Already a veteran in the care sector, Hannah had over ten years of experience working for other care providers before joining Apollo Care. Before that, she was a nanny in the USA, so care is certainly her calling.

“I had become very disheartened with the company I worked for as it felt as though care was no longer involved and the personal approach was certainly not there. Management’s focus was money no matter what the human impact was. I frequently made improvement suggestions to the manager to help the frustrated care staff and service users which were not acted upon. It was then frustrating for me as we received complaints and resignations which I felt could have been avoided if actions were followed up. I decided to leave in 2012 and go back to delivering care, my true vocation!” – Hannah

In 2012, Hannah returned to a basic care role at Apollo Care after a chance Google search where she could focus on the job she loved while she looked into starting her own care company at the same time.

Of course, this would have taken a lot of time and research to set up, so it was fortuitous that 12 months later she discovered Cheryl was intending to franchise Apollo Care. Hannah realised that she shared many of the same values as Apollo, so the franchise seemed like a natural fit.

“Apollo sounded just what I was looking for, a person-centred care company… I had worked as a carer for Apollo for 12 months and found them to be service-focused rather than money-focused and this was what I was looking for.” – Hannah

Seeing an opportunity to bypass a lot of the administration and process building that opening a new business involves, Hannah, applied to become one of the pilot franchisees.

“I bought a franchise as I wanted to start a care company and this route saved me a lot of time in respect of writing policies and figuring out the small details of what a start-up would entail.

Having worked for Apollo for 12 months as a care assistant, I knew I liked what they did, [they] had the same aims and objectives as me and what I thought a care company should be. The main advantage for me was the support network and the HR systems that come with the franchise. Being a manager can be a very lonely job, and also being a sole director can be daunting so having another source of support is important for me.” – Hannah