Sally Wise, master franchisee of Seniors Helping Seniors, tells her aspiring career journey

Incredible entrepreneur, Sally Wilse, shares her story of overcoming ageist workplace challenges, to co-find Seniors Helping Seniors, a movement which empowers an older demographic of workers.

At the age of 40, Sally spent 12 years building a start-up business to great success. Unfortunately, however, due to workplace ignorance around the symptoms of menopausal women, Sally was then made redundant from this company, through no fault of her own.

Without the necessary support and knowledge in place, Sally remembers how this was all “very poorly handled”, and upon going to a lawyer to resolve her unjust loss of work, she was told there was no public appetite for ageist issues.

This opened an area of interest for her to learn more about ageism, and the generalised corporate opinions around the age of workers. There wasn’t much information about at the time, but since then, ‘Centre for Ageing Better’ has become a powerful resource.

Sally supports the work as much as possible, she quotes a survey commissioned by the charity, which questioned 2,057 residents aged 18 and above living in England, about their thoughts on age in the workplace. It found that both, one in four people thought that it did not make business sense to employ someone over 50 because they will be slow and unable to adapt, and over 20% thought that it was a waste of resources to give in-job training to someone over 50 because they did not think older workers were likely to stay in the role for a while.

Sally comments: “I can resonate with this recent survey after personally being told that there wasn’t a legal case against ageism. I just had to suck it up basically. I dealt with my mental health for a while after, and then the consideration was: what am I going to do with twenty or thirty years of good working experience in me at fifty?”

After losing faith in the corporates offering work at the time, Sally decided it was time to start her own business, and this saw her co-find Seniors Helping Seniors, which has a very different outlook on age in the workplace.

After finding an established care model based in America, which aligned with Sally’s new professional mission, she convinced her husband that in order to bring this concept over to the UK, they needed to sell their house and buy this master franchise.

Using the entrepreneurial strengths that Sally has established through her previous, successful career, she spent 3-4 years building up Seniors Helping Seniors with her husband and a great team in the South East, many of whom are still with them. This is an initiative where predominantly ‘older workers’ with some experience in caring, whether that be in a professional or domestic setting, would be employed to enhance their skills in a safe and secure environment.

She worked hard to make it something that GPs and, what used to be, Care Commissioning Groups, called a service which was a ‘perfect example of primary care’, and emphasised their unique feature is that they employ active older people – who are usually pushed aside – to use and build on the care experience that they already have offering Peer to Peer support.

There are now ten Seniors Helping Seniors offices in the UK where the average age of working carers is 59 years. Nine are in the South East and three in the Sussex region, highlighting the flexibility of their contracts, Sally explained the key elements and incentives of working in the company, where acknowledging unique skills that those in the sandwich generation have other commitments in their lives, so getting support and the opportunity to choose when they work and who with, is very important. Paying above the real living wage has been an offer from day 1.

Jobs on offer to this demographic are usually very limited and rarely flexible, which made her adamant that the people strategy she incorporated must provide the jobs that this group deserve. A place of belonging, outstanding care and wrap around support.

When talking about this, Sally said: “For us, this strategy is everything that makes our company successful, because the number one challenge in care – is finding carers.”

Seniors Helping Seniors are on top. “They are offering jobs which actually appeal to that demographic. This American model is what we are following, and clients appreciate it for being discreet, and actually getting on with those who are caring for them. They make real connections with people who inspire them to get out, get moving and keep on living a full life as they get older. We support people. We support carers in this work,” continued Sally.

This business structure is seen as a win-win, where being part of this community which offers outstanding care, has not only developed a positive workplace environment, but also saw Seniors Helping Seniors win the top 20 care group award in June 2025, after going against 955 others.

Sally is proud to be working towards the change that she wished to see after her professional set-back, and has gone to parliament to contribute examples of what is relevant work for these people, and what they can do.

When asked what Sally’s advice would be to those at a similar stage in life to her, she said: “I would really encourage people to early on (35-40) to have a step back and consider where your career is going. I would have loved to have had that advice. I believe with AI, careers are even more precarious, and we welcome everyone considering a career reset.”

“I would also say that people should look at ways to be entrepreneurial. Starting your own business doesn’t have to be as risky as everybody tells you it is, especially if you buy a franchise. If the business-concept resonates, then buy into it because the fee is more than covered in the mistakes you would make in your own business.”

Sally has high hopes to reach her goal of having 25 UK offices in the next 5 years, and would love to champion experts by experience in Seniors Helping Seniors, removing ageist opinions from the workplace.

She understands that people who have lived a life and worked throughout, have a lot to offer, and with Seniors Helping Seniors hoping to continue to grow in the future, she will be advocating for older carers to have a secure and happy career.

She explained: “It amazes me, actually, that my story is important, but I realise now that I am getting more comfortable speaking about it because I am happy to be the voice of women of a certain age.”

Seniors Helping Seniors is on the hunt for future franchise partners in South East to join its mission to have 25 offices working on these critical employment issues and provision of flexible and outstanding care. No care experience is necessary and there is thorough training and ongoing support. People wanting to put their management and people skills to good use and to spend the rest of their career in control of their own futures working for themselves, but not on their own, and doing good. This is a proven and outstanding care brand and an ethical franchised business making a real difference.