Special Feature Home Instead Senior Care P


hilip Maundrill and Philip Wright-Howarth are business partners and joint owners of Home Instead Senior Care South Warwickshire. After working together and


spending a number of years in corporate life, they decided to set up their Home Instead Senior Care franchise in 2011.


What appealed to you about Home Instead? Why is Home Instead different to other companies in the care sector? To us, Home Instead Senior Care stood head and shoulders above other care franchises. We did look quite seriously at others, but felt that Home Instead reflected our personal values and focussed on quality, which is essential when you are dealing with people.


What interested you about this sector? We both had very personal reasons for choosing the care industry. Phil Maundrill’s mother suffered from dementia and he experienced poor quality care together with the stresses associated with looking after an ageing relative from afar. Philip Wright-Howarth’s sister suffers from severe learning difficulties and he too has faced challenging times over the years with her ongoing support. So we both had an automatic desire to make a real difference for our local communities.


In addition to our personal motivations, the ageing population in the UK means that the care sector is an expanding market, which provides a fantastic opportunity to grow and develop our business.


How did you arrange funding? Personal savings made up part of the funding and the banks were very welcoming when we put the proposal to them for the remainder. Our bank was very supportive and, having had experience of other franchises in the Home Instead network, they were more than willing to help us.


What training and ongoing support have you received? Home Instead provided an intensive initial training package, which made up the first part of our franchising journey. Since then, they have provided ongoing


comprehensive training, with regular regional meetings and an annual national conference. Our dedicated business performance manager visits us regularly and provides advice on best practice, and we know the head office team are always on hand to provide help if needed. Franchising is also about sharing ideas, experiences and knowledge with other franchise owners within the network. Since starting the business just over three years ago, we have found the network to be of tremendous value; we are independently owned but we are not on our own and we are surrounded by friends who share the same passion.


What sort of challenges have you


faced so far? Our caregivers are the face of Home Instead Senior Care and we trust them to uphold our values and maintain our very high standards. This is a people business with a focus on quality rather than quantity – every single one of our clients is someone’s husband, wife, mother, father, grandma or granddad. The real challenge is finding enough of the right people to join our team, so that we can say “yes” when the phone rings.


“The financial benefit has exceeded my expectations”


What are your plans for the future? Continued growth of our local reputation, which reflects the values we uphold. With both of us having children of school age, we don’t have any intention to retire just yet! Our franchisor sees that we are making good progress and is keen for us to maintain our current level of expansion.


Would you recommend franchising to others?


Most definitely! Franchising is just replicating a business model that has been proven to work successfully. Our only word of advice would be to simply follow the model you have bought into – don’t waste your money buying a franchise if you intend to change it!


What has been your greatest franchising achievement? Finding an extremely satisfying and rewarding career opportunity that allows us to improve the daily lives of all of our clients and create employment and income for our care givers too. It is the best feeling to know we are caring for our clients the way that we would want our own family members to be looked after.


40 | Businessfranchise.com | July/August 2014 CeX


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mran Ghafoor runs CeX Gateshead. Prior to this, he worked in a corporate management position. Cex buy, sell and exchange a range of technology and entertainment products


Why did you choose franchising? I’ve always wanted to run my own business and quickly realized that the CeX business model would work for me. The bustling stores spoke for themselves!


How did you raise the finance? I put together a detailed business plan with the help of CeX based on cost and turnover projections from similar, established CeX stores. Together with CeX, I confirmed that my costs and finance were in place to support my new venture, ensuring that the terms would suit my business model.


What training and support did you receive initially and ongoing? I’ve been training and working part-time for several months now in some of our local CeX stores in the North East. The training and support from CeX has been wonderful and very helpful; I’ve been given lots of responsibility and have learned a huge amount. I can ask questions at any point and have numerous avenues of expertise and experience to draw from. With CeX’s help I’ve recruited a new team of staff prior to the store opening and the local stores have been great in supporting their training.


Has becoming a franchisee changed your life and, if so, how? Yes, I’m going to be able to spend more time with my family, which is really important to me.


What challenges have you faced? Opening a big retail business operation with a new team of staff involves a lot of planning. CeX have taken on the responsibility for building my new store for me, but it’s great to have been involved in the decision-making every step of the way. n


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