Caring Senior Service founder & CEO Jeff Salter joins hosts Frank Fiume and Rob Flanigan on the Emerging Franchise Brands podcast to share how he turned a 1991 start-up into a mission-driven senior care franchise. Jeff talks about his 9,500-mile electric bike ride across 20 states to celebrate the brand’s 30th anniversary and raise funds to install free grab bars in seniors’ homes, as well as the nonprofit movement that grew from that effort. He explains why passion for helping seniors age in place comes before finances in Caring Senior Service’s franchise selection process, how he supports owners as they scale to multi-unit operations, and why surging demand from the 85+ population makes senior care one of the most compelling long-term opportunities in franchising.
Watch the video below or read the full transcript.
Full Podcast Transcript
Frank:
Welcome to Emerging Franchise Brands, the podcast that introduces you to the visionary founders of America’s fastest growing franchise opportunities. We’ll also hear from industry pros as they share what it really takes to achieve the elusive milestone of 100+ locations. I’m your host, Frank Fumey, founder of I9 Sports and my 20-year journey from inception to acquisition has given me a unique perspective on how to succeed in franchising. Join me as we welcome today’s guest.
Hello everyone and welcome to the Emerging Franchise Brands podcast. On today’s show, I have another guest co-host: my friend Rob Flanigan.
Rob:
What is going on today?
Frank:
How are you, Rob?
Rob:
Living the franchise dream!
Frank:
Every day!
Rob: Love being here, passionate about franchising and how we share best practices with folks expanding in franchising. Jeff’s going to bring some great insights.
Frank:
Our guest today has been around franchising for quite a bit. Before we bring him on, Rob, give the audience your background.
Rob:
Yeah, it’s a little unique. I kind of just stumbled into it. But I was a first hire of a founder brand that started franchising. And so, I learned franchising from the bottom up. But what was so instrumental about that journey was that I also saw the founder’s journey and what they went through in understanding what needed to stay the same, what was the heart of the brand that should never change. But what things that did need to change as the brand expanded through the country. And I love working with founders, partnering with them to help grow their brands through the franchise growth approach.
Frank:
Awesome. Well I know we have a very passionate founder today. So, before I bring on today’s guest, I want to share with you 3 things you’re going to learn on today’s show:
- Why he took a 9,500-mile bike ride across 20 states.
- Lessons Jeff learned going from an entrepreneur to franchisor.
- You may be shocked to hear how much demand there will be for senior care services by the year 2024.
Without further ado, let’s introduce the founder and CEO of Caring Senior Service, Jeff Salter.
Rob:
Jeff, what is going on? How are you, man?
Jeff:
Hey guys! Good to be here today. Really cool to get to talk to other people in franchising. It’s always exciting to talk about your brand, but also just the world of franchising as well.
Frank:
Awesome. Well, Rob and I were actually talking about you before we started recording and Rob was sharing with me a little bit of a background story on you about — uh Rob, what was this again? This bike ride or something that you were reading about with Jeff?
Rob:
Yeah, Jeff, it was so clear how passionate you are about seeing your home. I mean, it just pops. It’s beautiful. Make heart open and I saw that you did something where you rode your bike across uh 20 states or something to raise awareness. Would love to hear more about just the passion that you as a founder have brought to the space.
Jeff:
Yeah, yeah. It was 2021, we decided to celebrate uh 30 years of the business and uh way to kick that off. We thought we were talk about typical ideas you have as a as a founder want to go out and visit the locations that you’ve helped start. And the guys were like, “wel,l let’s get a car let’s go on a road trip.”
I’d been riding my electric bike to the office about 20 miles uh each way and one of the guys in I think it was a joke said, “Hey man, you should ride your bike to the locations.” And I went home that night and first I told me it was completely crazy and there’s no way I was going to ride a bike to all of our locations. 21 states, but they’re sprinkled throughout the US. And but that night I went home and I started thinking now what would it take to modify a bike to where I can get the distance I needed? How long would that take? What would the route look like?
And a few months later, I came back and said, “You know what? I think I can do this.” I told the team, “I’m going to ride to every location celebrating the celebrating our company’s 30-year anniversary, but also to start a movement.
We called it Close the Gap in Senior Care to really help people understand what the needs of seniors in their community was, how we could help them individually and collectively. So, I rode my bike. I went on a 4-month journey, 9,500 miles — rode from location to location, had events at every location.
