Blossom Home Care’s famous focus on delivering a true and premium alternative to residential care has attracted yet another franchisee to the multi-award-winning network.
Sharan Gohil, a Grimsby paediatric nurse with 18 years’ experience, has taken on the Lincolnshire territory after researching and rejecting all of Blossom’s competitors.
“Fiona and John Leggott, the founders of Blossom, are very hands-on and passionate about care in a similar way to me,” she says. “That’s what attracted me.
“I felt I could connect with them, whereas a lot of the other networks just seemed focussed on getting more franchisees. There simply wasn’t the level of personalisation I got from John and Fiona.
“When I went to meet them they were questioning me. I thought that was good. Usually it’s someone selling to you, wanting you to buy into it, but with Blossom it was the other way around: I had to sell myself.”
Sharan, who is also the Registered Manager, was also attracted by Blossom’s insistence that home visits must be at least 50 minutes long.
“So many other home-care providers only do 15-minute calls,” she says. “How could anyone possibly look after someone in only 15 minutes?
“A couple of family members are care workers and feel they’re stuck in the middle, being pushed about and told they need to attend this call and that call, while the clients have to be grateful that anyone’s even turned up.
“It’s like a rat-race of next person, next house, next house, but Blossom’s 50-minute calls leave the clients feeling valued.
“It’s a win-win situation. We’re providing a proper service and it’s better for the carers as they’re not running round like headless chickens all day.
“A lot of carers leave other companies because they feel under-paid and under-valued – but with us they can provide a good quality service and find some stability.”
Sharan is full of praise for the support she receives from Blossom and directly from John and Fiona, who’s also a Registered Nurse.
“They’ve been really helpful,” says Sharan. “Whatever we need, they’re at the end of the phone. They’re very in tune with us.”
Despite spending her entire nursing career caring for children, Sharan realised her skills were transferable – and as soon as she mentioned she was opening a Blossom franchise, care assistants on the wards began asking about jobs with her.
Operating from a renovated former Lloyds Bank in Cleethorpes Road, Sharan expects to open her next office in Scunthorpe where she has friends and family.
And she has a terrific sense of timing.
She owned a Subway franchise for five years, then sold it… a month before the first report of a mysterious new disease in Wuhan, China, was followed by the worldwide pandemic and unprecedented business interruptions.