Health Care Professionals Turn Passion for Senior Safety Into Promising Franchise Journey With TruBlue

Nicholas Maenza and Alexandra Balan, a pair of health care professionals from New York’s Hudson Valley, are preparing to launch their first TruBlue Home Service Ally franchise. With backgrounds in emergency medicine and oncology, they’ve spent years witnessing how preventable household hazards can change the trajectory of a senior’s life. That experience led them to TruBlue, a home services brand focused on aging-in-place support.

“We really connected with TruBlue on that because we’ve seen what happens when seniors have falls and injuries come from that,” Maenza said. “It’s been quite the journey since. We’re excited to launch.” For the couple, the brand’s mission aligns with their medical careers, but it also offers something new: the chance to make a proactive difference in their community before those medical emergencies happen.

“We’re starting out as TruBlue Home Service Ally of the Mid-Hudson Valley,” Maenza said. “But long term, we’d love to expand and serve more of the Hudson Valley as a whole.” While Maenza continues working as an emergency physician and Balan draws on her experience as a physician assistant, their TruBlue business gives them a different kind of fulfillment. “Going into the community and making a difference in our own community is what I’m really looking forward to,” Balan said.

1851 spoke with Maenza and Balan about all of this and more. Here’s what they had to say: 

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

Alexandra Balan: We are actually health care providers, really interested in doing franchising. We connected with TruBlue Home Service Ally because, being health care professionals, we know the importance of home safety in the senior population and how important it is for fall prevention.

Nicholas Maenza: We connected to TruBlue on that because we’ve seen what happens when seniors have falls and injuries come from that. So, we found TruBlue, and it’s been quite the journey since. We’re excited to launch.

In addition to the falls, just the idea of being able to make a space more accessible so someone can age appropriately in their house — not even just fall risk, but they can actually live comfortably and do their regular activities of daily living — it seems very rewarding. And as Alexandra said before, we’ve seen the bad side of when it does reach a point where people start falling and they have to go somewhere else, and how devastating that can be.

1851: What did you do before franchising, and how did you decide franchising made sense for you?

Maenza: I’m still working as an emergency physician at a couple of the hospitals around here.

Balan: I’m a physician assistant. I worked in hematology/oncology and had a very large senior population I worked with. And then, of course, Nick sees everyone in the emergency department setting.

Maenza: We wanted to do something in addition to medicine and started looking at some businesses that were franchising. TruBlue kind of fell onto our plate and was just something that spoke to us, as opposed to some other companies that we spoke to. It was one that had a backing and a philosophy that resonated with us.

1851: What was your perception of franchising prior to becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Balan: I initially always thought of franchising as just food franchising. I didn’t really know too much about non-food franchising before getting into this world. That was my perception before. Now that we’re in it, I think it’s really great. It’s having your own business, right? But you have this support from a national company. So to have that support is great.

Maenza: Way before I even started looking, I just considered franchises as fast food. Never really thought about it. And then, as we learned more and more, we realized that a lot of the businesses we’ve dealt with or interacted with are actually individual franchises, and we had no idea. We realized there's franchising in almost every single sector.

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Maenza: Besides the philosophy of helping seniors and helping them age in place — which is, I’d say, the major thing — also the business side of it, the idea of going to different places potentially every day, someone else’s house, and doing different types of work every day. That really appealed to me.

Balan: I would say the community aspect of it — going into the community and making a difference in our own community is what I’m really looking forward to. Being able to make that impact.

Maenza: The biggest thing with TruBlue is the senior aspect of it. But also just the day-to-day handyman stuff, being able to help out those busy families — even helping with a small task is rewarding in itself.

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth?

Maenza: We’re starting out as TruBlue Home Service Ally of the Mid-Hudson Valley. But long term, we’d love to expand and serve more of the Hudson Valley as a whole, not just our one little county. Our hope is to grow it as much as possible and really help people. Like Alex hinted before, helping anybody who needs home assistance — which is pretty much everyone. We’d love to have someone help us with simple tasks we push off as a busy young couple. So we’d love to offer that to people, and all the way up to helping seniors age in place toward the end of their life — making them comfortable and making their home appropriate for staying at home.

Balan: I feel the same. Making a difference in the community. And we’d love to grow as a business and expand.

1851 Franchise: What advice do you have for other people thinking about becoming franchise owners?

Balan: Look into it. Find a company that coincides with what you’re passionate about, because I feel like that makes it easier to find something you really enjoy and grow the business that way. Before this, I didn’t know too much about franchising. But now anyone who’s interested in having their own business, I say, “Hey, why don’t you look into franchising?” Because so far, it’s working out for us.

Maenza: Don’t be afraid to take that first step and start looking. For us, the biggest obstacle was pulling the trigger and just starting to make moves after that initial “thinking about it” stage. So just start talking to people, getting information, and learning more. Don’t be afraid to explore the options.

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/trubluehousecare/info.

About TruBlue Home Service Ally:

TruBlue Home Service Ally® provides a unique and affordable approach to helping busy adults and seniors live a worry-free life by offering trustworthy handyman, home maintenance and senior modification services. Helping you maintain your home both inside and out, TruBlue’s services include handyman projects and to-do list chores, preventative home maintenance programs, kitchen and bath remodels, seasonal work, and senior modification services, all handled by professional, bonded and insured Tru-Pro® Technicians. TruBlue franchise owners are required to complete senior home safety certification programs through the NAHB and Age Safe America. As certified specialists, TruBlue franchisees are able to perform aging in place home safety assessments and can make recommended safety modifications as needed.

All locations are independently owned and operated. Service offerings, certifications and licenses vary by location.