01752 905790
info@extra-help.co.uk
It’s been wonderful welcoming Cath Arnold and Carol Godding as Extra Help Wirral co-franchisees. Cath has written a lovely story of their backgrounds and how they met. Here’s what she had to say …
Extra Help Wirral operates in an incredibly beautiful part of the country!
I’ve been in teaching for 25 years. I was lucky. I taught at great schools and for the past 16 years, I had a fantastic management job at one of the best schools in the UK.
“However, with a long time to go until retirement, I felt in need of a change!”
Teaching has got a lot harder and more target driven, and I was working late nights, which was difficult with young children. I wouldn’t find another school where I could enjoy teaching as much as the one I was in, so where should I go from there?
I had always encouraged my pupils to step out of their comfort zones and, as a languages teacher, I taught them to step into the wider world and experience new cultures. So it was time for my mid-life self to practise what I preached!
I met Carol through a yoga class. We started having coffee together, and after a while, we talked about running a business together. She had run businesses previously, and we felt our own experiences would complement each other.
We both had young children so we thought that working together would suit us well. We looked at several franchises but liked the Extra Help 4-in-1 franchise as soon as we came across it. Its values felt right, and we liked that you could build the business to suit, depending on our area.
“We can offer a number of different services under the one umbrella!”
I wanted to be able to keep up some teaching too, so being able to offer tuition was a big positive for me. We attended a really useful training course in July and then we set up Extra Help Wirral in September. This was certainly out of my comfort zone, as it was all new to me, but it felt so right!
I quickly settled into meeting potential new staff and new clients and sharing their life experiences. It has been so enriching to meet so many different clients, and we have already been able to make a difference to people’s daily lives.
I am learning so much from this new venture. It feels very ‘me’ and Extra Help just ‘sits right’ for me though it’s not always easy. We have had some challenging cases, but that is part of the learning experience and I did want to step out of that comfort zone!
“Ultimately, it is rewarding as we always make that small difference!”
I am certainly learning to see people differently as I spend time with older people and hear of their life experiences. It’s a real eye-opener, and I really am enjoying meeting so many different people. I still teach one day a week so I still get that contact, and I do one-to-one tutoring, which I have always enjoyed.
I was nervous about taking that initial step. Excited, but nervous, as it was a leap of faith. But I know that it was the right step to make and I look forward to developing the business along with my co-franchisee Carol. We have found that running the business together does work well for us. We can cover each other and look after each other’s children as needed, and we both share the Extra Help values, which make the service stand out.
If you’d like a little extra help on the Wirral then do get in touch with Cath and Carol on 0151 380 0300, find out more about them at our website or click here to send them an email enquiry and I’ll put them in touch with you.
Until next time …
CLAIRE ROBINSON
PS:Why not visit www.extra-help.co.uk and find out more?
