Our Director of Franchise Development, Del Salinas, was interviewed on the podcast Home Care: Open Doors with Lucas Carroll. Del shares about the growth Caring Senior Service has experienced in recent months. He also discusses the diverse background of our franchise owners, emphasizing that owners do not need prior experience in healthcare or senior care to be successful. Instead, a passion for senior care and strong leadership skills are key to success.
During the podcast, Del also states that the home care industry continues to experience significant growth due to increasing demand. Del emphasized that the market isn’t saturated, and consistent community engagement and caregiver retention are essential for success in this field.
Watch the podcast or read the full transcript below.
Podcast Transcript
00:01 – Introduction
Welcome to Home Care: Doors Open where we discuss licensing, operations, and scaling your home care business. Whether you’re just opening your doors or looking to unlock new doors to growth and success, this podcast is for you. Let’s begin.
00:16 – Lucas
Alright, hello everybody. This is Lucas Carroll from the Business of Senior Care. I’m back with another episode of Home Care: Doors Open where we talk about all things in the home care industry. And today we have a super awesome guest. We have Del Salinas who’s the Director of Franchise Development for Caring Senior Service. Del, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:37 – Del
It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
00:40 – Lucas
Absolutely. Um, excited to get into some topics today about home care, about franchising, about the future of home care, about your guys’ organization, and just learn from you. Uh, but first I wanted to see, can you tell us a little bit about your role, about Caring Senior Service, your guys’ franchise and the network just so we can get to know you a little bit?
01:04 – Del
Of course, of course. So, I’m Director of Franchise Development with Caring Senior Service going on six years. I actually began my role as Director of Hub services. That’s a department within Caring Senior Service that works in a digital remote capacity for our owners and officers connecting clients and caregivers so I had direct impacts and direct communications and workings with our owners, with our managing directors, our care managers and connecting clients and caregivers with our, with our owners and officers in transitioned into this role about 18 months ago and have had a really good experience with Caring as we’re growing. Last year we had 51 offices and have had 4 recently sign with us and are working on their licensing right now with those different states. We’re currently in 16 states and have been focusing on growth recently and have a lot of great candidates coming through.
02:05 – Lucas
That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. Congratulations on you guys’ success and continued you know growth for the new franchisees that are joining. For the new folks that are joining your organization I guess I’m always curious, where do they come from? You know, what sort of background and experiences do you see for somebody who is interested in owning and operating a home care agency?
02:29 – Del
Yeah, being quite diverse. One was a physical therapist who is transitioning from physical therapy to wanting to be more of an entrepreneurial and business owner. One was in sales, um, in marketing and sales in a corporate landscape. One was in nursing in a director role at a facility and most recently one was actually in manufacturing and operations, and it was a husband and wife. And the wife was at a long-term care facility as an scheduler so it’s a pretty diverse group. They’re just looking for different ways to become entrepreneurs and still provide the rewarding side of providing home care for seniors.
03:18 – Lucas
That’s awesome. And to our audience, we have a lot of folks who are thinking about starting a home care agency or in the process of starting a home care agency. It’s good to know or maybe you could speak to that, like do you need, do you need background and experiences in medical and home care, is that a prerequisite for somebody to jump into this business?
03:40 – Del
No, no, not at all. Not at all. Um, the two biggest requirements that I always share is, one having the passion for providing care for seniors and having joy from doing that, and secondly is having joy from building teams and following processes. If you have those pieces, you’ll be successful.
03:59 – Lucas
Nice. That’s good to know. I think that helps you know for our audience to understand that you don’t need to be a nurse. You don’t need to have you know spend a decade in health care that you know using the background experiences that you do have plus the tools and knowledge that you guys provide is a good recipe for success for owning a home care business. Um, if there are some key ingredients like for prospects that you’re looking for franchisees that you’re on-boarding, are there some commonalities or some key ingredients to maybe a personality or an individual that you say, “oh yeah these would be a perfect match for franchisees for our organization”?
04:46 – Del
Yeah, yeah one of the biggest pieces is leadership. I think that’s a must-have to be successful. You want candidates that are going to be good leaders and more specifically good organizers, good communicators. Um, our business motto is set where you can be hands-on and very active or be semi-absentee and have people running your business for you to provide you opportunities for other business ventures or spending more time with your family or hobbies as you grow and scale but to have that leadership capacity to be able to manage your team and to check the metrics with them and so we work closely with our owners and it’s something called coaching the coach. We want to show the entrepreneurs how to be good leaders and good coaches to develop their team.
