Common Questions About Opening a Home Care Business or Franchise

Thanks in no small part to an increasing amount of digital technologies, more and more seniors are choosing to age in place — in other words, choosing to live in one’s home as they go in and beyond their golden years. New technologies have enabled more seniors to be more self-sufficient, however, it also means an increase in the demand of home health care services to bolster senior needs. This makes now a great time for entrepreneurs to invest in and become a part of the home care industry. It also means that there are a lot of questions newcomers to the industry have, like the following:

Is experience in the healthcare or senior home care industry a necessity to open a home care franchise?

Absolutely not. While with any business having a passion in the area you’re looking to invest in is important, it’s not necessary to have direct experience. However, it is very helpful for those considering opening a franchise or starting a business to have some leadership or management experience. Such experience helps you lead and manage the employees who do have the experience necessary to make a home care business succeed.

How do I find and hire the right people for my senior home care business?

Finding experienced and high-quality caregivers is one of the first and arguably most important tasks you’ll take on as a home care franchise owner. For franchisees, the parent company will often assist you in this department and may even have a starting list of applicants who are in your area. When researching this or taking in open applicants, it’s important to be thorough and find candidates who have the training and experience to exceed state and local standard for caregivers. When you start out, you want to be the best and this begins with hiring the best.

What’s the benefit of going with a franchise rather than beginning my own independent company?

With a franchise home health care company, the investment and royalty fees may seem cumbersome but most franchisees find the benefits well worth it. Franchisees enjoy key business assets like marketing assistance, legal aid, and recruitment assistance — invaluable ongoing support that can take your business to the next level.

Considering a Senior Care Franchise?

When you join our group of dynamic business owners, as franchisees of A Place at Home, you’ll have strong support, thorough training and valuable business resources to help you succeed. Contact us to learn more.

Senior Care’s Growing Demand

Today, 10,000 baby boomers are reaching retirement age every single day. Add to this number the fact that we’re living longer, and the growing desire for seniors to age in place, and you have the recipe for a growing business opportunity.

The home healthcare industry is growing by leaps and bounds every year. If you’re looking for a business opportunity that has a built-in growth factor in the coming years a home healthcare franchise offers excellent opportunities.

The Growing Market For Home Healthcare

A  home healthcare franchise offers a unique opportunity to enter this fast-growing sector and give back to your community. Here a quick look at some of the benefits home healthcare offers.

As more baby boomers enter retirement every day, home healthcare spending is projected to outpace all other types of health care. According to Grand View Research, the market for home healthcare is expected to grow 7.8% a year for the foreseeable future, reaching a value of $517.23 billion by 2025. Demand is growing strongly thanks to benefits like improved patient outcome, elimination of unnecessary hospitalization, improved patient outcomes, and cost efficiency. It also offers patients, who choose to age in place, excellent care in their preferred setting.

A Lower Entry Point

If you’re looking for a franchise opportunity, home healthcare is a great choice. It can cost $500,000 or more to open a fast-food franchise. Most home healthcare franchises cast $150,000 or less to start. This investment includes and is primarily used for hiring, marketing, recruiting and training staff, and for office space.

High Demand = High Revenue

For a relatively low investment, a home healthcare franchise can be a revenue generator, once you’ve ramped up your operation by making connections with key referrers like social workers, and elder-law attorneys. Home Care Plus, an industry research firm found that the median income for a home healthcare franchise is close to $2 million annually. Home Care Plus also found those franchise operators brought in much more than independent operators.

Help With Compliance

Independent healthcare operators are struggling to stay ahead of changes in local, state and federal laws. Insurance to cover worker activities in clients’ homes is another challenging area. Franchises are well known to insurers, and that can help franchisees when it comes to obtaining insurance. As for HIPAA compliance and other regulations, Most franchises offer help to their franchise owners when it comes to understanding compliance and systematizing record keeping.

A home healthcare franchise is a great way to enter into a growing market with a proven business model and the business support you need to succeed. Beyond that, a healthcare franchise is an excellent way to give back to your community and offer help to people who have entered their golden years and their families.

Make A Difference With A Place at Home

A Place at Home is a franchise that is poised to deliver. They offer franchisees help throughout the process, from working with you to find and negotiate the perfect office space and assisting franchisees to cut through the healthcare red-tape, to providing marketing materials and strategies. One of the significant benefits of buying into a franchise is that the business model has been proven. With A Place at Home, you are buying into a franchise that not only has an established model; they help you with every step including offering training assistance, marketing, and helping owners/operators to make a difference in their communities.

