One of the fastest-growing home care franchise companies, Synergy HomeCare, has continued to reach new growth milestones. Last year, the company sold 52 territories, a 37% increase compared to 38 territories in 2020.
Synergy CEO Charlie Young credits the company’s continued momentum for its success.
“If you look back over the last 24 months, we’ve added 90 new territories. The vast majority of them have been added in the last 18 months,” he told Home Health Care News. “We’re just building on the momentum, and it carried over from 2020 into 2021. I’ll also say that our value proposition and what we offer to prospective franchisees resonates with the people we’re talking to.”
Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise that operates more than 400 franchise locations nationwide. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.
Overall, selling 52 territories allowed the company to enter some new markets in 2021, including Rhode Island and Mississippi. It also enabled Synergy to further grow its footprint in states such as Texas, Florida, North Carolina and California.
“These are all growing markets, in general, for the country, and they’re doing really well for Synergy,” Young said.
In 2020, the company noticed an increase in potential franchise owners that were interested in entering the home care business. The following year, potential Synergy franchisees tended to fit into three categories, according to Young.
“The first is health care professionals who are deeply committed to caring for people and their community,” he said. “The second is corporate employees who have decided during the pandemic that they no longer want to work for another corporation. They’re looking for opportunities where they can start a business.”
Those who fell into the second category looked for businesses that had the potential for high growth while also allowing them to make a difference.
The third category is “care-minded and compassionate” entrepreneurs, according to Young.
“The value proposition we offer a franchisee is that we help our franchise partners do well while doing good,” he said. “Beyond that, we support our franchisees with a proven home care system, a locally focused marketing program that’s dedicated to lead generation and establishing the franchisee in their marketplace. [We also have] the ability to leverage our national scale to create partnerships, both for referral business, as well as for product development and innovation.”
Aside from these categories, Young noted that Synergy typically saw interest from potential franchisees in states that have the highest growth in its senior population.
When bringing on new franchisees, Synergy values certain traits.
“We look for, first and foremost, franchise partners that can live our brand values and deliver on the promise of Synergy HomeCare,” Young said. “We also look for an entrepreneurial spirit, people that are self-motivated, and are going to be able to do the heavy lifting that is required to establish a business, like Synergy, in their local market.”
Looking ahead, Young has boiled down Synergy’s 2022 goals into three key areas of focus.
“One is adding new territories, as quickly as we can, with high-quality franchisees,” he said. “Our second priority is getting our new franchisees trained and then opened, in order to serve their communities. The third is helping our existing franchise base continue to grow their businesses as they enter their second, third, fifth, or 10th year of existence.”
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