Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Franchising with Heart: Jerod Evanich on Growing A Place at Home | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care

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Franchising with Heart: Jerod Evanich on Growing A Place at Home | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Jared Evanich,
0:30
President and Co founder of A Place at Home, which was created
0:34
by Jared and his business partner Dustin Destefano to
0:37
provide the same level of care that they themselves would
0:40
provide their loving grandparents.
0:43
And they created a system to be able to provide this level of
0:46
care nationwide. A Place at Home assists caring,
0:50
entrepreneurial minded people in realizing the freedom and
0:54
satisfaction that comes with owning their own business.
0:57
And whether you're looking for companionship and connection,
0:59
medication management and care coordination, or recovery help
1:03
from a specific ailment or procedure, A Place at Home can
1:07
help. Now before we get into all that
1:09
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:12
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Add Back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
1:39
President and Co founder of A Place at Home.
1:42
Jared, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
1:44
today. Absolutely, Anthony.
1:47
Glad to be here. So, Jared, tell me about the
1:49
inspiration for first Starting a Place at Home.
1:53
Yeah, most certainly. So my background in general has
1:59
been in entrepreneurship, but really was focused out of
2:04
college back in the O eight kind of recession era was was real
2:08
estate. And so you know, really 0
2:11
connection to healthcare, about as close to healthcare as I ever
2:15
got was actually marrying a nurse who still married to this
2:19
day 16 years later. But what brought awareness to
2:26
me, to the in home senior care industry was the need.
2:30
It was the need within my family, my grandparents needing
2:34
progressively more help, more help around the house,
2:38
eventually more help with things such as activities, daily living
2:42
and us having a very small family unit to be able to
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continue to keep up with some of their demands.
2:48
And rightfully so. My grandparents were absolutely
2:51
amazing people and would go above and beyond at any time to
2:55
try to do whatever I could for them, given all the experiences
2:59
and and things that they had provided me throughout my life.
3:01
So when they needed more care and there wasn't enough time to
3:05
help, we needed to find a solution.
3:08
And so in home senior care ultimately was that solution.
3:12
And as you had mentioned in your intro, actually started this
3:16
business with a best friend of mine from childhood, Dustin
3:21
Destefano, friend sense 4th grade business partners now for
3:26
what, 13 years. So that has been a great
3:31
experience. But Dustin had also had some
3:33
circumstances within his family that really rose awareness to
3:38
the need for in home care. And so, you know, 1 evening, you
3:44
know, Anthony, we were just talking here before starting
3:47
this, but conversations with friends and family about
3:51
entrepreneurship, about kind of bettering yourselves and, you
3:56
know, and, and family, that's really where the conversation
3:58
take took place. Combine that with a bottle of
4:01
wine and couple weeks later we were starting a business.
4:06
Some of the best laid business plans happen over a cocktail or
4:10
two. So so but how did specifically
4:14
the idea to start your own in home care business come up like
4:17
you both had exposure to this was an industry, this was an
4:21
area of need because of your grandparents.
4:23
Did you look at maybe what the service providers you were using
4:26
were doing and saying, I can think we can do that and and
4:30
maybe do that a little bit better?
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Was that part of what was going on?
4:34
Yeah, you know, 100%. So again, I really had no
4:40
experience or I didn't even know what in home senior care was
4:44
when seeing this as an option to really keep our grandparents at
4:49
at home. We started looking at the
4:53
competition and it was pretty robust even at that time.
4:56
You know, at that time in Omaha, NE, right?
4:59
Born and raised here, there was upwards of about 40 competitors.
5:03
A lot of them were mom and pop, but also some of the biggest
5:07
names in in home care, some of the biggest names in franchising
5:10
and even a couple of the largest competitors in in franchising in
5:15
the world. Two of which are are
5:17
headquartered right here in Omaha and fantastic companies
5:20
couldn't say enough great things about them.
5:22
But overall, what we were noticing is when trying to
5:26
receive services, the professionalism really was
5:29
lacking, whether it be from people not picking up the phone
5:33
call when we're trying to request services, perhaps it is
5:36
trying to have an assessment done for our family to receive
5:41
care and people either not showing up or being
5:44
unprofessional in one way or another during that process.
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And the consistent caregiver issue where people aren't
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showing up, we just saw a lot of areas to where we could put in a
5:58
little bit more energy and effort and focus to, to really
6:03
be a, a game changer, a big differentiator.
6:06
I, I say to our franchisees, a lot of the times, you know, if
6:10
you want to set yourself apart from your competition right now,
6:13
currently, like in your market, answer the phone, answer the
6:17
phone, do what you say you're going to do.
6:18
And right now you're above 75 plus percent of those that
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you're competing against. And so we saw, we saw that, you
6:27
know, that opening to make it a better experience and really
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start something that was solution focused.
6:35
Again, not having the background in healthcare, we needed a
6:38
solution. And so we just continue to keep
6:40
that at the forefront. What kind of solutions can we
6:43
provide? How can we continue these
6:45
conversations? How can we continue to help
6:47
people but also grow a business around it?
6:49
So without that background and any sort of healthcare solutions
6:53
previously, how did you guys first get started?
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Like how did you make your first hire?
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How did you find your first client like those those first
7:02
steps, I mean they, they can feel like giant leaps to take.
7:08
Yeah, most certainly. Well, it, it wasn't, it wasn't a
7:13
decision creating this company didn't it didn't, it didn't come
7:16
lightly, right. It was something that took a lot
7:18
of time and energy and effort in the creation of it.
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So after that night where we were, you know, really
7:25
discussing the creation of this business, it was almost a year
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later before we actually launched.
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So we really did our late work, our homework and and studied the
7:34
industry, saw what we needed to do in order to have a client
7:39
base and learn the marketing techniques and the community in
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which we are entering into. On top of that, Dustin and I
7:46
both got our certified nursing certificates.
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So certified CNA right here. You need some help with Adls.
7:53
I might be a little dusty, you know, may may have been a while
7:57
since I've myself have provided any care.
8:01
But we wanted to know what our employees knew.
