Where will my first client come from
A very interesting and important question to consider in your decision making process.
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This week I visited a franchise partner going through a fantastically steep growth curve, and it struck me just how important it was that they’d got their processes right from the outset to cope with growth while maintaining quality and consistency.
In the very early start-up phase, so much mental energy goes into thinking about where that first client or hire is going to come from. It almost seems presumptuous to plan for times where you’re overwhelmed by client enquiries and job applicants.
Indeed, you don’t need a formal, documented system when you’re a one-man band. You can do things in your own time, and you’ll work out your own way of getting things done.
But then you hire Tina. And then Sally. And suddenly, they are also finding their own ways of doing things. You’ve then got three separate systems for the same process. And maybe they all store their records differently.
Not only do your applicants have an inconsistent experience depending on who is dealing with them, but when it comes to your CQC inspection, your records are all over the place. Say the inspector wants to see a care pro’s recruitment documents. Were their references stored in a paper file somewhere? Or maybe the Applicant section of their profile? Or was it under Notes? Or maybe just in a google drive folder?
If that scenario stresses you out, that’s good. It doesn’t look great from the Inspector’s point of view, and puts you in danger of getting a poor rating just because you didn’t invest time and effort into a documented system from day 1
Compare that to an example workflow we use at GoodOaks to aid our candidate experience:
Everyone has the same, consistent experience, and this enables us to analyse it and work on it, because nothing can be fine-tuned until it’s consistent.
This is true for all your core processes, whether it’s the recruitment process, the sales process, or the operations processes.
When you’ve thought out your systems and processes, or buy into a franchise that has done that, the result is simplicity, scalability, quality and profitability.
For more about how we help Franchise Partners get this right, have a look at our homecare ops support.
Best wishes, Ben.