Managing multiple home care franchise locations can be both rewarding and challenging. Whether your locations are close together or spread out, implementing the right strategies is crucial for success. Here are valuable insights from experienced multi-unit franchise owners to help you be a successful multi-unit operator.
Pros & Cons of Multi-Unit Ownership
Owning multiple senior care franchise locations offers numerous advantages, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. Understanding these pros and cons can help you maximize benefits and mitigate potential downsides. Here are the key pros and cons of becoming a multi-unit franchisee.
Pros
- Increased Revenue Potential: Owning multiple units can significantly increase your overall revenue and profitability.
- Economies of Scale: You can leverage bulk purchasing and shared resources to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
- Market Dominance: Multiple locations can enhance brand recognition, making it easier to capture a larger market share.
- Shared Knowledge & Best Practices: Multiple units allow for sharing of successful strategies and practices, leading to overall better performance.
- Franchise Fee Discount: Many franchise businesses will offer a reduced franchise fee for owners purchasing additional territories.
Cons
- Increased Complexity: Multi-unit franchise ownership requires more coordination and can be logistically challenging.
- Greater Management Demands: More units mean more staff to manage, requiring robust management skills and systems.
- Potential for Inconsistent Quality: Ensuring consistent quality across all locations can be difficult, requiring stringent standards and regular oversight.
- Risk of Overextension: Spreading yourself too thin across multiple locations can lead to burnout and operational inefficiencies.
- Higher Financial Risk: The initial investment of purchasing multiple territories and ongoing operational costs are higher, increasing financial risk.
Tips for Multi-Unit Home Care Owners
Owning and managing multiple home care franchises requires a strategic approach to ensure consistency and efficiency. We talked with some of our multi-location owners to discover what it takes to be successful. Here’s what they said:
1. Communicate Effectively
One of the most critical aspects of managing multiple locations is communication. “Communicate, communicate, communicate,” says Andy Gillen, Caring owner with locations across Texas. “It ensures everyone is on the same page and things run smoothly.”
Andy leverages technology to stay connected with his teams and hold regular meetings. But if your offices are closer together, you can hold regular in-person training and team meetings, too. The important thing is to keep everyone informed about company updates, key referral partners, and other pertinent information.
2. Hire the Right People
Finding and hiring competent directors and staff is crucial. These individuals will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of your locations. Ensure they are capable and align with your business values.
Cindy Sheller, a Caring owner with locations in Arizona, Texas, and Nevada, reminds franchisees that hiring the right team allows you to step back into a CEO-type role. “By the time you own four or more [locations], you have to ensure you have a great leadership team. You can’t continue to be the owner and do all the jobs.”
RELATED CONTENT: Building the Best Team for Your Senior Care Franchise
3. Stick to a Unified System
Franchisees have the benefit of a proven business model from their franchise system. However, they are still responsible for their own day-to-day operations. Standardize these processes across all locations to maintain consistency, alignment, and operational efficiency.
“Make sure what is done in one office is done the same in another office,” recommends Pat Abernathy, a multi-unit Caring owner in the Denver area. For example, Pat runs the same hiring ads in all his territories, updating copy with office-specific information. They also run ads on the same platforms. “That way, one person can place ads for all offices, streamlining our efforts,” he states.
4. Consistently Train Your Team
Ensure that all employees receive comprehensive initial training and ongoing professional development. This helps maintain high standards and keeps staff updated on best practices and new procedures. It also reinforces your unified system for operations.e
“Orientation is the same, across all my offices,” says Pat. “This ensures that a care manager from one location can seamlessly work at another.” While your offices might not be close enough to leverage staff members in this way, training helps give all employees the same foundation.
5. Set Clear Expectations
Setting clear expectations and holding your management team accountable is critical. Set goals at the individual and office levels and consistently monitor performance. Regular performance reviews and feedback sessions help ensure that each staff member meets the standards in their individual role.
Creating standard performance indicators for offices can help ensure all teams are operating at the same level. For example, set a standard benchmark for hours of service each week or client referrals received. Work with offices that are underperforming, and gain insights from offices that exceed benchmarks.
6. Leverage Technology
Multi-unit operators can’t be everywhere all at once. But technology can help you check in and communicate with your teams wherever you are.
Use the technology available through your franchisor to complete daily tasks. For example, automate compliance checks, enhance training, and streamline operations. Technology can save you a lot of time if you know how to use it properly.
At Caring, we have a proprietary software called Tendio that helps all our owners be more efficient. It performs all the business functions of a home care business — from payroll to marketing. Because everything runs on the same systems, teams can pull the same reports and directly compare office performance.
7. Be Adaptable
The framework for staff positions will be the same at each of your home care units. A Caring office, for example, typically has a director, a care manager, and a field marketer. But this structure may change as offices grow and new units are acquired.
Cindy Sheller and Andy Gillen, for example, have regional managers to help support their teams and evaluate performance. Pat Abernathy, on the other hand, divvies up responsibilities, taking as much off the care manager’s plate as possible. “I leave them to only do ‘in-person’ jobs,” he says. “Tasks like data entry, document uploads, calling references, and file audits can be handled by someone working remotely, freeing up care managers to focus on client-facing responsibilities.”
As long as you remain compliant with the franchisor’s model, franchisees can shift responsibilities and hire additional roles as needed to adapt to their needs.
8. Empower Team Members to Make Decisions
Once you have a solid team in place, empower them to make decisions independently; avoid micromanaging. “I trust them with the key to a million-dollar business,” says Andy Gillen. “This trust allows them to operate effectively even when I’m not physically present.”
Building a trustworthy team is essential but difficult. Ensure that your staff knows they have your support, which can boost their confidence and decision-making abilities. Give them opportunities to work autonomously within their job description.
RELATED CONTENT: How to Build Trust on Your Team
9. Embrace Local Initiatives
Encourage each location to participate in local initiatives and community events. Meet with local referral partners often. This not only helps build a strong local presence but also fosters a sense of community and engagement among staff and clients. Take pictures that your local teams can share on social media!
These tips from experienced multi-unit franchise owners provide a roadmap for successfully managing multiple home care locations. By standardizing processes, empowering leaders, and leveraging technology, you can ensure high-quality care and operational efficiency across all your franchise locations. To learn more about multi-location ownership with Caring, reach out to us today!