Health Care Companies for Sale
Axis are specialist business brokers with a wide range of health care companies for sale throughout the UK. At the time of writing we currently have health care companies for sale in East Anglia, West Sussex, South West, Midlands, Essex, Shropshire, North West, London, Devon, Cornwall, Surrey Hampshire, Suffolk, Lancashire and Cambridgeshire.
The type of health care companies for sale varies widely and includes residential care homes, domiciliary care agencies and nursing agencies. It also includes more niche businesses, for instance private ambulance services, supported living agencies, care for specific conditions such as dementia or mental illness, medical locums and adult learning care homes.
Some of these businesses are franchises, while others are independent.
Click here to view our current selection of Health Care Companies For Sale.
Here is a short overview of the main types of health care companies for sale.
Residential Care Homes for Sale
Residential care homes provide care for a number of people – typically from 5 to 100 people – under one roof. Residential care homes are usually targeted towards a particular segment of the population. This can be by age (e.g. elderly) or by condition (e.g. learning disability, physical disability, dementia or mental illness).
The ideal owner of a residential care home will typically be someone with previous experience of caring for the target groups, e.g. geriatric nursing, psychiatric nursing and so on. Alternatively, private care homes may be acquired by larger chains, as a way of growing their business, leaving existing care home managers in place.
Buying a residential care home usually also involves taking over responsibility for the physical premises (freehold, leasehold or rented) including maintenance and upkeep.
Domiciliary Care Agencies for Sale
A Domiciliary Care Agency (Dom Care) supplies carers to individuals in their own home to assist with personal and daily activities, this can be from 15mins a day up to 24/7 care. The carers are employed directly by the agency, and the service users are obtained via social services, privately, and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).
There are usually no premises involved in buying this type of business, although there may be rented office space.
There is less requirement for an owner to be technically qualified as a carer themselves since their main job is to recruit and organise carers who are qualified. However, some relevant background is useful as it allows for better supervision of care standards.
Live In Care Agencies for Sale
Live-in care is a particular type of domiciliary care, and provides 24/7 care for an individual in the own home. This means an individual will have a carer or carers specifically employed to physically live with them. Some agencies do this on a 2 week on 2 week off rota system to give the carers a break or some variety. Other agencies have a single carer living with a client for up to 6 months before changing to a different carer, and the employee will have 1 day off a week. The idea behind this is for the service user to have minimal change to who lives with them so that they can feel comfortable with the person who is caring for them.
Nursing Agencies for Sale
A nursing agency supplies qualified nursing staff on a temporary or contract basis to private individuals, hospitals, care homes or other institutions. As owner you will be responsible for recruiting and checking qualifications and matching agency staff to assignments. Very often the work will have similar elements to domiciliary care or live in care, but with a particular medical requirement e.g. administration of drugs or other medical procedures.
The level of responsibility is much greater than for general domiciliary care, since failure to provide nursing staff can have significant health implications.
The ability to recruit and retain a reliable bank of staff is therefore the primary determinant of success, and the presence or absence of such a workforce should be ascertained by the buyer prior to purchase.
Health Care Franchise Opportunities for Sale
For those with the right technical background and managerial ability, but little cash to invest, a health care franchise offers a way to become a business owner.
A franchise is a company which has an agreement with the franchisor to trade in a specific geographical area using the franchise name and branding. This is of benefit to the franchisee as they can instantly use a name which is known and allows them to get work quickly.
The downside is that the franchisee will need to pay an initial startup fee, followed by a share of the turnover and/or profits, for the life of the franchise which can be for as much as 10 years. But if the business is successful, the franchisee can still see significant profits for themselves which they can potentially take forward to a future business.
Running a health care franchise can also provide the technical and managerial experience needed to own an independent business later on.
Click here to view our current selection of Health Care Companies For Sale or click here to register your requirements with Axis.