For father-son duo Steve and Blake Oakley, owning and operating a family business together was never part of the plan. The idea only took shape after an unexpected career change pushed Steve toward franchising and later brought Blake into the business.

A native of Kokomo, Indiana, Steve saw his career path change when his longtime role at a local plant was eliminated. This left him evaluating all available opportunities, including franchising. 

Seeing a need for in-home care services within his community, Steve opened his first Comfort Keepers® territory in 2005. Blake quickly dove headfirst into the venture, asking questions and seeking opportunities to learn the business. Upon completion of his bachelor’s degree in business management, finance and marketing from Franklin College, he immediately became a partner with his dad when the two purchased the Fort Wayne, Indiana, location to make him the owner and chief operating officer.

Comfort Keepers has become a staple for the Oakleys, who have since purchased two more territories in Lima and Tiffin, Ohio. It’s their passion and drive as a family business to provide the best care for people that has truly ignited the business in their communities.

1851 Franchise sat down with Steve and Blake to discuss the father-son relationship that led them to Comfort Keepers and their plans to grow a business together. Here’s what they had to say:

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What do you want us to know?

Steve Oakley: I opened the original office in Kokomo back in 2005, so well over 20 years ago. I worked in manufacturing at the time, just before the recession hit. Our company closed its plant here in Kokomo and moved those jobs to its operations in China, so I was basically jobless and had to do something.

I looked at various opportunities, including different franchise systems, and stumbled upon the Comfort Keepers franchise. It was intriguing to me because I was looking for something more recession-proof than my previous industry. Health care was not something I had ever done, but given that this is a nonmedical industry, I didn’t need to have that experience.

Long story short, I met with the team, went through the process, considered the risks and rewards and decided to open the office in Kokomo. 

Then Blake went to college and earned his business degree. While he was in college, he started interning with me during the summers at the Kokomo office, and I think he liked it. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do at the time, but after graduating, he decided to get into the business.

Around that time, the owner of the Fort Wayne office, whom I had known over the years, contacted me to sell his operation. Blake and I purchased that from him right around the time Blake graduated from college, and we started working there, too.

At that time, Blake took the lead role in Fort Wayne. He spent most of the week there, and we built a good team and started growing that operation. We were pretty content with just Fort Wayne, where we have two territories, and Kokomo, where we have one territory, but we grew the business pretty quickly. He did a great job.

Within the last two years, the corporate franchise offered some opportunities because they wanted to stop running certain corporate-owned areas and offer them to franchisees in the system. Blake and I looked at the Lima, Ohio, and Tiffin, Ohio, areas because they were looking to sell them, and we felt it might be a good fit for us. The way the territories aligned, it butted up to the edge of our Fort Wayne territory as it went into Ohio.

We purchased that expansion in June 2024. They were doing about 600 hours of service in that entire area, and we have more than doubled that over the last two years. It has worked out very well for us, and we inherited a pretty good team over there.

We had to make some changes, just as we did when we bought Fort Wayne, but now we have staff in both, and things run themselves, other than the daily operational hiccups you always encounter. That’s a historical view of where we started and where we are today.

Blake Oakley: At a young age, I remember Dad starting it and having to build from the ground up. It was a complete startup business. Seeing how much he had to work, I admired his work ethic. At the time, I wasn’t really aware of what it took to be a business owner.

When I got into high school, that’s when I really became interested in the business, and Dad and I would talk about it weekly. He would always say, “One day this could be yours. Just keep working hard, doing the right thing and staying humble.”

We started talking about business a lot, and he taught me more about it. I went to a very good business school, but when it comes to hands-on business, I’ve learned the majority of it from my dad. I have always dreamed about working in this, working with him and growing the business.

It’s funny because when we first found out about the Fort Wayne opportunity, we thought that was going to be the end of the journey with our growth and that would be the rest of our lives. Then, throughout these seven years, Ohio emerged as an opportunity, and other business ventures have emerged.

It is becoming much more about enjoying the journey rather than the destination. We have no clue what that destination really looks like, but I’ve enjoyed every single second of this journey so far. It’s fun.

Steve: I’ll even add to that a little bit. When Blake wanted to get into this, we looked at that Fort Wayne office. I was pretty comfortable with my life, given the money I was making and everything I had. I questioned myself: Do I really want to jump into more and more?

As we did this, though, it became fun again. It was fun to watch how well he did growing what we bought. Then, when another opportunity arose in Ohio, it excited me again to continue doing things together with him, and it all worked out well.

