Four common mistakes Nursing Agencies need to avoid
Hi. I am Attila. I am the founder of www.agencycarestaff.co.uk which is a business designed to help people start their own healthcare recruitment agency or domiciliary care. Also, we are a business directory website for Nursing Agencies and Home Care Services in UK.
This article is based on my experience, after I helped over 200 people set up their own care business. I will cover four common mistakes nursing agencies need to avoid.
This article is not about criticising anybody. I respect everything you do, I know exactly how hard it is to work in care. I know all the challenges of getting clients and recruiting good staff.
This is about helping you improve your business. If you want to start a Nursing Agency or a Home Care Service or you have such a business but you struggle, first, please make sure you are not making the mistakes I will mention in this article.
Because of my website and because of what I do I’ve seen hundreds of nursing agencies. Some of them are brilliant, nothing you could fault, and they are doing well. This article is not about them. Well done to them. Looks like they are aware of how important these aspects of their business are. This is for those that had the courage to start a care business yet struggle to find clients and grow.
They say the same things:
1) “I can’t get contracts”
2) “I can’t find staff to work for me”
These are the main problems they are facing.
I will tell you what these four mistakes are but also I will tell you how to fix them.
I’ve noticed that those that struggle are making at least one of the four mistakes. I genuinely believe that if they would fix these four elements of their business, a lot of Nursing Agencies will have better success.
1) Mistake number one: an unprofessional logo
As silly it may sound, the logo is very important these days. Yes, the logo is one of the elements people judge your business on. People skip businesses that have an unprofessional logo. Your logo must be simple yet express what your business does.
Examples of bad logos where it is either too much information or bad graphic and colours:
Examples of professional logos, clean, simple, good graphic and colours:
To help you fix this issue please go on YouTube and do some research. Type in “how to design a professional logo”, “how should a professional logo look like”. If you are not very technical to design your logo, ask around, maybe your friends can do it for you, or maybe they know someone who can help. If you still struggle, I’ll help you. Just get in touch.
2) Mistake number two: an unprofessional website
Example of a bad website design:
I’m guilty as well for this one. When I started building www.agencycarestaff.co.uk it looked absolutely ridiculous (not as bad as the example though :)) ). In the same time I was trying to convince other businesses to join my website (that was hard!).
Things improved after I invested in my skills. I paid for a full day, one to one session with a marketing expert. This was my best decision ever. It opened my eyes. For this reason, I find it easier to get more businesses on my website. Please invest in your website! Please make sure it looks professional! If it doesn’t, don’t expect people to want to work with you, or for you.
To fix this, go on YouTube and type in “examples of professional websites”. Have a look at how a modern website looks like. Today YouTube is the best source of information. You could also study your competition. See how their websites look like. Nothing wrong with that. I actually advise you to study your competition.
Again, ask around. Ask your friends if they can help you or to recommend you a good website designer. A freelancer will build a website for £1,000-£2,000. A professional web design agency will do it for £2,000-£5,000.
Agency Care Staff can build you a professional website at a very reasonable price. Plus we have a good knowledge about the healthcare industry.
3) Mistake number three: inexperienced staff
Imagine that your Nursing Agency is a gun and your staff are the bullets. Deploying inexperienced, unskilled staff is like shooting with peas instead of bullets. You will never hit your target. None of the clients will work with you again if you are deploying care assistants that don’t have basic knowledge about manual handling, safeguarding and abuse, food hygiene, customer service and so on. The news travel fast and if you have a bad reputation you might as well close the business.
To fix this, be careful when you interview staff. It is better to have 10 good staff in spite of 70 inexperienced. Start small but well. If you supply good staff to a care setting they will continue working with you plus they will recommend you to other clients. Same happens with home care services. Your clients will recommend you if they are satisfied with your staff. This way you will grow a successful care business.
4) Mistake number four: no social media presence
Because of their big network some care businesses don’t rely on social media at all. They are well established and they get constant recommendations. Perhaps they have good staff and nobody cares about their logo or website. Well done for those. However, for a new care business or for one that has to make an impact, in order to get contracts it is important to get all these four things right.
OK, let’s say you started your Nursing Agency. You have a few close friends or family members involved.
In the same time you asked around for clients, you sent emails, you made phone calls without any results
What do you do?! You have to put yourself out there! You have to let people know that you exist. Expand your network fast. How do you do that? Social media is a great way of making people know about your services. I recommend LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. If you are not yet familiar with these platforms please learn immediately how to use them. Just be extremely careful what and how you post there. Master these platforms. Use your brand colours in your posts (important). Go to www.canva.com to design your posts. It is free.
Same as with the logo and website: have a look at your strongest competition and see what they are posting on their social media. See how they are using their brand colours. Go on YouTube and type in “how to make your social media look professional”. Watch videos and learn how to personalise your post with your brand colours. I am keep mentioning YouTube indeed as it is a great source of knowledge.
Just to let you know, 99% of the businesses listed on www.agencycarestaff.co.uk were found on social media (Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook).
A few other important things that will make a difference in this type of business:
- communication skills
- your vibe
- your people skills
- business skills
I hope this article helps. Send me an email if you have any question or if I missed something. Have a lovely day. Never give up, always improve.
