As you all know, at Extra Help, we love celebrating awards! Whether it’s our franchisees, suppliers or Head Office staff being recognised for their hard work, we’re always happy to shout about any award news we receive.
This time, we’re particularly ecstatic to announce that our very own Managing director, Claire Robinson, won the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the recent, annual Devon & Plymouth Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. Although Extra Help is a national, home-help franchise network, our Head Office is based in Plymouth and Claire also lives there.
Leading figures from the South West business community attended the ceremony, which took place at Schiller Hall in Buckfast Abbey. It was a fabulous black-tie event, celebrating the very best in entrepreneurship and enterprise in the region. After a superb meal, the winners were crowned, with many more people watching via a live stream on YouTube.
The Entrepreneur of the Year Award is designed to reward ‘an entrepreneur who has made a huge impact in the business world through their relentless drive’. The judges said they chose Claire as Entrepreneur of the Year because, in the last 12 months, Extra Help has provided a unique opportunity for franchisees to support many elderly and vulnerable people across the UK, particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Claire said:
“I’m delighted to have won Entrepreneur of the Year! Until recently, I was running three different businesses; I’ve been a single parent to three children, as well as a businesswoman running a national, home-help network of 35 franchisees. Extra Help is a fabulous business that has enabled me to do what I love the most – supporting and helping a huge number of people, especially throughout the pandemic, who may otherwise have been isolated.
It’s wonderful to be recognised for my efforts and spurs me on to grow Extra Help even more, in order to support even more people with our home-help services across the country.”
Congratulations to Claire! We’re so proud of you and hope this will be the first of many more awards for you, going forward.