process – something which many of her clients have taken a while to discover.

“I got my first client from Twitter,” said Mrs Beasley, who did a degree in PR and marketing. “I followed key influencers and shared relevant content.

“I go to a lot of networking, get referred by word of mouth or pick clients up on social media. Getting new business is a constant job.

“I work with a lot of start-ups who say ‘you have designed my brand and I have a fantastic website but I haven’t got any clients’. That is part of the hard work. You have to look for new business constantly and networking.”

That hard work paid off last month, after the Marketing Assistant was crowned PR and marketing business of the year at the Kent Independent Trader Awards. Despite her success, Mrs Beasley thinks many companies are missing out by failing young mothers.

“I realised I couldn’t return when it was my time,” she said. “I looked in the city for flexible jobs in marketing and there aren’t any. Not many people employ a mother which I think is a real missed opportunity. Working mothers are the hardest workers I have ever come across.

“Then again if I hadn’t had that situation I wouldn’t have created the Marketing Assistant, which is the best thing I have ever done.

“The fact I won an award shows I am doing something right.”

The next phase for the business is to work with other women, who could go out and work with other firms under the Marketing Assistant brand.

“Women need flexibility so it would be about partnering. I don’t want the overheads of employment.

“It is expensive to start a business. You pay to set up a company, launch a website, buy business cards and then networking. If someone has got the skillset and they only want to work 10 to 20 hours a week, then if I have got too much work I can pass it on to them.”