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As the UK population lives longer, there is an increasing need for quality care. The UK care industry is currently worth a staggering £7.8 billion per year. The proliferation of care agencies in recent years shows a growing demand for services, and franchising provides a unique option for individuals to tap into this market whilst receiving guidance and support.
As a leading homecare franchise, Seniors Helping Seniors provides in-home care services that help seniors and their families by offering compassionate, loving care from fellow seniors. Christian Wilse, Master License owner of Seniors Helping Seniors home care, manages this exceptional service with his wife Sally.
Click here to learn more about Seniors Helping Seniors
In this week's Franchisor Q&A series, Christian discusses the unique appeal of the franchise and how the business has adapted to the COVID-19 crisis.
Q1. What makes your franchise standout?
We quickly became a Top 20 care group in the whole country by virtue of client recommendations (even though we only had a few offices, compared to nationwide care brands) -when your clients share rave reviews about you, you have a standout service, I can’t list everything here but it’s a joy to operate.
We’ve seen how Seniors Helping Seniors’ unique approach to elderly care has protected our carers and our clients from the worst horrors of COVID-19 and with hindsight, we credit the experienced carer element of the franchise for that. Seniors Helping Seniors stands out because we employ experienced carers and match them with clients that suit them for the hours they want to work.
For potential franchisees, our standout features are our reduced franchise fee, lowest overheads of any care franchise, time and cost saving because we are out of scope for CQC and zero problems finding and retaining outstanding carers
Q2. Why is it worth investing in your brand?
Seniors Helping Seniors has been a strong brand for over 20 years. A strong brand has case studies, awards, networks and vast experience to draw on.
Most of all the Seniors Helping Seniors brand is worth investing in because it does good and it makes money.
Seniors Helping Seniors is fair to clients, fair to employees, fair to franchise partners and of real value to the community.
We are a low-cost, efficient care franchise with low overheads.
Q3. How is your franchise adapting to the current COVID-19 crisis?
I had crisis training in my corporate life, and communication is one of our strong points as franchisors and I’m delighted we got ahead of the crisis early.
We supported our franchise partners with information, guidance and how to’s and we rolled out an app to confirm our carers’ health prior to each client visit. I believe we were the first of any care company to do that and it provided desperately needed peace of mind.
Q4. What extra support and assistance are you offering your franchisees during this time?
Weekly/Daily updates and constant feedback from our global partners. Our partners know we are always here for them and mercifully we didn't come across anything we couldn't handle.
We had planned well-being and team building zoom calls for everyone and we were looking forward to it but to be honest, every office was busy and fully occupied, so we haven’t yet got around to it!
Our Seniors Helping Seniors colleagues have continued to deliver the care their community needed and we have employed people throughout lockdown.
We are gearing up to provide all that’s needed coming out of lockdown. People need support to acclimatise and keep well.
Q5. What plans do you have for the franchise over the next few years?
Our plan is to grow to 25 units in the South East and East of England.
Q6. What skills are important for your franchisees to have?
Compassion, caring and people skills.
We are looking for people who are ambitious about wanting to use their time wisely. Life has changed and people. We are looking for partners who will help us share our unique messages about keeping people well and inspired with companionship based in-home care.
Learn more about the franchise opportunities at Seniors Helping Seniors here