Clare & Joanne - The Cat Butler Franchisees in Derby

Introduction 

• Your name and age: Clare Smith and Joanne Campbell (52)
• Name of your The Cat Butler Territory? The Cat Butler Derby 
• When did you launch your The Cat Butler business? July 24th 2023
• What did you do before you owned your The Cat Butler business? Teachers
• How many staff do you employ? 4 (as of February 2025)

Q: Why did you decide to give up teaching?

A: Although we thought we would be teachers forever when The Cat Butler franchise opportunity came along, we knew it was our destiny.

Q: What made you think about caring for cats?

A: We both absolutely love cats. We grew up with cats and have always had them as adults. We’d been doing some cat sitting in the area for a while, so we knew we enjoyed caring for cats and it seemed like a natural thing to do.

Q: Why did you decide to buy a The Cat Butler franchise rather than set up on your own?

A: The Cat Butler just seemed to have the whole thing done for us; we knew we loved cats but didn’t know how to run a business, with The Cat Butler it is just all there, like a business in a box.

Q: How was the support setting up your The Cat Butler franchise?

A: Sandra has been great; from our initial contact with her when we downloaded a form on the website, right through to finding out more about the business, signing the contracts and of course the training to actually become a Cat Butler. The support has been fantastic. Sandra has been with us every step of our journey so far and we’ve lost count of the times we’ve said ‘thank goodness for Sandra’ as she answers yet another question or query! 

Q: Tell us about the training to become a Cat Butler

A: The training was great. We went down to The Cat Butler HQ in St Albans and spent three days learning the ropes with the other new franchisees; it was really nice to meet them and hear their stories too.

Although we are both cat lovers, we didn’t know how to run a business and even though we felt quite daunted, we didn’t need to as Sandra explains everything on the course. It all felt very professional, from the slides and presentation to the website and operations manual; we were very impressed. 

 We spent one day in the classroom, learning ‘how’ to run the business then the second day going out with existing Cat Butlers to see exactly how they do home visits and on the third day we were trained in cat first aid and, I’m glad to say, we both passed. We found it particularly useful learning how to do CPR and what to do if a cat injures itself.

Q What has the support been like since you finished your training and returned home to set up your business?

A: As we expected, it has been great. We have now received the merchandise for our franchise and discussed our proposed marketing activity for the next few weeks. Sandra has also sent us some ‘Coming Soon’ digital flyers, that we can use in all the local social media groups we are now members of. As you might expect, we have been busy making lists for our launch and Sandra’s spreadsheets have been really useful to help us keep track of everything we’ve got to do.

Q: What would you say to anyone thinking of buying a The Cat Butler Franchise?

We are just beginning our journey, launching our business next week but we cannot fault the support we’ve received from Sandra so far, she has thought of absolutely everything, so if you love cats and want to run your own business, caring for cats, then go for it!

Read more on Clare & Jo's journey >>>>>>> Twin Sisters Swap Chalkboards for Cat Care

Cat Butlers Claire and Jo serve kitties and their hoomans in Derby, Ripley, Ilkeston, Belper and Heanor.