Day in the life
The power of two C
Friends Cath Arnold and Carol Godding launched their Extra Help franchise in 2016. Here’s a typical day for the duo…
ath Arnold runs Extra Help Wirral with her business partner, Carol Godding. They met at their children’s school, where they became friends
and started attending yoga classes together. One day, they discussed the possibility of starting a business together and decided to look into franchising. Previously, Carol worked as an administrator at a preschool and Cath was the language college director at a grammar school. They discovered Extra Help, the home- help and domestic cleaning franchise network, in a trade magazine and decided to go for it. So far, business is booming! Carol and Cath are pleased they made the decision to work together, as they can provide each other with support and look after each other’s children during the holidays and after school. Here, Cath describes a typical day...
8.50am Carol and I drop our children off at school and then meet up outside to compare diaries and catch up on any client-related matters. Carol tends to focus more on the administration side of the business; she has a busy day lined up and is meeting our accountant this afternoon.
9.30am Carol and I work from our own homes. After checking my emails and messages, I leave to attend a client visit. We both make a point of always going to visit new clients to discuss their requirements. This particular client is elderly and requires someone to take her food shopping, as well as clean her house every Wednesday. This fi rst visit will involve a deep clean. While it’s defi nitely not essential to undertake any jobs yourself, as Extra Help is a management franchise, Carol and I think it’s incredibly useful for us to undertake some of these jobs ourselves occasionally, as it gives us a more realistic idea of how long they should take.
10.00am
I meet my home-helper and client at the client’s home and, together, we confi rm the client’s requirements. We then get straight to work.
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BusinessFranchise.com | October 2017 Franchisee Cath Arnold
A deep clean usually takes about four hours but, as I have to interview a new home-helper later, I only stay for the fi rst two hours to make sure my home- helper is happy and knows exactly what needs doing.
12.30pm
I meet the new home-helper, Sarah, at a local coff ee shop to go through her references and explain our requirements. She is keen to get started and I have already matched her to a new client, who needs regular cleaning and meal preparation. We discuss salary and processes, and we both leave happy.
2.00pm
I have an hour free before the school run, so I spend the time leafl eting in one of our local areas. This particular area has a shop and some sheltered accommodation, so I speak to the shop owner and leave some leafl ets with him. I also meet a couple of local residents, so take the opportunity to introduce our services to them.
3.00pm I arrive at school and pick up my children,
along with Carol’s, as she is at the meeting with our accountant. All of our kids attend football practice after school on Wednesdays, so I drop them there and catch up on emails while I wait.
5.30pm
I arrive at Carol’s house to drop her children home and check in with her to confi rm that all jobs for the day have been completed. I then go home to prepare dinner for my family and spend some time with them, supervising the children with their homework and catching up on their news.
8.00pm
I spend some time speaking to prospective clients before shutting down for the night. One thing I love about my business is that my hours are fl exible and I can make up the time if I have other commitments during the day.
info@extra-help.co.uk
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