However, there are some key factors to bear in mind before taking the diversification route. Firstly, how solid is your current business? Is it well run, efficient and profitable? If not, you’d be wise to attend to these first. You should also be confident that you have both the financial and people resources to carry any diversification plan through to completion.
Learn from others
Secondly, learn from other care providers that have successfully expanded or are doing particularly well – and then implement these learnings in your own business. For instance, Home Instead’s Charnwood, Loughborough and Coalville office is looking to provide live-in, 24-hour care. But it has made sure its core business was in order first.
Having already received CQC Outstanding – something which only two per cent of care providers are awarded - inspectors highlighted the provider as ‘simply the best’. The Home Instead UK franchise is said to be one of the top 20 home care groups with 96% of clients saying they would recommend them. It’s vital that excellence proceeds any plan to diversify because then you’re going into it from a position of strength.
Somerset Care is another example. It runs residential homes, home care, retirement living, and learning disability services. As a not-for-profit organisation, I know they put a lot of effort into providing the highest quality of care services plus they reinvest the money they earn back into care provision.
And if you look at HC-One’s back-office operations, they’ve centralised their recruitment department so home managers can spend more time on operations and care provision. The key is to make your back office more efficient, so you put most of your resources into client care.
Supporting mechanisms
Diversification is an intensive project and clearly shouldn’t be considered lightly. Its invaluable to have people you can turn to for advice or help keep your existing business running smoothly. Your technology provider should be able to make sure you’re utilising your software to its fullest too. After all, it plays a critical role in supporting diversified business operations, making them much more efficient.
When your technology is working well in the core business it will drastically cut paperwork and redundant processes. Online expense management, scheduling and rostering, e-MAR, care plans, handover and incident reporting ideally should be well embedded in current working practice. This way you’ll be able to take that knowledge, understanding and the tools themselves into your new venture.
It takes a solid, integrated application to accommodate the broad-ranging health and social care market. Whether it’s for carers, centralised accounts and HR or reporting and analysis tools for the management team, being able to manage more businesses effectively calls for automation and a systematised approach.
By having all these elements in place, you will create the right environment to diversify. It gives the new business every chance of success. Do that and not only will you be providing a valuable service for the community – from employment opportunities to more care options – but chances are, you’ll have a thriving business too.