We did fundraising. We had a main um program called Grab the Bars. And what we were doing is raising money so we could install grab bars in seniors’ homes so they could avoid falls. Falls are leading cause of death among seniors, accident-related death among seniors. And so what proud to say we raised $170,000 through that process. We’ve now installed grab bars in over 450 seniors’ homes for free and it’s been a great program.
We’ve started a nonprofit after that, and it just really it’s about trying to bring more people to the understand there’s the challenges of just aging in place and getting more people involved either as business owners, people as caregivers. And I also have been trying to really get people to think about technology and bring technology into the senior care space. It’s an area where it’s a lot of a lot of lot of need and it’s uh so it was but it was a great experience. The bike ride was amazing.
Rob:
Jeff, that is by far and away the most impressive way I have ever heard anybody celebrate uh a huge anniversary in business. Nobody’s topping that one.
Jeff:
It was I think it was well received by all of our franchise owners and all the It was cool because I got to meet so many of the team members that you normally don’t get to see as a CEO.
You’re proud of what you’ve built and you get to speak to them through various channels, but I got to go actually where they’re at to their locations. That was that was incredible.
Frank:
Jeff, why did you start your company? It was way back in 1991. Bring us back to that that point in time. You know, you’re a young guy. And how did senior care become so near and dear to your heart at such a young age?
Jeff:
Yeah, it was um for me I don’t have the typical founder story that a lot of contemporaries in my in my space at least have. Most of them had a parent or loved one they were dealing with. For me, I was working for a home health care company that did not provide non-medical care. In fact, in 1991, this wasn’t an industry. There wasn’t other companies that were doing it at scale. There were a few individual mom and pops here and there sprinkled across the US.
But at the company I worked for, I saw that there was a need of a lot of people. The senior would be at home in their town, but the kids had moved away. So, they needed someone to help coordinate when mom or dad needs a little bit extra help. They need maybe some grocery shopping, some errand running, some cleaning in their house, or some personal care. They needed help getting up, getting to the restroom, and just taking care of their livelihood at home.
And I saw that there was a need for someone to manage that. I watched people struggle with hiring privately and the challenges that come with that. And I just saw that there was going to be a business opportunity with that. And, you know, at the age of 20 you don’t know what you’re doing. So it was low risk for me at that age.
Also I was like, “I’ll just go for it and see what happens,” and thankfully it was success almost from the starting the first location. Then I went on about a 10-year journey opening up more locations in Texas.
And then in 2003, I said, “you know I think there’s a way for a lot of other people to get involved and the franchising is a great way to help people that are entrepreneurial spirit and they want to grow that business.” So, I thought that would be the way to expand it. But it was just recognizing the need and the challenges that we’re facing in America. And it’s seniors — it’s not just kids moving away from the seniors as happens a lot in life. But in America, seniors move away from the kids just as frequently. They go south for the winter and then they decide, “hey, I’m going to stay down here. Florida’s a great place or Arizona.” And for me it was South Texas and McAllen, Texas. People were going down there in droves.
Rob:
Something that I was kind of curious, Jeff, is especially in a franchise brand that has a lot of passion behind it. I’m in the doggy daycare space. There’s a lot of passion and dogs. How do you work to ensure that that passion still exists with your franchises, but also balancing that with the business acumen, the training and everything else that is needed to bring that passion to the local community?
Jeff:
Yeah. In in senior care, it’s quickly discovered by all of our franchises that they don’t really care about what they’re trying to accomplish, but the end result is getting a senior that wants to avoid relocation.
No one wants to get to that point in life and then have to leave their home and go stay in assisted living or move somewhere else. And so, our franchise owners, you know, start with that belief that they want to they can impact that area. And my job is to help keep them, remind them of that.
Finding ways that I can make it not just easier for them because it can be a challenge no matter what, but to make sure that they do know that we as a company are really trying to fulfill a mission more than anything else. And that every person that’s involved has to kind of believe in that mission. And if you don’t, it’s just it’s not rewarding enough. You’ve got to have something that is each and every day reminds you of why you’re here. And senior care is great for that because we get reminded, you know, every time we have a caregiver with a client, we’re reminded of what we’re doing and how we’re helping someone and impacting someone’s life. And it’s the senior directly.It’s their family.