05:35 – Lucas
Very good. Very good. And I think that leadership, you know I’m curious on your thoughts, you know when you’re looking for identifying potential franchisees that leadership, do you think that translate or what do you think are some commonalities when you look at that first your for that business? What are some keys to success like when you see successful owners get through that first year and they have a growing and developing business, what are some of the things that you can look back and say, “oh yeah, it’s because they did this, these things really well that they were able to grow through that first year”?
06:06 – Del
Yeah, really just two pieces. Um, I mentioned a while ago following just a process so following the system and process and then consistency in doing so. That’s really simple. We have the system and process laid out. We walk the candidates through, the owners through and their team through what should be done from a quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis and be consistent with that.
06:31 – Lucas
Okay. Um, one of the new franchisees I think you mention does have a clinical background and this has come up you know with clients that we’ve worked with as well, how much emphasis do you guys put in terms of the ability to provide or have oversight with an RN or providing more clinical type services that you may not typically think of for non-medical home care, and what does that look like for growth for your organization?
07:00 – Del
Yeah, so it is providing opportunity. It’s not required. In some states you’re required to have an RN to do the assessments for your clients and for your caregivers. So it is a bit of a mix. Um, in the states that don’t require that, it’s not needed to be successful in the business, but it provides you an opportunity to (1) have the knowledge and the capacity to assist in those needs, and then usually those individuals have connections from prior experiences where they can help coordinate that care in the entire care chain. So if you’re having nurses come by the home or PT or OT, that knowledge is quite helpful, not needed, but we also communicate with those individuals from the entire care team and part of our high differentiation is our technology piece that we use, our software that we created, um that allows for a tablet and device to stay in the home with the clients that can be used to capture information from the caregiver that can be shared with the family and in turn communicated with nurses, doctors, PT, OT, dieticians, anyone can have full visibility into that person. So it does help to have that experience and knowledge but we also work with everyone to be able to share that.
08:17 – Lucas
Yeah, absolutely. That’s so great to hear. I think the home cares of now and in the future, you know, it’s really integrated into the medical framework working with hospitals, working with docs, working with home health agencies, working with Hospice agencies. In the past, you know, non-medical was seen maybe on the sidelines in terms of there’s the whole medical complex that’s working and then maybe the non-medical agency is helping to support all of those things but more and more the home care agencies are being integrated into plans of care and you know the orders or feedback from the physician and working on those so it’s so great to hear that you guys embrace that and it sounds like for your technology platform that it actually addresses that and incorporates that into the plan of care for your clients. Yeah, awesome. Um, the growth. I’m interested to hear about like for home care. What you see? What are you seeing that’s the industry’s going to look like here as we move into 2025 and your organization in terms of growth? What are some things that you’re seeing in this industry right now?
09:32 – Del
Yeah, so this has been consistent for quite a while, is the huge demand and huge need. There’s really no place in the United States that’s saturated. That’s a perception by some people on what they think they see but there’s a huge demand and need. There’s not enough home care agencies really anywhere to provide the care that more and more people are needing. So, we’re seeing the growth, the demand still being consistent and the pieces in place to be successful very specifically with the people. And I don’t mean the clients, I mean the caregivers, the staff having the systems in process to provide support for the staff and for the caregivers and what they need. That priority is going to be a huge driver on success as we continue into the next three, five and 10 years.
10:54 – Lucas
Absolutely. I think it’s hitting it on the head. I mean for caregivers and the labor floors, it’s hard. I mean what are some advantages you know that you’re seeing for your franchisees in terms of being able to attract and retain really great caregivers. Is there any magic sauce or anything that you’re seeing that is working, is helping to find just great caregivers?
