StartupHomeCare Blog

What A Home Care Franchise Won’t Tell You

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What A Home Care Franchise Won’t Tell You

We are sometimes asked by those who have talked to a franchise how our AHI Group agencies will beat out the franchises who are already “embedded in their local community?” Our response is to encourage these individuals to go to a hospital or other healthcare facility in their local community and ask a discharge planner “could you recommend a home care agency to me?” What they typically find is that most of the discharge planners will refer them a home health company (for skilled RN care) and the ones that do understand the difference between non medical and skilled home care will usually say “we don’t refer, we give out a list” and hand you a list of 5-10 home care agencies. If you look at that list you will see there may be some franchises listed on there but 1/2 of the home care agencies are usually not franchises (on average).

So, franchises are certainly not the only group out there getting referrals from the healthcare community. The reason being that everyone knows that every home care agency (franchise or not) is owned by an individual and that person can be a good or not so good manager of their business. There are great franchise owners out there and terrible ones – and these case workers have been around long enough to know that.

In addition, a recent large study showed that 89% of caregivers will switch home care agencies for an extra $2/hour. Those agencies paying the most attract the best caregivers. Franchisees are paying 1/3 of their take home income to their franchiser and have less to pay their caregivers. The end result is a franchise has to charge the client more if they want to compete with getting the best caregivers.

No Name Brand In The Home Care Industry

The general public usually have no idea what the home care industry is all about – let alone know of a quality home care agency they can trust. The litmus test for this is to go and ask five of your neighbors this question: “Which home care agency would you recommend for my aging parent?” You will find some blank looks on their faces or scratching of heads. However, if you were to ask them: “Where can I find a good burger around here?” they would likely give you the name of a McDonald’s, or Burger King, etc. close to their area – because these are branded names in the food industry.

In reality, there is no name branding in the home care industry. There is no free lunch for a franchise. Everyone must go out there and make it happen to get noticed in their community and stay on the noticed list. This is where it is very important to have something that sets you apart from the crowd. Our unique all in-house Veterans Pension Benefit Program is one thing that sets our AHI Group members apart from the crowd and we guarantee that you will beat out anyone else in your community if they are doing anything with Veterans Pension Benefits. Request access to our “Intro To Home Care Video” series to watch a video on how our VA Pension Benefit Program beats out any competition in that arena – hands down.

No Territory Restrictions That Stunt Growth

AHI Group does not restrict its members to a small territory consisting of 250,000 people – like a franchise does. The average city has 10% seniors located within it. So, if one has a territory with 250,000 people that leaves 25,000 seniors in that community. On average, about 10% of seniors need assistance with activities of daily living. Therefore, that leaves 2,500 seniors who will need your services. Depending on the existing competition in your community, this may or may not be an issue. However, why take the chance of restricting yourself to such a small area when starting out? What if you get your foot in the door of a hospital or healthcare facility that is “outside” of your area and you are not able to get that same foot in the door in your own area right away? You are passing up massive amounts of potential revenue when you are not able to move where the business and your marketing efforts lead you.

AHI Group wants you to have the best chance of success and so it does not restrict it’s member’s ability to market wherever they want. After all, we cannot stop every other home care organization out there moving into your “protected territory” – even if we were to restrict our other members from coming into your area. We believe it is better to allow the 1 or 2 potential other AHI Group members to have access to your area rather than restrict them that access and therefore have to restrict you and them to a territory that we cannot protect from all the other home care companies out there.

Deciding where you want to market and being able to follow your leads – wherever they take you – with the constant backing of our coaching team will allow you the best opportunity to grow your business during that all important first year and ensure you don’t end up failing to get off the ground like 20% of the home care agencies out there in the industry. Giving you the option to market wherever you get a “foothold” and having our professional support team behind you every step of the way during those all important first years will give you the edge needed to help ensure your success. It is important that you go into this market place with both hands free and professional coaching behind you – as apposed to struggling with one hand tied behind your back due to a small territory and no professional coaching behind you. That’s what we call flexibility, innovative thinking, and unlimited revenue potential!

What A Consulting Company Won’t Tell You

We are sometimes asked what makes us different to a consulting company? Our answer comes in three parts. Firstly, our members are successful because our model has mutual financial motivation baked in.  Secondly, AHI Group has former successful home care agency owners who are personally assigned as coaches/mentors to each AHI Group member after they open their doors for business. The result is that AHI Group members get the day to day help, expertise, tools, and motivation they need to handle the situations that occur and set themselves apart from their local competition.  Thirdly, a large consulting company will share its tools and techniques with thousands of home care agencies – leading all their clients to use the same play book. AHI Group only shares is proprietary marketing programs, tools, and techniques with its 300+ members.

The franchise model is a proven system that has stood the test of time with much lower risk for those who get plugged in. Similar to a franchise, AHI Group is motivated to care about the success and growth of its member agencies – due to its in house Veterans Pension Benefit Program. The more clients AHI Group members bring to the in-house Veterans Pension Benefit Program the more recurring revenue AHI Group will receive – its a win-win. Compare this to a home care consultant who’s goal is to fill seminar classes, has already been paid their seminar fee, and is “on to the next”. Consultants rarely keep track of whether or not the people who attend their seminars are still in business a few months or a couple of years down the road.

What You See And Hear Is What You Get

We are not in the business of putting up “smoke and mirrors” or doing a “bait and switch” to get you to pay us a fee for a attending a 4 day home care seminar. One consulting company out there claims to have the “Veterans Home Care Assistance Association” attend their 4 day training seminar to teach attendees about VA Care Programs. The problem with this statement is that there is no such association in existence! That’s a fake name. In addition, some “Home Care Consultants” will claim to be “National Speakers” but have never even owned their own home care business – let alone grown it from the ground up into a multi-million dollar business – and yet they claim to now be teaching others how to grow successful home care businesses.

Franchises, on the other hand, understand this important mentorship/coaching concept and have their successful franchise owners assigned to do the initial training and then mentor their new franchisees day to day after they open their doors. Anyone can read a book on home care or attend a home care seminar – but who wrote the book and who is doing the training at the seminar and who will be assigned as your mentor and coach ongoing and what is their experience/track record?

Lastly, some consultants toot that they will get you signed up with insurance companies, Medicaid, Workers Comp, etc. However, what they don’t tell you is that Medicaid in your area may only pay $15/hr and so you won’t be able to make more than $1/hr in profit. In addition, they don’t tell you that just because you get signed up with an insurance company doesn’t mean you will ever get a single referral from them. The insurance company have likely been referring to other seasoned home care agencies in your area before you came along and got your name on their long list. Why would they switch from using an agency they know and trust to your brand new agency? You can’t even dazzle them with your face and personality in person as their corporate offices are likely not even in your state.  So how do you expect to get any referrals? AHI Group uses its exclusive VA Program to win business with these insurance companies and we train our members on how to do that.

AHI Group – An Affordable And Smart Alternative

In March 2007, AHI Group founders launched their own non-medical home care business in the most competitive home care market place in the nation – Southern California – at the beginning of a global recession. The founders were able to grow their business into a multi-million dollar operation.  In 2010, AHI Group founders began helping others achieve this same success across the nation through the launch of StartupHomeCare.

The founders have created a unique business model that fits the needs they personally encountered as new home care business owners in a competitive market place. Our members get taught and personally coached/mentored by best in class senior care professionals. Our founders share the secrets of their success and give our members the unique tools necessary to beat out their local embedded competition. AHI Group currently has 300+ members nationwide and intends to grow that to 500 and cap it. AHI Group only shares its cutting edge proprietary techniques/programs with its exclusive group of members.

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