And then it’s great business because the fact that every client that we get, we’re employing someone. And so that’s fantastic. Not just one person sometimes, but sometimes with one client, we can employ 7 people just to take care of that one client. And that’s a great feeling as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, to know that you’re not just helping someone with something that they really need, but then you’re helping create jobs in your community. And that’s something that is, I think, everyone’s dream when they’re building a business. And you try to build as big as you can, but you’re only sometimes able to employ so many people. For us, every single new client we get, we’re going to be employing more people.
Frank:
Jeff, at what point did franchising become an idea of the way for expanding this company? Because you’ve been at it for what 9 about 12 years before you franchised the business.
Jeff:
Yeah, it was really I was expanding. I had 5 locations, had really a great business model. I didn’t even recognize that I was actually building something that was really ready to be franchised because I had really intentionally made sure that every location was operating the same way. The way my staff was being managed, the titles that they each had in each location. I was very formulaic and again, no formal training, 20 years old. There was no way that I would know how to do that. I just kind of stumbled into it and just figured out on my own.
But when I started looking, I was like, “well, you know, I could start expanding this business as I got it now.” But I recognized that creating that structure, the middle management structure that would be necessary to continue to grow was going to be difficult and pretty costly.
And at the same time, I also recognized that the way senior care businesses grow is have a really tight local connection. And I could do that in the locations I had built because I had like a 2-hour distance between most of them. So, I could cover that within a day. I get to any location, spend the day there. Get up early in the morning, be on site that day.
But as I really grew and wanted to expand, that wasn’t going to be possible. And I knew that probably having local ownership would allow it to thrive because people do they want to trust who they’re, you know, giving up their loved one, too. They’re needing to know that that person’s going to be there for them when they’re not there. And employees each and every day for our company. They’re there to make things happen, but adding that ownership level really is what we what we needed and franchising was a perfect model for that.
Rob:
Yeah. Especially because we find that the franchises will they will work harder and or maybe I shouldn’t say work harder, but I found that I’m able to I wouldn’t have been able to afford my franchise owners as employees.
Frank:
That’s exactly it. those folks having skin in the game. They just become…they’re so much better, and we can teach them to scale versus just uh going through the grind of hiring people. And we know we can only expand, you know, so far corporate wise.
Jeff, I got to throw something out at you. This is…I don’t know. It’s just so weird to me the way the universe works or whatever that I was having you on the show today. Um, my parents are getting older and actually my dad is in the hospital right now because he had been falling a whole lot. And he’s suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and we’re kind of going through all that. And I just think now I’m the son who lives 3 hours away and as somebody your perspective, as a franchisor and somebody who’s been in this business, you can probably relate that. We don’t even know where to go. Who do we go to? Dad has to stop falling. This has need needs to come to an end, and he does need assistance? We don’t even know who offers the right service. Who’s the best person for him? Can they even provide the services?
Can you kind of walk me through that because, as you know, the Baby Boomer generation is… they’re getting older fast, and this industry is exploding. And there’s more and more people like me, Gen Xers that have the Boomer parent that needs help.
Jeff:
Yeah. First, I’m sorry to hear that with your father. I know it’s got to be a challenging time actually in the hospital after having an episode in a fall can be one of the worst things for families. And I think that I was just speaking yesterday at a conference and what I told people is that, you know, here in America none of us are prepared to care for an elderly aging parent. We don’t go to school for it. No one teaches us how to do it. Even if you’re a nurse or a doctor and I’ve spoken to many nurses and doctors who are dealing with the same challenge. They even don’t know where to go. They find themselves like, “what do I do now? How do I solve this this problem?” But that’s where agencies step in.
You know, Caring Senior Service prides itself on the ability to understand the situation go through a series of questions. We call them assessments to ask really what we’re trying to achieve, understand the situation fully. Sometimes it’s an individual that has a spouse with them though that spouse often can’t do a lot of work because they’re also typically aged. And so it’s a ma matter of really understanding what our goal is if it’s to stay at home, understand what the ailments are, what the conditions are. You know, someone that has Parkinson’s or dementia could be a bit more challenging because they’re limited on how much they can do for themselves. So, it really then means, you know, understanding how many hours a day you might need someone.