A Place at Home Macomb franchisee Melissa Shevela says the opportunity to create a positive impact on her community is the most rewarding part of being in the home healthcare business. “We have an opportunity to make things better for other people’s loved ones. Seniors deserve respect, compassion, and high-quality care during their golden years. A Place at Home emphasizes high-quality caregiving and on ensuring seniors can thrive in a safe, happy environment,” Shevela said.

If you’re considering a franchise in the fast growing home healthcare industry, give A Place at Home a call. We offer our partners support with every stage of the start-up process including marketing support, training, and a proven business model. You’ll not only grow your business, but you’ll also be giving back to your community by providing high-quality care and support to your clients and their loved ones. A Place at Home is one home health care business that gives it’s franchisees a chance to do well while doing good.

Find the Right Suppliers to Help Expand Your Brand

Excerpt from the October Issue of Franchising World:

A successful business depends in part on selecting the best cast of cohorts for your brand.

It takes a village to run a franchise brand, yet many emerging franchisors run a lean operation. A Place at Home is one of those franchisors. Every department and division relies on numerous suppliers. Doing everything internally is nearly impossible, which is why it’s important to rely on these third-party partners. Currently, we work with more than 40 suppliers who support our business through payroll services, scheduling, training, digital marketing and advertising, legal, accounting, CRM, and the list continues to grow.

There are so many options for suppliers and it can be a very time-consuming process to narrow them down. It’s certainly been a learning process since co-founder Dustin Distefano and I established A place at Home six years ago, but today we’re incredibly confident in the dozens of strong supplier partnerships we’ve established. Here we’ve identified some best practices emerging franchisors can use to help in their search for top-flight suppliers.

Explore Options

The biggest supplier isn’t always the best one. Always look at more than one option to ensure the product or service you are considering is competitive and fully meets your needs. Ask to speak with one or more of the company’s current customers. If this is not an option, ask for data on a client whose business is similar to yours.

Find Great Partners

Simply being able to execute what you hire them for shouldn’t be your only criteria. Vet companies that have franchise knowledge, an ability to scale as you grow, outstanding customer support, the ability to talk with a live person to get questions answered, competitive pricing, and specific experience in your industry. Also, suppliers who offer discounted pricing to franchisees increases its value to a franchisor.

For us, it was important to find suppliers that had a history working with franchise companies, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. Every supplier starts somewhere. Suppliers that have a proven track record working with multiple locations, even if not franchises, are essential.

Seek Recommendations

Other franchisors or IFA recommended many of the suppliers we use. Lean on your network to help identify and evaluate potential suppliers. Our experience with the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition also proved beneficial. During a round table discussion with one of the NextGen advisers, we received some great counsel. But the advice that really stuck took place during a special session with the former CEO of Great Clips, who said his longest-lasting relationship and most valuable supplier resulted from a handshake and never anything more than that.

Consider Goals & Evaluate

One thing that was non-negotiable as we were vetting suppliers was their ability to help A Place at Home grow nationwide. Coast-to-coast growth is crucial to complete our mission. As of July 2018, we had four franchisees operating in Colorado, California, Michigan and Oregon, and our supplier partners have been instrumental in helping us scale.

Even after you have selected your suppliers, your work is not complete. It is important to collaborate with these partners and your franchisees to ensure that the product or service they are providing is consistent and in line with the expectations that were set forth. If a supplier is falling short of these expectations, within reason, give them a chance to make it right. If their performance proves to be inadequate, part ways. There are many other suppliers that want your business and far bigger concerns than under-performing partners.

Going Back to Mission, Values

Whether deciding on awarding a franchise, hiring an employee or even selecting your supplier partners, it’s important that the supplier shares your brand’s core values. Partner with individuals and companies that align with these values, and you will grow and succeed the right way.

Considering a Senior Care Franchise?

When you join our group of dynamic business owners, as franchisees of A Place at Home, you’ll have strong support, thorough training and valuable business resources to help you succeed. Contact us to learn more.

A Place at Home: Our Story

Excerpt from the October Issue of Franchise Dictionary Magazine:

SOMETIMES BRILLIANT IDEAS COME OUT OF AN EVERYDAY CONVERSATION. 

That’s exactly what happened when Jerod Evanich and his childhood friend, Dustin Distefano, discussed life one day over lunch. “We found ourselves talking about the troubles our families were having with our grandparents and great grandparents,” Evanich says.

Before long, the friends were looking for solutions for families and talked about launching a business. “We wanted to create a company that could provide services that we would be proud to offer our family and community. In-home care became a clear choice,” he says.

In August 2012, the pair launched A Place at Home. “Our mission is to be passionate professionals, who provide compassionate care solutions where and when you need it. We continued to focus on creating services that were centered around seniors and helped them transition through the aging process,” Evanich says.