11:20 – Del
Yeah, that’s a very good question and one that comes up quite a bit. People hear that there is a caregiver shortage and people hear about you know shortages in the work force in general and to an extent that could be accurate on the surface level. Um, there is not an issue with caregiver recruitment. There is an issue with caregiver retention. There’s plenty of people available to work, um and like any business or any organization people will stay or leave because of the leadership. And going back to what I mentioned a little while ago, the leadership piece, um, we are working with good individuals that (1) have that passion to provide home care, and then maybe they don’t have that best coaching piece and need to learn how to manage day-to-day of the business so that when curve balls get thrown at you, you can still manage your people. And that’s a skill. So, we work with our owners and our office teams to develop that skill and to have contingencies for when things do happen like they will to be able to provide good communication, timely and appropriate, to the caregiver and that’s how you retain those individuals, so we use technology in that piece. We use coaching in that piece. This is something that, I mentioned consistency earlier that we work with on a monthly level with our offices and our teams so that they can develop those skill sets to share their passion and their joy with their team. Those caregivers are extensions of our owners. We have fantastic owners. We want to support them so their team can be extensions of them and provide that care for their clients.
12:54 – Lucas
That’s awesome. That’s so key to the business. That’s critical maintaining great caregivers for your organization. Um, I was thinking about the sales side. One of the questions we often get from folks that are looking to get in and start a home care business is where do clients come from? Where do referrals come from? Um, how do you gain referrals? How do you develop relationships? Um, what are you seeing for your successful owners and offices based on like the different types of referral sources and then you end up paying your sources, you know, what are you seeing out there that are good mixes of referral and payor sources that are having some success>
13:34 – Del
Yeah, there’s quite a few different mixes, um to success, and there’s, there’s no shortage again of people that need care either. So, we’re finding a good mix is the private pay clients that are coming in that are needing a little bit of help. It might be a few times a week and as they’re improving from an injury or a fall, those steady clients working with physical therapy offices, um, working in hospitals, anyplace there might be someone, emergency center rooms where people are going in where seniors have quite a few falls and they’re going right there, having those primary doctors being a resource. And I said earlier, consistency, 100% being consistent on visiting those facilities, those doctors so that they see you and trust that you’re most likely building with them where they can trust, and they call you and you’re going to help the people. That’s one area. Another big area is with veteran’s offices. Um, you know more and more veterans are needing that care and more and more people are understanding what home care kind of incapsulates. You know, everything that we can do. There’s more and more veterans that are needing care that you can work with. There are veterans’ offices that are providing resources for them and then providing that care with them as well as other organizations where there’s long-term care, whether it’s working with some state organizations so there’s quite a diverse group of individuals where you go out and make those connections but again having to be consistent to go out there and be visible. There’s so much white noise in space with everybody saying and posting too many things on social media or via a web service which is a must and you must do but being visible and going out in the community and visiting those people and those doctors and those facilities and really having that grassroots piece to where your community can see you and then building that consistent name. so having the caregivers that know and trust and want to work with you and for you, having those referral sources that trust that you’re going to be consistent because you have a great work force and you are great at following up and giving communication back and feedback to build again the emotional equity with them where they know hey I’m going to call Lucas up because he has awesome home care agency. He’s been consistent. That’s where you’re getting your clients from.
15:54 – Lucas
Oh man. That’s such good advice. I think sometimes the folks miss on how important it is that your referral sources and your community see your face and have conversations with you. I know that some folks are, you know, just hope maybe if I just sign up for some online website referral programs and make some phone calls or something like that, I can start getting some referrals in the door. And there are definitely some online ways that you can advance your business and gain referrals but there’s nothing that replaces, that I’ve seen, I mean the experience of getting out there and, you know, pounding the pavement, developing relationships, having discharge planners and case managers see you, hear from you, get feedback about clients that they’ve referred you know, have that one-on-one relationship. I agree, I mean that’s such a key ingredient to success is being known and having visibility in your marketplace. Awesome. One topic i wanted to ask you about was licensing that I know that you worked with your franchisees on and that your organization does. You know, that’s kind of where our paths cross is that we help home care owners that are looking to get licensed in their state to get through that process and just provide support and guidance. Can you talk a little bit about how does that impact the prospect process in terms of learning about your organization and then the timing of like opening the doors and making sure that they get everything they need to get licensed so they can get going?
