5 Reasons to Franchise with Right at Home in 2020

The year 2020 has created a host of challenges for franchised businesses across virtually every segment, but some operational models have been better suited to overcome those challenges than others. One franchise that has proven to be particularly successful throughout the COVID-19 crisis is Right at Home, the in-home care and assistance brand that provides services for seniors and adults with disabilities in over 500 locations across eight countries.

Here are five reasons why Right at Home continues to thrive in 2020, and why now may actually be the best time for new franchisees to get on board.

Aging Demographics

The aging baby boomer population, paired with smaller family sizes and more dual-income families, leaves fewer loved ones able to care for seniors. In the past, seniors who were unable to live on their own had few choices besides senior-care facilities. Now, in-home care and assistance services like Right at Home are helping seniors forgo the expense and discomfort of moving to a full-time care facility. 

“Right at Home allows seniors to maintain their lifestyle in the warm familiarity of their own home,” said Eric Little, the brand’s chief development officer. “That’s something that is incredibly important to a growing population of seniors, which means our services are more popular than ever before.”

Increased Need for In-Home Senior Care

Healthcare can be expensive. That fact is particularly daunting during a dual health and economic crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, more people need care than ever before, and fewer have the means to pay for full-time facilities. That means more people are turning to Right at Home.

“In-home care is a more attractive alternative to traditional facilities for so many reasons. Cost is just one of those reasons, but in 2020, it’s a big one,” Little said. 

Additionally, this year, we saw multiple reports of COVID-19 outbreaks in assisted living and nursing home facilities, leaving families hesitant to move their loved ones into a potentially high-risk environment. 

A Resilient Business Model 

Right at Home was deemed an essential business early on in the crisis, making the brand one of the few businesses to not only maintain its existing customer base but actually take on new clients throughout the pandemic. 

Jason DiPietro, a new franchisee with Right at Home, said Little reached out to him when he was still in the research phase with the brand to talk him through what joining the franchise during a pandemic would look like. 

“What really got me over the fence was the fact that this business is resilient even in the face of an unprecedented crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic,” DiPietro said. “The need for healthcare isn’t going anywhere, which was one spot of certainty in an otherwise very uncertain time.”

A Strong Network of Support

Little says that Right at Home franchisees rally around the mission of improving the quality of life for the seniors they serve, creating a vibrant network of support for franchisees.

“We see communication and partnership as essential to our model,” Little said. “We encourage franchisees to work closely with each other and also with our corporate team so we can share best practices and discuss challenges as a team.”

Right at Home hosts weekly town hall meetings, provides access to private Facebook groups, and organizes annual conventions and consultations with the brand’s Strategic Leadership council to ensure that every franchisee is plugged into its network of support.

DiPietro says that even just one month into his time with the brand he was “floored with the support he received from the leadership team.” Right at Home’s team made him feel “assured through the whole process, and comfortable and confident as a person who has never run a business before.”

Success with Significance®

Success for most franchises is usually described in terms of income and growth, and while those remain essential metrics for Right at Home, the brand is equally concerned with its core mission of improving the quality of life for those we serve. That mission, Little says, “provides profound rewards that go well beyond the numbers on our P&L sheets.” 

“Joining Right at Home was absolutely attractive from a financial standpoint, but the feel-good element of doing something really important for people, something that genuinely improves the lives of vulnerable people, that’s what really drove me to sign on,” DiPietro said. “Right at Home is something that’s given me purpose — it’s not just a job, it’s something that’s allowed me to help people. It was with that in mind that I knew this was what I wanted to do.”