And that’s done through really a question answering process and really sitting down with a professional that runs one of these types of companies and really having them ask a series of questions about what the goals are, what the individual is capable of doing. And then we create a plan that helps address those needs and really making sure that we’re putting a caregiver in the home at the optimal time. It doesn’t always require that someone’s there around the clock. It could get to that, but sometimes it’s getting started early.
And unfortunately in your situation, it’s something that kind of sneaks up on you. You kind of recognize some of the signs earlier, but then you’re also dealing with unfortunately as stubborn as we are. And I got we got 3 men on this show right now. So, it’s, “we’re stubborn. We can do anything.” And as you age, it doesn’t change. I mean, you guys, if you’re like me, you still think you’re fast and you can run. You still think you can do these things; you’re willing to admit it in a joking way that, “Oh, I can’t really do those things.” And when it fits you, you say, “Oh, I’m old. I can’t. I won’t try that anymore.” But interestingly enough, when we get to 85, we think the exact same way. We think that we can do it all. We don’t need someone else’s help. And men especially have such a hard time accepting help.
And so, if you’re dealing with an age father, he’s going to be resistant. So even when you see the early signs, you’ve got to have multiple conversations about what that means for them and how they’re going to have to accept some sort of assistance. But it’s a challenge and it’s just something that again I wish there was more education that we had for ourselves and that we had for each other in this in this in this you know tough thing to deal with.
Rob:
Yeah, you’re right. It does sneak up on us. And I’m thinking from again from your your franchise owner’s perspective. How do you, Jeff, train bring on your franchises to because it’s this is more than just having empathy?
This is really training them in those interpersonal having those interpersonal skills or how do you find the right franchisee that is a right fit because this is this is not your typical brand that anybody could just plug and play. Anybody that you know that has good business acumen and is outgoing and somebody who’s detail-oriented and can follow a system. There’s a lot more to this.
Jeff:
Yeah. You know, and for us, we’re a little different in the way that we do our franchise process. And for us, it’s the passion first. We have to identify that someone really understands what we do and that they really care about what we do and that they want to be involved and really make a difference in someone’s lives. And we focus on that first and foremost before we even talk about finances.
A lot of franchisors, even in our space, they’re so focused on can this person financially be able to do this, which makes total sense. You’ve got to have that component when you’re starting a business. But for us, you can have all the money in the world and be able to start a business. But if you’re not passionate about this type of business, you’re probably going to fail because it’s just it can be really difficult at times. You’ve got to care about the outcome. You got to be the attitude where, “I’m not going to leave someone hanging because when I’ve told a family I’m going to be there for them.” I don’t mean that me, Jeff Salter, is going to be there for them, but they know that my company is going to be available to them. I’m going to have a team of people around me and they’re going to be as passionate about it as I am so that when they have said, “I trust you. I want to have you come in and help me out with this.” That they’re going to have someone that’s doing that.
So, we really help our franchise understand first and foremost before we even accept them as a as a franchisee that that’s going to be what they’re getting into. And if they can’t accept that, they won’t commit to that, then it’s probably better for them to find a different a different brand to be involved in, a different segment to be involved in. I try not to if someone’s not going to go with Caring Senior Service, they pick a competitor. That’s fantastic. And I tell them if they’re the right, they have the right personality and the right attitude, they’ll be successful wherever they land. They just have to find the right partner.
But I also tell people that senior care is probably not the space. You might feel passionate about it, but if you’re not willing to commit everything to it, then it’s better to go get a job in a senior care business than to own a senior care company.
Rob:
One of the big questions I know I get, I know Frank gets for a founder is: okay, I’m growing through franchising, but when and how do I start bringing in people to help me franchise? Could you share with the audience when you started to hire in franchise development, franchise operations, and marketing and how you scaled that portion of the business?
Jeff:
Yeah. Again, kind of like everything I do; I kind of I’m a build versus buy type of personality. So, that means you scrape your shins a lot when you have that attitude. So, I might not be the best example of that.
But for me, when I knew I wanted to franchise — I wasn’t involved in franchising community at all. I didn’t know a lot about it. I went to an IFA event to learn a little bit more. I met a few people. I didn’t really spark anything with anybody during that first meeting. But I went home energized, excited, knew that this was the way to grow the business. I saw passionate people involved in franchising both as franchisors and franchises. So, it was really cool experience to see both sides of it and knew that there was something there I wanted to develop.