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And so that was important to us to be able to have that kind of
8:07
training and get into some of that clinical experience as well
8:11
as being able to fill in for some of our staff and our
8:14
employees should they not be able to show up for a shift.
8:17
So that was most really important to us, the road to the
8:20
first client, right, that is a little different for everybody
8:25
including our our franchise owners.
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But given our research and our kind of in the community
8:32
awareness and what we did even to start the company is we, we
8:36
already essentially started a referral base.
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So a lot of the people we were talking to, we would ask, you
8:41
know, if you were me, where would you go right to, to find
8:45
business. You know, you've been in this
8:46
industry for 15 years, right? Sitting across the table from
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perhaps an executive director of an assisted living.
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If you were to open, you know, an in home care company, where
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would you go? Who would you talk to?
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Do you have anybody you'd recommend for us to talk to?
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Any kind of lessons learned, you know, that you could provide?
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And a lot of times these people were contacting and making
9:04
relationships with even before we started a company, they
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started be becoming our our referral sources.
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And so through networking, through research and through
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kind of navigating what referral partners are good, bad or the
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other, that's really where we started and got our first
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clients. And so I guess as I think about
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your business model, you're kind of recruiting and marketing to
9:37
kind of three different groups, right?
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Like the, the potential franchisees is, is one group.
9:43
You've got the, the caretakers and, and then you've got the,
9:51
the customers who are using the services, right?
9:54
So you kind of have to, you know, as I put on my, my
9:56
business hat, my my sales and marketing hat, you kind of have
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three different sales funnels that you're running there.
10:02
Is that kind of how you visualize or think about that?
10:07
Yes. So even let's just take
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franchising out of the equation for a second.
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It is still a three-part sale, right Because the the foundation
10:18
of our business is built as I mentioned on referral marketing.
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And so you have to find some of those, you know, kind of key
10:26
referral sources and you have to sell them on you on, on why they
10:31
should be referring you and your business, right?
10:34
So you have to sell the referral source to then trust you enough
10:37
to send that first prospect, then that first prospect, right?
10:42
You're going to have to essentially sell them as to why
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they should have trust in you, you know, in your services that
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you're providing. And then as you mentioned, as
10:52
well as the caregiver, right, The caregiver, there's countless
10:55
places out there that they can go and get work, right?
10:58
They can get hours. Why should they work with you or
11:02
for you or for the, the clients of place at home?
11:06
So that it most certainly is a sale process in itself.
11:09
Now, not just anybody can be a part of it, you know, as
11:13
caregiver and even client for that matter, right.
11:16
We, we most certainly will validate and make sure that they
11:20
are a good fit for our brand. But overall it is those good
11:24
ones. It's it's a sales, it's a sales
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process. Yeah, you mentioned in our pre
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interview about kind of the environment that you in the
11:32
culture that you've built. It's kind of like an exclusive
11:35
club that you know, you want people to feel like, hey, that's
11:38
something I really want to be a part of.
11:40
Can you describe what that culture means to you and kind of
11:43
how you you've built that? Yeah.
11:47
So it's, I, I would say the key term would be relationship.
11:53
The relationship driven. Our franchisees refer to our
11:57
brand as a franchise family. They know we have their back.
12:02
When we are looking for people to come into a place at home and
12:06
start a new location. It's an awarding process.
12:09
It's not a sales process, right. We have about a 60 day awarding
12:14
process that ultimately they have to go in front of who
12:18
they're going to be working with, our operations team, our
12:20
coaching team, our marketing team and final check off by my
12:24
business partner and CEO, Dustin Destefano, right?
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So we're kind of teeing it up for, you know, potential
12:30
franchisees for that special day where they get to meet the team,
12:34
get the check off from them before they then move forward.
12:38
But it all starts at the beginning of our validation
12:41
process, what we call, you know, for franchisees, let's make sure
12:44
that they're the right fit. How was that?
12:46
Well, we want them to be in line with our values, right?
12:49
We live that we are care philosophy, which is
12:52
compassionate, accountable, respectful and ethical.
12:55
So we are bringing that into the process early.
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If our conversation revolves around just making a profit or
13:01
just taking advantage of it of an industry with booming
13:04
potential client base like all those, although those things are
13:08
absolutely important, right? That's, that's really not where
13:11
our conversations start. There has to be meaning, you
13:13
know, behind it. Why would you be in this
13:15
industry versus something else? Why would you want to be a part
13:18
of your community and and bettering not only your
13:22
community, but the lives of clients and caregivers, right?
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Why this business? And so that's really where it
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starts. So when we can get our qualified
13:31
individuals and validate them through the process now, right,
13:34
best offense is a good defense. Now we've really kind of
13:37
protected our special brand and when someone's into it, right,
13:41
our other franchisees welcome, welcome them with open arms.
13:45
We have a group chat every day. It's going off all the time.
13:50
It's supporting people. It's it's cheering about their
13:54
successes. Also their when they may have a
13:57
hard time. It's the kind of easy button
13:59
when you have a quick question, you're like, gosh, you just
14:01
can't remember exactly how to do this or what is somebody doing
14:03
in this market? Boom, boom, boom.
14:05
And you know, someone puts a question out there immediately
14:08
they're getting answered not only, you know, by corporate,
14:11
but it's other franchisees, right?
14:13
So it's very supportive. You've got your basically own
14:17
built in internal mastermind going on there.
14:21
Absolutely. And that's, you know, a vault,
14:23
it's evolved into some mentorships that, that we have
14:27
and we support a few different membership functions as well as
14:30
like a franchise Advisory Council that we are on our third
14:34
year of our franchise Advisory Council, actually having our,
14:38
our, what four year would be our, our re election.
14:42
And so we, we highly encourage the voice of the owner and
14:48
putting our efforts, energy, our money into areas that are going
14:52
to best support them, right. So we want to hear what the
14:55
franchise owners have to say. Do you find that most of your
15:00
franchise owners come from a particular type of background?
15:04
Like were they in healthcare before?
