Meet an Owner: Karen Kochhar

Before Karen Kochhar became a Right at Home franchise owner, she spent 15 years in the engineering field. With a degree in electrical engineering, Karen worked in telecommunications, helping to build cellular systems in the 80s and 90s. When she decided to start a family, however, Karen left the workforce.

“I stayed home for 14 years to raise my children,” Karen said. “Eventually, I decided I wanted to work again. Elder care was one of the industries I was interested in pursuing because my own grandparents were aging in place and that process made me more aware of what’s really needed to provide great care for people.”

With her husband on board, Karen began looking at many franchise opportunities but ultimately settled on Right at Home because of their transparency and honesty throughout the inquiry process.

“The transparency I had experienced with Right at Home was something I had never experienced in corporate America, and it was deeply gratifying,” she said. “It resonated with me that everyone was working toward the same standards of excellence and toward the same cause.”

Providing Support to Those Who Need It Most

Karen went on to become the first Right at Home franchisee in the city of Tucson, Arizona, in 2013. Today, the business spans two territories, with a second office in Oro Valley. Between the two offices, Karen employs 75 caregivers, serves over 100 clients, and takes being both an employer and a service provider very seriously.

“I can certainly say that one of the things I was very clear about when I first started this journey was that I wanted to help the elderly and vulnerable population, and I wanted to do for other families what I would do for my own grandparents,” Karen said. “And the added importance of getting to work with a lot of other women every day is also not lost on me. Coming from the engineering world, where I worked with almost all men, to being here and getting to work with mostly women—and some men, too, but especially getting to work with women—and to have a positive impact on their lives and their children’s lives is very fulfilling. That’s something that there wasn’t a lot of room for in my first career.”

Being able to shift priorities between clients and caregivers is something that Karen places a great emphasis on in how she approaches her work every day. 

“I look at it as two equal parts—providing great service to clients and being an employer of choice for a wonderful group of people with really big hearts.”

Creating an “Authentic and Meaningful” Business

Karen had come into franchise ownership with the understanding that project management would be a big part of the job, and she was well-suited for it given her engineering background. What she quickly learned, however, is that managing people-driven projects can be pretty complicated and challenging at times.

“Caring for people is 100 different projects and it’s all a bit messier than the project management I was used to in the engineering field. People aren’t as easy as programming a switch,” she said. “It’s a lot like surfing—you have to be willing to ride the waves and you have to have great judgment.” 

Thankfully, working with Right at Home’s corporate office made learning how to ride those waves smoother than it would have been on her own. Right at Home provides all of its franchise owners with the foundational materials and support they need in order to succeed, especially in those early days of the business.

“It really was the best of both worlds,” Karen said. “I had best practices laid out for me like a map that I could follow, but then when I knew better they gave me the flexibility to change what I thought needed to be changed in a way that made the whole journey more authentic and meaningful for me.”

Growing Both Professionally and Personally

The Right at Home entrepreneurial journey has been a deeply satisfying experience for Karen. Over the years, she’s had the opportunity to attend a variety of events hosted by Right at Home’s corporate office, including their annual four-day national gathering. 

“One of the things that really clicked for me after attending the event for a few years was how the culture is being built and how information gets transmitted in a great way throughout the organization,” Karen said.

And it’s not just the way the organization communicates that helps fuel the positive culture; Right at Home is very careful in how they determine who would be a great fit for becoming a franchise owner. Although Karen had gone through the selection process herself, she didn’t fully grasp the bigger picture in terms of how Right at Home was building a nationwide organization of diverse yet like-minded people, until spending extended periods of time at the national gathering.

“Having the chance to meet different people from different places with different reasons for coming into this line of work, but also knowing that I would be friends with all of them if we met outside of work, well, that’s a rare experience,” she said. “It’s because people are working toward a bigger purpose, bigger than themselves, and I think that Right at Home has done a good job of making sure that we’re all doing this for the right reasons, and to the best of our abilities.”

A passion for serving others is one of the main reasons that Right at Home franchise owners find success with their businesses. In fact, the “people part” of the job is what Karen loves the most.

“When you’re taking care of people, they each have their own story, they each have a unique journey, and if you’re willing to engage in that, you can not only learn a lot about them, but also learn a lot about yourself.”

To learn more about the Right at Home Franchise Opportunity please visit: https://rightathomefranchise.com/