Why Tech Executives Are Choosing Home Care Brands Like Caring Senior Service

And welcome to another fabulous episode of the Franchise Fit Podcast, and I'm your host, Lance Graulich. So whether it's your first time listening or you're a return listener, well, thank you. I appreciate it. And today, we're going to delve into senior home care.

Amazing, amazing niche, often misunderstood. We have Dale Salinas. He's the director of franchise development for caring senior service. Up next.

And you get this one-on-one time with us versus a facility where you're having 10, 20, 30, 50 people or patients with one or two caregivers in that facility. But I still thought like senior home care, is this like assisted living? Is this a brick and mortar building? The answer is no.

And people want to age in place these days. This is something from day one that we're with you the entire step of the way in building to get to your point of getting close to a million dollars in revenue by year one or two, as opposed to year eight. This episode is sponsored by SEO Samba. Empower your franchise with predictable results and AI-driven marketing.

Dell, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks Lance. Appreciate you taking time to chat today. Excited for our talk.

I am super happy to have you. So, Del, this, I mean, what is the first sign when you're talking to people all day that want to get into a franchise? What's the first sign someone's not a fit for caring senior service? Yeah, so the first sign is if someone's not listening, if they don't want to really understand the business model.

So, you know, it's a simple model, but anyone getting into franchising wants to follow a system and a process. And when someone's not listening very well and doesn't want to take direction, they're probably not a good fit for carrying senior service. And I would doubt for franchising in general. So that's whether they listen, they have to be coachable, same idea, right?

Oh, 100%. 100%. People that want to take direction and give direction make the best franchise owners. So for those listening, you're always looking at a specific niche that's going to be recession-proof, recession-friendly, I like to say, a needed business.

Well, carrying senior service is also very low cost besides being what I call very recession-friendly. No matter what, you've got to take care of the seniors in your life and in this world. 1.2 million is the average in the item 19 in the franchise disclosure document per territory.

Great numbers. You have preferred lenders. And a lot of people can get into this for about 100 grand with an SBA loan putting your 20% down. So I wanted to make that statement.

So let's flip this to who is right. What is the formula for the successful franchise owners in your brand? And you've been around since the 90s, a long time. What is the formula for being successful with caring senior service?

Yeah, it's following the system and process. We're celebrating 35 years of being in business this year. And we're successful because we have a simple process. I never say easy when you're dealing with people, right?

it's never always easy but simple. And so the ideal candidate, the successful owners, are the ones that follow the process. And as you get into franchising, for everyone listening, you're going to hear that quite a bit. But it really is about making sure you trust and believe in the system and process and follow that system and process.

Dale, why does it seem that senior care is often so misunderstood? That's a great question. It's a question I deal with on a daily basis. even though we've been around 35 years, this is still a fairly new business.

A lot of people don't know what home care is. It's not something you learn about in our 20s, 30s, 40s, or even 50s. We learn about it when mom or dad or a loved one have an accident, an episode, and now they've been in the hospital, they've been in rehab, they're ready to come home, and they're being told, hey, someone's got to be with mom or dad because they can't toilet or bathe or make their own meals right now. So who's going to help them out?

This is where the adult child starts to freak out and say, I have no idea. What do I do? And we want to let them know there's help. Well, on the positive side, you don't deal with this until you get older, but everybody deals with this.

So this is something that's a growing need, and it's not going away. With more and more people aging to 65 and up and needing more and more care this is something that going to be growing And so it something that people don navigate until they forced to And so we work with owners who want to communicate that in their community build those relationships within their community so that when people need this service, we're available. And you spoke to that 1.2 million average gross buildings within our territories.

This is a huge demand that's growing and growing and growing. You don't need to manage hundreds of clients to be successful. You're managing 20 to 30 clients at a time to hit those numbers. So it's a very manageable, it's a very successful, it's a very doable business model for people that want to be hands-on, people that want to grow in their community, build those relationships with their clients, with their referral sources in their community, and then with their team, with their caregivers.

Yeah, and when you mention numbers again, I wanted to also mention I have plenty of friends in the senior care space, and I know their margins, their net, depending on how they operate their business, is anywhere from 15% to as high as 22%. And that's awesome margins for a worthwhile business where, I mean, you talk about empathy, you talk about feeling good. You know, I also want to address what you were saying. I thought when I first heard home care many years ago, I went through it with my parents like you were describing.

So I understood then immediately, whether I liked it or not, as to what senior home care was all about. In fact, I went back to New York to help the senior care franchise folks with my dad. I didn't want him to be alone. Mom was still there, but mom had other responsibilities in the house.

And it was a good experience. It was a needed experience. But I still thought, like, senior home care, is this like assisted living? Is this a brick-and-mortar building?