15:06
Did they own another franchise? Is there any sort of
15:10
commonalities that you see? You know, we have franchise
15:16
owners from every walk of life background position, healthcare
15:23
related, non healthcare related, entrepreneurial backgrounds,
15:27
multitude of different cultures and ethnicities.
15:31
So it's a great kind of melting pot of of owners as well as
15:36
their skill sets. But to this day, we don't
15:39
necessarily have like a common theme as to what our owners have
15:45
in terms of their background. Now there are things that are
15:49
going to help them kind of hit the Fast forward button in
15:51
different areas, right? Cut that learning curve perhaps
15:54
or be better prepared for leadership or management type
15:58
experiences if they hadn't had it before.
16:00
But I would say everyone hits some type of learning curve,
16:03
whether it be not, you know, whether it be learning
16:06
healthcare in the lingo, hiring and managing staff, perhaps, as
16:12
I mentioned, leadership and their ability to to create a
16:15
team around them. So and then marketing, I mean, I
16:19
can't, I can't leave that out. If we were to say some of our
16:25
quickest people to market, those that have had like really quick
16:28
success, it's those that aren't afraid to be out in the
16:33
community making the name for themselves being the kind of
16:36
mayor of their town per say, and and, you know, not having a
16:41
problem talking to people, right.
16:43
So if people have been in in that type of capacity,
16:47
absolutely throw some management on top, you know, ability on top
16:50
of that. The rest could be history.
16:54
We have multiple owners with no healthcare background.
16:58
And the reason that that sort of marketing background or that
17:02
sort of ability to be the, the mayor in their local market is
17:05
so important, I'm guessing is because sounds like a core piece
17:09
of your business is sort of incorporating the, the referral
17:14
network getting. And and I'm curious to know like
17:17
who those people would be who are sort of best positioned to
17:20
be able to refer people to you that need those services?
17:25
Yeah. So in essence we do have two
17:30
prong marketing approach. One is digital, right,
17:34
everything online, YouTube videos, social media ads, you
17:41
name it, right. That is one part and that's a
17:43
great part and that allows us to get branding and awareness out
17:46
to so many in the market. But where where I say the
17:52
foundation and where the kind of which bears fruit the longest
17:59
and has the most impact on your business is going to be referral
18:05
based marketing, right? It's relationships getting out
18:08
to some of those key referral partners, you know, putting your
18:13
marketing hat on. If you want to find a key
18:16
referral source, you want to talk to those that are in front
18:20
of your potential customer when they need your service.
18:24
Follow your client's journey, like where are you picking up?
18:29
Where do they leave off? Where are they leaving?
18:31
Who are they talking to? Who are they around?
18:33
What are their services are they having or needing or utilizing
18:39
at that time? Is there different life changes,
18:42
right? Is there a different are they
18:44
selling a house, for example? Is there a long term care
18:47
insurance policy coming into place?
18:49
Are they needing medical equipment in their home?
18:51
Do they have a home healthcare need from a hospitalization?
18:55
Are they in rehab and not yet back home?
18:58
Are they in the hospital not going to rehab because it was a
19:00
short, you know, in and out type stay and they they're not being
19:06
admitted. Perhaps they just had an ER
19:08
visit, but they do need that extra help at home.
19:10
Start finding the people who are that last kind of touch point
19:14
before they need the service. And you're going to have a,
19:17
you're going to have a plethora of, of different referral, you
19:21
know, base relationships that are, that are there for, for the
19:24
take, right? And why I'm, I'm guessing other
19:30
competitors are probably having the same sort of thought
19:32
strategy. What puts you guys sort of front
19:35
of the line? Like why is one of these
19:36
referral sources saying, Nope, I'm going to send them to Jared
19:40
and a place at home. That's that's my.
19:42
Source Multiple, multiple reasons now, number one, and why
19:51
we start with the right franchisees, because when you're
19:55
sitting across the table from somebody who's been in this
19:57
industry and has a dozen other people just like you coming by
20:00
talking to them is there, they're going to want to see the
20:03
story. They're going to want to see
20:04
your why. They're going to know that
20:06
you're here, not just to start a business, but to take care of
20:09
people, right? That you're in for the right
20:10
reasons, that you're honest, that you can sit down and talk
20:14
about family and not necessarily just about business.
20:17
Some of those kind of indicators, now that I'll say
20:20
that just goes without saying. You've got all that and you're
20:23
still going up against people who are providing the same type
20:25
of services. That's where a place at home
20:28
brings in senior focused care, right?
20:30
We call it senior focused care. That's our core differentiator
20:33
because we do have a foundation built on in home care and
20:37
there's a lot of things we do within the home to even separate
20:41
our services in the home. But you know I would say revenue
20:45
source service number one in home care.
20:48
On top of that, we provide care coordination.
20:51
Care coordination allows us to have a hands off, sometimes
20:56
nursing approach, sometimes more social work type approach.
20:58
But it's helping our clients navigate the healthcare
21:01
continuum right outside of the home.
21:04
Doctor's appointments, geriatric specialist hospitalizations.
21:08
What comes next, right? Is it going to be durable
21:11
medical equipment and putting in some ramps and widening in a
21:13
doorway and having some different things installed?
21:15
We can help coordinate all that, right?
21:18
On top of that, we also do placement services.
21:20
So within the senior industry it's known as placement.
21:23
We call it senior living alternatives.
21:25
And so that allows us to have one of our clients can no longer
21:29
live at home. If their next best place is an
21:33
assisted living community, for example, we can help with that
21:36
placement. We can help them with that
21:38
alternative to their home, right?
21:40
And that also allows us to have that relationship, that referral
21:43
relationship with that assisted living.
21:46
And then we also do staffing. So our staffing utilizes our in
21:52
home care staff in a clinical type setting or a healthcare
21:57
organizational type setting, assisted livings and so forth,
22:01
potentially nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities.
22:05
And it again is a way for us to be able to partner with a lot of
22:09
those strong referral sources. So not to get too far into the
22:13
weeds here, but when we are sitting across the table, for
22:16
example, from a director of nursing at an assisted living,
22:20
we can help their we can help their residents stay there
22:24
longer, some of their more difficult or more higher, you
22:28
know, higher acuity, higher need residents.
