Why these Kare Plus franchisees couldn’t stop at one
Building your own business empire is a dream that, for most people, only ever stays at that – a mere aspiration. But working in retail for 30 years before making a sudden change to healthcare, investing in a franchise and then hoping the dream will come true is a leap of faith many would never even consider.
For Kare Plus franchisees, Sheel Phakey and his wife Renu, the leap of faith was taken and now the dream has become reality – faster and bigger than they ever imagined.
“I first heard of Kare Plus in October 2014 at the National Franchise Exhibition in Birmingham. My first impressions of the company were very good; they were very professional”, said Sheel.
“I had been to the NFE exhibiting with the British Red Cross before, which gave me the idea to go again to meet franchisors and talk to them personally about what was on offer. I spoke to a few in both the hospitality industry and the healthcare industry, but once I came across Kare Plus I was very impressed.
“I spent over an hour at the stand talking to the team, who were very open and honest. Being new to the industry I asked a lot of questions, but they never made me feel like I was wasting their time.”
Following the event, Sheel had two potential healthcare franchisors in his sights. After speaking to Jamie, Franchise Owner of Kare Plus Cheshire a few times, then arranging to meet with the team at Kare Plus, he soon realised where his priorities had to lie.
“I had a follow up meeting with Tom and Pinn and, to be very honest with you, everything was totally open, honest and helpful”, Sheel explained.
“The transparency inspired my trust, but their service offering is what made me decide to invest. The other franchise I was looking at was promising 18 different services, but when I looked closer it was just domiciliary care to 18 different demographics. Kare Plus, on the other hand, is unique in its multi-service offerings, including establishment recruitment, domiciliary, NHS and supported living. That’s multiple avenues of real income.”
By Christmas 2014, Kare Plus Chelmsford was well and truly up and running. Despite Sheel’s biggest fear being unable to meet his projections, in just a few weeks he had already achieved 50% of his projections for the first six months. This momentum didn’t let up though, with some hard work and excellent support from his Kare Plus Business Development Manager, Paul Stafford, 12 months later Sheel had doubled his first year’s projections.
Naturally, such success got Sheel and Renu thinking about expanding their business. So when two territories either side of their Chelmsford office came available, they didn’t think twice about snapping them up.
“Harlow became available so I went for that one. Then Colchester came up, so my wife got that one! When you look at the map, Harlow’s on the left of Chelmsford and Colchester’s on the right – so it was perfect really”, said Sheel.
“I am a very ambitious person. That is why I left my career in Retail Management. I knew the effort I was putting in for that could be put into my own business, and now it is paying off. To be honest, I have already been toying with the idea of a fourth area. In the meantime though, we will be recruiting more staff and sourcing office space in our new territories.”
Despite putting in lot of time and effort, Sheel has a lot of praise for the support team at Kare Plus. Without whom he knows it would have been a lot more difficult to achieve. “I will never ever fault the support team”, he explains.
“Seriously, I cannot say enough about the support team. I would say I have definitely done so well because of those guys. I have spent a lot of time and effort building the business up, but whenever I contact them they will always say ‘well have you looked at this avenue’, which not only opens new doors, but can save so much time.
“In my initial few days, I must have rang the support team 20 or 25 times, but not once did they make me feel like I was wasting their time and, still to this day, I can rely on the help and support of my Business Development Manager, Paul Stafford and all of the key people in head office.”
All of this has happened for Sheel and Renu in a little over 12 months, something which they firmly believe is due to the excellent Kare Plus business model: “For me the Kare Plus model works perfectly”, explains Sheel. “I followed their model as it said, and here I am now well and truly beating my projections.”
With the healthcare sector experiencing such growth at the moment, you too may be thinking about replicating Sheel and Reneu’s success. To find out more about Kare Plus and what they offer, visit their profile.