I chose to bring on a partner, but I was very successful. I had 5 locations. I was doing very well for myself. To decide to franchise meant that I was gonna do what they say, open up a whole different type of business. You know, I could have went to a pizza shop or I could have started a franchise, become a franchisor. It’s that different in what you had to learn. I was lucky enough to where I could afford to say bring on a partner and say, “I’ll give you half of the franchise business to grow that part. You focus. I’ll give you all my time and knowledge, but you’re going to run the franchise piece.” And that started off beautifully except whenever his wife got a job somewhere else and they had to move away. And this was pre-remote-work-type of environment.
So, I then was within 2 years of starting the franchise system it all fell back on my lap. And so, I had to go out and build it almost a second time. But even then, I didn’t turn necessarily to the franchising community to find experts in it. I decided to develop some people myself because I wanted to them to have the passion for my brand first. And we could figure out franchising second.
But looking back, that’s probably why we’re not as large as we are as a company. But that’s never been our focus. We’ve never tried to be the largest franchisor. We’ve just tried to be the best in every market we serve, which I know that’s probably said over and over again, but it’s truly something that we’ve led with. And uh frankly, it’s meant that we’re not the biggest franchise company. You know, I’m happy to say we’re 55 locations. We’ll be 60 by the end of this year. Have some great momentum right now, but that’s not that’s not what it’s been about for me. I’m not trying to be just a the biggest franchisor in in the space at all.
Rob:
I love what you’re saying there because Frank and I share this. It’s there’s a lot of different ways to grow your brand. There’s not just one. There can be this myth out there that if you don’t do it this way, you’ve messed up. And I love that approach. I think whatever works for your brand and you do it ethically and with integrity.
Frank:
Yeah, I love that. And it’s not always about size to me. It’s about impact. And that’s really that we should all be at. You know what, Rob? I’m thinking Jeff just really taught our audience another aspect of franchising that we all haven’t talked enough about and that is he realized that it’s not just a matter of saying, “I don’t know anything about franchising. I’ll bring in somebody who’s just going to franchise be in charge of the franchise business sort of like, you know, abdicating that side of the company.” You can’t do that. Yes, you could bring in people who can help run your franchise, but at the end of the day, Jeff, you’re still the leader of this business. And as you came to find out, you inevitably have to roll up your sleeves and be involved. Because once you’re a franchisor, there’s no going back. I always tell people all the time that are looking to franchise their business. Are you prepared that life is going to change completely once you become a franchisor you’re no longer in the business of franchising and that role really changes, and you can’t shortcut it by saying, “I’ll just hire people who will run a franchise division. I won’t be involved.”
Jeff:
Yeah, even when I had that partner early on those first 2 years, it was something I probably myself I knew going in. I knew what to expect, but I don’t think I realized how much it really would change everything I was doing. I was still trying to run both my 4. I think I’d sold one location off and had 4 locations trying to help the franchise system move forward. Luckily, I had good systems in place and that’s what we were franchising. So, I was able to always point look say, “I’m running a franchise business. My 4 operations are practically running themselves. I’ve got some time I’m involved with those.” But I was able to really prove that our business model worked.
But over time even that, you know, you can’t leave a business let it go for too long before we start having problems. And I eventually had to get a partner in both sides of the businesses. You know, today I have a franchise partner that I’ve brought in that’s a minority owner, but he’s here to make sure that when I can’t be and focused on this that he’s responsible, and I have a partner within my owned operations as well.
And he’s doing work on day-to-day to stay focused in that area. I try and kind of be more of a of that leader of as much as I can. And it can be it can be a challenge that no matter no matter how many people you get around you, it’s still a challenge.
Frank:
Yeah, Rob, this is your wheelhouse.
Rob:
Yeah, I know.
Frank:
This is exactly what I want —I would love for you to kind of share with Jeff and the audience on how you, Rob, you’re the guy that comes in from the outside to help that founder. How do you navigate it?
Rob:
Yeah. But what I have found is it’s really taking a step back, and it’s not you’ll get into the operations and the manuals and all that stuff. But it’s really taking a step back and really kind of identifying what are the amazing strengths of the founder. And that’s where we want to be able to amplify. And this is and I’m blanking on the name of it, but it’s who, not how.