22:31
We can help them with care coordination, right?
22:33
So they're loving that. Great.
22:35
You do more than just help somebody within, you know, this
22:37
assisted living who wants more care placement, right?
22:41
If that senior community is lower on their occupancy, maybe
22:47
they're 7080% full and they're looking for people to move in,
22:50
that's their SLA. We can help them to increase
22:53
their occupancy by referring some of our, our clients.
22:57
And then ultimately and, and lastly, staffing, right.
23:01
So almost everybody out there is looking for great staff or at
23:04
least a backup. And so if it's Thursday and they
23:07
have somebody call in for a Friday, Saturday shift, they can
23:10
give us a call and say, hey, you know, we need some little extra
23:13
help. Can a place at home help us with
23:15
a great care provider who's going to come in and work as if
23:17
we're they're one of our staff? So now when we are out in the
23:21
community talking to some of our best referral sources, we're not
23:25
just coming with our hand out. We can partner.
23:28
We can partner with them in helping them increase their
23:30
occupancy, increase their staffing rates with their higher
23:34
acuity clients and residents that they have.
23:38
Is this something that differentiates you from other in
23:40
home care companies being able to sort of offer this breadth of
23:45
services like this with the the staffing, the in home care and
23:49
all the the referrals that go back and forth?
23:53
Yeah. So absolutely.
23:55
Now there are a handful of in home care providers who may also
24:00
do care coordination. There's a few that do home care
24:03
as well as maybe placement services, there's a few that do
24:07
home care and maybe staffing. But we we put it all together
24:11
into one senior focused approach.
24:15
So for somebody listening who may think, oh, this is
24:19
interesting from a franchise perspective, I would like to
24:24
hear more like what are aside from the things that you've
24:27
already mentioned about the great support and the sort of
24:30
the built in mastermind, as I put it, what are some of the
24:33
other attractive things about this kind of a franchise
24:35
opportunity for with a with a place at home?
24:39
Yeah, no, great, great question. I talked about the franchise
24:44
like family and community that really resonates with people who
24:50
are wanting to be a part of this business.
24:51
They want to know that they're not all on their own, that they
24:54
do have people that are going to help them out along the way.
24:56
Now they better get that help no matter what franchise that goes
25:00
to, right? That that had better be a part
25:02
of it. Not everywhere do you get, you
25:05
know, open arms from other owners and dropping and you know
25:08
what they're doing to get that additional support.
25:11
It's fantastic, right? They, they most certainly know
25:13
that they're a part of a bigger system of community, but our,
25:16
our support is, is hands down the one of the best in the
25:21
industry. Three years running franchise
25:24
business business review FBR, we're top 50 company in
25:28
satisfaction of our owners, right.
25:30
So our owners are happy. They want to be a part of it.
25:33
They want to grow with this, they want to continue and and if
25:37
asked you know would you do this again, they most certainly
25:40
would. So that's absolutely very
25:42
attractive. Now we've invested heavily this
25:47
last. Well, we have always really
25:48
focused on our support, but this last year and really providing
25:53
more and additional options for our owners, we have started
25:58
another service that can help and do a lot of their
26:00
bookkeeping services for them. So they can just focus on
26:04
driving in business and not have to continue really focus on
26:08
their general Ledger, for example, and making sure that we
26:11
can be on top of their accounts receivable, for example, if they
26:15
get a little out of control, which doesn't happen too often,
26:19
but it's good to have an extra set of eyes on it.
26:22
But we internally have increased our support with our coaches.
26:27
Right now we have 1 coach who's 15 plus years in franchise
26:31
support across numerous industries.
26:34
She's just fantastic in terms of keeping people accountable and
26:38
driving people to success. We have another owner who was in
26:42
owned multiple other it's a different brand, but they owned
26:47
a home care business within a different brand and years past.
26:51
They owned multiple locations, one of the largest, you know,
26:55
franchisees of that prior system who we have coaching, right,
26:59
that's enterprise level management and coaching that
27:03
they're getting, you know that that we have access to and
27:06
another owner who grew one of the largest home care businesses
27:09
in in Dallas who has people who've been there done that.
27:14
That's hard to. Find that's really hard to find
27:16
that level of expertise that you can tap into and and draw from.
27:20
Yeah. You know, and The thing is, is
27:23
that even within our internal staff, right, we, we have staff
27:27
here that are now on the corporate level helping our
27:30
helping our franchisees and they've been with Dustin and me
27:33
for 10 years, right. One in which who started as a
27:37
caregiver, got their CNA, got their certified medication aid,
27:40
worked into the office into a staffing capacity, eventually
27:43
became an office administrator and now is coaching our
27:47
franchisees and, and you know, QuickBooks certified, but she's
27:52
everybody's easy button. You want to know where to go to
27:54
for a third party pay source and that's, that's who you go to,
27:58
right? And she helps all of our
28:00
franchisees launch the business. So a lot of tenured staff as
28:03
well. And so how many franchise
28:06
locations are there now or just total locations in general with?
28:09
This corporation, so we've got over 40 owners, about 46 open
28:14
locations, about 60 territories total.
28:18
So we are growing our goal by 2027 we want to hit the 100
28:25
territory mark. You know, a large part of what
28:29
we do is not only have goals of of new owners, but growth within
28:35
existing owners. Every year we have a number we
28:37
want to hit as to how many current owners want to add other
28:41
locations. Right now we've already hit that
28:43
goal for 2024, but we've got three other potentials that may
28:50
current owners that may be expanding into future locations
28:53
by the end of the year. So that would that would be a
28:56
great testimonial not only to to us, but obviously to the systems
29:02
and they're wanting not only to do it once, but over and over
29:05
again and into buying more territories.
29:08
So what are some of the geographies that.
29:10
You are. Looking for applicants you're
29:12
looking to grow into that that you're not already established.
