Ex-Saleswoman Enjoys Owning Care Franchise

One hopeful franchisee found little to choose between a number of care franchises until she found Prestige Nursing.

Following a highly successful career in medical device sales, both in the UK and previously in her native country, South Africa, Carol Stafford was looking to change direction after being made redundant in 2008.

Carol decided she wanted to take on a new challenge and has always been attracted to th idea of franchising. Carol said: “I have a lot of experience in sales and was looking to move into an industry that allowed me to exploit these talents, whilst offering the potential for significant earnings.”

Having already decided that franchising was a perfect way of helping her realise these ambitions, she was taken aback by the number of opportunities on offer. “I was looking for a management franchise, and eventually settled on the care sector, as it offered excellent long term prospects given the UK’s demographic profile and the growing need for care at home.

“I hadn’t realised though quite how many companies offered franchises in the domiciliary and healthcare sectors and the choice was quite bewildering.”

Carol came very close to signing up with a domiciliary care franchise, but just before she did she heard about Prestige Nursing and decided to see what they could offer. She said: “Their honesty, drive and professionalism made a real impact on me, as did their experience of running both company-owned and franchised branches.”

After the initial meeting with the franchise team at Prestige Nursing, Carol met and talked with many of the existing franchisees. “Their feedback on the support I would receive was overwhelmingly positive as was their experience of the Prestige Nursing business model.”

Unlike many domiciliary care franchises, Prestige Nursing offers the complimentary area of healthcare recruitment as an additional income stream for all franchisees.

Jonathan Bruce, managing director, explains why this is so important. He said: “Domiciliary care is undoubtedly an area that offers significant opportunities, and with our experience in this area we feel very confident that we can offer franchisees a full range of distinctive services to take advantage of them.

“However, it does take time to develop this type of business which is why offering healthcare recruitment can not only allow franchisees to generate income more quickly, but also gives them an even wider range of services to offer their clients and spreads the risk accordingly.”

Carol comments: “To be honest this was one of the main reasons why I chose Prestige Nursing, along with the fact that they offer a comprehensive back office support function as part of the ongoing management fee.

“This has saved me an immense amount of time and allowed me the freedom to grow my business quickly and effectively. I’ve joined an established network of company-owned and franchised branches across the UK that has a real reputation for excellence, and this fills me with confidence as well. We are bang on target for our growth projections.”

18 months into her new venture, Carol has never been busier. She said: “Our agreed focus in the early stages of the business was on quality rather than quantity, across a wide range of sectors.” Having established sound processes and built an excellent reputation in her allocated territory, Carol’s business is now gaining real momentum.

Carol continues: “We have significant interest in our range of homecare services and receive many calls for our healthcare staffing solutions too. The biggest challenge we have now is keeping up with all the demand. I’m delighted though because we are bang on target for our growth projections”.

As Carol discovered, you do not need previous experience of the health and social care industry to make a successful franchise business with Prestige Nursing.

So will the Prestige Nursing franchise be for everyone? Pam Feltham, franchise manager, thinks not, “In terms of the initial investment of £30,000 and the working capital requirement of up to £60,000 we sit towards the top end of current healthcare franchises.

“However, you get what you pay for and we push our franchisees hard to ensure they are every bit as successful as they have told us they want to be.”