And so it’s working with the founder to start thinking of who is going to solve that problem not how are you going to solve that problem founder this is going to be your roles and responsibilities these are these other roles and responsibilities and it’s really leaning into communication. And I think that’s where often things will break down between the founder the entrepreneur the CEO and then kind of the day-to-day operating folks. You really have to look at it as a partnership. And when it’s really sounds like it works really well here, it’s beautiful because a founder is freed up to be creative and to go be the voice and passionate and then the other folks can then go focus on how do you open the drawer for the point-of-sale machine?
You know, whatever the thing may or may not be. But I wanted to hear from you, Jeff, too, because I think that’s often I think all of us have an entrepreneurial spirit. It can be hard to let go of that kind of control. How was that journey for you with the partners that you brought in?
Jeff:
Yeah, I’ll tell you when I’m done cuz I’m still in the middle of it all these years. You know, it’s letting go… I agree. I suffer from founder syndrome, which is when a founder doesn’t exactly know where he should be putting all of his time. I still want to solve problems because I know that I know where, how to do every single role within the company, which makes me super dangerous. And it’s can be destructive for people you work with you as well.
Luckily, I’m able to realize that. So, as I’ve matured, also I’ve been able to figure out how to properly step in when they need my help and other times let them kind of figure it out, knowing they’re going to make mistakes along the way. They’re not going to do exactly the way that I would have done it, but accepting that, you know, that’s okay.
They can find a different path forward that doesn’t require me to be involved in every detail. But… it is I have been really trying to move into a role where I’m more of that spokesperson almost for the company. I’m focused on more of a national level of our brand promoting senior care.
We started a nonprofit. So, I’ve been trying to uh with that and other opportunities really share the story of the company more than worrying so much about the day-to-day operational aspects. But I say that on this show, I’ll probably get off in 40 minutes and be looking at some of those details. Anyhow, we’re all guilty of it.
Frank:
We are. We are. The Jeff, the difference between Jeff, somebody in your role, that experiences burnout and somebody who can continue to do what you do. It’s because of the feeling like you have such a purpose and this is like a mission in life. And I think that that’s the only difference. I think if this wasn’t so purposeful, you’d be burned out because it’s only so long that we can all do that. I speak, by the way, this is coming, you know, first person. I experienced that. As much as I loved my company, though, I realized I had to get out of my own way. I had to hire people because we eventually hit that level of, we hit that wall where it’s, “if I really get if I love my company as much as I say I do, I better give it what it needs.” And we all knew we all know it needs something more than just us.
Rob:
I’ve always kind of it’s like raising a kid and when you’re and for founders the business is like a child when it’s in the early stages you have to be there a lot morning night feedings but as you’re going off to college you as a parent you have to take a step back. And you still need present but you have to just trust the work you did early on.
Jeff:
Yes. But that’s very easy to say on a podcast, much harder to do in reality.
Rob:
Jeff, I’d love to hear a little bit more about something. Again, I’m kind of going off of the questions I tend to get a lot, which is about the corporate stores. How many should I have? How few should I have? And I think sometimes people get into franchising, they only have one corporate store and they’re like, “Hey, I can go franchise.” And sometimes you can again there’s not one way but 3 to 5 has always been kind of a general number because I think you’ve been able to prove out the business model you’ve had to systemize it and it can help provide some cash to invest in franchising.
How has having the corporate stores helped you in the franchise journey?
Jeff:
Well, I think for first and foremost, we’re one of the few companies in franchising that’s not relying on third-party financing. You know, there’s no PE involved in our company. And because I have my I tell my franchise owners actually proudly that my future wealth will come from the franchise itself, but my wealth and my frankly my income for all those early years came from my owned locations. And I do the work that they do and I want to be successful in those offices just as much as they do. And that’s what I kind of lead with that. And I think that’s important. It keeps me grounded to what we still actually do as a company. And I’m not just up at the on my, you know, in my white castle on the on the hill giving orders to them because they know, my franchise know that everything that I’m telling them to do, I’m doing in one of my locations. I’m doing it that way in my location.