29:17
You know, great question. I would say First off, we look
29:21
for the right people. There's very few areas in which
29:23
we cannot have the right number of seniors and the need to
29:29
support our services. So we've always been focused on
29:31
the person. And so outside of that, I mean
29:37
every major metropolitan area we have available outside of Omaha
29:43
metro, I'd say Little Rock, AR has taken Portland, OR is gone.
29:48
But outside of that, we've got availability clear across the
29:52
country. We've been wanting and have some
29:56
owners in the Northeast now where we've had a lot of growth
29:59
into areas we want to continue to grow.
30:02
Connecticut, it would be a fantastic area of growth.
30:07
We have a huge, last year was one of our largest growth years
30:10
in Texas, but we've only scratched the surface in Texas.
30:14
We know the area, we know the licensing.
30:17
Florida is the land of opportunity for us.
30:20
Very few locations in Florida and one of the Meccas of senior
30:25
living, so fantastic target there.
30:30
Michigan, Michigan's a great area we want to continue to grow
30:35
in. They have low barriers of entry,
30:38
which can help us to grow pretty quickly with the right owner who
30:42
can go in and and know that you may be facing a little bit more
30:46
competition because of the low barriers, but still be able to
30:48
take advantage of market share. Detroit Metro for sure.
30:53
Ohio continues to be a focus of ours as well.
30:57
We have what 3 or 4, I think we just 4 owners now in the in Ohio
31:04
still a lot, a lot of open space there.
31:07
I mean I could give you benefits of of of multitude of different
31:11
areas but. It sounds like there's a lot of
31:14
open territory. There's a lot of open territory.
31:17
You mentioned specifically about Michigan having low barriers to
31:20
entry. What does that mean?
31:21
What? What do they do differently
31:22
there? Just there's a handful of states
31:25
that still have no license for our service.
31:28
And so when we enter a market, we don't have to have that
31:33
additional step of of a license to, to have our services in
31:38
that, in that metro. So that is usually the most, the
31:42
lengthiest part of our launch process.
31:46
You know, 60 days would be phenomenal if we can get a
31:48
license within 60 days. But more commonly it's going
31:52
into 90, maybe 120 days. In years past, we've had some
31:57
license go almost 10 months to be able to finalize and secure a
32:01
license to be able to operate. So if there's, you know, and
32:05
there's, there's again, there's a handful of states that still
32:07
do not have that license, but but also with lower barriers of
32:11
entry, you're going to have a few more competitors.
32:15
But as we go into those markets, we still bring our same
32:20
standards of care. And so it doesn't matter if
32:23
you're licensed or not, we have a standard of care as if you
32:25
were right. So that itself has a built in
32:28
differentiator from what they may be receiving from some of
32:30
their competition who's not licensed.
32:34
Jared, most of the people I talked to continue to tell me
32:37
it's a pretty tight labor market.
32:39
I'm curious what you guys have tried and found success with in
32:43
terms of recruiting and maintaining good caregivers.
32:50
Oh, you know, so many things. It's, it's, it's been a focus of
32:56
ours ever since we, we launched the business, you know, going
33:02
back doing our market research almost 14 years ago into this
33:06
industry, the number one concern was caregiver turnover, right?
33:13
And the ability to get caregivers.
33:15
And so it has always, always been an issue.
33:18
And now COVID, during COVID and kind of those post COVID couple
33:23
of years, it was rough. It was not easy to find staff.
33:29
It was one of the first times in a place at Holmes history when
33:33
we have multiple locations on a waiting list.
33:35
You know, we have clients who need care, but we don't have the
33:37
caregivers to provide it. Things have swung back into the
33:43
employee into the ployer side of things now to where we have
33:49
again an abundance of applicants coming through.
33:52
We have kind of shifted back again from putting so much time
33:55
and energy and emphasis and finding people that now we have
33:59
all these people and we need to shift our, our attention back to
34:03
getting clients right. And so there is, there has been
34:07
that swing. We currently have oh, about 1300
34:12
caregivers active across the US currently.
34:17
And that number is only gone up, you know, since well it's, it's
34:23
always going up. But I mean we were at 1000 even
34:28
as of February of this year. So we have, we have really kind
34:35
of hit new heights in terms of total number of of caregivers.
34:41
So it, it has not been as big of an issue of finding them.
34:44
It always remains one of our key priorities in planning on
34:48
retention and being able to make sure we keep them.
34:53
So that, that continues to be a, a focus of ours.
34:58
We have done countless things throughout this, throughout the
35:01
years to help in this category. I'll, I'll name a few, but we
35:06
have, for example, certificates of, of care that we have
35:11
designated for our caregivers that if they complete a certain
35:14
care certification, say for example, for dementia care,
35:17
perhaps they're getting a raise their franchise owner, right.
35:21
Again, as we were talking before, each of our locations
35:24
are owned and operated by a specific company utilizing our
35:27
branding. But should that franchise
35:29
implemented in a bonus structure around the development, It's
35:33
something we highly, highly encourage.
35:35
But developing your staff, right, making sure that they
35:37
become bigger, better caregivers and potentially showing them
35:42
that pathway to this not being just a stepping stone.
35:45
So we have a career path that we show all of our, all of our
35:50
employees as to where they are now and where potential they
35:53
could go, whether it be from ACNA to ACMA to a field
35:56
supervisor, a scheduler, recruitment and retention
35:59
specialist, you know, potentially again, the office
36:01
manager or care coordinator and then all the way into they could
36:05
be a franchise right at some point in time or take over the,
36:08
the business. And and we know of we know of
36:11
many companies have not yet had one at the place at home, but
36:15
definitely have heard of many companies that caregivers have
36:20
grown their way into franchise ownership.
36:22
So that is a future that we show as possible with our business,
36:26
continuing education, continually making sure that our
36:31
best offense is a good defense and putting in more steps and
36:35
qualifications to be, you know, qualified and eligible for the
36:41
position. We have a very robust electronic
36:48
applicant tracking software where it's one app everybody
36:53
goes to, they can do all their paperwork, they can submit
36:57
everything through all the way from hours to interviews.
