We’ve all heard of ‘recommend a friend’. Home Instead Senior Care franchise owner, Fiona Harrall from St Albans has taken the concept to heart and is now recommending the Home Instead business model to her friends, bringing two new franchise owners to the company in the last two months and another in the pipeline.

 

Fiona purchased the St Albans franchise territory of the award-winning care company in March last year. Since then friends who have seen her enthusiasm for her new business have been so impressed that they’ve decided to become franchise owners too.

 

Fiona’s first recruit was friend, Heather Simms, who bought the Welwyn & Hatfield territory in April. In May another friend, Anitra Camargo purchased the Windsor & Runnymede territory thanks to Fiona’s glowing recommendation.

 

Commenting on the new recruits, Fiona said: “I’m delighted to have Heather and Anitra as franchise neighbours as well as friends. I’m really flattered that the girls have decided to follow my lead into the world of franchising and am sure that they find being a Home Instead owner as rewarding as I do.”

 

Fiona, a Chartered Surveyor, became a Home Instead franchise owner after looking for a career change. She wanted to be involved in a business which would take her to the heart of her local community. Having experienced difficulty finding good quality care for her husband’s aunt and uncle, who both had dementia, Fiona understood the importance of quality care provision. When she heard about franchise opportunities with Home Instead Senior Care, she jumped at the chance to become involved.

 

Ruth Brown, Home Instead’s franchise development manager, who is looking to recruit up to 30 new franchise owners in the coming 12 months said: “I am delighted to have had Fiona’s help recruiting Heather and Anitra. At Home Instead the recruitment of new franchise owners is not about numbers, it’s about recruiting the right people.

 

“Heather and Anitra have seen Fiona progress through her first year as a new business owner so will have seen the highs and the lows that inevitably come setting up a new business. In this respect they will have a good idea of what to expect and will have seen the excellent support structure that we have in place, not only in the initial months for our new owners but on an ongoing basis.”

 

Continuing, Ruth said, “Home Instead is not for those wishing to make a ‘fast buck’ but the longer term rewards are certainly there. For example we now have 5 franchise offices that have annualised revenues in excess of £1 million– and these are offices which have been in business for between 3 and 4 years.”

 

The company currently has over 80 franchise offices and expects to break the 100 office barrier during 2011. Home Instead’s offices achieved UK wide revenues in 2009 of £6 million which, by March 2011, had more than trebled to £19 million.