And I agree. I think that every franchise system should have more than one location. I think they should have 2, 3, 5 because it does teach them what their franchises are going to be challenged with and helps them think about things differently. I was really surprised when I got into franchising that the multi-unit ownership concept was something that they would say, “Let go figure that out yourselves. We only sell single unit type of a business.” And I thought that’s crazy that you’d expect that. I understand now why it does make there’s a business case for it, and it makes sense in some instances of franchise franchising. So I definitely get it. I just don’t believe that’s the way it should be done in senior care business because I think that there’s so many challenges that even if you don’t ever franchise or don’t ever open a second location. Operating your first location allows the owner to actually take that step of being the operator to being the owner. And if you don’t have those systems in place, there’s no way that person can ever do that. They have they have to figure it out themselves. And I don’t think that’s the job of the franchisor to not do that. I think they should do that.
I owe it to my franchises. I want them to have the life that I had when I decided to franchise. I want them to multiple locations. And I had a great life because I was playing golf a lot more than I do now. I was enjoying time off more than I do now. I was doing all these great things. And I thought, “Oh, I’ve got so much free time. I’m gonna start a franchise. And you know, it was it was one of the single crazy decisions I made in my life, I think.
But I want my franchises to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the same way. And they can only do that if they operate it like it’s truly a business that is managed by people and that they empower their individuals. All the things we’re talking about as me as the CEO, I have to do. I want my franchises to recognize at their level; they’ve got to do the same thing. They’ve got to empower the people underneath them, let the business operate the way it’s supposed to, and don’t think that they’re the ones that have to solve every single problem. And if they’re not there, then it’s not going to run.
And we see that in franchising all the time. I think you see successful franchises who own multiple units, but they’re not in the trenches every single day. They’re enjoying what it means to be a true business owner. And I just want every one of my franchises to have a strong business, very profitable for them, hopefully very uh high-end revenue, but also that they actually enjoy. I don’t want them to feel like they’re tied to it in any way, shape, and form. Uh that negatively at least.
Rob:
Sure. Jeff, what’s one of the biggest challenges that one single unit franchise owner has when they do become a multi-unit owner, and how do they overcome it?
Jeff:
It’s the startup phase. I think you have to do the second one like you did the first one, pour a lot of time into it, and you can’t do that if you don’t have the team in place at location number one. I’ve seen it happen over and over again in our space and in others where they just they thought they had the team they needed but that team wasn’t following the systems that were in place to be ran. They created some of their own systems, as tends to happen and those weren’t thought out thoroughly enough. So because what in our space. It’s not just about finding that great person to run your business. It’s about the that person that’s got the motivation and desire to do well but that’s willing to follow the system the way it’s supposed to be followed. Because then if the system is being followed and replacement has to occur, the next person can step in and the business continues to operate. If that individual is put their own systems in place to manage things not following our systems, then the second location becomes really difficult should something happen in location number one and those problems just compound as you move up to three or four locations.
Frank:
I agree. Rob, I bet you’ve seen this many times before. A franchisee is excited. They want to buy a second unit, third unit, and they do and they forgot how hard they worked to develop that first and they can’t understand why is this not successful? It must be the territory of course or it must be something else. Or you can see the second store getting all the love and now but then the first store starts kind of moving backward.
Rob:
Yeah. And everything the theme of it is scale. How do you scale? And the only way to scale is to have the systems and hire the people to execute those systems. If you’re trying to do everything yourself for all of us, for everybody in business, there’s only that that ceiling gets gets low, right? Because if you have if you own one franchise, you could have somebody that can be just grinding and working it and being quote unquote successful in their own right, but it’s totally different in owning a second or third. You have to just operate completely different and some people are not cut out for it.
Jeff, how did you uh when you started expanding, you were in in Texas kind of built a brand in that area. When you moved outside your core market, was that with a franchisee or was that with a corporate store?
Jeff:
No, all of our locations were in Texas. Odessa, Macallen, Corpus, San Antonio, Austin. Our first couple of locations were in Texas, but then we quickly got to Arizona, a couple other states. So, there’s really luckily in senior care, there’s no supply chain that you have to worry about. There’s no ingredients that were sourcing or things of that nature. So, there was no limits there. Though, there are rules and regulations that happen state by state that could be a little different.
But, for the most part, it’s kind of rinse and repeat early stage. It’s a little different now, but not dramatically different than those early days. So, we were able to expand other states, your marketing or your brand awareness campaigns.