The answer is no. And people want to age in place these days. Right, Del? Correct.

Yeah, so, again, to kind of piggyback on the question on what is senior care, people know about it. People don't know about it. They think it's a personal care home where someone's going to or assisted living. There's many different places where a senior can go to get support, but to your point, people don't want to go to facilities.

They want to remain near their family. They want to remain independent as long as possible, but need a little bit of help. And this is where our growing industry is at, where there's more and more people who need a little bit of help to stay at home. And that's the challenge.

The challenge is that it's not a 24-7 facility. The challenge is that you are working with the schedule and availability of your caregivers, the needs of the person. You're working with their budget. And so it is that compassion to understand that people going through this, your clients are learning about it for the first time.

They have no idea what's covered and what's not. They have no idea what the cost is. And so you're educating. You're telling them this is what it's going to take.

And every time, our services are much more affordable than a full-time facility. And so you have to navigate that with the client to let them know, you know, this is what it would cost over here. This is what you get with us. And you get this one-on-one time with us versus a facility where you're having, you know, 10, 20, 30, 50 people or patients with one or two caregivers in that facility.

If mom or dad wants that one-on-one time, they're going with a home care brand. Aging in place. I love saying it because it's very descriptive. To me, that means I want to stay in my own place, whether it's a condo, apartment, house.

I want my own remote control. I want my own bed. I want my own pillow. I don't want to be in a strange place, especially as I'm a senior and I'm taking prescription drugs.

I'm not comfortable as it is. I mean, so there's a lot of training that goes into this. Talk about technology and, you know, you've been around a long time. What's changed?

What's stayed the same? Yeah, yeah, good. Great question. I love talking about this.

So, you know, as much as we're a home care brand, we've been leading in technology for quite a while. You know, what doesn't change is the care. What doesn't change is the working with the people, you know, the conversations, relationships you're building with your caregivers, your clients, your community. That's really the foundation.

but as technology changes, as it grows, and right now we're in a space where it's booming, it's growing more and more ways with AI, with technology, with automation, we're at a point where we've been able to maximize and leverage technology and AI to help with caregiver acquisition and recruitment, communication with your clients, the care navigation with the entire care team A lot of times people are coming home and they may have a nurse or a physical therapist occupational therapist there for an hour and then they leave but mom or dad still need care and so we have to be involved to understand what's going on with the nurse, what's going on with PT, OT, how can we help bridge those gaps.

So technology we're using with our proprietary software is an all-inclusive one-stop shop for everything you need for your business. It's a way to communicate with the entire care team and family. We've also leveraged different AI platforms and tools to have accessibility, to understand what the client needs when we're not there, and to trigger notifications when things are going on to make better decisions about the care plan. And there's no buttons to press.

It's very similar to talking to your Alexa at home or Siri. It's recognizing the needs, asking for help, and then we can take that information and modify the care plan. So there's a ton of opportunities that we are doing right now and are leading in that technology space for our clients, our caregivers, and owners. Amazing.

Another often misunderstood key is that most of the industry, when I mention to people home care or senior home care, and not all of the business is seniors, it could be somebody much younger that has special needs that needs to be taken care of as well but most of this business is non-medical talk a little bit about that yeah so you know we are non-medical a lot of people don't understand what that means and this impacts a couple of ways you know one is you know most health insurances are not covering our services because we're non-medical so the majority of our clients are private pay or working with a long-term care insurance policy that a lot of folks get when they're no younger they're they're riders or add-ons to a life insurance policy and no one talks about life insurance with their kids right it's always down the road when it's at that time you know you need to have a chat with with your folks to understand do they have this this long-term care insurance that will cover our services so non-medical is anything helping with activities of daily living they help with toileting bathing dressing preparing meals companionship respite care for the family these are things a family member can do but maybe aren't available so we come in and help it does not include wound care or administering medications even vital signs that consider medical so people don't understand what do you mean my insurance is not covering this well this isn't a health insurance this is something different so there are different ways to get the the client help to to pay but our services of non-medical are are parts of life that you're gonna need help with so helping out of bed helping go to the restroom right and it's a wide range everything from end-of-life care when somebody wants to be with their loved one, to companionship.

When we recognize mom or dad are a little lonely because spouse has passed and the house isn't as pristine as it used to be. Mom's a little depressed. She's not going out like she used to be. All these areas are where we make impacts with our clients because those are needs that vary from person to person.

You mentioned support earlier. Maybe a lot of people listening don't realize that you could start your own senior home care. business like this, but you're not going to do as well as when you join a franchise. The whole idea of a franchise is you have a model, you have the support, you have this playbook, and you have this runway.

