In-home care businesses among fastest-growing franchises

As owners of Right at Home in Reno, Mark and Elaine Wimbush employ caregivers to provide whatever help people need to continue living independently at home. One elderly client might want help with laundry and preparing meals. Another might need help with personal care, like bathing.

That kind of service probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of franchising, but businesses like Right at Home are among the fastest growing franchises in the country.

The number of U.S. in-home care franchises quadrupled to 2,570 in 2006 from a mere 480 in 2000, according to the most recent figures available from FRANdata, which tracks the franchise industry. And further growth is projected as more baby boomers reach retirement age and the number of disabled seniors increases.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects the number of people 65 years or older will double by the year 2020 and make up 20 percent of the U.S. population. The Urban Institute says 70 percent of today's 65-year-olds will need personal care services at some point in their lives to remain independent.

Also fueling the trend is the decreasing availability of informal care providers. Extended family members frequently live far apart, and more women, who traditionally shouldered much of the task of caring for elderly relatives, are working full-time.

In-home care franchises offer non-medical services, including cooking, housekeeping, running errands, companionship and personal care, such as help with bathing, toileting and feeding. Until recently, mom-and-pop providers dominated the in-home care industry. Now franchises are moving into markets across the country. Franchises provide business owners with organized training, marketing help and a network of industry expertise and experience.

Mark and Elaine Wimbush wanted to start their own business to give them more control over their long-term circumstances, both personal and professional. Mark is a CFO of a local manufacturing company, and Elaine is retired from an engineering career in the utility industry. Mark pored through hundreds of franchise proposals and then narrowed them to a handful, including a couple in the food industry. The Wimbushes used both their heads and hearts when they chose in-home care.

"It was something in which we knew we could make a difference," Mark says.

They opened the business three years ago in a 500-square-foot office, which they quickly outgrew. The Wimbush's daughter, Shayne Wimbush, beat the pavement to let agencies and local hospitals know they were in business, and the owners began hiring caregivers. Word spread fast, the client list grew, and they moved into a new office. While other businesses laid off employees in the recession, the Wimbushes couldn't hire them fast enough. Revenues doubled in the last year, Mark says, and now the business employs six office staff members and more than 80 caregivers, who work part- and full-time in clients' homes.

The business now is working toward certification to provide in-home care for Medicaid beneficiaries. In the next two to three years, the couple will consider opening a location in another region, such as Las Vegas or Phoenix.

In-home care sometimes is more of a calling than a business proposition. Bob Redding, owner of the local Comfort Keepers in-home care franchise, never planned on entering the industry. He was a banker for 25 years when his mom in southern California became ill and he faced the challenge of finding proper care and support for her.

"I began to see firsthand how some people treated the elderly, and I walked out of the only career I knew," he says.

His business started by offering companionship, light housekeeping and meal preparation services, and it became the fastest growing office of Comfort Keepers in the nation. Within 30 days the business was offering 400 hours a week of services.

"It almost killed me," he recalls. Growth leveled off in the fifth year, and now his business employs 46.

Besides managing the business, Redding has experienced the poignant connections between caregiver and client firsthand. He tells about one client, an elderly man who needed companionship and something to do besides the craft classes offered at his assisted living facility. Redding picked him up one night and took him to Bully's to watch Monday Night Football and drink a beer (with permission from the client's doctor, of course).

Afterward the client told him, "I felt like a man again tonight."

The next Monday, Redding returned to pick up the client and found four other guys, also residents of the facility, waiting to go to Bully's, too.

The biggest challenge of running an in-home care business is finding the right people to hire.

"Through banking I had been through every hiring class known to man," Redding says. Yet he still hasn't found a precise formula for gauging whether someone will make a good caregiver. The most important, basic ingredient is something that can't be measured or taught: compassion.

Elaine Wimbush agrees hiring is a big challenge. When she meets candidates, she asks herself: "Would I put this person with my mom or my dad?"

The recession, though, has increased the field of available of employees, and in-home care providers say they're finding better-qualified applicants, such as personal care assistants who have lost their jobs through hospital cutbacks.

Rewards of the business extend beyond revenues. Redding says in-home care services allow adult children, no longer overwhelmed with all the logistical details of daily care, to reconnect with their parents. One client told him: "You've allowed me to be a daughter again to my mom."

Says Elaine Wimbush: "You can't do this just as a business. You have to do it because you're compassionate and care about the quality of life of your clients. You have to be committed...I love it when a family calls and says thank you, to know we made a difference."