A Husband and Wife Team Going Above & Beyond in Their Business & Community

Husband and wife team Vicky and Paul Butler launched their Right at Home business on the Isle of Wight in 2021 and achieved an Outstanding CQC rating at their first inspection. Five years on, they have won multiple awards and built a strong reputation across the Island, and much of that has come from the time and commitment they have given to their local community.

“We still have our moments – they call it imposter syndrome,” says Paul. “We think ‘is this really us doing this?’, especially when we win awards.”

“We are quite blown away when we look back on the journey so far – there’s no way we could have achieved all this without a great franchise behind us,” adds Vicky.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant in the early noughties, Vicky Butler opened her own private practice in Portsmouth, before moving back to her native Isle of Wight to spend more time with her family. She then spent the next nine years working as head of finance for local automotive manufacturing companies. This is when she crossed paths with Paul, a former soldier in the Air Defence Troop of the Royal Artillery, who was working as an Operations Planner at the time.

Not long after they met, personal experiences made them re-evaluate their lives and make a bold move into the care sector.

“Paul’s dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and that was our first experience of care,” says Vicky. “Trying to find out, as a family, where to go [for support] was an absolute nightmare, but the main reason we re-evaluated things was that Paul’s dad worked so hard all his life and was diagnosed before he even reached retirement age. It just made us think that we want a bit more from life, rather than just working crazy hours.”

“We started looking into franchising as a whole, and then we naturally came to care. With our experience, it was the right fit, plus Right at Home was amazing, so it all fell into place,” Vicky explains.

Vicky and Paul are among the select few franchise owners in the care sector who have achieved Outstanding at their first inspection, less than 18 months into their new business.

Right at Home currently has 34% of its CQC-rated locations carrying an Outstanding rating, with a national average of just 3% across the homecare sector.

Vicky explains the secret to their success: “I think it’s not rushing growth. We took the time to get to know our Clients and our staff, and we didn’t employ just anybody for the sake of growth – we waited and employed the right people.”

That careful approach has continued to serve the business well as it has grown.

“We’re growing, we’ve got a great reputation and amazing staff, so we couldn’t ask for better,” says Vicky. “And because we’ve looked after the staff, they are happy to pick up extra shifts and support each other if they need time off.”

Listening to advice from Right at Home’s National Office was also key to the franchisees’ success.

Paul explains: “From very early on, we’ve crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s and made sure that we’re following the robust systems that National Office has put in place.”

Community engagement has played a central part in how Vicky and Paul have established their business, and it was something they were encouraged to prioritise from the very start.

“When we started our business, our New Owner Training and Business Support Manager really emphasised the difference it could make if we engaged with our local community, as well as building relationships with professionals within the care sector,” says Vicky.

Life on the Island has helped too, as Paul explains.

“I think living on the Isle of Wight and our location have definitely helped. There’s a common saying on the Island that everybody knows everybody – and everybody knows everyone’s business!” he says. “Initially, building awareness in our immediate area was relatively straightforward. We advertised in our local parish magazine and actually gained Clients quite quickly.”

Around nine months after opening, Vicky and Paul launched their first community event, the Dementia Afternoon Tea Club. It runs once a month and offers a safe, welcoming place where people living with dementia and their families can meet others in the same situation.

“That was when we really began to see the impact we could have within the community,” says Paul. “The Tea Club helped us start building genuine relationships with local people, businesses and potential Clients. People began coming to us because they knew us through the Tea Club, and those relationships have continued to grow from there.”

Since then, the couple have started a number of other community initiatives, and for the past three years they have employed a member of the team to focus specifically on events and community partnerships.

“These events have made a huge difference to awareness of our services across the local community, other businesses and the Isle of Wight NHS Trust,” says Vicky. “The two events we believe have made the biggest difference are our Community Christmas Day Meal and our Independent Living Show.”

Vicky and Paul are honest that there have been times when they have questioned whether all the time and effort they put into community engagement is really worth it.

“It’s true that we’ve questioned it – probably me more than Vicky!” says Paul. “When you look at your growth, it’s natural to wonder whether you would have been better putting all of that time and marketing effort directly into gaining more Clients and Carers. I guess I still question it from time to time.

“But what I do know is that we now have an incredible reputation within our community. We’ve built strong, trusted relationships with local businesses and healthcare professionals who come back to our Independent Living Show every year and recommend us to people looking for care. That kind of reputation and trust isn’t something you build overnight, and it’s difficult to put a value on it until you start seeing where those relationships lead.”

Those relationships have led to very tangible results for the business.

“After our first Community Christmas Day Meal, we saw a noticeable increase in Client enquiries, as well as an increase in referrals from existing Clients,” says Vicky. “We’ve also taken on five Clients who originally came along to our Dementia Afternoon Tea Club.”

The Independent Living Show also brought the business to the attention of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, which has since attended a couple of the shows.

“We are now the care company they contact for private discharge packages in our area, and I’m aware of at least seven care packages that have come to us through that relationship,” Vicky explains. “So while community engagement doesn’t always give you an immediate return, we’ve seen very tangible results from the relationships and reputation we’ve built over time.”

There is sometimes a perception that community engagement doesn’t work, because attending an event or networking meeting doesn’t immediately lead to a new Client. Paul sees it differently.

“Community engagement isn’t about getting an immediate result. If you want people to trust you, and you want Right at Home to be the first care company that comes to mind when somebody needs support, you need to have built that trust before they need you,” he says.

“Someone you meet today might not need your services now, but when they or somebody they love does need care, you want to be the first company they think of and the first one they call. It also builds trust when people first start researching care. If they look at our website or Facebook page, they can see that we genuinely care about the wider community, not just our own Clients.”

For franchise owners who want to build a stronger presence in their own community, Paul’s advice is to start small and to commit for the long term.

“Start small with an idea, but be prepared for it to grow and change over time. I’d also say: don’t start something if you’re not prepared to still be doing it in years to come. People who attend community groups and initiatives value consistency and reliability. They need to know you’re going to keep turning up.”

He is also clear that the time involved should never be underestimated, and that it varies a great deal from one initiative to another.

“Our Dementia Afternoon Tea Club is relatively straightforward to organise. Most of the commitment is our time each month to set up the hall, look after everyone while they’re there and clear everything away afterwards,” Paul explains. “The Independent Living Show is completely different. It involves months of preparation and organisation and requires a member of our team to dedicate a significant amount of their time to it.

“Community events can be stressful and time-consuming, but there’s a huge sense of pride when you see so many happy people attending and realise what you’ve created for your community. That makes all the hard work worthwhile.”