OSCAR has been a big step for Abi Russell – at nineteen, and with the backup support of her parents, she is running her own franchise business, which she combines with the opportunity to gain a recognised qualification in pet nutrition.

Abi’s mother Julie was eager to explain, “As parents, we wanted to help secure a career for our daughter. We knew Abi didn’t have the self-belief to face the realms of university while wondering what the future held after years of study.” Julie goes on to say, “Not for the want of trying Abi was prepared to learn from work experience, and I must say she gave everything a good chance, only to realise that these mundane jobs offered few prospects. However, the idea of an apprenticeship made good sense, but the biggest question was what to do?

“Abi has always found confidence around animals and our dogs inspired the idea of working with pets – more so after seeing an OSCAR van in the area. We visited the OSCAR website and were very impressed by the facts and figures, the products and services and the addition of an educational course in pet nutrition. This promoted us to try the food for our dogs – the message was loud and clear and more so when a franchise resale business became available in our area.

“OSCAR was definitely worth waiting for and to see how Abi is progressing is so rewarding. As a youngster, she is self-taught on how to put social media into practice, and while the ideas keep coming we continue to work as a team. With existing customers to support, telesales appointments to follow up and summer shows to attend we can see, at this early stage, just how much potential our area holds.”

As for Abi, she says, “I’m really lucky. I have my own business and, thanks to the OSCAR support team, I can still find time to enjoy the company of my friends, while appreciating how Mum and Dad are guiding me towards the development of a business that will set me up with a promising career.”