Gavin Preston knows more than most what it takes to ‘survive and thrive’ in business - he even wrote a book about it.

An experienced strategy consultant and business coach, Gavin had spent over 25 years helping failing and stagnant businesses to scale and grow.

So, when he purchased two underperforming Right at Home franchise territories – RaH South Liverpool and RaH Preston - in 2022, he was well equipped to turn them around.

What his career hadn’t prepared him for, however, was the unique challenges of running a homecare business. But through hard work and unwavering perseverance, and with faith in a proven franchise model, Gavin is now on the road to success.

“The first 18 months felt like a baptism of fire, but I’m delighted to say that we’ve turned both businesses around and we’re on an exciting growth trajectory,” Gavin says.

Professional background

Gavin qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the early 90s before securing a job at KPMG, one of the big four accounting operations in the UK, where he learned his craft.

“I worked in the insolvency department with businesses that were struggling and going bust. So, I learned from the age of 19 or 20 the key strategies that were needed to improve the financial health of a business and reverse its decline,” Gavin recalls.

Gavin then worked in various senior roles in the finance industry before setting up independently as a Business Strategist and Mentor in 2002.

But while he helped numerous established organisations secure, scale and succeed in their own business goals, he wasn’t achieving his ultimate ambition – to put his skills and knowledge into practice and propel a business of his own.  

Why Right at Home?

Gavin spent two years searching for an acquisition opportunity when he discovered an opening at RaH UK.

“Right at Home was a client of mine, so I delivered coaching and training to a number of owners in the network, as well as the team at National Office,” Gavin explains.

In 2021, Gavin was invited to speak at our National Conference about the key messages in his book, Survive and Thrive, and gained a unique insight into the inner workings and culture of RaH UK.

Impressed by what he saw, he wasted no time in approaching our Founder and Chairman, Ken Deary, about purchasing a franchise.  

“I’d been one of the keynote speakers at National Conference about four years previously and, when I attended in 2021, I was really struck about how much the network had grown and the sense of energy in the room.

“I thought to myself ‘I like this vibe’ so I went up to Ken and said, ‘I like what you’ve created here, and I’m interested in buying Right at Home South Liverpool’. He was a bit surprised!”

Baptism of fire

Not long after his chat with Ken, Gavin became the interim MD for RaH South Liverpool and five months later, on August 1, 2022, he and his wife Lowri concluded the purchase of the franchise.

Then, just four months into running the business, he acquired another underperforming franchise, RaH Preston.

For most new RaH Owners, taking on one franchise is challenging enough, let alone two – it takes time to build the right team, a strong Client base and a solid reputation in the community – and looking back, Gavin admits the move was a little “naïve”.

 “To quote the late Queen Elizabeth II, 2023 was an ‘annus horribilis’ – a horrible year,” he says. “We had two loss-making businesses that needed to be turned around at the same time, and we didn’t have the cash to do it.”

Aside from cashflow, another major challenge for Gavin was people management. “I’ve gone from being self-employed to employing over 100 people in a short period of time. That was a huge learning curve, and I was unprepared for the number of times when team members would let me down at short notice,” he explains.

“Finding and continuing to engage the right people who want to join you on your journey towards growth and success was also a tough task,” he adds.

“It isn’t unusual for a manager to get to a level of growth they are prepared to cope with and then put the brakes on, consciously or subconsciously. You have to be alert to this, or growth will stall.”

Gavin and his office team took their children to visit Clients across Liverpool and Preston last year - one of Gavin's proudest moments.

Resilience “in bucket loads”

Despite the steep climb he faced in turning two ailing businesses around, Gavin found a way, and he puts this down to passion and resilience.

“There’s a guy called Ross Edgley who swam 1,780 miles around the coast of Great Britain. It took him 157 days. When he finished, he said he was ‘naïve enough to start and stubborn enough to finish’ and I suppose I share this mantra,” Gavin explains.

“By nature, I’m not a quitter and I’ll just get my head down and keep working until I find a way. And I think that’s the hallmark of a lot of people who are successful – they have resilience in bucket loads.”

Gavin credits his dad, who sadly passed away in October 2024, for his self-determination.

“He used to take on big challenges without the cash, but through sheer grit, determination and hard work, he made it happen,” he says.

“My dad was my first business and life mentor, and a massive inspiration to me. He had the ability to turn every negative into a positive and shared a life-changing quote with me at the age of 15 from author Napolean Hill – ‘what the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve’. He taught me to persevere in the face of all challenges and I now instil this message in my own children.”

Overcoming adversity

Apart from being determined, Gavin also had the entrepreneurial spirit to bring his businesses back from the brink.

“It was all going terribly wrong financially, and that forced me to make some tough decisions. So, we moved offices and that saved a good deal of money every month,” Gavin explains.

“We were also proactive on cashflow forecasting, management and credit control, and that enabled us to make payroll,” he adds. “The whole team got paid on time every month, unaware of the work in the background to ensure we had sufficient funds.”

Gavin also re-recruited Registered Managers at both franchise offices and restructured the business model.

“In most homecare businesses, the RM is the boss – and in my experience most RMs are great at compliance but they’ve not always got that growth appetite. So rather than giving all the power to the RM, we created a structure that drives both commercial growth and quality and compliance. It’s no different to what you see in every other sector, where you’ve got a sales manager and an operations manager,” he says.

“The other thing we did is recruited people from outside of the industry who have experience in running their own businesses. This has been essential for driving growth.”

Gavin and his team faced some tough challenges in his first year, but being part of an established franchise network meant that he has not had to go it alone.

“In the beginning, there were a number of fires that all needed to be put out at the same time, and we couldn’t get to them all – so the National Office team stepped in. They were a sounding board, gave advice and they helped us get jobs done when we didn’t have the bandwidth to do so,” Gavin recalls.

Gavin also thanks his peers in the RaH network for their “immense” support. “In my darkest hours, when I was wondering how on earth I was going to move the dial, I found connecting with other owners, particularly in the North West, of great solace,” he says.

“They shared ideas with me and said, ‘don’t give up, you’ll get through it’. I can’t tell you how reassuring that was.”

Immense pride

Incredibly, despite all the hurdles Gavin has faced, both RaH South Liverpool and RaH Preston are growing at a rapid rate.

“We’re now delivering 1,600 hours of care per week across both businesses, compared to 250 hours when we first started in Liverpool. So, we’ve grown by three and a half times,” he says.

Happily, Gavin was able to share his achievements with his dad before he passed away. “He had total belief that we could turn the business around and I was so proud to be able to share with him that we had done just that,” Gavin says.

But the hard work isn’t over yet, and Gavin has big ambitions to go further and faster.

“I’ve got the wind back in my sails and I’m ready for the next phase of growth,” he enthuses. “Some people in business get to a level of comfort and lifestyle and take their foot off the gas, but I’m just wired differently. I believe that in life and in business, you’re either growing or dying, so I want to keep growing. I’m inspired to do more, and I’m capable of more.”

Gavin Preston

Owner, Right at Home South Liverpool and Right at Home Preston.