From finance to home care

After 15 years working within the finance department at petrochemicals blue chip Shell, Dave Bellis found himself facing redundancy in 2016.

With a lifetime of working for other people in various finance roles, he decided his redundancy presented him with the perfect opportunity to start his own accountancy-based business.

However, after a busy day meeting with multiple finance franchises at The National Franchise Exhibition in 2017, Dave wandered past Radfield Home Care and, with personal experience of the industry, stopped for a chat.

Family values

He explains: “My parents have been in care for a number of years, so I have been heavily involved with sourcing home care providers and had a reasonable understanding of how the industry operated.
“As a family, we have always liked to give back too. My father was a doctor, my mother was a nurse and my brother is a dentist, so health care has always run through my family.

“After meeting Radfield at the show, their family values came through and something just seemed to fit. As a result, I ended up making my mind up on the motorway back home - Radfield Home Care was the franchise for me.”

Dave’s dynamic mix of professional finance and business experience, twinned with personal experience of the care sector, has enabled him to relate with the characteristics of a well led, high quality home care service, while successfully managing the day to day running of the business.

“Being an accountant helps me keep an eye on the figures and keep organised,” Dave says.

“While I’m sure more of a professional health care background wouldn’t do any harm, sometimes it’s good to have a different viewpoint on things and do things differently in a way which you may not have thought of if you came from the sector.”

Franchisee support

No matter your background though, Radfield Home Care’s franchise team is in place to step in and help support its franchise partners in all areas of the business.

“The support structure has most certainly helped me,” Dave says. “I was one of Radfield’s first franchise partners, so I have watched the support network grow.

“From day one, I had the support and hand holding to help me grow through my first months of trading and I have my dedicated franchise support manager who is continuing to support me to grow and overcome challenges that any new business will face - from a health care, HR and business management perspective.

“I have been very happy with the support I have received. There is always someone at the end of the telephone and they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty and support me with running the business.

“I owe everything to Radfield for this opportunity. I could not have started this on my own. Well, I could have done, but I would have failed.”