Business Model Simplicity

This profile showcases a global company that has achieved hypergrowth by early understanding of a megatrend and successful application of a tested business model.

Introduction

Since it was founded in 1994, the Home Instead Senior Care franchise network has consistently been recognized as one the world’s leading franchise businesses. Today, with more than 1,100 independently owned and operated franchises throughout the United States and 13 additional countries; Home Instead is a global leader in providing care for seniors and resources to family caregivers.

Home Instead Senior Care has developed an amazing record of service to seniors, support for family caregivers and business achievements including:

• Creating more than 5,000 jobs for franchise owners and their office staff
• Establishing more than 65,000 jobs for caregivers
• Serving more than 1,000,000 clients
• Providing 60 million hours of service annually
• Being recognized as the largest senior care franchise business in the world

In 2015, Home Instead Senior Care franchises generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue by providing the following services:

• Companion and home helper – meal preparation, medication reminders, errands and light housekeeping
• Personal care services – bathing, dressing, incontinence care and mobility assistance
• Alzheimer’s or other dementia care – managing difficult behaviours, encouraging social engagement and keeping seniors safe
• Transitional care services – transport/medication pickup, hospital/facility discharge service
• Hospice support – supplemental support and respite care for family caregivers

In the United States and Canada, Home Instead Senior Care uses a direct-franchising model. Home Instead, Inc. serves as the franchisor and awards the rights to franchises and provides training, marketing, technical and operational support directly from its home office in Omaha, Nebraska. For these services, franchisees pay a royalty to Home Instead, Inc.

For expansion into international markets, Home Instead, Inc., employs a master franchising model to grow its business. The global headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, serves as a master franchisor, which owns the Home Instead Senior Care brand name. We then work to identify master franchisee partners in specific countries to enable our development.

Prior to entering a market, we conduct a market analysis of elder care services offered by the public sector and a country’s openness to the concept of franchising. Additionally, we look at a country’s population and ageing demographics.

We firmly believe that the master franchise concept enables us to provide the highest-quality care to older adults and their families. We partner with entrepreneurs who possess business and leadership skills which enables the home office to tap into their knowledge and expertise of the local care sector, culture and family structures. The master franchisees can grow their businesses rapidly, more so than if they tried to start a home care business from scratch because they have the ability to learn from the experiences and collective knowledge the Home Instead Senior Care franchise network accumulates by providing more than 60 million hours of care annually.

We work with our international franchise partners, and potential partners, to identify gaps in public sector care services that may provide us with an opportunity for expansion. We educate government agencies, along with older adults and their families, that Home Instead Senior Care services complement government services; we don’t look to replace government-provided care.

Our ultimate goal is to offer seniors and their families personalized, relationship-based care that can supplement care services offered by the public sector, which are, typically, task-based.

Peer CEO Advice

• When selecting business partners, in our case franchise owners, look for leaders, not just business owners/operators.
• Don’t get distracted; continue to invest in the core of your business.
• Establish open lines of communication in your organization – feedback can inform business operations and many of your best ideas come from the field.

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