17:33 – Del
Of course, of course. Yeah, so different states are requiring licensing, and we have a director of support services and an entire department that assists with licensing. We assist our candidates and owners with licensing. It’s not something they do on their own. You know, we’re with them every step of the way to insure the timeliness, that’s its done correct the first time, and then with the anticipated return of that license start planning out and staging what the trending would look like for them and their team and what it would look like to recruit, hire and then train so that ideally when the licensing comes back in we’re opening at the same exact time so we’re not missing opportunity or using funds where they’re not going to be successful. We only pay somebody for what they can do. If you can’t even go out and market without a license yet so we work with our owners to timely get schedules on when we’re going to recruit, hire or train and then we have a very systemized, like any other franchise system, a systemized checklist of things that they’ll do and we do to make sure we’re not missing anything, to make sure they have transparency in that process, to insure that they’re knowing what’s coming next, and um whether it’s anywhere from eight to 12 to 16 weeks in some states, we’re able to work with them on what that timeline can be used for, um to train to learn our systems more in-depth, to work with other owners who may be nearby so they can get some hands-on experience in what could be a very close market but can see what the day-to-day looks like while they’re waiting for their license to come in.
19:15 – Lucas
Awesome. That’ so cool to have that level of support that you guys offer because, you know, as we both know the license waiting for it can throw a curve ball in the whole process and slow everything down if it’s not on pace and items aren’t being done in a timely manner so the fact that you guys offer that from a support service’s point of view is awesome and keeps things lined up for getting the office open and getting the training done and everything done as quickly as possible. That’s great. Um, the last item that I wanted to ask you about is just you know more in general, high level, if you’re talking to somebody that’s looking to open a home care business, what’s some things that they’d want to think about? What’s maybe something that might be surprising or you know if they’re looking to get into this space, what sort of advice would you give them to think about or to get them excited about it or just to make sure they do their research before jumping in?
20:16 – Del
Yeah, yeah, great question and a great conversational piece for anybody interested. What I ask them is what they envision them doing. In their mind, what are they thinking and what do they seeing them do and does that align with what we normally see and expect and if it doesn’t, we very quickly realize that any business, anything you’re passionate about, you’re going to be very involved. So, what does your involvement look like for you? And um, you know is that going to entail going and doing assessments, working with clients? Because you’ll need to do that from time to time. When you’re going to hire somebody, what does it look like from point A to point Z? You know, what’s your involvement and are you aware of the support that you’re going to get and are you aware of the support that you’re not going to get? You know, you might think your team and your office is doing everything properly. What are your checkpoints
What are your milestones you’re looking at? You are discovering a process where you can cover a lot of this but for somebody whose just fresh out of the gates whose interested is talking about the why. What made you ask about this? What led you to think this was a good idea? What made you think that this was going to be successful for you and understand what they’re expecting. On two areas here (1) it’s very rewarding to provide that care and like any other business with people there’s going to be challenges working with people. On the other side of business, it’s a great opportunity of profitability. It’s a very good opportunity to be successful and to give you more opportunity to do more things down the road whether it’s scaling this business or starting other businesses or doing other items with your family or hobbies, you don’t want anybody to do because of your current situation. So, I try to paint a bigger picture like where you see yourself in three, five, 10 years, and kind of roadmap this and what that looks like and what are you doing 10 years from now, five years from now, three years from now? What are you doing next month and make sure all this aligns. So, it’s a good conversation that we have. I always ask, you know, tell me your why, tell me what made you reach out for this, and then tell me what you see yourself doing because that might not align, and I want to make sure that you’re able to see everything transparently.
22:25 – Lucas
Nice. That’s a great uh, that’s some deep soul-searching and I’m sure you experience that with prospects all the time. Like what do you really want to do, what do you really see yourself and home care is a great business. It’s caring for people. It’s providing jobs. It’s also going to be a very profitable business. I’m sure there’s a lot of soul-searching that your prospects go through before getting all the way down the road to the office.
22:55 – Del
Of course, yeah.
22:56 – Lucas
Well Del, this was awesome. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to share your experience and wisdom with our audience and I think it really hits home because these are people that are, you know, excited and maybe they’re sitting on the sideline. Maybe they’re thinking about jumping in and they have some of these questions that you addressed, and I think it really helped to provide you know just great insight into the home care business and getting started. Thank you very much for taking the time and um this is Del Salinas, Director of Franchise Development with Caring Senior Service. Thank you again very much.
23:37 – Del
Thank you. It’s been a pleasure. I appreciate it.