Market Focus


a commercial mind, and these qualities need to be in balance. The right potential franchisee will know in their heart that they are a ‘Home Instead person’, but their head will tell them to check out the fi nancials, do their due diligence and talk to as many existing owners as possible before committing. Meet the franchisor’s team and see whether their values align with yours.


What are your plans for the future of the business? Do you have any long-term goals? I’d like to grow my franchise to be the home-care provider of choice for those seeking the best quality care in the Swindon and Vale of White Horse area. Approaching three years in business, it’s still relatively early days but we’d like


to be part of the Home Instead Senior Care revolution in care locally and nationally – both for our clients and our caregivers. There is no doubt that the market is deep and growing but we need to get our community to forget what they ever thought they knew about care and join us in taking care at home to a new level.


our regional support manager, who worked very closely with us during our early days of set-up and is always at the end of a telephone or email. We also have monthly site visits, which are a great opportunity to review our business plans and discuss any issues we have.


Caremark Richard Magrath


runs Caremark North Down, Ards and Belfast with his wife Emily. Before investing in a franchise,


Richard was involved in developing businesses across a range of diff erent sectors. Emily worked for Action Cancer for 11 years as health promotion manager.


How did you come to invest in a Caremark franchise? We had to consider many factors when looking at the possibility of a family business. Emily leaving work and the obvious fi nancial effect of her no longer receiving a guaranteed wage was an important point of consideration. Consequently, we looked at a number of different options and felt that the franchise route would give us a quicker path to success in whichever sector we chose to go into. Having decided that the franchise route was the best way to go and given the current fi nancial climate, the next step was to try and fi nd a sector that would be recession-proof. The care industry was the obvious choice, given that major changes in the way care was to be delivered were widely publicised. After doing some research into care companies, Caremark stood out at an early stage. We then decided to go to The National Franchise Exhibition and set up a meeting to chat with them. We spoke to a number of care companies who were


exhibiting there but felt that Caremark was the only company we would be happy with because their emphasis was on the quality of care delivery and not the profi t.


Any other reasons for choosing the care sector?


Emily was very passionate about her previous work at Action Cancer. Naturally, it was important for her to be equally as passionate about her next career move and the care sector seemed to fi t the bill. We are both very involved in social action activities in our local community and the care sector matches our core values. It was a market in which we felt there was a real need and opportunity to raise the bar.


How have you found the franchisor’s training and support? Having no experience of the care sector, the prospect of setting up and running the business was a daunting task. Emily attended the intensive two-week residential training course held at Caremark’s head offi ce, which gave her the confi dence and knowledge to implement the Caremark system successfully. We also have excellent ongoing support available through


How is business going so far? Our business got off to a great start and after the fi rst three months of trading we were well ahead of our projected target. We put this down to the good foundations and market research that we had in place and, more importantly, following and utilising Caremark’s great model.


What challenges have you faced on your business journey? Our biggest challenge is the ongoing changes within the care sector in Northern Ireland, where there will be major changes to how care is commissioned in the near future. Understanding your chosen market is important in any business but especially so with care. That aside, we are enjoying the challenge of building a business in a sector new to us, supported by a great team.


Describe a typical day.


Each day is busy but never quite the same! It starts at home getting our three young boys ready for school or childcare. Every day in the offi ce is different, we could be delivering a presentation to groups such as our local Probus club, meeting new clients or sorting out staff rotas. When we fi rst started we were very hands on but now that we have more staff in place we can concentrate on growing the business. Life is pretty full with a family to take care of as well, but we are very happy to put the hours in and see our business grow month on month.


What plans have you got for the future of your business? Our plans are to continue to grow our Caremark business, whilst raising the bar in the quality and standard of care provided in our community. We want to become not only the care provider of choice but also a company at which people want to work. n


March 2015 | Businessfranchise.com | 57


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