Entrepreneurs looking for fulfilment, profit and personal reward are increasingly attracted to Seniors Helping Seniors
Seniors Helping Seniors is a trusted brand in care, with 20 years success and a network of 300-plus franchisees worldwide. It benefits from sole ownership and the dedication of its visionary founders, as opposed to venture capitalists’ focus on the bottom line.
Doing the right thing for people works big and feels great and the company is celebrating some significant wins. The roll-out to ensure that more families can benefit from the care option is ethical franchising.
Dedication to the cause
UK franchisees appreciate the founders’ dedication to the cause and not their own profits. The investment is £10,000 in a sector where franchises easily cost five times as much.
Why does the franchise appeal? Simply put, franchisees are more likely to succeed than new business owners in any sector.
Statistics say less than seven per cent of franchise owners fail within the first three years, compared with over 90 per cent of new business start-ups.
Seniors Helping Seniors franchisees are enjoying great success. They love the local element and working from home with low overheads. They use their management and people skills as well as their local network to make a difference.
The company’s most recent UK franchisee bought Guildford, Woking and Godalming as an exclusive franchise in Surrey. Andy Boothman said: “The franchise had the right mix of social enterprise” for him and his wife.
George Demetriou of Seniors Helping Seniors Harrow and Pinner has been a Pinner resident for over 30 years. He sought to combine his: “Desire to give back and do good with professional experience honed over more than three decades owning and operating businesses.”
That’s the thing about skilled people. They’re always looking for something exciting and worthwhile to do. This care concept helps solve two of the biggest social problems in the UK today.
Christian Wilse, Seniors Helping Seniors master franchise owner UK, says: “People are evangelical about it and it attracts amazing talent throughout the organisation.
“Because it keeps people well, short and long-term, it has a unique feel good factor. And when people do something they feel great about every day, the service they deliver is award winning and there is great money to be made doing something very worthwhile.”
Significant role in society
Matching elderly people needing help with carers who are typically over 45 years of age, Seniors Helping Seniors plays a significant role in an ageing society on two levels.
It provides unique at-home elderly care services and much needed employment opportunities for older workers. People can enjoy flexible, rewarding and well paid work.
Older people prefer care from people nearer their own age and by delivering a fully managed care service focused on carers and the terms of business customers appreciate, people applaud every aspect of the sameperson care service.
There are opportunities for professional carers and for those the company calls ‘experts by experience’ because they have proven experience of caring for people and local knowledge. The service focuses on well-being, not nursing. Personal care is not part of the service in the UK, which means the work appeals to carers who want to inspire people to live well until the end of their lives.
Because Seniors Helping Seniors is out of the scope of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), there are no costly overheads and nothing but praise from carers and customers.
By matching people in need of help with mature helpers, companionable relationships are supported and the work involves doing things both carer and client enjoy. The company ensures the care work is flexible, with hours that fit around retirement or semi-retirement, and the idea is that everyone goes to work happy.
One in six people alive in Britain today will live to be 100, so this is a huge opportunity.
11.6 million people in the UK are aged 65 and over and 3.5 million people aged over 65 live alone, as families tend to live too far apart to help regularly.
The population aged 85 is 1.5 million and one in six of those people has been diagnosed with dementia
As the UK’s population ages, perceptions of age also change. 43 per cent of 60-64-year-olds and 23 per cent of 65-69-year-olds consider themselves to be in ‘middle adulthood’.
An ageing population affects what people want, both in terms of elderly care and work opportunities. People want to feel purposeful, rewarded and engaged and even if they don’t need to work past ‘retirement’ age, many want to.
Five years of success
Seniors Helping Seniors UK was launched by Christian and Sally Wilse in 2013. The American care model was adapted for the UK specifically and they run and operate the UK pilot with their team. They also train the franchisees personally.
The business has fi ve years of success in the UK and the BBC recently made a programme about its unique fit for families and carers in the light of the care crises and care company closures.
Seniors Helping Seniors companies score 9.9/10 from customers and they are already a Top 10 most recommended care company in the UK.
Customer service in care is everything and they have just won an award for the Best Company for Customer Service across all sectors.
Seniors Helping Seniors is a citizenled solution that resonates and appeals to normal people with extraordinary hearts pitching in to help their community.
This is a win-win on a local level because both carer and client benefits differently, but each gains health. And it’s a win-win on a macro level because a solution to the social problem of an ageing economy is a solution to the problem of elderly care.
Everyone has someone they know who’s dealing with some aspect of these two conflicts daily, so this is a significant opportunity for the right people to change a lot of people’s lives.
Entrepreneurs looking for fulfilment, profit and personal reward are increasingly attracted to Seniors Helping Seniors.