Rob:
T reason I’m asking is when I’ve worked with uh emerging brands will kind of have a brand and a market presence but it’s really based on customer retention because they’ve maximized their area. Franchise open a store 10 states away and it’s like oh nobody knows us here.
So that’s kind of where I was leading with the question. How do you kind of break into a new market with marketing and operations?
Jeff:
Well, and thankfully I’ll say in this industry, in this space, most of our core business, it comes from referral sources. So, you make relationships with people that are maybe hospital staff, home health staff, things of that nature. And in interestingly enough, those people rotate quite a bit. You don’t form a relationship with a company. you actually do form relationship with individuals.
So, no matter how long you’ve been in business, you’re always reintroducing yourself to someone in your local market. So, it’s the same process when you go somewhere you’ve never been before: introducing yourself. The concept sometime is, you know, 35 years doing this. I’ll go out still today with a franchisee marketing, talking to referral sources in either an event or something else, and I’m surprised at how many professionals in healthcare when we tell them what our services are, they’re like, I didn’t know that existed. It’s like, you want to spend a lifetime in an industry and then to find people don’t even know your industry exists. It’s like, “oh my gosh!” It’s not a great feeling, but it means that the brand awareness, no matter what, and how hard we work, is always going to have to be continued and and talked about at the local level, no matter what.
Frank:
Yeah. Jeff, what’s the investment range to open a location?
Jeff:
Investment is$95,000–$145,000. So, it really depends on staffing levels. So, if someone is themselves going to take on the role, they’ll be on that lower end of the spectrum. And if they’re going to have to hire all their staff, it’s going to be on the on the upper end of the spectrum.
Frank:
Okay. And how are territories designed?
Jeff:
It’s a based on the senior population.We still have to use population data over 65. So, we give someone as zip codes with 65 plus. We try to, you know, open that up to obviously areas within their community that have some wealth metrics as well to make sure they’ve got a good solid territory. But there’s a there’s just a lot of space available in the US today that that has even though there’s a lot of senior care companies out there. There’s not… we’re in this… Most people don’t know that in senior care the 85 plus population is important to look at and there’s no good data on that. But what we have found is that the 85+ population in the last 3 decades prior to 2020 was almost flat. The growth rate of those of that age population was kind of flat for the 3 decades. Now that’s a big deal because in franchising in this space, the industry just blew up in from 2000 to 2015. Fifteen years of immense growth, major companies getting into this and those major companies all growing along with us. But the population they were serving was flat.
But starting in 2020 to 2030, there’s a doubling of that growth rate. And then from 2030 2040, there’s a doubling again. So, a quadrupling of happening in that time frame. So, from a long-term business perspective, this is not a trend. This is not a fad. We will need more people involved in the business. I don’t care what brand they go with. We’re just going to need more operators because we’re just going to it’s going to be all hands on deck to deal with the aging population of American. Most people just aren’t aware of that because it’s not in our face off enough. We hear some headline type of things out there, but you know, I think we had a lot of attention to the Baby Boomers as they were retiring and there was a lot of attention leading up to that. There hasn’t been a lot about it even though you know we’re all in brands and talked to brands that are that are generating from that group of people as they’re in their retirement phase but as they get to the next phase at 85 plus and they start needing help it’s going to be a a massive challenge for the for United States as a whole.
Frank:
Wow. Well, it’s a huge challenge and it’s a great opportunity for people to help others and and you know, control their own destiny with an incredible franchise, Jeff. I mean, again, kudos to what you’ve been doing and I love your passion and your why behind everything and to be out as long as you have and still have that incredible drive is something to be celebrated and you’re an inspiration. Thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah, it’s definitely been a great journey. I mean, I love what love what I do. I get up every day and enjoy helping people out, knowing that whatever I’m doing is helping that senior stay at home and helping a caregiver get a job. And that’s just a fantastic thing to have every single day. You’re doing great work, man. Well, look, if someone was interested in learning more about your franchise, where would they go?
Jeff:
Jeff: Visit caringfranchise.com or our main site caringseniorservice.com is the easiest way to get a hold of us.
Frank:
Jeff, Rob, thank you so much for being on the show, guys. I appreciate it. Jeff, keep doing the great work, man. Uh, again, thank you so much. And, uh, I appreciate you being on, Rob. Thanks for being a co-host again. You at 100 locations riding your bike to 100 locations.