How Franchising Can Be Profitable and Human – with Amrit Dhaliwal

Amrit Dhaliwalis the CEO and founder of Walfinch, one of the UK’s fastest-growing home care franchise networks. His journey into social care didn’t start in a boardroom but behind the counter of an Italian deli and inside a Mary Antoinette–style tea room he built from scratch. After studying economics and history, Amrit quickly realised corporate life wasn’t for him and threw himself into entrepreneurship, learning business the hard way through hospitality, long hours, and very little sleep.

A chance introduction to domiciliary care through his now-wife’s family led him into the care sector as a franchisee. There, he saw first-hand the inefficiencies of paper-based systems and outdated models. He built and sold his first care brand, then founded Walfinch to reimagine home care and franchising: tech-enabled, scalable, values-led, and built to empower “everyday” entrepreneurs to succeed.

Today, Amrit is focused on building a £100 million network across 100 locations, while reshaping how the UK thinks about aging. For him, care is not just about survival, but what he calls “time to thrive”, combining wellness, technology, and community so older adults can live better, not just longer.

About this Episode

In this energising episode of The Matrix Green Pill Podcast, host Hilmarie Hutchison talks with Amrit Dhaliwal about how he went from running an Italian deli and tea room to leading a national home care franchise network that’s redefining both aging and entrepreneurship.

Amrit shares the gritty early days of working multiple jobs, commuting long hours, sleeping four hours a night, and learning business by doing. He explains how becoming a care franchisee opened his eyes to serious gaps in the sector, from filing-cabinet systems to clunky franchising models, and how those frustrations became the blueprint for Walfinch.

Amrit also shares practical advice for business owners considering franchising their model: why you must treat “being a franchisor” as a different business, the importance of mentors who’ve actually done it, and how not to fall into the trap of chasing money instead of learning.

At its heart, this episode is about building businesses that care deeply and scale wisely, and about rebranding aging from something people endure to a stage of life where they truly have time to thrive.

Quotes

3:50 - My passion is very much with other entrepreneurs and really focused on trying to change how we think about aging in the UK and how we think about entrepreneurship within the social care space.

5:00 - We need to be more technology driven.

6:17 - Franchising is where you can get an average entrepreneur and make them successful. It's not just about getting the top-tier entrepreneurs and making them successful.

7:52 - I really pride myself on me and my team being able to sort of outwork people.

8:12 - There is no substitute for hard work.

9:11 - I'm all about resilience. I think there is no mindset that is more kind of useful than that.

10:01 - Having that growth mindset is very important, but actually really just being super, super resilient because actually business is really hard and you get knocked down on a regular basis, and the ability to stand up and go again is the ability to win.

15:07 - Having clear values is really important.

16:03 - Having awkward conversations regularly is important, making sure that you've got a clear set of values and vision and also people align in that vision and they understand those values.

24:07 - Don't chase money. Focus on learning, find a mentor, find a coach, and then keep finding the next one, and just keep learning from people that are ahead of you.

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