I talked to somebody not that long ago, it was in a home service brand, not in senior care, and the son was concerned that dad was spinning his wheels eight years into a business. He made it to $850,000 after eight years. And he said, well, why would I join a franchise? I said, well, I hate to say it.

In that particular model, I have franchises you would have done 850 in year one. And there was dead silence on the phone like I didn't realize. Just pay your franchise fee. Accelerated growth is what I call it.

But talk a little bit about your support and what you're doing to support franchisees with training and then obviously as they get in the franchise and they're post-revenue. Yeah. So, again, people join a franchise system to follow a process that's proven and have that support. That's what you're paying the royalty for.

That's what you're joining the franchise system for to get that support. and because we've been around so long we have every piece of the business you're going to need already laid out any any system process vendor supplier any tool any task we have it all laid out and then we're walking you through you're not betting out tons of different platforms for accounting for scheduling for billing for assessments for recruitment everything's been bedded out everything is systemized in place and then we have a very deep support team We have a very deep bench of directors and people below our directors a headquarters team that with you in every part of the business so you get that one quality time no we not the the biggest gorilla in the room we right in the middle area which gives us the opportunity to spend a lot of one-on-one time with our owners build those relationships give you that quality time I don't know how many systems where you're a phone call text message virtual call chat away from anybody from any director to the CEO to where you have that relationship and so the support you're getting from the first conversation with me to meeting our directors to understanding what licensing is going to look like in your state to understanding what training is going to look like to recruiting your office team recruiting your caregivers how you're going to get clients and then the tools you're going to use this is something from day one that we're with you the entire step of the way in building to get to your point of getting to you know close to a million dollars in revenue by year one or two as opposed to you know year eight I absolutely love it so I understand there's a really interesting trend you're experiencing, you know, with a lot of layoffs or downsizing in the tech world.

You're getting a lot of people from the tech world coming at you looking to get into home care. Talk a little bit about how that translates. Yeah, so over the past, I'd say 18 months or so, you know, I'm seeing a lot of folks who are in project development, project management, and different tech sectors and in different industries, but have a similarity of working with technology and are seeing AI coming in. And on one hand, they're anticipating that at some point it's going to replace them in their role.

And there's some truth to that. However, we look at the opportunity to bring the two together, the AI, the tech, and the personal compassion piece. and a lot of people who have been in a corporate world or technology space for years and decades are seeing, one, I want to do something that's bringing more value in the world, something that's going to have purpose in what I'm doing. A lot of them have experiences personally that you spoke of or are seeing the big need and then saying, hey, I have this relationship with technology already.

I see that Caring Senior Service does the same. And they're coming to us to say, hey, how can I put these two worlds together and build on this opportunity with AI technology and doing a business that provides purpose and support. So I'm seeing that trend continue to grow. So in this business, the revenue usually isn't an issue.

There's plenty of customers. Every day, another 15,000 Americans turn 65. But what's the dirty little secret about caregiver recruiting that people just need to understand? Yeah, so first and foremost, this is going to be a priority from day one to year 20.

This is the part of the job that I talked about earlier about the compassion and the passion for working with your caregivers. A lot of people don't understand what that really means. There is no recruitment issue. There's a retention issue.

I say that because the caregivers are working in multiple agencies, multiple jobs. They're working to make ends meet like all of us are working. And they're only working when there's a client that matches their availability, their skill set, and the part of talent they can work. So that's a full-time role for somebody to understand that just as important as the client, more so as the caregiver.

And you have to build that relationship. You have to understand the caregiver is not usually the breadwinner in the family. If the spouse has opportunity to make more money for a day or a month, it makes sense to go with that, which means they're not saying no to you. they're saying yes to better opportunity for them and you have to have backup plans upon backup plans build those relationships have more than one caregiver working with your with your client so they understand that we're a team at the end of the day we're building the best care and providing the best care for our clients but you have to provide the best care for your caregivers too and you know people don't leave their jobs they leave their bosses so as an owner coming in you have to have that compassion to work with your caregivers and understand what do you need how can I help you be successful?

That's that part that a lot of new owners need to understand. Del, you've been an excellent guest. Give me your final thoughts, final words of wisdom for those looking for their first business. What advice would you give them?

Yeah, do it now. Reach out and have a chat. Give me a call, send me an email. Let's talk a little bit to understand what your goals are and how they can align with Caring Senior Service and see if we can get you moving in the next six to 12 months.

And for those of you watching and listening, I am happy to share Dell's info with you. I represent tons of brands in all industries. Happy to connect you with someone else. If for some reason you don't think home care is right for you.

Dell, thank you for being on the show. You were an excellent guest and look to have you back for some updates in the next couple of months, perhaps. Sounds good, Ness. I appreciate it.

It's great being here.