When a brain injury forced Joseph Sabu to give up a successful engineering career, he and his wife Tency were worried about how they would support their children in their studies.
But, by becoming CrestClean franchisees, both their son and daughter, Sagar and Sarangi, have been able to follow in their father’s footsteps, graduating from Canterbury University with Engineering Honours degrees.
“We are very proud of them,” says Tency.
Joseph was a mechanical engineer in India, where he headed a large firm in Kerala, when an illness left him with a brain injury which meant he had difficulty communicating.
When the family moved to New Zealand, Tency continued her career as a senior nurse, and Joseph worked in a supermarket.
“As the children grew up, we wanted to enrich their abilities, their skills. They were both outstanding students and we wanted to give them the best education possible, but my money alone wasn’t enough,” says Tency.
“With Joseph’s supermarket job we could support them, but we couldn’t do the best for them.”
The couple had friends who were successful CrestClean franchisees and decided it was worth looking into.
“Communication is difficult for Joseph, so we needed a business where he didn’t have to communicate a lot with customers. With CrestClean, he could do the cleaning and I could take care of the communication.”
Continuing to work fulltime as a nurse, Tency arranged her shifts so that she could support Joseph in the franchise when needed.
“It works really well,” says Tency.
“Joseph goes beyond expectations and often gets thank-you cards and gifts. It’s given him independence and greater job satisfaction.”
Not only have they been able to support their children through university, Tency and Jospeh have also been able to fast track their mortgage, with only three years to go until it is paid off.
“Owning a franchise really helped us. I think people come to CrestClean for a reason. In our culture, people always want to do a white-collar job, but we’re very proud to own a CrestClean franchise,” says Tency.
“We have recommended CrestClean to other people. It’s physical work, but as long as you take pride in everything you do, you will do well.”