37:01
And just kind of one stop shop that has taken our hiring
37:05
process and which used to take upwards of two to three weeks,
37:08
including orientation to where we can find someone, get the
37:11
right information, do a phone interview and have them into
37:14
orientation next day, right. So it's, it gives us the
37:18
opportunity to just be that much more quick to get the good ones
37:21
right that that are out there and that want to work.
37:25
Anthony, I could probably have a whole another session on things
37:28
that we've done to try to, you know, continue to promote
37:31
retention. But those, those are some that
37:33
we're kind of focused on now. Well, that's great stuff, Jared.
37:36
Excuse me, because, yeah, like I said, this is been a big theme
37:40
with a lot of the folks I've talked to is it's hard to find
37:43
good folks. And it sounds like you guys have
37:46
sort of crested that hill of the challenge coming out of COVID
37:50
now. But right then once you find
37:52
somebody, how do you hold on to them?
37:53
You know, and that's that's not easy.
37:55
And I like what you're saying about investing so much into
37:59
employee development, right? And their education and
38:04
furthering their career and showing them that there's a
38:07
path, if they're interested to work their way up and to
38:11
possibly, you know, one day even, you know, running and
38:13
owning one of their own franchises.
38:17
And so, yeah, I, I think it was, this was terrific to hear that.
38:22
The other thing that really struck me was the, the software
38:24
that you've got in place now that really cuts down on that
38:27
hiring and onboarding time. So I've heard this from a lot of
38:31
employers, too. They're like, yeah, we like, we
38:33
keep missing out. Like we find somebody who's
38:35
really good, but by the time we get around making them an offer,
38:38
they're already somewhere else. It sounds like you've, you know,
38:43
kind of shortcutted that challenge too.
38:44
If you find somebody, you can make them an offer and and get
38:47
them started right away. That's got to, you know, help
38:49
with that conversion rate of getting getting people on
38:53
boarded. Yeah, Yeah, most certainly it,
38:57
it definitely has helped eliminate a lot of that time
39:01
consuming process and along the way reduced our administrative
39:05
tasks, right, which makes us more efficient and allows us to
39:08
use our office staff or franchisees kind of office or
39:11
administrative staff, but their focus in other places.
39:15
You know, sometimes it's interesting and fun to sort of
39:20
highlight a specific success story, whether it would be on
39:24
the caregiver's side or a senior that was in need of care, you
39:29
know, maybe a particularly challenging situation and
39:32
something that you guys were able to do to kind of to help
39:36
them that you know, it. It's it's a story that warms
39:39
your heart and you know that that you can sort of draw
39:41
attention. To and to.
39:43
To help continue to build that culture inside your company.
39:46
You think of anything like that? Yeah.
39:50
So you want successes, you want challenges.
39:54
Do you want successes, you know, that came out of, of challenges
39:58
or perhaps, you know, great stories of, you know, past
40:02
clients or caregivers. I've I've got.
40:05
I've got a lot of stories. If nothing else, I have, I have
40:08
a lot of stories and experiences that I would, I would be happy
40:11
to share. I'll rattle off a few and stop
40:14
me if I get too long winded. But, you know, to start, I would
40:19
say that, you know, Dustin and I were two young guys in a
40:25
predominantly older and female industry, and we didn't have
40:30
healthcare experience. We had to roll with the punches,
40:33
learn as we go. And we got some punches.
40:36
We said some of the wrong things to people.
40:38
And you know, we we learned from it, right?
40:41
So being able to kind of overcome what you may think
40:45
should stop you in business or pursuing your, you know, passion
40:50
or what is it that you want it, that you want to do is just just
40:53
go after it, just just get it done.
40:55
Do it. Find those experiences, make
40:56
those mistakes, learn from those mistakes and.
41:00
So let's let's do a little bit of a deep dive on this, if you
41:03
don't mind, like tell me a little bit more about those
41:05
first days, right. You because you guys were
41:08
outsiders, you had no healthcare experience.
41:09
You were young. You're guys in in an industry
41:12
that's more female driven, you know, with, with older folks,
41:15
you know, more established folks that you know, working in it.
41:18
You guys had to feel like you were complete outsiders.
41:21
And they're, I'm guessing, I don't want to put words in your
41:23
mouth, but were there times where you're like?
41:25
What are we doing? Like this doesn't make any
41:29
sense. Like we're just hitting our
41:31
heads against the wall. Did you have some of those times
41:33
in the early days especially? You know, once our mind was set
41:38
on it, to tell you the truth, there there wasn't a whole lot
41:42
of hit in the head on the on the wall.
41:44
There really wasn't. There was only there was only
41:46
moving forward and figuring out, you know, ways that that, you
41:51
know, finding this, finding the solution.
41:55
Dustin and I like if you look at your strengths Finder, right?
41:58
If you ever done your strengths Finder, both of our number one
42:01
attributes is competition. And so you put us into a
42:05
competitive industry and and tell us we can't do something.
42:08
It's only going to drive us harder.
42:11
When we told our families and friends that, you know, these
42:14
two young guys are going to start a senior care business,
42:17
they thought we were nuts, right?
42:19
Like, what are you guys? Like, what are you talking
42:21
about? You have no idea what you're
42:22
doing right? But didn't let didn't let that
42:24
stop us. And again, really that only that
42:28
really only had had fuelled us throughout the years.
42:30
But you know, I would say we were never ones to think we knew
42:35
it all and that we wanted to keep our minds open to what
42:41
could make us better. We joined a entrepreneurial boot
42:46
camp that was at the time hosted through Creighton University and
42:52
got to talk to some of their great business college
42:54
professors in kind of an incubator type program.
42:58
We were at the end of our business planning.
43:02
We were at launch phase when we met them and basically submitted
43:06
everything we had done. And they're like, Hey, you guys
43:08
are like ready to go. But you know, looking at your
43:12
SWOT analysis again, you got your, your guys and a woman, you
43:15
know, female industry, you're young in an old industry.
43:18
And then we were 27 at the time we were talking to them and you
43:22
have no healthcare background, right?
