CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 3 2024 26 Franchising Home Healthcare for the Greater Good A desire to shake up the home care industry and recruit like-minded people to the cause is what drives Most Influential CEO 2024 - London (Home Healthcare) awardee Amrit Dhaliwal, a former franchisee within the care sector, who noted the changes that needed to be made in a “rather archaic and innovationresistant” system. Amrit founded Walfinch on the back of this in order to do things differently. Bolstered by a system of franchising and paperless technology, Walfinch is the ultimate care home alternative, offering a series of home care, live-in care, and specialist care. Amrit tells us more about the company and what his CEO journey has entailed. Seven years after his journey in the sector began, Amrit Dhaliwal established Walfinch to be a home healthcare business that empowers individuals to make a community-wide difference while also earning a good income. With 30 franchisees now in tow, Amrit has created a system that brings caring, entrepreneurial, and businessminded individuals from an array of backgrounds into the sector. Built on the values of integrity, excellence, teamwork, and fun, Amrit and the team aim to craft excellence throughout their services, something that begins with passing “The Mum Test”, which is providing the calibre of care one would expect for their own mother. What causes Walfinch to truly stand out in an industry filled with old-school care providers is its utilising of social media, underpinning the company’s innovation in helping the business come to life and thrive in a modern setting. This all begins with Amrit, who describes his role as being, “about vision and leadership; steering the overall direction of the business.” Across his duties, Amrit recognises the importance of making decisions swiftly and effectively, sound in the knowledge that indecision is one of the biggest factors in killing a business. By separating himself from the business, Amrit can do what is best for it, and not just himself. This entrepreneurial drive is something innate in Amrit, and as he describes, “I always wanted a business, and soon after I got my economics and history degree, I set up a food business, then a restaurant.” While both of these ventures were greeted with success and numerous awards, they were merely stepping stones for Amrit’s more long-term goal, to create a business that, “was not just about making money but about solving a large-scale societal problem.” Through Walfinch, Amrit is more than achieving this, providing care on a national scale from Scotland down to Brighton and everywhere in between. Having been a business owner since he was just 22 years old, Amrit has spent the last 15 years honing his leadership skills, going from having the biggest ego in the room to becoming a servant leader. Inspired by the works of Jim Collins (Beyond Leadership), Gino Whitman (Traction), and John Maxwell (The Five Levels of Leadership), Amrit has come to realise the knock-on effect that leading people to attaining their own personal career goals can have on the wider business, fortifying it and filling it with employees who are motivated and happy in their roles. Staff are integral to the success of care businesses since the task of delivering the highest quality services rests firmly on their shoulders. To this end, Amrit believes in treating his employees well so that they will show similar to clients, and the internal culture at the company is one that prizes fun, openness, and honesty. Always one to take the ideas of others onboard, Amrit welcomes suggestions and even criticism, as this allows him to work better. He explains, “as a business owner and leader, everything you say or do can have a lasting effect on staff, franchisees, and clients - yet you must be decisive to stay nimble and reap rewards.” Decisiveness is one such quality that will stand the company in good stead as it navigates the plethora of opportunities and challenges that the present and future hold, beginning with solving issues around staff shortages, something that is being remedied at Walfinch through a system of excellent technical solutions and incentivised recruitment policies. The launching of Walfinch Accounting and Walfinch Marketing are set to drive further growth, with the team seeking to grow their locations and revenue by 30% in the next year. Amrit is also soon to launch a book, but aside from this, his plans for the coming years involve taking Walfinch international, an endeavour we wish him the best of luck with. Contact: Amrit Dhaliwal Company: Walfinch Web Address: https:// walfinchfranchising.com/ Jan24245
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