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I thought I’d write a light-hearted blog this week as the last two have been a little serious. This is a week in my life from a couple of weeks ago; I’m Claire, one of the founders of Extra Help and I currently run the Plymouth and South East Cornwall franchises as well …
i spent a lot of time in the car that week but it was worth every moment
Monday morning started off a little disastrous as the school bus didn’t turn up to take the children to school. So still in my pyjamas, I drove the children to school. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, mainly doing paperwork in my office at home.
Tuesday was an early start, networking in Plymouth at 6.45am! Got up in the dark, got in the car and drove over the Tamar Bridge and into Plymouth. The meeting was a busy one and I met lots of new contacts. When the meeting finished I went out to get in my car in the pouring rain to realise I had a flat tyre!
I knew I had to get to an appointment to interview a new home helper for the Plymouth franchise and it was pouring with rain! Luckily I have a small device in the car which pumps up the tyres using the cigarette lighter. Not being very able when it comes to anything technical, especially to do with cars, I managed to inflate the tyre enough to get me to the home helper’s house – thankfully it wasn’t far away. Once I had interviewed her and filled in my paperwork I braved the weather and found the nearest garage to pump up my tyre properly.
By this time, my newly straightened hair was no longer straight as I had got wet so many times already that morning. Next stop was a networking lunch where 60 beautifully dressed women all looked glamorous and I looked like something out of the hair bear bunch and felt extremely stressed after the mornings drama! I went from there to another meeting and then thankfully home.
As the car was now in the garage to have the tyre sorted, Wednesday was pretty quiet and it became an office based day catching up with invoicing and other administration.
Thursday was the day the storm hit the South West. The Tamar Bridge was closed to high sided vehicles, trees were falling all over the place and torrential rain flooded out a lot of people. I had another networking meeting to attend, this time in Torquay. I have started to network quite a lot in new areas in the South West looking for potential franchisees. Torquay and the surrounding area would be a fabulous Extra Help franchise.
At least my tyre was sorted now and my hair straight again! The drive there was very windy but not too bad and the networking event went well with a really interesting speaker and again I met some lovely new people. I had a meeting straight after with one of the other attendees and by the time I left Torquay it had started to get dark. The journey home should have taken me an hour but instead the wind and rain had worsened, Plymouth had flooded and my car was hit by a flying brick! The rain was so heavy you could hardly see anything. All very scary and I was certainly glad to get home after two and a half hours!
Friday and I’m at another breakfast meeting, this time in Saltash just down the road from me. Then I headed off to a couple of appointments with potential clients. One couple needed a cleaner for 3 hours a fortnight and the other wanted some cleaning and also care for their elderly dog. At Extra Help we try and assist whatever the situation – as long as it’s domestic help and not personal care – and we can normally find the right person to fit the bill.
Phew! That was a very busy week. Thankfully, I don’t always do quite so much networking as it would definitely take its toll on my waist line with all that scrummy food on offer. In between times, I spoke with a potential franchisee, sent out welcome letters to new clients and generally caught up on my paperwork as well as looking after my own three children.
Do you like the sound of my varied work life? Would you love the flexibility of running your own business that can really make a difference in your local community? Have a look at our franchise opportunity and then get in touch!
We are currently looking for franchisee’s all over the country to join our growing team and I’d love to hear from you on +44 (0) 845 6182904 or you can click here to ping over an email to myself or my business partner Sarah. We’ll get right back to you.
Until next time …
CLAIRE ROBINSON
