International Women’s Day: Home Instead franchisee sisters Melissa and Sophie say believe in yourself

Sisters, Melissa Holliday and Sophie Mellor are celebrating a decade in business together, as franchise owners of award-winning home care company, Home Instead Lytham, Fylde and Wyre.

Having recently purchased their second Home Instead franchise in Preston and South Ribble, the sisters are keen to encourage other women to also consider franchising as a career option.

Starting their Home Instead franchise in their mid-twenties, following completion of their university degrees and a few years in the financial services, the sisters discovered Home Instead after struggling to find good quality care for their grandfather who had dementia. 

After being blown away by the Home Instead ethos and all of the care professionals they came into contact with, they were keen to bring the same level of care to their local community.

Sophie said: “Having both witnessed the awesome care service Home Instead provided to our family, backed up by their amazing reputation and support offered to franchisees, Melissa and I knew this was the business opportunity for us”.

Melissa added: “We are best friends and have always done everything together, so it made sense to start a business together. We have each other’s backs through tough times and share all our successes together. We knew that business can often be a very male orientated environment, particularly from our experience in the financial services, but we wanted to use that to our advantage, as people really liked the fact we were different – young, female and ambitious and that allowed us to stand out from the crowd”.

Sharing their advice for other women looking to enter the world of franchising, the sisters said: “Our advice to other women is to believe in yourself, have confidence in your abilities and go for it! 10 years on from starting Home Instead we look back with great memories of the challenges we overcame together to build the premier care provider in our local area. We look forward to a fantastic future which we will use all our years of experience to ensure we continue to be successful and change people’s lives”.