Kev and Amy Popat

Amy and Kev Popat are a testament to the phrase ‘hard work and dedication pays off’. Nearly 10 years after opening their Right at Home franchise in Solent, the husband-and-wife team have not only built a multi-award-winning business with two consecutive Outstanding ratings from the Care Quality Commission, but they’ve also achieved two of their biggest goals in life.

“When we first approached Right at Home, they asked us what our life ambitions were and we said, ‘we want to send our kids to a good school and we want to live in a nice, big house’, and we got both of those,” Amy says, smiling proudly as she reflects on the last decade.

But what brings Amy and Kev the greatest sense of joy is knowing that they are providing for their young family whilst doing a job they love.

“We genuinely love coming to work,” Amy adds. “We speak to friends who complain about their jobs all the time, but we really enjoy what we do. We’re passionate about it and it’s become a big calling for us. I’m getting emotional thinking about this because we really do care.”

Kev agrees, explaining that the most rewarding part of running a RaH franchise is the positive impact they have on people’s lives.

“A few days ago, we got a call from a family member of one of our Clients. She said she desperately needed to talk to us, and that level of urgency made us assume something was wrong, but she wanted to tell us that our CareGivers have changed her life and felt it was really important to let us know,” says Kev.

“She was driving to London for a work meeting for the first time in years and was able to do so because our CareGivers are taking such good care of her mum.”

Turbulent times

The road to success hasn’t always been easy for Amy and Kev; when they first opened their RaH office in June 2015, Kev was still serving his notice as a Commercial Finance Manager for a small business in Southampton and Amy was juggling her role as a local optometrist with her new responsibilities as a business owner.

“We were working seven days a week at that point,” Amy recalls. “Kev would go out to deliver hands-on care and I’d work on recruitment on my lunch break and in the evenings. We managed to grow the team to about 15 members of staff by Christmas, but then we lost 10 CareGivers in one fell swoop.”

Kev remembers one incident when they were driving to RaH UK’s Annual Conference, five months after opening, and they got the call that their Registered Manager had resigned.

“We were literally at the front door of the venue and we had to turn back around. We drove straight back down to the office and just cracked on,” Kev explains.

“I think that that sums up the first year to 18 months of running a RaH franchise. It’s quite volatile and incredibly stressful, but you've just got to get through it. You’ve got to be prepared to work hard and have the grit and determination to succeed.”

This hard work didn’t go unnoticed; in September 2016 Amy and Kev finally made it to conference without a hitch and were crowned the winners of the RightStart Award for successfully building their business foundations.

“By that time, we were delivering 500 hours of care per week, and we were one of the fastest growing franchises, even after all the turbulence,” Amy says.

Fun employer

So, what led to this fast growth?

“Both of us working our butts off,” Amy says, laughing. “We didn’t have kids or other commitments at the time, and we just gave it our all. We were really passionate about making the business a success and we’d work all hours to make it happen.”

Amy adds: “We were in our late twenties to early thirties, and while other franchisees came into the business with savings, we didn’t, so we had to be quite frugal with our costs early on.”

This strong work ethic led RaH Solent to receive an Outstanding rating from the CQC following its first inspection in August 2018. And just one year later, Amy and Kev picked up the Franchisee of the Year and Customer Engagement accolades at the prestigious bfa Franchise Awards for their incredible business acumen and unwavering commitment to staff, Clients and the wider community.

“We started engaging with the community really early on,” Amy says. “We’d attend summer fetes and every single networking event related to our target customers, including groups supporting those living with dementia.”

Amy and Kev also built a reputation for being a fun employer, enabling them to stand out from other care providers in the area.

“I think that’s another thing that led to our early growth - we were working really hard, but we were having fun doing it,” Amy explains.

Kev adds: “You’re allowed to have a good time when changing lives – it doesn’t need to be drab and serious the whole time. The Clients love it too – we run themed coffee clubs for Valentine’s Day and Halloween and people dress up and have a laugh the whole time. It’s awesome.”

“We take Halloween very seriously,” Amy says proudly. “The whole office looks like a dungeon in October and the Clients and CareGivers love it.”

Family life

By the end of 2019, Amy and Kev had worked solidly to make their business a success, and it was time to address their work-life balance.

Amy explains: “We were entering the COVID-19 pandemic, and we were so tired after three to four years of doing everything ourselves.”

Kev agrees, adding: “We were still on call at the weekends and doing care assessments, and it wasn’t sustainable. We’d also had our first child by that point.

“That’s when Amy came into her own in terms of managing people. She has a really good way with people and supporting them to run the business. It’s so tempting to just do the work yourself if something isn’t happening quickly enough, but you have to let go.”

The Franchise Owners believe that the pandemic helped them understand that the business would continue to run if they were out of the office.

Amy says: “The franchise was quite stable in terms of the number of hours we were delivering, and everybody was working from home. So, we thought ‘actually, we don’t need to be there for this to be successful’.

“We deflated our egos, and, with that, the team got a little more space to manage the business.”

This change of strategy has also allowed Amy and Kev to spend more time with their children, now aged seven and three.

Kev says: “Everyone told us that you don’t want to miss those moments when the children are young and I feel like we’ve really embraced parenthood. We spend a really good amount of time with our kids, and that’s been really important.”

Room for improvement

In 2023, RaH Solent became the first homecare provider in England to be assessed under the Care Quality Commission’s Single Assessment Framework, a new methodology for inspecting care services.

RaH UK’s Head of Quality and Compliance, Lynette Walker, supported the franchise throughout the three-month process, interpreting information cascaded by the CQC and preparing the team for inspection by gathering evidence on high-quality care provision. The franchise was rated Outstanding for a second time in December. 

“The new scheme didn’t run as smoothly as we would have liked, so having Lynette there to support us was fantastic,” Kev says.

The inspection also made the owners realise that a change in strategy was needed to further strengthen the quality of their services.

“We found a few issues that we had to go in and sort out, in order to retain our Outstanding rating,” explains Amy.  

Since the inspection, they have refreshed their processes and redefined clear team roles and responsibilities - a move which led to a five established members of staff moving on from the business.

These changes, Amy reflects, were much needed. “Although it’s been hard, there is a stark difference in the new team we’ve recruited. Everyone is engaged, happy and we have recovered a loss of 200 hours in the last six weeks due to the team being motivated - and long-standing members of the team agree they are all in a better place now. Sometimes you need to make tough calls to maintain quality.”

Business with heart

Despite all the ups and downs of running a homecare franchise, Amy and Kev still continue to love what they do, and they thank Right at Home, particularly Founder and Chairman Ken Deary, for the continued support throughout their franchise journey.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for Right at Home. The second person we called after we completed on our house was Ken,” Kev says.

Amy adds: “Our kids are in a good school, we live in a nice house and we’re doing a job we love, so it’s ticked all of our boxes. We have no regrets at all and won’t forget the people that got us here.”

Asked what advice the Franchise Owners would give to other entrepreneurs considering entering the care sector, Amy says: “If you’re looking to make a quick buck, then this is not the industry to do it in. The most successful people in this business genuinely do care and want to make a difference, so you have to be passionate.  

“The other thing is that you can’t be afraid to work hard and roll your sleeves up.

"It’s not an easy industry to work in and it can be very stressful, but I’d rather be doing this than sitting in an office job and selling insurance. There’s heart in the work we do.”

To discover how Right at Home can support you in a homecare business venture, call Kate or Chrissie on 0151 305 0770 or email franchising@rightathome.co.uk