A senior-focused care company, A Place at Home has a model that is centered on using RNs to coordinate clients’ plan of care and certified professionals to administer the care. In-home care services, including companion, personal, and medication services are available.

“We also offer care coordination services that help seniors navigate the medical industry; from accompanying doctors visits, to creating healthcare portfolios, or even coordinating their other healthcare providers and ancillary services. Our Senior Living Alternatives service helps those who can no longer stay at home find the best senior living option,” Evanich says. “We spent more than two years perfecting our model and learning the franchising industry before jumping in.”

“Franchisees should get out in their local community to bring awareness to their services. That is the key to success. Hiring and retaining compassionate and reliable employees is crucial. That is the core of the business,” Evanich says. “Franchise partners have the ability to make of it what they put into it. The can create something bigger than themselves and something that will make a positive impact on their community.”

Considering a Senior Care Franchise?

When you join our group of dynamic business owners, as franchisees of A Place at Home, you’ll have strong support, thorough training and valuable business resources to help you succeed. Contact us to learn more.

A Place at Home Service Lines Assist Seniors in Streamlining Care

Senior care businesses are some of the best franchises to open and own—for one simple reason. We’re all aging and we all have aging loved ones. Right now, the large Baby Boom generation is beginning to rely on A Place at Home senior services, and the market will grow from 56M seniors to 84M in a 30 year span. In addition, owning such a franchise can fulfill a desire to help your community. These are great upsides, but you can’t count on “just any” run-of-the-mill senior care franchise to flourish. The best franchises to open will make themselves market leaders. Make your franchise choice wisely, by looking at what sets the best senior care franchises apart.

Avoid Limited Scope Franchises that Don’t Cover Seniors’ Needs

The problem with most senior care franchises is their narrow focus. If you invest in purchasing one of the very narrowly-specialized senior care franchises (those that only do non-medical, in-home or companion care, for example) your group of potential customers is very limited. A narrow, limited scope franchise in today’s highly competitive market may not stand out.  “One-size fits all” single-service franchises are not the most effective for senior care. Most seniors need a custom solution, with services tailored to their current needs and future plans–that’s exactly what A Place at Home franchises offer: more diversity amongst service lines, with phenomenal franchisee training in how to streamline the services.

The Best Franchise to Open: Full-Service and Customized Senior Care

We created our A Place At Home franchise around multiple lines of service. This answers the great, unmet need in the marketplace. Seniors, and their busy caregiving family members, need a customized care solution. Our franchise owners can offer packages of services, unique to each senior’s individual situation. Our full-service franchise offers seniors a trusted and convenient, one-stop place to get an accurate assessment of their needs. Then, our senior care coordinators arrange for, and connect them with, all the care they need now, and outline a plan for future needs from our suite of senior care services.

Invest in Full-Service Senior Focused Care Franchise – A Place at Home

A Place at Home stands out from all the other, single-focus “home care” franchises. With our 4 lines of services, our franchisees can create customized plans to meet each senior’s needs. We are flexible and multi-faceted, in contrast to typical, single-service franchises. With the single service franchises they are forced to recommend other companies to do what A Place at Home can do for the senior. This does two things: 1) you just gave away the revenue and 2) the most important, you just introduced another provider to the client. Our goal is to streamline the aging process by decluttering the amount of providers and manage the situation for them, thus creating a superior service for the senior population.

Their Criticism is Our Source of Pride

Our competition has said, “A Place at Home offers too much! We (the competitor) focus on one service, home care, and do really great at it.” Our rebuttal is this “A Place at Home focuses on one service as well: fulfilling the needs of each senior client and family. We focus on the whole person, providing the best option(s) for each unique senior and situation. Our wide-ranging, custom senior care program drawn from 4 lines of service, provides superior options for seniors–and multiple revenue streams for our franchise owners.

A Place at Home: We’re Better Because We’re Different

In a saturated senior care market, we are proud to offer something truly outstanding. What sets us apart is our deep understanding of the continuum of care a senior may require. This innovative mindset makes us a winning franchise–that will outlast all the rest. Our senior-focused care model takes senior services to a higher level than other franchises in the senior care space.

“A Place At Home franchises offer an innovative, client-centered, full service model. We’re not focused solely on keeping people at home, nor do we emphasize assisted living placement. We’re committed to the best solution for the senior.” – Dustin Distefano, CEO

A Place at Home Provides Services that Seniors Truly Need

When you invest in a senior care franchise, pick the innovative franchise that offers multiple service lines to sustain your business. A Place At Home is poised for rapid growth. Now is the time to join us as a franchisee, with large, prime territories available. Take the next step now. Contact A Place At Home franchise today – 888-502-6310.