Selby Ventures: Compassion the key to expansion

Director of NLCCA, Shaafici Essa

How North London Community Care Agency developed a new operating model, marketing strategy and plan for growth with expert consultancy from Selby Ventures.  

Director Shaafici Essa explains…

“North London Community Care Agency (NLCCA) provides care for adults and younger people in their homes across north London. Our business is rooted in the community and built on very clear principles of compassion, care and kindness.  

Our long-term goal is to change everyone’s life for the better – our clients, our team and our community – that’s why we do what we do. But to maximise our impact, it’s important we grow the business to be sustainable and profitable. The support we’ve received from Selby Ventures was a total revelation and has accelerated our plans and focus.  

NLCCA team member

A comprehensive facelift 

Working with Michael was exactly what we needed, and we could step back to scrutinise the business and how we’ve been operating. 

Previously, the other directors and I were spending hours and hours each week supporting our staff and people in our community. We provide advice on housing, benefits, social care and transport matters – all for free, and that’s important for us.  

We see our compassion and kindness as our strength, but for the business and our impact in the community to be sustainable, we need to focus more of our time on growing the business and profitability.   

NLCCA team photo

With support and guidance from Selby Ventures, we’ve: 

• registered a new community interest company (CIC) to deliver our community and advice services 

• worked hard on our numbers to better understand our financial position and performance 

• created a plan for growth which centres on acquiring more private clients 

• and developed a new marketing and communications plan to build our brand and awareness.  

NLCCA team members undertaking hoist training

Plan for growth 

We’re confident and excited for the future. We have a team of experts behind us who understand our business and purpose, and the recommendations we’re implementing will transform NLCCA and the impact we have in our community.  

We’re focussing on recruiting a more diverse staff team that reflects our wider community. We’ve already improved retention levels and been able to increase our training offer for our care team. 

Michael’s been our go-to-guy, he’s helped us to explore AI and investments in technology and digital tools that will make our processes and reporting more efficient and provide greater assurance to our clients.  

We were also introduced to a marketing and communications consultant with care sector expertise.  

Shaafici with Sarah

Sarah worked with us to assess the market and our competitors, and to audit our existing marketing, comms and messaging. She’s made recommendations on our brand, positioning and how to reach new customers, and we’re now finalising a new marketing and comms strategy that will help us to reach and win new customers.  I feel confident in delivering the plan because I’ve been involved at every stage and understand the principles at play. 

Ripple effects 

We’re targeting growth of 10-30% by the end of 2026 and on track to achieve this.  

We have over a hundred people as part of our care team, and as our business grows, we’ll be able to offer our team more work and recruit more people.  So, the ripple effect of the support we’ve had from Selby Ventures is huge. We’re going to achieve growth not just for our business, but for everyone who is part of it and that will allow us to deliver more quality care for more local customers.  

As a small business we never imagined we’d be able to access this level of expertise and advice. Our experience with Selby Ventures has rejuvenated us, and we’re enjoying putting everything we’ve learnt into practice. Now we can see the future of NLCCA very clearly, because we can see and understand the plan we’ll follow to get there.“ 

NLCCA team out in the community