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Hi from a cafe in Poole,
Thank you again for being one of the very early adopters of Found This – a weekly series of actionable start-up and growth insights, focused on the homecare sector, delivered to your inbox; Founder to Future Founder. I really appreciate it 🙌Because GoodOaks doesn’t have a franchise ‘sales team’, I have interesting conversations every week with some really inspiring people who are looking to enter the homecare sector.
I believe franchising in the care sector works really well. The model is replicable, scalable, and provides real value to our partners from regulatory compliance to business growth. However, there are often times where I genuinely recommend people don’t buy a care franchise, for a number of reasons. Here are some of the big ones:
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If you don’t have the time (and can’t free yourself up). We know that you need to be available for your team and your clients to safely and robustly grow a quality homecare business. This (especially in the early days) isn’t a business you can do only on evenings and weekends. For anyone who missed it, here’s a quick mail I wrote on Side-Hustle vs. Deep Dive as different start-up strategies.
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If you don’t enjoy communicating and building relationships. There are LOADS of jobs and businesses that don’t need great communication and people skills. This is not one of them. A homecare business is effectively a network of relationships; employment relationships, client relationships, professional relationships, relationships with the franchisor team.
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If you are off-the-chart creative. If you’re someone who has 100 different ideas a day, you might struggle with the frameworks and business model which is the precise reason that many other people do invest in a franchise. You might be better off going solo or partnering with someone who can help keep you on track in a way that scratches your creative itch.
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If your family and significant others aren’t on board. Starting any business takes sacrifice and is inherently riskier than working for someone else. On the growth journey there will be ups and downs, busy times and quiet times, and you’ll need the support of your nearest and dearest.
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If you’re willing to cut corners for a quick buck. We’re in a regulated sector with some pretty vulnerable clients. All good franchisors will be undertaking regular audits and quality checks to ensure quality standards are met and the brand reputation which the network relies upon is maintained. If you’re not keen on your team’s homework being checked and working transparently to improve standards if there are any shortcomings, a care franchise like GoodOaks probably isn’t your best bet.
(In case you’re wondering, we don’t have a ‘sales team’ because we don’t see the process of partners joining us as a sales process. As founders we meet potential new partners right at the start so we can get to know each other from the beginning, which we think that’s a better experience for our partners, and gives us confidence in the people we award franchises to. Plus, we can invest more in our support function to help our partners grow, rather than a sales manager a franchisee won’t talk to again once they’ve signed up)As always, if you’re interested in starting up in the homecare space, or looking at franchising generally, you can book a quick call with me here: www.calendly.com/benashton/call.If you’ve got any questions or would like me to cover a particular topic, simply reply to this email. I respond to every email I get. Have a great weekend.BenPS: Know someone potentially interested in weekly actionable insights about homecare start-up strategy, tactics, and planning? Click here to forward this email to a friend.PPS: If this content isn’t what you need in your life right now, click here if you’d like to unsubscribe from this list.
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