Customer success story: Chisholm Community Health Care

Nicole Wilson, Founder of Chisholm Community Health Care in Maitland, NSW, has always been determined to go above and beyond for the needs of her clients. A Prospa Small Business Loan helped her overcome the challenges of small business growth and reach those who need her most.

A new community offering based on real experience

Nicole has a wealth of experience in the support-services industry. From years spent as an aged care, personal care and disability support worker, she knows the sector back to front, and has an unwavering passion for providing quality care to her clients while empowering them to be the best they can be.

It was this unwavering passion, and a belief in doing things better, which led Nicole to form Chisholm Community Health Care in 2017, to offer transport services, social support, domestic assistance and personal care to those in need.

“I started the business after working in group homes, and after witnessing how providers interacted with participants out in the community I really wanted to implement some changes,” she says.

Community care is a crowded and complex sector, however Nicole’s passion – underlined by the Chisholm motto of ‘ability without limits’ – is what sets the business apart.

The real growth challenges for a small business

With such a comprehensive service offering, word quickly spread about Chisholm Community Health Care. With that word-of-mouth came more business, which required more staff.

Quickly employing 13 support workers and servicing around 50 clients, Nicole found herself with a challenge; a challenge that faces every small business when they’re aiming for growth: keeping cash flow steady, and finding the funds to grow and service a wider pool of clients.

“For us to grow, we need to have the cash available to us to purchase things like wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and we also want to be in a position to implement day programs.

“Managing all of the day-to-day finances, while also investing in the things that will help us grow further, is a real challenge,” says Nicole.

Using a small business loan to expand operations

Her solution? To seek out finance from a lender who truly understands small businesses.

Not long after she decided to add wheelchair-accessible vehicles to her offering, Nicole applied for a small business loan with Prospa.

“I saw stories online about what Prospa had done for other business owners and I thought, ‘All right, I’ll give this a go and see if I can get some funds for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.’ And, I was approved!

“It was very quick, very easy. I just submitted my application online and then received a phone call where we ran through everything, including my financials. It was all pretty seamless.”

A Prospa Small Business Loan has helped Chisholm Community Health Care:

• Purchase a wheelchair-accessible vehicle and non-ambulant van to transport patients.
• Improve cash flow, so it could invest in the business to grow further.
• Expand its reach even further into the community.

Investing in a more supportive community-based future

With a new fleet of vehicles, Nicole and her team are now able to deliver their support services to a broader clientele in the wider community. But Nicole has no plans to rest on her laurels. Next, she wants Chisholm Community Health Care to have an on-site office space and a functional facility where clients can come for day programs, with a specialised sensory room for children.

“The sensory room would involve a lot of equipment and a lot of planning, because children have different sensory needs. Some might be sensory-seeking, others sensory-avoiding. So it’s a matter of building a space where they can grow and choose what sort of area they want to play in.”

For the foreseeable future, Nicole and her team will continue to do what they do best, whether that’s supporting people out in the community doing leisure activities, maintaining clients’ homes and gardens, or helping children thrive in their schooling environment.