One of the things I didn’t mention in my journey is that in 2010, I opened another business, which was a skilled nursing agency that married somewhat with Comfort Keepers. It’s not part of the Comfort Keepers franchise, so we have that company as well.

I had a partner in that business, but this last January, Blake bought out my partner. Now he and I are partners in that operation as well, so we’ve got a lot of opportunities and things in front of us to work on each day.

It’s just been fun to do. I’m getting a little long in the tooth and tired at my age, so I’m really beginning to wind down. I’m planning to hand this to him to run until perhaps even my grandkids or his kids are interested someday.

1851 Franchise: What do you think helps you work well together? Is there anything that you’ve learned or any lessons you’ve embraced over the years that allows it to be fun and collaborative, rather than just checking a box to do the job each day?

Blake: I think it helps that Dad and I have been talking about business since I was 15 or 16 years old, and pretty in-depth business. Obviously, at that point, I wasn’t very familiar with how businesses worked. I hadn’t taken any business classes, and Dad educated me a lot at a young age.

When I went to business school at Franklin College after graduating high school, I noticed that basically everything he told me and taught me was correct, and it went hand in hand with what they were teaching in school. My learning curve at Franklin College was not steep because of the foundation and groundwork Dad laid with me.

When we started working together, he had been in this business for 14 years, so he knew exactly what to do to run a successful company. I am OK with not being the most knowledgeable or most experienced person in the room, and I leaned on him heavily while managing the Fort Wayne office and trying to grow it.

Our personalities just go together in a business setting. We don’t clash. There were some things I thought could work, and we would talk about why they might not work. I was fine with that, and vice versa.

Now that technology is becoming more prominent, Dad is a bit more old-fashioned because he started the company when technology was less advanced. There are some technological ideas I’ve thrown out that he has accepted and implemented. It’s a good mix of his knowledge and generation with my younger generation and personality. They mesh really well together.

Another thing we do well is maintaining our boundaries. Inside the business, we are business partners. Outside of business, we are just father and son. Yes, we talk about business outside of our office walls, but we still separate that father-son relationship from the business partnership and home life.

We have a good balance. One of our annual traditions is to take a day off to go fishing or play golf together in the summer before business starts getting really busy.

Steve: When you talk about families doing this, the big key you must have is mutual respect, and I think that’s what Blake was getting at. He respected my knowledge of business, but I certainly respected his ideas, motivation and energy. We have to learn to disagree constructively on different topics, and we’ve been able to do that together.

It’s funny because when we started working, I would help with some questions early on. He’s not giving himself enough credit for his abilities. Now he’s far beyond me. He learned it very quickly and could really do this without me at this point, but we’ve gotten to a point where we basically think alike.

When we are in a meeting with our staff and something is said, I can look at him, and he already knows what I’m thinking, and vice versa. We always seem to come up with the same answer.

I’ve always used the analogy that sometimes my answer to get to four is two plus two, and he may look at it as one plus three, but we always end up at four. That makes it very easy. That’s what makes it fun. We are both aligned on the same page.

1851 Franchise: In this specific industry, it seems like you will be working a lot with parent-child clients who are navigating their own life stages and helping their parents age. They are coming to you as a family for their family. Do you feel like your experience has impacted your relationship, or does the fact that you’re a parent-child partnership change how your clients view you?

Steve: I think probably both. The families we deal with like to have a family-owned operation like ours. It gives them a sense that they are becoming part of our family when we work with them, and that’s how we look at it in all of our operations. I do think it works both ways, and it has certainly helped Blake and me as well.

1851 Franchise: Going into business as a family, is there any advice you would have for people or anything else you think they should know?

Blake: I think the most powerful piece of advice is balancing that family relationship and business relationship, and not mixing the two completely together.

Steve: Just try to have fun. Anytime you go into this type of venture, whether with a family member or a non-family member, starting a company or buying into one is a risk. It takes a special kind of person.

Taking on that challenge and risk can be so rewarding. If I had any advice to give people out there, it would be not to let fear or concern stop you from moving forward with something like this. Try to take that risk.

About Comfort Keepers®

For over 25 years, Comfort Keepers has been Elevating the Human Spirit℠ through its in-home care network for seniors and other adults by empowering them to maintain their independence and realize joy in the everyday moments. Comfort Keepers operates a franchise network that has grown to more than 600 locations in the U.S. and Canada, serving hundreds of thousands of clients since 1998. The company’s nationwide network employs thousands of caregivers, also known as Comfort Keepers®, who deliver joy through interactive caregiving by continually communicating with, involving and engaging with seniors in everyday tasks and activities. For more information, visit ComfortKeepers.com.