43:23
That's kind of what brought that to light.
43:25
Like, oh, how did we not think of these things, right?
43:27
So we, you know, with the healthcare background, we had
43:30
planned always on getting our CNA certificate and did to be
43:34
able to help check that box and let people know we're not going
43:37
to be asking them to do something we wouldn't do
43:39
ourselves. I think that spoke volumes to
43:42
our referral sources as well and helped us early on.
43:45
But the female aspect and the and healthcare and something
43:49
that helped us to complete that kind of SWOT analysis.
43:51
We took on an early partner, we took on an early business
43:53
partner who we met through that program, who Paula Howard is her
43:59
name, who was a former nurse who had, you know, that healthcare
44:03
experience. They had some connections in
44:05
healthcare, right? They also female, right?
44:09
So they kind of checked all those boxes for us.
44:12
And so we, we helped and she had helped us to kind of grow until
44:15
she had an exit, oh gosh, about 8-9 years ago now and to where
44:21
she's retired out in Florida. But it was again, an opportunity
44:25
for us to say what, what do we need to, to grow and how are we
44:29
going to do that? And so that that was definitely
44:32
a very helpful, you know, experience that we had.
44:35
You know, I don't think we'd have seen the immediate kind of
44:37
growth and success without, you know, being open to other
44:40
people's perspective and open to ways that we can, you know,
44:45
approach the market fully looking at who we are and what
44:48
struggles that we may have coming ahead of us.
44:51
That's great that you were able to find somebody that helped to
44:54
fill some of those early holes for you guys and you know, help,
44:57
you know, kind of serve as a little bit of a, a launchpad in
45:00
your education and your understanding.
45:02
And I kind of got, excuse me, I kind of got you sidetracked on
45:05
that. We were going to.
45:07
Start talking about some success stories of caregivers and and
45:12
clients if if you've got some to share.
45:15
Oh, yeah. No, absolutely.
45:19
So even some of our first clients that we ever had, the
45:25
connections that they had had with the caregivers.
45:27
And again, these are some of our very first caregivers that we
45:31
had ever had. It's, it's, it's one, it's, it's
45:35
something that you, you won't forget.
45:37
Those clients knew them like they were their family.
45:41
They trusted us with their care as if we were a part of their
45:46
family. I was at the bedside of one of
45:50
our first clients who was on Hospice there in the last kind
45:54
of moments of life by her inside hand in mind caregiver who had
46:01
just put together a beautiful arrangement of family photos and
46:07
flowers and making it, you know, as special and as comfortable
46:11
as, as could be, you know, and, and just having those kind of
46:15
last, you know, conversations. Being a part of that is, is
46:19
something I'll, I'll most certainly, you know, never
46:21
forget, you know, throughout the years I've been able to invest
46:26
in education. It led me down the road into
46:29
getting my executive MBA post MBA.
46:33
I was back talking to a class and, you know, telling them
46:38
about the experience. And after class I had one of the
46:41
students who was, you know, an adult, you know, probably mid
46:45
40s who said, Jared, you're the reason why I'm here.
46:49
And I said, well, thank you. I what do you mean?
46:53
And they said, well, a place at home is taking care of my mom
46:57
right now and that allows me to come and get my executive MBA.
47:03
And so she just wanted, you know, us to know the kind of
47:06
impact that we may not always get to see, right.
47:10
So experiencing those kind of impacts and having those stories
47:13
show you that it's just, it's much larger even than than what
47:17
you may think or you know, of course, much larger than
47:20
yourself. And now our franchisees, you
47:23
know, they have those stories right there by the bedside and
47:27
they're the ones making the impact and having caregivers who
47:29
are growing with them, not only through being a caregiver and a
47:33
lot of times struggling to make ends meet to now being
47:37
administrators within their agency and, you know, giving
47:40
them a life that they've never had, right?
47:42
So there's, there's, there's so many of those stories out there
47:46
that really is what drives a lot of our, our owners, right, If
47:49
not all of our owners. Those are the stories that that
47:52
keep them, keep them coming back every day and wanting more.
47:55
That's great. That's great fuel for the fire.
47:58
Let me shift gears on you now, Jared.
48:00
I'm kind of curious. Maybe it's a fun fact that most
48:05
people wouldn't know about you. Oh, fun fact, I think I'd be
48:10
ready for this one. Something interesting that maybe
48:14
not everybody who knows Jared knows about Jared.
48:17
Yeah, let's see here. I would say kind of started my,
48:23
Oh my started my first business when I was 10 years old with
48:30
selling vegetables out of the out of our our garden.
48:34
We're in a, you know, rural, not that rural.
48:38
We were in a growing kind of metro in Omaha, NE Now, don't
48:42
get me wrong, when I was really young, cows get loose from some
48:46
of the local farms, come running through the neighborhood.
48:48
But yeah, by the time I was 10 or 11 years old, you know, we
48:51
were surrounded by city, you know, in a growing metro.
48:55
But yeah, started my first business at at at 10, kind of
49:00
transitioned that into mowing yards.
49:02
Have always, you know, you know, raise my first money for my car.
49:08
I wanted to go on a trip, you know, in high school.
49:11
So I started selling pizzas through at the time working at
49:15
at Hy Vee. I'll never forget, never forget
49:19
that. But my parents said, yeah, if
49:20
you want to go to Australia and play football, great, but you're
49:24
going to have to come up with the funds.
49:26
And so raised raise the funds by selling frozen pizzas, right.
49:29
It's always been and always have had that entrepreneurial spirit
49:34
and yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way, so.
49:38
That business owner drives. Been there since a a very young
49:41
age. I can relate.
49:44
Any specific mentors, books, or or experiences that have helped
49:48
shape you in your professional career?
49:52
Most certainly there's. There's quite a few.
49:55
I would say the E myth Revisited was a great book that taught and
50:02
still teaches people on how to work on a business not in a
50:06
business. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
50:10
Patrick Lancioni great book really helps you, especially as
50:14
a business owner, focus on what is important and that's building
50:20
a foundation of trust within your executive team and
50:23
leadership. We right now manage our business
50:30
through the entrepreneurial operating system.
