Name: Matt Johnson
Born: 2 April 1982
Married: Married to Erin
School: Victoria College
First Job: Saturday job at 101 toys above Les Riches – if you remember Les Riches!
Car: Skoda Octavia Estate
Book: Recently, The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
Music: Real music – none of this manufactured rubbish
Film: Happy Gilmore
Gadget: None
Last Holiday: Sri Lanka (honeymoon 2011)
Enjoys: Sport, training, my garden, and the wife and my daughter Violet
So, tell us what inspired you to get this off the ground?
I wanted to try something new, work for myself and see if my interpretation of what pharmacy healthcare should be is as beneficial to patient care as I think it could be.
I have an ambition to improve current patient care through convenient services, provision of the right resources and education. Couple this with a desire to see people take control of their own health led to the evolution of Restore Health.
I also wanted to be in charge of my own time. Violet, my daughter, is only young (15 months) and I can ensure I don’t miss those younger years. Restore Health works on more than one level in that sense.
What did you do prior to starting this business?
I worked for many of the traditional pharmacies on Jersey over the years
Did that teach you any lessons that helped you succeed?
I gained a vast amount of experience from my previous roles for which I am thankful. You learn from all your experiences and you can attribute your development to them but they also allow you to develop a clear picture for areas or people which are under-represented. These are the areas that allow for your innovation, drive for change and implementation of your ideas.
What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learnt since starting the business?
New experiences are occurring every day and I always try to take a positive spin on each of them.
The hardest was probably financial support. Family have been very kind to help me get up and running. There is no support and no lending to new business out there except from private finance. It’s rather frustrating considering how the national government continually iterates how they are investing in start-ups.
Any funny stories that you have about the business starting out?!
Replace ‘funny’ with ‘stressful’ and I would have a bucket full of stories!
What are your plans for the future?
To lead Restore Health as the main driving force for achieving patient-centred and clinically-efficient healthcare and improved health awareness and education.
What advice would you give to would-be entrepreneurs?
Follow your dreams. If you don’t, you will always work for someone who has.
About the business:
Restore Health provides convenient and innovative services for all its patients to allow them to take control of their health, make the right choices and have access to the right resources to live a healthier life and offers a wide range of FREE patient services and many of them are new and unique to us, including: quick and secure prescription delivery to your home or work place, repeat prescription service – one less thing to worry about sorting, weekly medication trays – for those who struggle to take their medicines correctly, medication dosage reminder service – a text message to remind you about your daily medicine dose and numerous other services too.
I wanted to create a patient-centred approach to healthcare and Restore Health is a product of that dream. I believe the best healthcare comes from the patient. This is the critical and potentially variable end-point for the delivery of an individual’s healthcare. If this is not effective then, no matter how good the preceding steps by health professionals, that individual’s health will always remain below ideal. That is what I hope Restore Health can improve and with that people’s health in general.
