Find out more
Meet Rachel...
IT STARTED WITH...
An endless passion for business,
for discovery, for people, for life.
Suffolk born Rachel Ducker is a true entrepreneur at heart.
She strongly believes in helping the younger generation to gain confidence, in not only in their careers but also in life.
After deciding against university, Rachel left school with good A levels and climbed the career ladder, starting in full-time employment at a local publishing company.
Through hard work and determination, at just 18 years old, she was promoted to Sales Manager and was given the responsibility of managing the entire publishing department (and four magazine titles), after five just months into the job.
She went on to new challenges and whilst working for further large firms; she gained additional experience in various online marketing and design, but Rachel wanted more, a new challenge, one of her own.
At 23 she launched her first business from her bedroom and after spotting a gap in the market, founded Apparition Marketing and Design Ltd.
Striving for a professional setup, Rachel invested the income from her first two jobs and set up an external office two months later.
Within seven months of trading, she was awarded the prestigious title of ‘East of England Young Businesswoman of the Year’.
This gave her the platform she needed to take her ideas a step further.
Rachel’s success continued in 2010 when she was approached to write her own business column in the “East Anglian Daily Times”, East Anglia’s largest regional newspaper.
Her column, ‘Water off a Ducks Back’, gave her the voice to show how the old eighties stereotypical power woman has been replaced by a new breed of businesswoman.
A woman who knows the value of a simple please and thank you. Who doesn’t work with clients who are rude or unappreciative and who recognises that respect and success is earnt not by stepping on people but by working with them.
Writing and journalism has always been a huge passion of Rachel’s, but little did she know there would be much more of that to come further on down the line!
After her month’s of writing she became inspired to start her next venture, Time2Shine, offering a mentoring service to young people and start-up businesses.
After a few successful cases, she turned this into a sideline project to make way for a new one.
With a passion for writing and publishing Rachel started her next business, Bounce Magazine, in 2012, after winning further business awards from the Chamber of Commerce and reaching the finals for the Nation Natwest Young Businesswoman of the Year award.
Now in in sixth year, Bounce Magazine has grown from a small community booklet to one of the largest independent magazines in East Anglia, in which she runs single handily alongside her other ventures. The magazine was awarded ‘Best Magazine Design 2015’, and most recently ‘Best Front Cover Design 2018’.
Rachel believes her success has been hugely helped by the discipline, structure and confidence she has achieved through over 26 years of practicing Martial Arts, lovingly coached by her Father Martin, one of the highest ranked black belts in Europe along with her Mother Alison and younger brother Jason. A black belt family! She has always found that she can draw from the strength the art has given her to achieve outstanding results.
Not only has she has won many titles including UK, European and Runner-up World Champion but she is now the one of the highest female Masters in Europe. Most impressively she has performed for David and Victoria Beckham at their World Cup Party in 2002 and live on KBS news in Korea to 20,000.
Combining these skills with her strong moral values and a caring mentality is what allows her to help other businesses to grow and achieve results.
In 2014 someone gave Rachel a chance to get involved with her community and has been championing local food and drink producers in Suffolk. She started The Suffolk Hamper food blog to showcase and collaborate with these companies.
From this Rachel was approached by artisan coffee creators Paddy & Scott, and was given a 30% shareholding in the business and headed online retail.
Most recently, Rachel has been working with another artisan coffee brand, Freshpac, consulting for them on a daily basis and heading up their marketing department and now also writes for Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, with an audience of 170k page views per month, travelling around the world reporting on luxury hotels.
When Rachel finds time to switch off she loves spending time with her husband Sam, who she married in 2018, and her pride and joy Archie (a Norfolk Terrier) who has been her working mascot for the last 8 years!
BOUNCE MAGAZINE...
Listen to Rachel's Celebrity Interviews...
In 2015 Rachel started interviewing various celebrities for her magazine. With no previous experience she jumped in at the deep end and added a new string to her bow. She has since spoken with the likes of Will Young, UB40’S Ali Campbell, JJ Burnel from The Stranglers, Matt Terry, Wolf Alice, Alt-J, Charlie Fink, Jimmy Osmond, Shakin’ Stevens, Corrine Bailey Rae and Rebecca Ferguson… to name but a few. You can listen to all of her interviews right here.