50:34
Now we've modified it to kind of make it our own, but we still
50:38
utilize the book for example, Traction by Gina Wickman to you
50:44
know really kind of format our weekly meetings, our quarterly
50:49
goals, our our annual goals, three-year goals, 10 year goals
50:53
and so forth. So that has been a big and great
50:57
impact on our business. Most recently mentors, I've been
51:02
lucky to have great family and great support.
51:04
My grandpa was tremendous person individual did so many for so
51:11
many people athletic administrator at our largest
51:17
school system here in Omaha, always striving for more, always
51:20
building more infrastructure, building stadiums, bringing in
51:24
different youth sports, bringing in girls gymnastics, building,
51:28
you know, swimming pools that made it like just growing the
51:30
infrastructure of Omaha. He was absolutely always a
51:33
mentor towards me and just how much somebody could accomplish
51:38
was as well as his doctorate in education.
51:40
My mom has her doctorate in education.
51:43
She's had a very accomplished life in education as well and
51:47
helping to impact people in school districts.
51:50
My dad was an entrepreneur owning a small business who you
51:53
know, really showed me the the ability to take a risk, but
51:56
always to to work hard. Hardest worker.
52:00
I most certainly know early on in the place at home years, I
52:04
had mentioned some of the competitors here in Omaha, but
52:08
we've got ride at Home that former owner and the founder of
52:16
Ride at Home was a great mentor to us as well.
52:18
So I mean, we've, we've, we've been pretty blessed with the,
52:21
with mentorship and, and me personally with a lot of, a lot
52:25
of people that help impact my life.
52:28
I I love that you had such a long list of folks to call out
52:32
there. Sometimes that that gets lost a
52:35
little bit in the success stories forget some folks can
52:40
sometimes forget the the folks that kind of help them get
52:42
there. And so it was cool that you were
52:43
able to to give call outs to a lot of those, those people.
52:48
Jared, I just have one more question for you.
52:50
But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things for those listening
52:53
today. If you like today's content,
52:54
please hit the like, share or Subscribe button on your
52:57
favorite podcast app. Jared, I also want to tell
53:00
people the best way to get in touch with you, whether they
53:02
just want to make a personal connection, they're interested
53:04
in a franchise, they're maybe a potential client.
53:07
What's the best way for them to to reach out?
53:11
Yeah, e-mail. I'm only an e-mail
53:14
awayitsfirstname.lastname@aplaceathome.com, jared.evan@aplaceathome.com.
53:22
Check me out on on LinkedIn. Feel free to shoot me a message
53:25
there, although an e-mail will most certainly get recognized
53:31
faster. I get a lot of like I'm sure so
53:34
many people do a lot of LinkedIn messages that sometimes get
53:36
buried. Give me a call direct
53:39
402-281-0738 place athome.com back slash franchise should you
53:48
want to connect or fill out a form there lots of different
53:51
ways, but at the end of the day, love talking entrepreneurship
53:57
talk to people all the time who maybe even just have ideas for
54:00
businesses. Of course, if you want to talk
54:03
about a place at home, we've got a process for you as as well as
54:08
I talked about in determining whether or not you're the right
54:12
fit for us and we the right fit for you.
54:14
So happy to have those discussions as well so.
54:18
Terrific. And for anybody who missed all
54:20
those wonderful ways to contact Jared, we will have them in the
54:23
show notes. So last question for you, Jared,
54:26
I'm curious, how do you see your industry evolving in the next 5
54:30
years? What do you think the big
54:31
changes are that are coming? Five years from now, I would say
54:38
that number one, there's going to continue to be consolidation
54:42
through merger and acquisitions in our industry.
54:44
It's highly fragmented, right, for consolidation.
54:49
It continues to be a huge focus on a lot of private equity and
54:55
and M&A firms. So you're going to continue to
54:58
see franchise systems enter that M&A world.
55:04
Outside of that, technology is always making impacts.
55:08
I've mentioned just one small technology that allowed us to
55:10
take a multiple week kind of process and turn it into a day
55:13
and a half, right? So best one small piece of
55:17
technology, AI is helping us in scheduling.
55:21
It's helping us in, in better recruitment as well as better
55:25
assessing the needs of our clients.
55:27
Technology will continue to be a big part of not only our back
55:32
end infrastructure, but in the homes of clients.
55:35
There's a lot of great, there's a lot of great tools and a lot
55:38
of great companies out there now providing some kind of of
55:42
services and sensory type services in the home.
55:45
It's it's pretty amazing the right sensors and what it can
55:48
show you is happening in the home.
55:51
But what that I think will do is is allow people who may, you
55:55
know, may not be ready for a person in their home to have
55:58
that technology and accept that technology in their home.
56:01
We're seeing more boomers getting to the point to where
56:03
they're starting to need care. And as that happens and as that
56:08
age kind of continues to go up, we have people now that are more
56:11
accepting the technology. And so they're OK with having a
56:14
sensor in their home and they're OK with being able to have a
56:17
laptop or have a tablet to be able to drive some of the need
56:20
and some of the functions. So I think that open kind of
56:23
communication is only going to get better within the industry.
56:28
So those are those are most certainly, you know, some of the
56:32
top things that I I can see happening, you know, within the
56:35
industry. Do you see a place at home
56:37
getting involved in the M&A space at all down the road?
56:41
You know, I would say it's, it's, we would never not
56:45
consider any opportunity, right. But they would have to be
56:50
something that would bring some major firepower to our brand.
56:56
We want to grow with this brand. We want to grow with our
56:59
franchise owners. Again, they're like family.
57:03
So we're not we're not jumping ship.
57:06
But if someone can bring some high-powered, you know,
57:10
synergies, then you know, it's worth a discussion for sure.
57:16
It's always good to be open minded about those things.
57:18
Jared, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your
57:21
time and your story with us today.
57:23
I really appreciate it. You bet, Anthony.
57:25
It's been great. Appreciate having me.
57:28
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
57:30
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
57:32
today.