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One thing I would have done differently when I was in home care would be marketing my business. I started off with little money and couldn't afford to market, so I did everything myself. In hindsight I wish I had continued to do so throughout my career.
Instead I tendered for local authority work and stopped marketing. The lure of ‘Spoon Fed’ work was to seductive to say No to, My head had been turned and I got greedy. I saw a way to grow rapidly without marketing at all and I went all in.
The Problem with going all in.
I put all my eggs in 1 basket and built the basket as quickly as I could. I felt successful. Having a business with millions flowing into the bank felt really good. Until it wasn't good anymore. The bigger I got the more staff I employed, bigger offices came, nicer cars and expensive staff parties took place. It was easy come, easy go. The contract felt good and I couldn't see the hole I was digging for myself.
Whilst I was flavour of the month with the local authority all was good. I had a nice network of people I worked with and got along well. Then things changed. people left the local authority and were replaced with people I had no relationship with.
Covid hit and home working became a thing.. The local authority became a mess and no-one knew what they were doing. My invoices were put on hold. Payments were only half made at best. Money owed to me built up and became a massive problem.
The people now in charge of paying me couldn't care less about my cash flow. One idiot at the council actually said my Cash flow wasn't his problem, It hadn't registered with him that he owed me in excess of £150k and his inability to run his finances was hurting me badly.
And this was the problem with going all in. I had no back up. I had no Private clients paying me. If I'd continued to market how I was, I would have been OK. My Private income would have grown alongside my local authority work. Cash flow wouldn't have been as challenging.
I'd probably have scaled back on the LA work anyway. My margins had been squeezed and we only kept the work because we cared for the clients so much. We became busy fools working for a local authority whose only concern was money and couldn't care less about the care.
What I now advise care agencies to do instead
When I work with a care agency in the same position I was in, the first thing I do is look at how the company is structured and what the goals are for the agency owner.
Then we work out how we can bridge the gap between where the agency is now to where they want to be and how we can get there. We make plans and meet regularly to discuss them so I can keep everyone on track.
The good news is, You can do the same.
If you are in a similar position and want to make changes to your agency. Just follow these simple steps.
- Write down where your company is now. What does it do well? What doesn't it do well at? How many weekly hours are you at? What is the weekly income and profit / loss? How many staff do you have? - basically everything that makes up your agency should be accounted for. You need to understand exactly where you are right now.
Once you have an understanding then you know where you are building from. Which leads to the next step….
2. Where do you want to be? How do you want your agency to be in say 5 years time? How many weekly hours do you want to be at? What % split do you want from Private and contracted work? How many staff members will you need to service this increase? What will the income be and profit? How will this change your life when you achieve it?
When you know where you want to be, all you need is a plan to get there which takes you to step 3….
3. How do you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be? How will you recruit, market, improve your systems, charge more money, make more profit?
When you make a plan then you have a good foundation to make positive changes. You can start to re-build and make your agency better than ever.
It's not easy. It takes perseverance and discipline. It requires a lot of thinking and involvement from others. You will make mistakes and want to give up. But trust me, I've been doing this for 15 years. I've made more mistakes than anyone, messed up so many times and wanted to give up more than I can remember.
The great thing about mistakes, is you learn about yourself. You become stronger, better and more able through your mistakes.
So keep going, don't give up on your agency it will be worth it in the end. Lastly think of it like the stock market. When you look at the price of a share it never goes up in a straight line. It's up and down all the time but as long as the overall trend is up, the investors are happy.
Same for you. Your agency will be up and down but as long as the overall trend is up, you will be happy. You will have the agency of your dreams as long as you never give up.